How to Build a Universe: A Conversation with Frank Wilczek (Episode #238)

In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Frank Wilczek about the fundamental nature of reality.

Released: February 22, 2021

[IvanusPrime]

I know it's been a while but I'm so thankful the old intro music is restored.

[devinbryant]

Your seriously going to try and convince me that every single female on tinder is wrong about astrology?

[bannedaccountscountingblo]

Got tired of politics & remembered I used to listen to Sam Harris back in the day all the time. Man am I sick of politics.

[martinjnagy]

I love a non-political Making Sense episode...been getting a few recently...long may it continue

[q.bandit]

Great to have Frank Wilczek on your podcast. He has a brilliant mind. In my opinion one of the most intelligent human beings.

[wertytrewqa]

This is so random but I have been a huge follower of frank wilczek for a while. I went into a theoretical physics rabbit hole on youtube in 2015 and ive been following frank on twitter ever since. Cant wait to listen!

[SashaXXY]

As a (sometimes sloppy?) coder, especially when coding things where computational performance or efficiency is unimportant, I have in fact written plenty of programs where the runtime complexity of the program was a huge overkill for accomplishing the task at hand. The savings were external -- I could re-use or adapt already existing code instead of having to write entirely new software.
So IF I had the computing power of a matrioshka-brain at my fingertips and was feeling like re-using a bunch of code, there is no reason to assume that I wouldn't have the program simulate the wave function of every sub-atomic particle in order to observe some primates building a civilization on a wet rock. Thus, again as a (sometimes sloppy?) coder, the argument that the runtime is too complex or too wasteful to be designed for our simulation is a bit lackluster. But I guess that's as good an answer to this speculation as any other that we have at this time :-)
Thank you for the upload!

[Turandot]

I am grateful that Sam gives us about half of his terrific podcasts for free. I don’t get to listen to the second half, though.

[jimmybolton]

Have you guys tried listening to this podcast this exact one as you’re falling asleep you will start building the universe as they’re talking it’s awesome

[renanbelli]

That joke about the mirror-time… „every time i look at that mirror, i know what time it is… its later.“ was spontaneously fantastic!

[tonynewton]

this is likely THE BEST PODCAST EVER. unreal. Great work Sam. Mega brains deserve FAR MORE attention than they get.

[chrisdaniel]

A while back Sam had on a physicist who dismissed the idea that we live in a simulation by pointing out that the 2nd assumption, that 'most universes would be virtual, ' bends into infinity (which seemed to end that point). But... doesn't that dovetail perfectly with the 'many worlds' hypothesis multi-verse idea? It kinda seems like different thinkers are feeling different parts of an elephant in the dark.

[sunnyla]

Would you please interview Stanford Dr. Jay Battacharya (sp) re covid response and censorship of science? Or (serious question) are you afraid to? Thanks. I love your podcast 💕

[xeroeddie]

It's easy to create a universe in Minecraft. In fact, Sam Harris should do a hardcore Minecraft let's play. He will probably just build a small hut to meditate in. 😁

[thoughtsfromtheshower]

Damn this looks like an interesting one, idk why but I always associated Sam with the cosmos and universe, he just kinda gives off astronomy vibes

[tyboogy]

Listening to these two fellas talk about things that I have absolutely no clue about and sitting through all of it, surprises me. When did I become such a nerd lol?

[kylebowles]

Aaah that cut at the end was so perfect I might sign up for the podcast

[WeAreShowboat]

With all due respect to Dr. Wilczek, there are plenty of ways the universe can be understood better as a simulation than a base layer reality.

1. Quantum mechanics doesn’t render a reality (definite properties) until you look. Like a video game would not render a distant landscape until you get near.
2. Large clusters of mass (gravity) slow down time, like a lag induced by too much for the GPU to keep track of. Also, fast speeds slow down time, like a lag induced by too much processing.
3. EPR paradox shows the universe is non-local, suggesting a higher level processor (rather than just light speed communication within the universe)

The list goes on and on. These don’t prove we are in a simulation, and you can quibble over the details, but I’m shocked that Frank hasn’t already noticed these in pondering these questions.

[adriancioroianu]

I recommend the full conversation, excellent job as usual Sam! Keep up the content.

[tiborkoos]

It's important to remember that all observers agree on the order of those events which can causally affect each other (there is enough time for light to reach from one event to the other). The elapsed time between the events of course depends on the relatively motion of the frames of reference. The order of events can flip between inertial observers only if these events are causally disconnected. This means that observers never disagree on causality.