Edward Frenkel: Infinity, Ai, String Theory, Death, The Self

Math professor Edward Frenkel discusses his work on the Langlands Program while reflecting on the profound themes of infinity, limits of computation / Ai, death, and self-understanding. He also talks about the failure of string theory.

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TIMESTAMPS:
- 00:00:00 Introduction
- 00:03:40 The Langlands Program
- 00:09:23 Love and Math: An ode to mathematics
- 00:13:09 Art as a two-way street (reciprocal nature of artistic expression)
- 00:18:28 The Weil conjectures
- 00:24:53 Romantic side of math and the "Theory of Everything" as a process vs. a state
- 00:30:39 Paradoxes in math & axioms
- 00:33:57 Observer problem in mathematics
- 00:39:55 The debate on philosophy's role in science
- 00:51:44 "You can't get away from infinity."
- 01:07:41 Are computers conscious? Can they "think"? Turing's quotation
- 01:18:33 The limitations of computation and artificial intelligence
- 01:23:29 Blurring lines between truth & beauty (algebraic-geometric interplay)
- 01:33:48 The terrifying question of self
- 01:36:07 Childhood memories and personal growth (transformative power of pain)
- 01:49:30 The struggle for excellence & reconnecting with the past
- 02:17:26 Death is love exposed most bare
- 02:19:10 Function fields in higher dimensional algebraic varieties
- 02:25:12 Superdeterminism w/ Sabine Hossenfelder Λ Bernardo Kastrup
- 02:37:08 The human aspect in scientific theories
- 02:39:00 Even atheists reason backward from God to interpretations of quantum mechanics (Richard Hamming)
- 02:43:02 The unfulfilled promise of string theory
- 03:01:33 Credit and ethics in scientific fields (Eric Weinstein)

[stripedgazelle]

How gratifying it is to see an accomplished mathematician take these philosophical and human concerns seriously! How I longed for this when I was studying Mathematics as a graduate student back a dozen or so years ago! Thank you!

[wakeuppeople]

What a wonderful man Edward Frenkel is, it's been a delight to hear him again. Thanks for having him as a guest, Curt!

[gkannon]

Man this guy should have been a psychologist or philosopher. His insight into what it is to be human, is beautiful.

[davidwilkie]

Simple e-Pi-i unity of Eternity-now precludes the guesswork of theories and conjectures which are the useful aspects of Correspondence Principle, ie applications of probabilistic correlations in temporal thermodynamical real-time Fluxion-Integral Calculus.

[Shnikey]

This was such a great conversation. A mathematician teaching us about the psyche and sharing his own thoughts, experiences, and insights - you have to love this. This is a very compassionate discussion.

[riotintheair]

The best interview with a mathematician I've ever come across and he elegantly explains what real mathematics is about.

[cgtxzvh]

There are only a handful of people who possess the same skill set as Curt that do what Curt does. And he is among the most exceptional. Really wonderful and powerful work. He has a remarkably intuitive and perceptive method when engaging with his guests, and what a guest list that is. His roster of guests is simply outstanding. Consisting of brilliant intellectuals and scientists, asking thought-provoking questions and delves into cutting-edge concepts and ideas. I must express my admiration for this impressive body of work. Thank you.

[Mystery_G]

One of my most favorite illumination?, revelation? maybe both? from the TOE podcast, along with a few others podcasters, is the willingness, or occasional unwittingness of both the guest, especially the "scientist" and interviewer to widdle their dialogos around their singular - big S - self, the essence of meaning, the crisis of our present day lacking of meaning, and ways in which the conversations dances around the sacredness and divinity of existence.

With regard to Frenkel, I first came across him from Lex and found their conversation truly amazing and his being to be a unique exemplification of beauty, not perfect of course, but honest in his attempt to produce beauty. This interview magnified this feeling even more.

My sincere thanks to both Edward and Curt for this time stamp upon the unfolding evolution of humanity's consciousness.

[ryanjbuchanan]

This is one of the best episodes so far.

[nickzapletal]

This was one of the best interviews/podcasts period !
Unlike some other interviews, of which I have been critical due to the reliance on the guests “beliefs” even on the face of lack of evidence, this interview was thought provoking, revealing, and inspiring. It developed organically and was one of the few cases in which the humanity complemented the scientist rather than led them astray. Kudos ! I wish every scientist would watch this and polished up their self accountability and honesty.

