189 - David Albert & Barry Loewer: The Mentaculus (Or, a Probability Map of the Universe)

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

David Albert is the Frederick E. Woodbridge Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, director of the Philosophical Foundations of Physics program at Columbia, and a faculty member of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics, as is the second guest. Barry Loewer is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers. Before that he did his PhD in philosophy at Stanford (!). Barry works largely in the philosophy of physics, the philosophy of science, and metaphysics. This is Barry’s second time on the show—in episode 83 he and Robinson discusses probability and laws of nature, both of which come up in this episode. This is David’s sixth (!) appearance on Robinson’s Podcast. He appeared on episode #23 with Justin Clarke-Doane on metaethics and absolute space, episode #30 on the philosophy of time, episode #67 with Tim Maudlin on the foundations of quantum theory, episode #106 with Sean Carroll on Many-Worlds and fine-tuning, and episode #157 on the metaphysics of quantum mechanics. In this episode, Robinson, Barry, and David talk about the Mentaculus, their joint project on the foundations of statistical mechanics, which provides a guide for how to think of and solve problems involving probability, determinism, free will, cosmology, time, and more. A book Barry, Brad Weslake, and Eric Winsberg have edited on essays concerning David’s book, Time and Chance, called The Probability Map of the Universe (Harvard, 2023), came out around this time last year, and the link is in the description.

The Probability Map of the Universe: https://a.co/d/4XoYTMY

A Guess at the Riddle: https://a.co/d/6qcsidl

The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

00:41 Introduction

04:23 The Mentaculus

07:08 Chance, Probability, and Determinism

29:52 What Is the Mentaculus?

46:37 The Mentaculus, Thermodynamics, and Time’s Arrows

01:18:51 The Quantum Arrow of Time

01:30:34 On Tim Maudlin and the Arrow of Time

01:36:30 Can We Time Travel to the Future

01:44:22 Free Will and Statistical Mechanics

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.