Geoffrey West is Shannan Distinguished Professor and Past President at the Santa Fe Institute. He is a theoretical physicist who has worked broadly on topics related to elementary particles and their cosmological implications. Among other topics, he has also worked on complexity theory, scaling laws in biology, and how they can be applied in other areas, such as cities and problems involving global sustainability. This is precisely what Robinson and Geoffrey discuss in this episode, with particular reference to his recent book, Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies (Penguin, 2017).  Scale: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ05syiaUxg OUTLINE 00:00 In This Episode… 00:25 Introduction 02:21 Complexity and the Santa Fe Institute 22:14 What Are Emergent Phenomena? 34:18 What is Complexity Theory? 45:51 Why Do All Animals Have the Same Number of Heartbeats in a Lifetime 01:11:43 Does Complexity Theory Tell Us How to Live Longer 01:22:49 Why Don’t Cities Die Like Organisms Do? 01:59:40 The Pandemic and the Increasing Pace of Life Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Daniel Levitin, Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Neuroscience, discusses the neuroscience of music. Topics include the brain's processing of complex music, why songs get stuck in our heads, and why some sounds are more pleasing than others.

Tim Palmer, Royal Society Research Professor in Climate Physics at the University of Oxford, discusses topics such as black holes and the holographic principle, quantum mechanics, meteorology and probabilistic forecasting, chaos theory and consciousness, and the problem of climate change in this episode.

James Owen Weatherall, a physicist, mathematician, and philosopher, discusses nothingness and the physics of the void. The debate between Leibniz and Newton on the nature of space, Einstein's revolutionary theories, and the quantum vacuum state are explored. The episode delves into the relationship between metaphysics and physics, the shift in understanding space and time due to general relativity, and the challenges of unifying quantum field theory and general relativity.

David Friedman, known for his defense of anarcho-capitalism, discusses criticisms of current economic systems, varieties of anarchism, arguments for anarcho-capitalism, and his hobby of anachronism. They also debate government intervention, the role of government in climate change, funding the military in an anarcho-capitalist society, and wealth inequality in a free market system. They touch on medieval recipes, jewelry making, and the evolution of food and jewelry making.

Erik Verlinde, a Professor of Physics specializing in quantum gravity and string theory, discusses black holes, the holographic principle, string theory, and entropic gravity in this podcast. Topics include the connection between black holes and quantum theory, measuring a black hole's entropy, the holographic principle, and the connection between string theory and quantum mechanics. They also explore the concept of entropic gravity and its potential explanation for dark matter.

Sheldon Solomon, Professor of Psychology, talks about terror management theory and the influence of Ernest Becker's 'The Denial of Death'. The discussion covers topics such as self-esteem, Freud's denial of death anxiety, the pursuit of meaning through heroism, flaws in Becker's book, origins of terror management theory, and achieving self-esteem from intrinsic sources.

David Albert is the Frederick E. Woodbridge Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University and one of the world’s most respected philosophers of physics. He is also the director of the Philosophical Foundations of Physics program at Columbia and a faculty member of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. This is David’s fifth (!) appearance on Robinson’s Podcast. He appeared on episode #23 with Justin Clarke-Doane on metaethics and absolute space, episode #30 on the philosophy of time, episode #67 with Tim Maudlin on the foundations of quantum theory, and episode #106 with Sean Carroll on Many-Worlds and fine-tuning. In this episode, Robinson and David discuss his new book, A Guess at the Riddle: Essays on the Physical Underpinnings of Quantum Mechanics (Harvard, 2023), and the metaphysics of quantum mechanics. If you’re interested in the foundations of physics—which you absolutely should be—then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute’s life. A Guess at the Riddle: https://a.co/d/6qcsidl The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org OUTLINE 00:00 In This Episode… 00:56 Introduction 05:12 On The Metaphysics of Quantum Mechanics 30:24 The Complex Origins of Antirealism in Quantum Physics 37:29 Instrumentalism and String Theory  45:31 The Amazing History of Locality in Physics 01:22:38 Quantum Mechanics as Experimental Metaphysics 01:26:27 What Is Wave-Function Realism in the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics? Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Fay Dowker is Professor of Theoretical Physics at Imperial College London, where she works broadly on quantum gravity, and more particularly on an approach called causal set theory that takes the most basic pieces of the universe to be atoms of spacetime. In this episode, Robinson and Fay begin by discussing her studies with Stephen Hawking and their work on wormholes before turning to quantum gravity and causal set theory. Fay is also a faculty member at the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. If you’re interested in the foundations of physics—which you absolutely should be—then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute’s life. The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org OUTLINE 00:00 In This Episode… 00:50 Introduction 04:49 How Do Physicists Think of Wormholes? 15:56 Stephen Hawking, Philosophy, and Quantum Gravity 26:00 Causal Set Theory and The Problem of Quantum Gravity 43:45 What is the Path Integral? 54:43 Is Spacetime Discrete? 57:40 Causal Set Theory and Black Holes 01:14:27 Lorentz Symmetry, Non-Locality, and Phenomenology in Causal Set Theory Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

Tony Padilla is Professor of Physics in the School of Physics & Astronomy at the University of Nottingham, where he is the Associate Director of the new Nottingham Centre of Gravity. Tony works in cosmology, quantum gravity, and related areas. He is also a host of the YouTube channel Numberphile, and the author of Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them: A Cosmic Quest from Zero to Infinity (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2022). In this episode, Robinson and Tony discuss some of these fantastic numbers. They begin with the question of how numbers relate to physics and the world more generally before turning to Graham’s Number, Tree(3), and the question of whether or not we have doppelgängers elsewhere in the universe. Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them: https://a.co/d/jiLCOJe Numberphile: https://www.youtube.com/@numberphile OUTLINE 00:00 In This Episode… 00:13 Introduction 02:57 Tony’s Interest in Numbers 07:51 Are Numbers Parts of the Physical World? 20:12 Do We Have Doppelgängers Elsewhere in the Universe? 54:16 What is Graham’s Number? 01:03:22 Tree(3) Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.