The Escaped Sapiens Podcast

Richard Feynman once dubbed turbulence “the last unsolved problem of classical physics.” Beyond the Navier–Stokes equations, no comprehensive statistical framework exists to predict how fluids spin, eddy, and cascade energy—whether in galactic jets, ocean currents, or the swirl of your morning coffee. But that might all be changing. In this episode, I sit down with theoretical physicist Sasha Migdal, who emerged from retirement with a bold, loop‑equation approach to turbulence. His formalism recasts the Navier–Stokes equations as an infinite number of linear, readily solvable equations that track circulation around closed loops in the fluid—offering, for the first time, a tractable statistical framework for chaotic flow. We chart Sasha’s remarkable journey: from a promising career at the Landau Institute and Russian Space Institutes, where he resisted KGB pressure to compromise his work, to his defection to the United States in the late 1980s. We discuss his time outside of physics, and then delve into his return, and his novel approach to solving Navier–Stokes. Since we recorded, his theory has advanced rapidly. A rigorous proof now shows that it is the solution to the Navier–Stokes (NS) loop equation. The theory has also been extended to magnetohydrodynamics and turbulent mixing. Recent large-scale direct numerical simulations (DNS) match the theoretical predictions with even greater accuracy. ►Watch On YouTube:https://youtu.be/BNORi7mxxzg ►Find out more about Sasha's work here:https://alexandermigdal.com/https://sashamigdal.github.io/TurbulenceDuality/index.html ►For a more technical overview of Sasha's work you can check out his recent talk at the IAS:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgvGA6q7oPY

What is Holography and how does it help us Quantize gravity? In this conversation I speak with Pedro Vieira, one of the worlds leading experts on holographic dualities and their application in quantum gravity. We start our discussion with a few standard but big questions, like why is quantum gravity difficult, what is quantum field theory, and what is gauge symmetry. We then dive into the topic of holography, which in broad and provocative terms is the idea that our universe and everything in it might be a hologram projected from some lower dimensional quantum theory. That is, there might be a duality between the mathematics that describes our world including gravity and the mathematics that describes a world with quantum mechanics and without gravity in one dimension lower. If such a duality were true, then it might provide a radial way of side stepping all of the usual difficulties of quantizing gravity. ►Watch on YouTube:https://youtu.be/FdpVxLq_PAk ►Find out more about Pedro here:https://perimeterinstitute.ca/people/pedro-vieira https://inspirehep.net/authors/1027784 These conversations are supported by the Andrea von Braun foundation (http://www.avbstiftung.de/), as an exploration of the rich, exciting, connected, scientifically literate, and (most importantly) sustainable future of humanity. The Andrea von Braun Foundation has provided me with full creative freedom with their support. As such, the views expressed in these episodes are my own and/or those of my guests.

Will we ever have an AI for president? In this episode of the podcast I speak with Pedro Domingos about the impact of AI on society, industry, and politics. Pedro is professor emeritus of computer science and engineering at the University of Washington and co-founded the International Machine Learning Society. He is also the Author of `The Master Algorithm' and `2040: A Silicon Valley Satire'. This episode is not a paid advertisement for Pedro's books, but we use his book `2040' to set the context for the discussion. We discuss the hype and fear surrounding AI and the future of tech, and Pedro gives an insiders view into the realities of AI development and impact. In his view AI is a human made tool. It isn't going to take over the planet like the terminator, but it will be something that is used by humans to shift the balance of power in society, industry, and politics. A particularly interesting aspect of the discussion surrounds digital twins. Imagine a world in which dating apps are replaced with a digital platform in which your digital twin simulates dates, and even entire lives with the digital twins of potential partners. Users would then go on physical dates with the top performing selection. This same idea could be extended to predicting crime, presidential election outcomes, and more. All of a sudden the simulation hypothesis doesn't seem to crazy, when simulations are used to predict future outcomes in the real world. Another key topic in this conversation is that of `wokism'. Pedro discusses `wokism' as a new iteration of cultural marxism, an ideology that reinterprets the dynamics of class struggle through cultural and identity-based lenses. While the creation of wealth in a society is not inherently a zero-sum game—where one person’s gain is necessarily another’s loss— the division and redistribution of that wealth that has been created is a zero-sum conflict. Pedro suggests that `wokism' is an attempt to shift power and resources within society, but where the division between the oppressed and the privileged is identity based. ►Watch on YouTube:https://youtu.be/LjBZc-Zh4bc ►Find out more about Pedro's work here:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_Domingoshttps://scholar.google.com/citations?user=KOrhfVMAAAAJ&hl=enhttps://homes.cs.washington.edu/~pedrod/ ►Follow Pedro on Twitter:@pmddomingos These conversations are supported by the Andrea von Braun foundation (http://www.avbstiftung.de/), as an exploration of the rich, exciting, connected, scientifically literate, and (most importantly) sustainable future of humanity. The Andrea von Braun Foundation has provided me with full creative freedom with their support. As such, the views expressed in these episodes are my own and/or those of my guests.

