Coffee table conversations with people thinking about foundational issues. Multiverses explores the limits of knowledge and technology. Does quantum mechanics tell us that our world is one of many? Will AI make us intellectually lazy, or expand our cognitive range? Is time a thing in itself or a measure of change? Join James Robinson as he tries to find out.
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Coffee table conversations with people thinking about foundational issues. Multiverses explores the limits of knowledge and technology. Does quantum mechanics tell us that our world is one of many? Will AI make us intellectually lazy, or expand our cognitive range? Is time a thing in itself or a measure of change? Join James Robinson as he tries to find out.
Molecules & Mirrors —Vanessa Seifert on the Philosophy of Chemistry
MULTIVERSES
1 hour 9 minutes
1 month ago
Molecules & Mirrors —Vanessa Seifert on the Philosophy of Chemistry
Why do molecules have a "handedness" when the physics that determines their structure does not?*
This is a question emblematic of the philosophy of chemistry; at times, it has been used to argue that chemistry cannot be reduced to physics. However, Vanessa Seifert has a different — yet equally intriguing — answer. This symmetry breaking is closely linked to that contentious area of quantum mechanics: the measurement problem.
Vanessa is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow based at the University of Athens and a visiting fellow at the University of Bristol. In addition to molecules, we discuss the project of reductionism, laws, and alchemy.
I found this to be a wonderful example of the fruitfulness of turning the philosophical gaze to sciences beyond physics.
*(Note, it can't be explained by the chirality of the weak nuclear force)
Links
vanessa-seifert.com [https://www.vanessa-seifert.com/] has links to Vanessa's publications and popular writing — her articles on philosophy in Chemistry World are a great introduction to a broad range of topics
multiverses.xyz [https://www.multiverses.xyz/] Multiverses home
MULTIVERSES
Coffee table conversations with people thinking about foundational issues. Multiverses explores the limits of knowledge and technology. Does quantum mechanics tell us that our world is one of many? Will AI make us intellectually lazy, or expand our cognitive range? Is time a thing in itself or a measure of change? Join James Robinson as he tries to find out.
