Are there ‘general principles’ that encompass all sciences, which have explanatory strength from physics to biology? Could such general principles even explain...
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Topic Series
5 videos
42:17
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Is emergence a mystery? Does ordinary stuff have mysterious properties? Take anything; find and separate all its parts and catalogue their properties. Then recombine those...
7 videos
1:10:17
Mathematics is like nothing else. The truths of math seem to be unrelated to anything else—independent of human beings, independent of the universe. The sum of 2 + 3 = 5...
47:10
The world works at different levels — fundamental physics, physics, chemistry, biology, psychology, sociology — with each level having its own rules and regularities. ...
45:52
Information is a common word but has technical meanings so important that our entire world depends on them. What are the kinds of information? How about the scientific...
37:58
Can science discover all truths? Or are there truths beyond science? What is science? A process? A way of thinking? How to get at the essence of science, discern how it...
video
Episode
Episode 11
Season 16
26:48
Mathematics describes the real world of atoms and acorns, stars and stairs, with remarkable precision. So is mathematics invented by humans just like chisels and hammers and...
9 videos
1:34:28
Time seems natural and absolute: the flow of moments one following another from the unknown past to the knife’s edge present to the unknowable future. But this is not...
Episode 10
Season 05
26:46
Why is an observer a critical part of quantum physics? What does it mean to be an observer? Does the act of observation affect what exists and what happens in the external...
6 videos
52:16
What constitutes good science? Are there limits to science? If so, what are the boundaries? How deep can science dig into the foundations of the world?
Episode 12
One of artificial intelligence’s legendary pioneers, Marvin Minsky, recently died. With this tribute, we celebrate his penetrating analysis of brains, minds, AI, religion...
Episode 13
26:45
Extra dimensions—beyond length, width, height—seem like the stuff of science fiction. What would extra dimensions be like? Is time the fourth dimension? Does string...
1:23:20