This conversation is the second part of a two part mini-series on Regenerative cattle farming. The question is: Does raising cattle really have to be so damaging to the environment? Can cattle be integrated into a natural system that sequesters carbon from the atmosphere, and if so what would that system look like? Joel Salatin segregates his land into small fenced off areas, which he rotates his cattle through. By moving his herd routinely he gives grass and other wild vegetation optimal time to grow and absorb carbon, and for the cattle to disperse their excreta such that it is optimally absorbed into the fields. By dispersing the impact of his cattle, and introducing a number of complimentary species he is able to reduce the impact of disease and pests without the use of insecticides, pesticides, and other chemical based management approaches. This keeps the soil alive such that smaller organisms can work the carbon deposited by the cattle into the soil. The claim is that this approach is able to sequester carbon. Its also far better for the animals, and leads to a better end product. At 21:00 Joel mentions a connection between autism, and nutrition. The exact causes of autism are not fully understood, but research points to a combination of genetic, environmental, and possibly prenatal influences. Maternal nutrition during pregnancy (including adequate levels of folic acid and vitamin D), gut health, and nutritional deficiencies may influence autism-related symptoms, though no definitive dietary cause has been identified and specialized diets show mixed evidence and require further research. At 1:16:00 Joel mentions health comparisons between Fake meat Substitutes and real beef. I don't know much about that topic yet, but here is somewhere to start looking if you are interested:https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/impossible-and-beyond-how-healthy-are-these-meatless-burgers-2019081517448At 1:19:51, 1:41:36, and 1:45:48, Joel mentions concerns about an agenda surrounding Claus Schwab, Bill Gates, and population reduction/control. This is a topic that I completely failed to properly question or investigate during the interview itself. This is not a topic that I was aware of or primed for, but there appear to be multiple articles online highlighting conspiracy theories surrounding these topics, and for that reason I would suggest caution regarding them. These are not my views, but the views of my guest. This does not detract from my guest's extensive expertise with cattle and regenerative farming. ►Watch on YouTube:https://youtu.be/Mvp36SgMRMY ►Find out more about Polyface Farm Here:https://polyfacefarms.com/ ►Follow PolyFace Farm on Twitter:@Polyface_Farm These conversations are supported by the Andrea von Braun foundation (http://www.avbstiftung.de/), as an exploration of the rich, exciting, connected, scientifically literate, and (most importantly) sustainable future of humanity. The Andrea von Braun Foundation has provided me with full creative freedom with their support. As such, the views expressed in these episodes are my own and/or those of my guests.

In quantum mechanics the state of a physical system is described by a wavefunction, which provides information about the probabilities of various outcomes, such as finding a particle at a particular location in space. This differs dramatically from classical physics, where a particle is described by a definite position and momentum. As a result, quantum mechanics inherently involves a certain level of uncertainty. A key question is whether this uncertainty reflects a fundamental indeterminacy in reality itself or merely our limited knowledge of the physical system. One possibility is that reality could be deterministic, and the wavefunction might simply describe statistical properties, much like temperature and pressure describe the collective behavior of gas molecules. In this view, the true state of the system would be governed by hidden variables—deterministic factors that remain unseen yet produce the probabilistic outcomes we observe in quantum experiments. The standard view, however, is that the universe itself is inherently probabilistic. Furthermore, Bell’s theorem famously rules out “local hidden variable” models, suggesting to many that any such model must allow instantaneous causal influences between spatially separated objects. But is this standard picture as definitive as it seems? In this episode of the podcast, I speak with Rob Spekkens, one of the world’s leading experts on the foundations of quantum mechanics. His research explores the idea that a quantum state may represent a state of incomplete knowledge rather than an objective state of reality. Many of the phenomena commonly associated with quantum mechanics—noncommutativity, interference, entanglement, wave-particle duality, and discrete energy levels—can, as Rob demonstrates, be modeled with classical toy models wherein each system has a determinate physical state but where we have incomplete knowledge of this state.. Rob suggests that quantum mechanics may not be as fundamentally different from classical physics as it initially appears. If we truly want to understand quantum reality, we should focus on isolating and investigating the "thin film" of phenomena that distinguish a quantum from a classical world. That's what we discuss in this episode. ►Watch on YouTube:https://youtu.be/J2ZIRkfrFlI ►Find out more about Rob's work:https://perimeterinstitute.ca/people/robert-spekkens ►Follow Rob on Twitter:@RobertSpekkens ►Subscribe And Turn On All Notifications To See More:https://www.youtube.com/c/EscapedSapiens?sub_confirmation=1 These conversations are supported by the Andrea von Braun foundation (http://www.avbstiftung.de/), as an exploration of the rich, exciting, connected, scientifically literate, and (most importantly) sustainable future of humanity. The Andrea von Braun Foundation has provided me with full creative freedom with their support. As such, the views expressed in these episodes are my own and those of my guests.

