Lord Martin Rees On The Future (#107)

Jan 6, 2021

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Lord Martin Rees has played a huge role in my career and is an inspiration to me and millions of scientists around the world. There is literally nothing beyond his purview and our conversation bore this out — we covered everything from A to Z: artificial intelligence to zoology! Nothing was off-limits — we even shared our mutual and controversial distaste for alchemy and astrology! Lord Rees of Ludlow, the Astronomer Royal, is the Co-founder of Centre for the Study of Existential Risk and an Emeritus Professor of Cosmology & Astrophysics, at Cambridge University. He is the 38th Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. He is the author of ‘On the Future’ and 10 other books and the 60th President of the Royal Society.

Find Lord Rees on https://www.martinrees.uk/ and on

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LordMartinRees

Buy ON THE FUTURE here: https://amzn.to/2Lg9MPT

00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:36 ON THE FUTURE book cover
00:03:00 Reading the Queen’s Horoscope!
00:03:41 What is your view of Karls Popper’s demarcation philosophy? Refuting Copernicus!
00:08:11 Do physicists envy mathematicians?
00:11:24Why is Einstein so often a target of criticism?
00:12:13 Why are theorists so popular and not experimentalists?
00:15:45 Theories don’t get retracted, but experiments often do! What’s going on?
00:16:04 The steady-state of the universe debate and cosmology’s earlier days.
00:22:47 Martin’s prediction that the CMB could be polarized
00:24:47 How even incorrect theories can lead to important discoveries.
00:29:13 Theories of Everything. Do we need them?
00:37:45 Complex vs.Complicated
00:40:57 Are you a pessimist or optimist?
00:57:52 There may be some benefits to the pandemic!
00:59:00 What do you think about blockchain and bitcoin?
01:07:46 How coins got their ridges.
01:17:46 What is your ethical will?
01:26:24 What advice would you give your younger self?

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