205 episodes

This is a podcast primarily about the work of philosopher and physicist David Deutsch and related matters (such as Popperian epistemology). I read from and comment upon the books ”The Beginning of Infinity” & ”The Fabric of Reality” (both by Deutsch), ”The Science of Can & Can’t” (by Deutsch’s collegue Marletto) and ”Rationality” by Pinker (so far). In addition I make stand alone episodes about topics like resources, environmentalism, economics, science, philosophy, epistemology (especially explanations) and reason broadly.

ToKCast Brett Hall

    • Society & Culture
    • 4.8 • 84 Ratings

This is a podcast primarily about the work of philosopher and physicist David Deutsch and related matters (such as Popperian epistemology). I read from and comment upon the books ”The Beginning of Infinity” & ”The Fabric of Reality” (both by Deutsch), ”The Science of Can & Can’t” (by Deutsch’s collegue Marletto) and ”Rationality” by Pinker (so far). In addition I make stand alone episodes about topics like resources, environmentalism, economics, science, philosophy, epistemology (especially explanations) and reason broadly.

    Ep 205: David Deutsch’s ”The Fabric of Reality” Chapter 11 ”Time: The First Quantum Concept” *Part 2*

    Ep 205: David Deutsch’s ”The Fabric of Reality” Chapter 11 ”Time: The First Quantum Concept” *Part 2*

    Part 2: Time is in the instant. The instant is not in time. More on the quantum theory of time and how the "spacetime" view of time, and the flow of time are false. How time relates to the "block universe" model and how the multiverse fixes the paradoxes at the heart of our common sense (and classical physics) ideas about time - more readings from "The Fabric of Reality" chapter 11 and in addition:
    A couple of acrostics about David Deutsch in terms of "Popper".
    David's changing view of free will.
    Readings on "free will" from "A Science of Can and Can't" by Chiara Marletto.
    A summary of a paper by Marletto and Vedral on the "Page and Wooters" construction.
    Brief remarks on Marietto's "Constructor Theory of Thermodynamics"
    Kuyper's thesis "Developments in Unitary Quantum Theory"
    The paradoxes involved in trying to picture time using diagrams.
    Machian Dynamics (Ernst Mach's idea about absolute space and time being false and instead how the universe has dynamics of its own).
    The Schrödinger vs Heisenberg Pictures
    The Kuypers and Deutsch paper on "Everettian Relative States in the Heisenberg picture"
    "And other topics" as Sam Harris says. Reference: Mentions of Sam Kuypers paper on "q number time" throughout: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rspa.2021.0970

    • 53 min
    Ep 204: David Deutsch’s ”The Fabric of Reality” Chapter 11 ”Time: The First Quantum Concept” Part 1

    Ep 204: David Deutsch’s ”The Fabric of Reality” Chapter 11 ”Time: The First Quantum Concept” Part 1

    This is really "episode 0" but not quite because we do indeed get to some readings and unpackings of the chapter. But in the overall scheme, that forms a minor part of a longer introduction to the "common sense" understanding of time and then to some relativity (of simultaneity) and reflections on the work of other physicists and popularisers.
     
    Note clips from "The Lord of the Rings" and "Spaceballs" movies are owned by their respective copyright holders.

    • 1 hr
    Ep 203: David Deutsch’s ”The Fabric of Reality” Chapter 10 ”The Nature of Mathematics” Part 4

    Ep 203: David Deutsch’s ”The Fabric of Reality” Chapter 10 ”The Nature of Mathematics” Part 4

    Some more long introductory remarks and commentary throughout readings of the closing pages of the chapter culminating in the explanation of the "punchline" conclusion of the chapter which is: "Necessary truth is the subject matter of mathematics. It is not the reward we get for doing mathematics". This is a good exploration of fallibility, the relationship of physics to mathematics and how science is, in a sense, logically prior to mathematics (and logic for that matter!)...all because proof is a physical process.