In this episode I speak with Professor Thomas Metzinger about how our strong, consciously experienced subjectivity emerges out of objective events in the natural world. According to Thomas, no such things as selves really exist in the world: nobody ever had or was a self. All that exists are what he calls `phenomenal' selves which our brains fabricate. In this episode I try to unpack what this means exactly, and what the implications are. Note: The first question of this interview has been re-filmed after the interview. Thomas has a new book, which he made open access for everybody to read for free. You can find it here: https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-monograph/5725/The-Elephant-and-the-BlindThe-Experience-of-Pure ►Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/KdHxUo8wRpY These conversations are supported by the Andrea von Braun foundation (http://www.avbstiftung.de/), as an exploration of the rich, exciting, connected, scientifically literate, and (most importantly) sustainable future of humanity. The Andrea von Braun Foundation has provided me with full creative freedom with their support. As such, the views expressed in these episodes are my own and those of my guests.

This is a conversation with Stephen Wolfram about his proposed theory of everything. Stephen is a British-American computer scientist, mathematician, physicist, and CEO of Wolfram Research. He also created Mathematica, and Wolfram|Alpha & Wolfram Language, and is the Author of 'A New Kind of Science' as well as a number of other books. Stephen's attempt to derive all of the laws of nature (including gravitation, statistical mechanics, and general relativity) rests on two key ideas: 1. The idea of computational irreducibility. In physics we usually deal with systems for which we are able to predict the state of the system at a later time as long as the initial conditions are known. For example, the trajectory of a bullet can be calculated at any point along its path. There are, however, complicated systems like cellular automata where there isn't a closed formula that lets you calculate the state of the system at some arbitrary later point. Instead you are forced to compute the development of the system one step at a time if you want to know how it evolves. Such systems are 'computationally irreducible'. 2. The idea of computational boundedness. This is the idea that we have finite computing power in our brains. There are many complex systems that scale so fast that our bounded computing power isn't enough follow every element of the system (e.g. we can't visualize the motion of the billions of cells in our own bodies, and so instead we develop an aggregated model of ourselves). Starting with these two ideas, Stephen asks what a world with computational irreducibility would look like to a computationally bounded creature living in that world. He then builds a computational model based on hypergraphs (which you can think of as a kind of cellular automata), and from there attempts to re-derive all the laws of nature. This is an extraordinarily ambitious project, that lies somewhat outside of mainstream approaches to physics. The claim is, however, that significant progress has been made, and that this approach really is able to derive interesting aspects of the physical world. This conversation explores the key ideas behind the program. ►Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/T0s_H9c2O28 ► For more information about Stephen's work see:www.stephenwolfram.comwww.wolframphysics.org ►Thumbnail source images can be found here:https://company.wolfram.com/press-center/stephen-wolfram/https://www.wolframphysics.org/visual-gallery/ ►Follow Stephen on X: @stephen_wolfram These conversations are supported by the Andrea von Braun foundation (http://www.avbstiftung.de/), as an exploration of the rich, exciting, connected, scientifically literate, and (most importantly) sustainable future of humanity. This interview is one of a series of interviews that explores the impact of economics on sustainability and the environment. The Andrea von Braun Foundation has provided me with full creative freedom with their support. As such, the views expressed in these episodes are my own and those of my guests. A big thank you to anonymous for letting me use their space as a temporary studio.