[account]

This is such a good conversation... Its so refreshing to hear high quality intellectual dialogue on youtube

[abigailspykervideos]

Oh my god, Curt... this is so incredibly beautiful. I took the path of becoming an artist and not a scientist, but I feel so connected to math and to Infiniti, and so when Edward started talking about that, I connected to him and remembered a dream I had when I was very young where I counted to Ininfiti. My dad, an engineer and mathematician, laughed at me. But the part of this episode that takes the cake, for me is hearing of Edward's Journey of childhood struggles and personal growth, and most especially your response and waking up to some really big realizations about your own experience of self. I think the biking you speak of is part of a new chapter for you, and it resonates with me so much because I had a new chapter start when I began walking a LOT. Then I spoke with scientist Julia Mossbrdige, who was to me what it feels like Edward is to you. That was Feb. 1, 2022 (woah, 20 months ago today). My personal growth, synchronistic experiences, the intensity with which I experience joy, and the changes in my life blossomed and unfolded in a way I never could have imagined. This is your journey, and Edward is such an important part of it. We all got to witness it, and for that, I'm grateful and feel more connected to you than ever. I'm gonna try not to be the creepy stalker type, though lolz.

[heinzgassner]

Such a great discussion. Reminds me very much an Baruch Spinoza’s 3 aspects of gaining knowledge 1) Relying on direct perception (well, we perceive a flat earth), 2) Relying on reasoning (this allows us to understand, why the earth cannot be flat), 3) All this reasoning and reasoning and reasoning creating the causes and conditions for opening up for intuition, the knowledge coming from the unthinkable, unspeakable timeless and spaceless ONE. How many great breakthroughs have been ‘received’ this way. I truly love the wisdom of Edward Frenkel. Resonating very much with my humble little understanding.

[JiminiCrikkit]

three quarters the way through, but Edward you have a beautiful heart and it shows strong. thank you for existing... Really great work on emphasising the interconnection and interdependence of the 'scientist' and the science, and the relationship we all have with 'it'. Much respect.

[ludvigm]

Not through the episode yet, but this is an awesome conversation! :)

EDIT: Watched all of it and it got even better! Edward is always fascinating to listen to, but great job Curt, this is indeed one of the best episodes so far, and most interesting conversations with Edward I’ve heard. Had a great flow between the personal and technical!

[wnp]

An absolutely fantastic discussion. Frenkel has such technical depths but provides a humanistic dimension that both serves his technical and non-technical passions. Wonderful.

[sonnenhafen]

I'm not yet finished.
But Edward talking about the inner child reconnection and you Curt connecting the dots to your own past and be it something like a really broken heart, which we tend to neglect as a cause for feelings of lack in other areas..
Hearing this is like the always missing perspective when you aspire to people who achieved greatness.
From the outside it may seem like people on the top have always been there and were made for this, leaving you yourself feel like a different kind, not meant to achieve true greatness, but lacking.
But it turns out it is exactly this feeling which was the driving force for much of the greatness that was achieved.

I see you Curt on the same path with this podcast, ans i'm greatful that you can deliver such a diverse conversation to us, inviting us to ride this wave with you that is the conversation with your guest.

I hope i am on the same path somehow and not struggeling without a point, but looking back on it some day realising: you my little friend are finally welcome in this house and look at what we have built.

[benjaminbeard]

I know precisely the feeling you were speaking of around the 2:00hr mark. I believe a significant portion of that feeling is derived from working hard on something you love and something that you are building for yourself. Ive tried to express this feeling for years. When you are utterly exhausted from the day, week or whatever but its such a satisfying exhaustion. Those nights deliver the best sleep and stress just melts away. You need to find a way to fully recognize and appreciate that feeling. Thats the goal as far as i'm concerned. The grass doesn't get any greener.

[PeterMorganQF]

Nobody reads YouTube comments here, right?
From 2:29:44 forward, Frenkel discusses the very much standard view of CM vs QM, that CM is commutative whereas QM is noncommutative. That's not a complete story, insofar as we can use the Poisson bracket to construct a noncommutative algebra of transformations that we can use to model any experiment that can be modeled by QM. I call the extended CM this gives us CM+, in an article in Annals of Physics 2020. This approach removes the need to say that some systems are classical and some systems are quantum, because we can describe any system using either CM+ or QM. Unsurprisingly, there are subtleties and consequences, some of which can be found in my work already, more of which will emerge over the next few years. This opens up a significantly wider landscape for future theories of everything with Curt.

[yuriik]

Incredible podcast. Love the combination of the topics. Self-discovery is key in our society. Love and Compassion to you folks!