The Second Order of Thermodynamics

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In 1984 or so, I started realizing there's this phenomenon that you can have very simple rules, they produce apparently random behavior. The second law of thermodynamics is the same story as a bunch of these other cases. It is a story of a computationally bounded observer trying to observe a computationally irreducible system. And when it comes to preparing the initial state for an orderly thing, we cannot do that. We'd have done all sorts of computation to work out exactly what sort of disordered state would be produced from it. But in reality, even though the rules are simple, you can't tell what's going to happen and you can't prove things about it.

Stephen Wolfram is a computer scientist, mathematician, theoretical physicist, and the founder of Wolfram Research, a company behind Wolfram|Alpha, Wolfram Language, and the Wolfram Physics and Metamathematics projects. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(06:45) – WolframAlpha and ChatGPT
(26:26) – Computation and nature of reality
(53:18) – How ChatGPT works
(1:53:01) – Human and animal cognition
(2:06:20) – Dangers of AI
(2:14:39) – Nature of truth
(2:36:01) – Future of education
(3:12:03) – Consciousness
(3:21:02) – Second Law of Thermodynamics
(3:44:36) – Entropy
(3:57:36) – Observers in physics
(4:14:27) – Mortality