Best Wolfram Physics Podcasts (2025)

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Blaise Agüera y Arcas: What is Intelligence in an AI Future? 28:37

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6h ago28:37

28:37

This holiday season, support Closer To Truth with a tax-deductible donation of any amount. What is intelligence, and how is AI emergence a natural consequence of evolution? In his book "What Is Intelligence?" and in this conversation, Google's Blaise Agüera y Arcas takes up the idea that prediction is fundamental not only to intelligence and the br…

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Global Philosophy: What is the Person? 27:17

7d ago27:17

27:17

Giving Tuesday is around the corner! Make a donation to Closer To Truth to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls. How do diverse religions/traditions treat the “person,” present status and afterlife future? Buddhism’s no self. Hinduism’s soul illuminating the mind. Prior lives in Eastern and African …

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Stephen Wolfram on The Concept of the Ruliad 35:54

14d ago35:54

35:54

Make a donation to help Closer To Truth continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls. The Ruliad is a term that Stephen Wolfram developed, which he describes as the entangled limit of everything that is computationally possible, the result of following all possible computational rules in all possible ways. Stephen …

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Where's Mark? 1:07

18d ago1:07

1:07

It’s been a while since my last episode of The Last Theory or Open Web Mind. Where am I? It might look like I’m lazing in the sun, but actually I’ve been working hard. For The Last Theory, I’ve been working on a long episode, more involved than any I’ve ever made, and more important than any I’ve ever made. It’ll unlock mass/energy, momentum, speci…

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Global Philosophy: Is God Ultimate? 27:10

21d ago27:10

27:10

This giving season, contribute what you can to help Closer To Truth continue exploring the world's deepest questions. Concepts of God/deities/ultimates in diverse, non-Western religions/traditions: Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, African. Is God/deities a “person?” Islam’s one transcendent God. Hinduism’s many schools: personal, impersonal, both. Buddhi…

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Daniel Whiteson on Aliens, Physics, and the Nature of Reaity 1:21:32

28d ago1:21:32

1:21:32

Support the show with a tax-deductible donation of any amount so we can continue exploring the world's biggest questions without the need for paywalls. When the long-awaited day dawns and the aliens finally arrive on Earth, they might eat us and destroy the planet―or, just maybe, they might share the secrets of the Universe with us. When that time …

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Death, Life After Death, & Reincarnation 50:38

1M ago50:38

50:38

Make a donation to Closer To Truth to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls. What happens after we die? Is there life after death? If so, what kind of life? From heaven and hell to systems and cycles of reincarnation, we explore Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, and Chinese traditions, as well as C…

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Is Consciousness Ultimate? 27:02

1M ago27:02

27:02

Make a donation to Closer To Truth to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls. How do different religions/traditions address consciousness, our inner mental awareness? Is consciousness ultimate, as in Eastern traditions, or created by God, as in Abrahamic traditions? If ultimate, what is the relationsh…

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Roger Penrose on Deep Reality and Quantum Mechanics 47:05

2M ago47:05

47:05

Make a donation to Closer To Truth to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls: https://shorturl.at/OnyRq In the first two installments of a brand new, six-part interview series with Nobel Laureate Sir Roger Penrose, we explore his approach to the deep nature of reality. Trace the intellectual and scien…

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Is Mathematics Eternal? 44:01

2M ago44:01

44:01

Contribute what you can to help Closer To Truth continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls. Mathematics is like nothing else. The truths of math seem to be unrelated to anything else—independent of human beings, independent of the universe. The sum of 2 + 3 = 5 cannot not be true; this means that 3 + 2 = 5 would …

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What is Global Philosophy of Religion? 27:17

2M ago27:17

27:17

Make a donation to Closer To Truth to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls. Global Philosophy of Religion seeks diverse views and fresh ways of thinking from different religions/traditions about Ultimate Questions: God, consciousness, person/self, evil/suffering, afterlife/reincarnation, world to co…

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Stephen Wolfram on Physics and Computation 42:03

2M ago42:03

42:03

Make a donation to Closer To Truth to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls. Physicist and computer scientist Stephen Wolfram explores how simple rules can generate complex realities, offering a bold new vision of fundamental physics and the structure of the universe. Additionally, from the foundatio…

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What Does Transhumanism Foreshadow? 27:17

3M ago27:17

27:17

If you enjoy our content, consider making a tax-deductible donation to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls. Humanity’s future is now framed by artificial intelligence (AI) and increasing interventions in the body to enhance features and functions. This is transhumanism. Considering the stakes, and …

