Mindscape AMA, Sean Carroll | November 2022

Patreon: / seanmcarroll
Blog post with audio player, show notes, and transcript: www.preposterousuniverse.com/...
Welcome to the November 2022 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who are also the ones asking the questions). We take questions asked by Patreons, whittle them down to a more manageable number - based primarily on whether I have anything interesting to say about them, not whether the questions themselves are good - and sometimes group them together if they are about a similar topic. Enjoy!
Mindscape Podcast playlist: • Mindscape Podcast
Sean Carroll channel: / seancarroll
#podcast #ideas #science #philosophy #culture

[@harrycummings9899]

when i go to bed, I turn off my light, set my web to a Sean Carroll "mindscape" and away i go. Often when waking for a bathroom call, i'll be onto a different one. or an 'AMA'. It's perfect. Sure, much is over my head but i still enjoy it.

[@PeteBrisbourne]

It's always such a delight finding a notification for a new Mindscape video.

[@koolguy728]

1:42:27 Possibly the most philosophical sentence ever uttered

[@tyhggb]

I can’t believe that all of the information that I have gained from your podcast is free. Thanks for everything you have put on KZbin. You are an amazing person.

[@CurtOntheRadio]

And not just for 'the science': how to be a decent person too.

[@CodepageNet]

finally the november podcast is here! can't wait to listen to it.

[@jibjab1408]

Sean Carroll is an absolute treasure

[@TheReferrer72]

Sean Carrol for President.

[@bittertruth5770]

He's already in one of the Universe in the Multiverse!!!

[@michaeljfigueroa]

Thanks. I enjoy your talks

[@bryandraughn9830]

Another great ama! My favorite by far!

[@aaron2709]

Saying, 'people are better at empathizing with people like themselves' (Paul Bloom) doesn't make sense. It's a bizarre misunderstanding of empathy.

[@MrMdb81]

Just catching the end here, and I know the video is a year old... but regarding predicting emergent behavior in cellular automata, I thought I would mention the patterns in the Langton's Ant model for cellular automata, where emergent behaviors can be observed and even prompted through the use of "highway seeds". They will enter into a periodic repetition of steps if positioned correctly within a few preset values in nearby neighboring cells, and you can prepare the nearby cells beforehand to initiate their emergent behaviors from step 1.

[@Cytropical-dk7wp]

Absolutely love your content and am thankful for it. I noticed you use ‘begs the question’ as interchangeable with ‘raises/asks the question’ (as many people do). In recent years, Merriam Webster has adjusted it’s definition to suggest these phrases are synonymous while other dictionaries and grammar traditionalists maintain an important difference exists between the two. This raises the question, does it matter how we use language if our audience understands it in the same light as we intend? Or, is there an obligation to maintain linguistic nuance/accurateness when appropriate. What should things like appropriate and accurate even mean in this context and when should definitions + usage change? Maybe I’ll submit this Q on patreon.

[@runrickyrun157]

A wealthy person is under no obligation to be charitable,.but good people are. Public amenities belong to all of us. I want a rich person at the library mingling in the community.

[@rdcalderon]

Superduper AMA!

[@seednovels]

I'm looking for a discussion of this year's Nobel. There are not many labels or cuts for the podcasts, though. Am I getting warmer?

[@Lance_Lough]

Rainy day in...perfect..

[@chrismurrayguitar]

How many Chris Murrays are Mindscape listeners? I swear there's been a chris murray question for the last 2-3 AMAs

[@dukeallen432]

All public funded classrooms should be broadcast. So anyone can listen to any college class. Cameras, gov run KZbin channel, done. Once one feels they can pass a test of some sort pay for that administration.

[@justinwatson1510]

I don't even think people should have to watch ads. Universities have the infrastructure to host their own websites, and they could even be compensated if, for some reason, the expense would be a huge burden. We should also stop corporations from price gouging off of research done with public funding.

[@dukeallen432]

Thanks for sharing your noodle.

[@smlanka4u]

I could make the first part of the theory of everything.

[@mattsmith8160]

@2:24:30 We fart flammable gas so belching a flammable gas doesn't seem like that much of a stretch.

[@wmpx34]

There’s a beetle that produces and shoots scalding water as a defense mechanism

[@TheWeepingCorpse]

You are like the Art Bell of science.

[@johndjarrell]

Please don't turn your book in late so that you can pay a fine to your local library 😂. The trend has been to get rid of these types of fines, so you very well may just make the next person who wants to read the book wait for a longer.

[@Canard712]

How many ebooks are on the shelf?

[@johndjarrell]

@@Canard712 If this is a joke about how people don't wait for ebooks, I have to inform you that libraries have a set number of licenses and that people do wait for them. Plus you can't turn those in late.

[@freehat2722]

Schrodinger's "asleep cat?" Did you need to self censor yourself to that extent? I don't care that much, I was just very surprised.

[@wmpx34]

I think he just really likes cats and wanted to prevent the harm of one, even within a thought experiment.

[@mchammer1836]

No particles? Why do they say that new particles are discovered using "particle" colliders?

[@mchammer1836]

@@DrDeuteron Thank you for your reply. Follow up Q- If there are no particles how can there be anything but energy? What comprises the mass in E=MC2?

[@rolandbockhorst2276]

Enough over my head to keep me coming back. Please read questions more slowly as unfamiliar terms often are not heard correctly. Please comment on the likelihood of the truth of the statement or implication of the statement: If certain constants were different by one part in ten to the 140th the universe would never have been formed. One answer I heard was that's just the way it is. Another is God did it. Thank you for doing AMA and please consider this an AMA question. Rolandb40

[@LeeLightfoot]

1 hour 4: yes, the teacher that tried to strangle me with my own school tie (because another student laughed at him and he thought that I was the student who laughed) was suspended, thankfully. Don't think he was fired though. Things have since changed here.

