Think like a physicist. Wonder like a human. Into the Impossible is where Cosmic Conversations happen — uniting Nobel Prize winners, iconoclasts, authors, and technologists to explore reality’s deepest questions. From AI to aliens, from biophysics to the brain, from the cosmos to the multiverse, Brian Keating, Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of Physics at UC San Diego covers it all.
If you’ve ever asked What’s out there? or What’s next?, this is where curiosity meets clarity.
Learn to think like this. 🎙 Full episodes, notes & more: briankeating.com/podcast
All content for Into the Impossible With Brian Keating is the property of Big Bang Productions Inc. and is served directly from their servers
with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
Think like a physicist. Wonder like a human. Into the Impossible is where Cosmic Conversations happen — uniting Nobel Prize winners, iconoclasts, authors, and technologists to explore reality’s deepest questions. From AI to aliens, from biophysics to the brain, from the cosmos to the multiverse, Brian Keating, Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of Physics at UC San Diego covers it all.
If you’ve ever asked What’s out there? or What’s next?, this is where curiosity meets clarity.
Learn to think like this. 🎙 Full episodes, notes & more: briankeating.com/podcast
Are Humans Smart Enough to Understand the Universe? (ft. Stephen Wolfram)
Into the Impossible With Brian Keating
1 hour 17 minutes
2 weeks ago
Are Humans Smart Enough to Understand the Universe? (ft. Stephen Wolfram)
Please join my mailing list here 👉 https://briankeating.com/yt to win a meteorite 💥
Why aren't whales building rockets? They have bigger brains than we do after all. In this episode with Stephen Wolfram, we talk about why more brainpower doesn't always mean more understanding, and how neural architecture faces physical constraints.
Stephen Wolfram says even super intelligent AIs may hit hard computational limits. In our conversation today, we explore why intelligence has a ceiling, and how ideas like Wolfram's Ruliad, computational irreducibility and brain size scaling reveal the boundaries of thought itself.
Wolfram created Mathematica, Wolfram Alpha, it's probably in your pocket right now, in your cell phone, and he's now building a radical new theory of everything grounded in computational reality.
If he's right, smarter doesn't always mean deeper. It might just mean we get stuck.
Key Takeaways:
00:00 – 01:34 Are we discovering or simulating the universe?
01:34 – 06:50 Ruliad defines reality
06:50 – 10:02 Brains compress data into decisions, experience.
10:02 – 17:00 Math models nature, not necessarily its foundation.
17:00 – 25:07 AI may trap us like algebra did.
25:07 – 29:42 LLMs mimic minds, but lack depth.
29:42 – 35:57 Shared minds define reality; Boltzmann brains questioned.
35:57 – 42:28 Free will arises from irreducibility.
42:28 – 47:04 AIs may inherit computational free will.
47:04 – 52:45 Exploring Ruliad = expanding intellectual paradigms.
52:45 – 59:06 Massless particles = timeless, universal concepts?
59:06 – 01:07:32 Immortality blocked by biological irreducibility.
01:07:32 – End Biggest question: extend life or decode reality?
-------------------------------------------
Additional resources:
The Second Law: Resolving the Mystery of the Second Law of Thermodynamics: https://www.amazon.com/Second-Law-Resolving-Mystery-Thermodynamics/dp/1579550835
https://www.wolframalpha.com/
-------------------------------------------
Join this channel to get access to perks like monthly Office Hours:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/join
đź“š Get a copy of my books:
Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with life changing interviews with 9 Nobel Prizewinners: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu
My tell-all cosmic memoir Losing the Nobel Prize: http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA
The first-ever audiobook from Galileo: Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un
đź“ş Watch my most popular videos:đź“ş
Neil Turok https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt5cFLN65fI
Frank Wilczek https://youtu.be/3z8RqKMQHe0?sub_confirmation=1
Eric Weinstein vs. Stephen Wolfram https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI0AZ4Y4Ip4?sub_confirmation=1
Sir Roger Penrose: https://youtu.be/AMuqyAvX7Wo
Sabine Hossenfelder: https://youtu.be/g00ilS6tBvs
Avi Loeb: https://youtu.be/N9lUceHsLRw
Follow me to ask questions of my guests:
🏄‍♂️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating
đź”” Subscribe https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1
đź“ť Join my mailing list; just click here http://briankeating.com/list
✍️ Detailed Blog posts here: https://briankeating.com/blog
🎙️ Listen on audio-only platforms: https://briankeating.com/podcast
#universe #podcast #briankeating #intotheimpossible #science #astronomy #cosmology #cosmicmicrowavebackground #intotheimpossible #briankeating
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Into the Impossible With Brian Keating
Think like a physicist. Wonder like a human. Into the Impossible is where Cosmic Conversations happen — uniting Nobel Prize winners, iconoclasts, authors, and technologists to explore reality’s deepest questions. From AI to aliens, from biophysics to the brain, from the cosmos to the multiverse, Brian Keating, Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of Physics at UC San Diego covers it all.
If you’ve ever asked What’s out there? or What’s next?, this is where curiosity meets clarity.
Learn to think like this. 🎙 Full episodes, notes & more: briankeating.com/podcast