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Can We Explore Transcendence Via Art and Mind? 27:02

3M ago27:02

27:02

Make a donation to Closer To Truth to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls. What is the three-way relationship among mind, art, and transcendence? What is it about art that can elicit the sense of transcendence, going beyond the self, bursting the constraining bonds of semantic language? What is it …

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Can Philosophy Discern Sex and Gender? 27:17

3M ago27:17

27:17

Make a donation of any amount to help Closer To Truth continue exploring the world's deepest questions. Sexual questions abound. What is “normal” sexual behavior in light of diverse sexual variations? LGBTQ+ issues? Is sex in animal models relevant for human sexuality? A philosophical perspective can provide clarity. Featuring interviews with Natha…

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Black holes in the hypergraph with Stephen Wolfram 21:54

3M ago21:54

21:54

Electrons may be tiny black holes propagating through the hypergraph. After all, electrons and black holes have much in common: they’re carriers of pure motion, they’re all the same – from the outside, at least – and we don’t know what’s going on inside them. Just as black holes may cloak the remants of collapsed civilizations, so electrons may hol…

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Can Near-Death Experiences Affect Consciousness Theories? 28:36

3M ago28:36

28:36

Contribute what you can to support Closer To Truth and keep our content free without the need for paywalls. Many people believe that out-of-the-body experiences (OBEs) and near-death experiences (NDEs) are real. We do not assess the evidence and arguments, pro or con. We do explore what OBEs and NDEs would mean, if real, for theories of consciousne…

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Evolution vs. Religion: Anything New? 27:02

4M ago27:02

27:02

Contribute what you can to help Closer To Truth continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls. Two kinds of questions probe evolution vs. religion. The first explores discrepancies, even contradictions, between the science of evolution and the beliefs of religion. The second examines how religion itself evolved. Fea…

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Clément Vidal on Life's Biggest Questions 1:29:09

4M ago1:29:09

1:29:09

Contribute what you can to help Closer To Truth continue exploring the world's deepest questions. Clement Vidal, philosopher of science and astrobiologist, discusses the idea of something rather than nothing, differing religious worldviews, fine tuning and metaphysics, and more. Watch more CTT Chats here. Dr. Clément Vidal is a philosopher with a b…

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The causal graph is objective reality 12:41

4M ago12:41

12:41

The multiway graph shows every possible evolution of the universe. So, if we can compute every possible reality, does that mean that there’s no single objective reality? Well, the causal graph, it turns out, collapses every possible reality into a single objective reality in a way that’s so unexpected that you’ll be left wondering: how did that jus…

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How did Cognition and Emotion Evolve? 27:16

4M ago27:16

27:16

Contribute what you can to help Closer To Truth continue exploring the world's deepest questions. What can evolution reveal about the developmental history of thinking and feeling? How did cognition and emotion (affect) co-develop over evolutionary time? Can evolution help solve the mystery of consciousness? Featuring interviews with Peter Godfrey-…

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Mark Bailey on AI: Consciousness, Dangers, and Morality 42:02

4M ago42:02

42:02

Make a contribution of any amount to help Closer To Truth continue exploring life's deepest questions. Dr. Mark Bailey writes about the intersection between artificial intelligence, complexity, and national security. He is an associate professor at the National Intelligence University, where he is the Department Chair for Cyber Intelligence and Dat…

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What is Human Nature? 27:10

4M ago27:10

27:10

What is “human” nature? While human beings are animals, we believe we are special, radically different from other animals. Why? What traits are unique to humans? Are we sure? How to explore human nature from an evolutionary perspective? Featuring interviews with Quayshawn Spencer, Alexander Rosenberg, Massimo Pigliucci, Rachell Powell, Helen De Cru…

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Julia Mossbridge on AI: Is There a Soul in the Machine? 47:36

5M ago47:36

47:36

Donate any amount to help Closer To Truth continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls. How do we define a soul? Can AI become consciousness? Julia Mossbridge discusses these questions along with the main trends in parapsychology, transpersonal psychology, and ESP research over the last decade. Dr. Julia Mossbridge…

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Stephen Wolfram on AI, human-like minds & formal knowledge 18:12

5M ago18:12

18:12

In this fascinating exposition, Stephen Wolfram connects two of the most important breakthroughs of our time: AI and the ruliad. I ask Stephen how he thinks about knowledge hypergraphs, which I’m exploring at Open Web Mind. He offers several important insights. Stephen draws a distinction between human-like minds and formal knowledge. Human-like mi…