[@rodneyericjohnson]

What?

[@LeeLightfoot]

@@rodneyericjohnson Won't name the guy but after this he pulled me into the corridor with kids staring (even though the school was a rough comprehensive this sort of assault was rare) and told me I wouldn't be going on the school trip that day. My parents visited the headmaster later to discuss it. His wife was terminally ill so I think this earned him a pass.

[@LeeLightfoot]

additionally, another teacher did escape a firing after punching a male student in the stomach to the point at which he vomited. Was reminiscing recently over this with an old friend. Now, things have inverted and it is more likely a teacher is assaulted by either a pupil or angry parent.

[@tonytg9099]

Any attitude of a human being is only environmental this can change at anytime.. Actions always speak louder than words ....so watch don't listen..

[@travisfitzwater8093]

It's unexplanatory how I kick it but it's mandatory that I gets wicked.

[@Fraksional]

Sean Carroll probably has equations to disprove most of my erroneous concepts. I hope only to settle philosophy; some of it: Antimatter and matter do not both enter the gravitational field of black holes, or do they? If it does, these could not both react upon each other and yet still emit radiation from poles of a black hole? Or maybe they do? Is radiation from both poles predicted by antimatter/matter extinction? So is information (intelligence) destroyed by black holes? Information has been broadcasted and SETI listening for replies and meanwhile has existed in the universe (not to neglect higher dimensions, string theory, or whatever else which includes thoughts and such informational nonsense in our own minds besides matter/antimatter.) Even sense and nonsense seem balanced. I hope it's shared again like here! I DO want to read his books for philosophy and physicists.

[@ovidiulupu5575]

A like your clarity of mind. I have a vision în 1996 about existence of microspaces, quantum entities, with internal Time which interact between them throw 2 kind of particles, energon and gon I name them and are quanta of half of action h. Fotons ar 4 conected microspaces, charge conserve îs due to cinetical momentum conserved, any particle is a mathematical structure of conected microspaces, that is why are identical, geometry depends on local 1 dim conection. Velocity îs restrected only for 4 or more conection structures. We all The Time teleportate. Etc. We need 3 dim matrices or some kind of tensors to describe that Special relativity become clear if you think în events.

[@randomprodigius914]

2:49:00

[@SkiPraetor]

RCV. Also, I'm tempted to get a Patreon question in the cue, but after hearing the umpteenth entanglement-related question go only 3/4 answered, I'm not hopeful that mine would get over the hump. If you don't know what I'm talking about, get an intern to go back through all the entanglement questions (BIITU included) and then consider if something just isn't getting conveyed. Still love you S.C. Keep up the good work. P.S. left glove, right glove till I die.

[@xJopeRz]

this needs 4m views not cardi b

[@endrawes0]

What's wrong with cardi b?

[@xJopeRz]

@@endrawes0 if i have to explain you're apart of the issue

[@endrawes0]

@@xJopeRz lol

[@xJopeRz]

@@Laocoon283 not true, and even if its 0.1% of the info understood thats 100x better then most other content out there.

[@xJopeRz]

@@Laocoon283 thats the dumbest take ive ever heard. this is learning about the fundamentals of the entire universe. rap music achieves what? gets you some girls? grow up kid.

[@fredburns6846]

Im all for discussing interesting ideas but randomly choosing a voter and making his vote the deciding one must be the most idiotic form of democracy ive ever heard of One of the biggest benefits of democracy is that our leaders are chosen by merit (at least in the ideal) and not by who the current leaders offspring happens to be. Lets say you have a 55/45 split, its not unlikely that the less popular party has a streak of "against-the-odds" wins and is in power for a disproportionate amount. In a world where governments have to be sovereign actors (war, foreign relations, economic planning, etc) it would cripple the ability of a government to implement its policy, because despite your coalition/party having a stable majority, you and youre partners/investors/allies can never be quite sure if youre "harry-potter-sorting-hat" voting system is gonna put them in power again. Not to speak of the insane level of unaccountability of that random choosing process All in all, a complete pipe dream with no connection to reality

[@tapksa]

Yet still analysing that model is helpful to show us what model might be the best one

[@PilsnerGrip]

Come on, you can't do a break about a cute cat half way in the video, I can feel the information I retained vaporating from my brain :(

[@tonytg9099]

Humankind reminds me of a firework....burns bright but not for very long and now with the internet it's just speed up the process by *2..

[@janronelpomicpic]

Very interesting podcast.. First comment🙂

[@MrVaypour]

Very interesting comment.. First written reaction 😉

[@justinwatson1510]

Instead of lottery voting, we should have a sortition system where public office is more like jury duty than being elected into an aristocracy. Representatives should have to work cleaning bathrooms when they aren't debating bills or voting on things so the temporary power doesn't go to their heads.

[@johnpetkos5686]

I just love this man, even though I'm not gay

[@davidwilkinson2038]

Democracy is not being threatened Sean you are smarter than that don’t let the sheep herders make you believe lies

[@markstipulkoski1389]

You are as clever as a Fox (News viewer).

[@tyhggb]

And somehow you’re here

[@leegale1993]

That wasn't the goal of Jan 6th ?

[@nmarbletoe8210]

I disagree with everyone. It is being threatened because it is always being threatened. Trump is a mere blip. He is less dangerous than the GOP or DNC. Everyone talking about the past 2.3 seconds of history that they forget JFK was shot in a coup, the coup plotters mostly ruled the country for the next 50 years, and there's no evidence that they have given up control of the levers of power.