299 | Michael Wong on Information, Function, and the Origin of Life
Living organisms seem exquisitely organized and complex, with features clearly adapted to serving certain functions needed to survive and procreate. Natural selection provides a compelling explanation...
16 Dec 20241h 13min
298 | Jeff Lichtman on the Wiring Diagram of the Brain
The number of neurons in the human brain is comparable to the number of stars in the Milky Way galaxy. Unlike the stars, however, in the case of neurons the real action is in how they are directly con...
9 Dec 20241h 9min
AMA | December 2024
Welcome to the December 2024 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 Pa...
2 Dec 20243h 55min
297 | Emily Wilson on Homer, Poetry, and Translation
Not too long ago, Brad Pitt and Eric Bana starred in a (loose) adaptation of Homer's epic poem The Iliad; next month, Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche will headline a film based on The Odyssey. Give...
25 Nov 20241h 15min
296 | Brandon Ogbunu on Fitness Seascapes and the Course of Evolution
Biological evolution via natural selection is a simple idea that becomes enormously complicated in its realization. Populations of organisms are driven toward increased "fitness," a measure of how suc...
18 Nov 20241h 15min
295 | Solo: Emergence and Layers of Reality
Emergence is a centrally important concept in science and philosophy. Indeed, the existence of higher-level emergent properties helps render the world intelligible to us -- we can sensibly understand ...
11 Nov 20241h 35min
AMA | November 2024
Welcome to the November 2024 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 Pa...
4 Nov 20243h 50min
294 | Addy Pross on Dynamics, Stability, and Life
Erwin Schrödinger said that the important characteristic of life is that it "goes on doing something... for a much longer period than we would expect an inanimate piece of matter to keep going under s...
28 Okt 20241h 11min
