Assembly theory: Quantifying complexity and detecting evolution

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Assembly theory suggests that the complexity of an object can be measured by the number of steps it took to create it. It also suggests that we can determine if the object was created through an evolutionary process by looking at the number of copies of the object. This theory has sparked controversy and interesting discussions.

Lee Cronin is a chemist at University of Glasgow. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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Transcript: https://lexfridman.com/lee-cronin-3-transcript

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Nature Paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06600-9
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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
(09:37) – Assembly theory paper
(30:06) – Assembly equation
(43:19) – Discovering alien life
(1:01:38) – Evolution of life on Earth
(1:09:34) – Response to criticism
(1:27:12) – Kolmogorov complexity
(1:39:02) – Nature review process
(1:59:56) – Time and free will
(2:06:21) – Communication with aliens
(2:28:19) – Cellular automata
(2:32:48) – AGI
(2:49:36) – Nuclear weapons
(2:55:22) – Chem Machina
(3:08:16) – GPT for electron density
(3:17:46) – God