245 | Solo: The Crisis in Physics
Physics is in crisis, what else is new? That's what we hear in certain corners, anyway, usually pointed at "fundamental" physics of particles and fields. (Condensed matter and biophysics etc. are just...
31 Jul 20234h 22min
244 | Katie Elliott on Metaphysics, Chance, and Explanation
Is metaphysics like physics, but cooler? Or is it a relic of an outdated, pre-empirical way of thinking about the world? Closer to the former than the latter. Rather than building specific quantitativ...
24 Jul 20231h 36min
243 | Joseph Silk on Science on the Moon
The Earth's atmosphere is good for some things, like providing something to breathe. But it does get in the way of astronomers, who have been successful at launching orbiting telescopes into space. Bu...
17 Jul 20231h 11min
242 | David Krakauer on Complexity, Agency, and Information
Complexity scientists have been able to make an impressive amount of progress despite the fact that there is not universal agreement about what "complexity" actually is. We know it when we see it, per...
10 Jul 20231h 33min
AMA | July 2023
Welcome to the July 2023 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who are also the ones asking the questions). We take questions asked by Patreo...
3 Jul 20233h 4min
241 | Tim Maudlin on Locality, Hidden Variables, and Quantum Foundations
Last year's Nobel Prize for experimental tests of Bell's Theorem was the first Nobel in the foundations of quantum mechanics since Max Born in 1954. Quantum foundations is enjoying a bit of a resurgen...
26 Jun 20231h 33min
240 | Andrew Pontzen on Simulations and the Universe
It's somewhat amazing that cosmology, the study of the universe as a whole, can make any progress at all. But it has, especially so in recent decades. Partly that's because nature has been kind to us ...
19 Jun 20231h 26min
239 | Brian Lowery on the Social Self
There is an image, especially in Western cultures, of the rugged, authentic, self-made individual choosing how to navigate the intricacies of the social world. But there is no mystical soul within us,...
12 Jun 20231h 10min
