Mindscape Ask Me Anything, Sean Carroll | September 2022

Welcome to the September 2022 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 Patrons, whittle them down to a more manageable number — based primarily on whether I have anything interesting to say about them, not whether the questions themselves are good — and sometimes group them together if they are about a similar topic. Enjoy!

#podcast #ideas #science #philosophy #culture

[bjpafa]

Your opinion about the Electoral College is absolutely correct on my point of view. Congrats, Professor, that needs to be declared. Thank you so much.

[BrianFedirko]

Nobel Prize: If anyone deserves a prize it's Sean Carroll. The talent of this person to understand and teach how this universe works is beyond anyone in history. His recall and dedication to being unbiased in the pursuit of knowledge are beyond and deserving of money and recognition.
As far as prizes go, I wouldn't wish the aftermath of this prize on anyone. The money would be good, but prizes for artistic endeavors such as creative knowledge don't make any sense to begin with. They seem a curse more than a positive. Gr8 Peace ☮💜

[Mutual_Information]

It would be pretty exciting to have Sean Carroll as a professor.. I'm slightly jealous of those students.

[spaceinyourface]

Good to hear Brian Keating asking Sean a question. 👍

[NoLuvHoz]

Ah I think I'm starting to get it...entanglement is the building block of the very concept of 'closeness' or spatial proximity. Therefore, "spooky action at a distance" is not really distant, as two entangled objects are actually very close and are effectively "touching" each other. ER = EPR and Mind = Blown.

[finalfandy]

.. this channel deserves way more subscribers; viewers can help by just clicking the 'like' button.. the more 'likes' it gets the more often it appears on the general YouTube viewers page
.. because there are so many irritating junk 'sciencey' garbage channels on YouTube all with clickbaity titles many with way more subscribers and views.
I don't understand why some people prefer listening to fantastic nonsense rather than facts

[sbwhddv]

"Physics of democracy" sounds like an interesting course!

[gilbertanderson]

2:47:25 Sandra Stuckey's question about singular impacts on the future brought to mind the Montreal Protocol as an example where a few people had a tremendous impact on a global problem.

[bobdole]

Sean. You are 100% correct that it's impossible to directly compare or sum interpersonal utility. It's ordinal and not cardinal.

[christianhujer]

I would love to see Dave Snowden and Sean Carroll having a conversation about complexity. Has that already happened? If not, can we make that happened?

[smlankau]

Observer/detector is the hidden function in the wave function.! Probably, there are different types of natural observations. Thank you so much for the best explanations.

[DunsmoreFamily]

On the secrets to black holes physics and a good theory for gravity at really large scales

I was watching a video on tensors planes and how gravity wells behave. You know the standard Lycra / spandex sheet with weights set in the in the center, as balls where being thrown around it, and I realized that they were only simulating a two dimensional plane of an actual three dimensional object. and as I watched the masses in the center started to stack up in the third dimension. But since it’s only a two dimensional plane, the matter was starting to stack in the third dimension. What if, gravity inside a black hole does the same thing but instead of three dimensions we consider four, and the matter is stacking in the fourth dimension like, a hyper cube inside the black hole.

What if, for a new model of gravity we have to go to four dimensions?

We always said gravity was so much weaker because it’s effects where in more then three dimensions. Why not try and simulate it.

Could somebody models this and confirm or rule out this theory?

Link to the video.
But I’m sure you’ve seen them or something like them before.

Eric W. Dunsmore

[travisfitzwater]

Kant: Intuition is clear insofar as objects are given to us. What he means is that our immediate understanding of a freshly contemplated object depends on the manner in which we are able to regard an object. Objects refers to anything contemplatable which is anything we are able to regard. Our perception of things is limited by they way they present to us or are presented to us. The classic example would be an iceberg, only the top of which can be seen (at least this was the case in his day).
Or if you saw a rock or an artificial object showing only 5% out of the ground. I hope this makes sense

[paulc]

Hi Professor Sean, I'm sure you'll be glad to hear that I have finally joined the Mindscape Patreon subscribers. I will try to compose a question for October's AMA. All the Best, Paul C.

[bentationfunkiloglio]

Professor, hope you enjoy your first day back at school this year! Thank you for another thought expanding discussion. Got a real kick out of the temporally interrupted Alice question.

[rainazarhayat]

What a GREAT podcast...
The best in the business... 👏

[sttv]

Oh wow, I graduated from Johns Hopkins with a major in biophysics. It’s been a minute, but if you had been there when I attended I’m sure I would’ve taken one or two of your courses.

[andanssas]

1:35:36 Dr. Brian Keating's question about NFTs and blockchain in science and/or publishing.
My 2 cents: (1) reviewers ledger for transparency of the peer-reviewing process; (2) publishing token, awarded while articles = NFTs are publicly available and could be exchanged to fund research.

[squamish]

"Life after death. Some say no, theologians disagree. Thoughts?"

[at-last]

Dave Snowden addresses Complex Systems: See Cynefin