    • 1 hr 17 min
    Ep 202: David Deutsch’s ”The Fabric of Reality” Chapter 10 ”The Nature of Mathematics” Part 3

    Ep 202: David Deutsch’s ”The Fabric of Reality” Chapter 10 ”The Nature of Mathematics” Part 3

    The nature of proof and mathematics as a creative enterprise. Not all that is true can be proved as such, the high hopes of David Hilbert for placing the entirety of mathematics on a "firm foundation", the mathematical world-shattering results of Kurt Gödel which frustrated that project, a history of proof and finally Roger Penrose and whether human brains are computers in the Turing sense. And some very long remarks by me, especially in the introduction. Become a subscriber at https://patreon.com/tokcast?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink

    • 45 min
    Ep 201: Progress: Conserving the means of Error Correction. Free Speech, Free Trade and Democracy.

    Ep 201: Progress: Conserving the means of Error Correction. Free Speech, Free Trade and Democracy.

    Drawing on Chapter 15 "The Evolution of Culture" from "The Beginning of Infinity" by David Deutsch and then applying it to some special cases.
    Come and chat to me about this or anything else at https://www.getairchat.com/brett
    Timestamps:
    00:00 Speech, Trade and Democracy
    02:39 Is Democracy under attack?
    07:05 Free Speech as Error Identification
    09:14 Limits on Free Speech?
    13:02 Case Study 1: North Korea
    14:18 Case Study 2: Afghanistan and Iraq
    17:30 Case Study 3: South Korea
    19:43 Case Study 4: China
    24:43 The Evolution of Culture by David Deutsch 1
    29:43 Protecting liberty in Western Nations
    30:30 Bringing Liberty to nations without it.
    32:25 Case Study 5: Japan
    35:01 Immigration: Why worry?
    35:58 The Evolution of Culture by David Deutsch 2
    39:01 Preserve the means of error correction at all costs
    Support me at www.bretthall.org

    • 43 min
    Ep 200: Chiara Marletto

    Ep 200: Chiara Marletto

    00:00 Introduction
    08:03 Interview Begins
    09:42 How Chiara found herself at the foundations of physics
    15:30 How Chiara found Everett
    19:13 No Special Physics is required for Observers
    21:02 What is a counterfactual? How is it linked to a constructor?
    29:05 What is (classical) information? How is it different to quantum information?
    32:30 Quantum Information is more constrained. This makes it more powerful.
    34:08 Is the universe made of information?
    38:04 The Simulation Hypothesis
    40:33 The second law of thermodynamics
    53:16 The AI Apocalypse?
    58:02 How do we help a human become passionate about knowledge?
    59:39 The Fine Tuning Problem
    01:07:48 The Constructor Theoretic Notion of Knowledge
    01:10:52 Constructor Theoretic Knowledge as a window on the origins of life.
    01:12:16 The links between physics, epistemology and biology
    01:14:15 Experimentally testing the quantum nature of gravity
    01:26:05 Where to find out more
     
    Support me by following the links at www.bretthall.org

    • 1 hr 28 min

Customer Reviews

4.8 out of 5
84 Ratings

84 Ratings

GAUZ2023 ,

Spectacular. Jaw dropping. Mind expanding.

Brett’s work distilling and clarifying how to think about complex philosophical and scientific ideas has dramatically shifted my worldview. This podcast and subsequent reading of the applicable books has expanded my toolset for critical thinking beyond anything I ever experienced in college or graduate school. I cannot recommend this podcast highly enough; it is my favorite of all time. Brett, thank you, and please keep it up!

OmarMo93 ,

Useful and engaging

Brett takes physicist concepts and breaks them down in a clear and engaging way, a must listen!

RKMoreira ,

Extraordinarily useful.

I’m a non-physicist (a busy physician, with only very basic knowledge of physics) who is very much interested in understanding the reality of our universe. I have found David Deutsch to be one of the most fascinating writers I have ever come across, and his ideas have inspired me and changed some of my most basic conceptions of objective reality. His theories (and books), however, are so dense with revolutionary thoughts that they require time and commitment to understand and digest. That’s where Brett Hall’s podcast comes in. To me, it has been an indispensable companion to the chapters in DD’s books. My strategy has been to listen to Brett’s corresponding episode before and after reading each book chapter. Brett is himself an amazing intellect who really excels at explaining and putting into context the various concepts in DD’s work. Very helpful, I’m a big fan of both of you.

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