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How do Reductionism and Emergence Dance? 27:18

5M ago27:18

27:18

Contribute what you can to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls. Two big ideas in biology: the evolution of species via mutation, fitness and natural selection; and the embryological development of individuals, from fertilized egg to whole organisms. How do these two big ideas—“Evo-Dev,” as it’s cal…

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James Hughes on AI Consciousness: Buddhism & Posthuman Futures 46:54

5M ago46:54

46:54

James Hughes Ph.D. is the Executive Director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, and a bioethicist and sociologist who serves as the Associate Provost for Institutional Research, Assessment and Planning for the University of Massachusetts Boston. He holds a doctorate in sociology from the University of Chicago, where he also taug…

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What are Units or Levels of Selection? 27:11

5M ago27:11

27:11

Make a donation to Closer To Truth to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls. While evolution is how life on earth came to be, where does the evolution occur? At what level of the hierarchy of life—from genes to individuals to groups to species—does evolution work its selection magic? Is it multilevel…

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Multiway minds with Stephen Wolfram 5:43

5M ago5:43

5:43

Can you hold in your mind two different threads of experience? In this five-minute excerpt from my conversation with Stephen Wolfram, he introduces the strange idea of a multiway mind. Most of the time, we as observers succeed in weaving multiple different paths through the multiway graph into a single thread of experience. In some circumstances, h…

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Zoltan Istvan on AI: Transhumanism and Deepfakes 52:08

6M ago52:08

52:08

Make a donation to Closer To Truth to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls. How will AI-generated deepfakes reshape truth, trust, and society? Can AI someday merge with human consciousness? Futurist Zoltan Istvan explores the disruptive power of synthetic media—from political deception to personal i…

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How Can Philosophy Probe Evolutionary Biology? 27:02

6M ago27:02

27:02

Make a donation to Closer To Truth to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls: https://shorturl.at/OnyRq Explore evolution—its scope and depth. How did life on earth come to be as it is, and how did humans come to be as we are? What are the deep principles driving evolution? What are evolution’s challe…

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Chris French on the Science of Weird Shit 1:24:36

6M ago1:24:36

1:24:36

Make a donation to Closer To Truth to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls. Chris French discusses his latest book, The Science of Weird Shit, where he convincingly debunks ESP, communicating with the dead, and alien abduction claims, among other phenomena. All the while, however, French maintains t…

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What Would Alien Life & Intelligences Mean? 27:16

6M ago27:16

27:16

Make a donation to Closer To Truth to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls. What could life be as we don’t know it? Three transitions in astrobiology. Non-life to life. Life to intelligent life. Intelligent life to technological civilization. For alien life, would Darwinian evolution hold? Fermi’s P…

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Do fields exist? 17:43

6M ago17:43

17:43

Fields don’t exist. I mean, a field with grass in it, that kind of field does exist. But a field in physics? A gravitational field? An electric field? A magnetic field? A quantum field? No such thing. I’m not knocking the physicists who came up with these fields. These fictions can be convenient. But sometimes, these fictions can blind us to the un…

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Jonathan Schooler on the Psychology of Artificial Intelligence 23:25

7M ago23:25

23:25

Jonathan Schooler is an American psychologist and Distinguished Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who researches various topics that intersect aspects of both cognitive psychology and philosophy such as: Belief in free will, meta-awareness, mindfulness, mind-Wandering, memory, creativity, …

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Joseph Corabi: Could Superintelligent AI Defeat Itself? 1:19:50

7M ago1:19:50

1:19:50

Can superintelligent AI destroy humanity—or will it collapse under its own philosophical doubts? Professor Joseph Corabi, Chair of Philosophy at Saint Joseph’s University, joins Robert Lawrence Kuhn at MindFest 2025 to explore the limits of artificial intelligence, consciousness, and the metaphysics of mind. Drawing from his presentation, "A Collap…

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Eastern Traditions: What are Ultimate Existence and Essence? 27:10

7M ago27:10

27:10

Make a donation to Closer To Truth to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls: https://shorturl.at/OnyRq How do Buddhism, Chinese traditions, and Hinduism address the ultimate essence of all things, the ground of being? What are transcendence, oneness, interconnectivity, ineffability? Compare Dao in Da…

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Zorana Pringle on the Science of Creativity & Decision-Making 1:05:03

7M ago1:05:03

1:05:03

Make a tax-deductible donation of any amount to help Closer To Truth continue exploring the world's deepest questions: https://shorturl.at/OnyRq Anyone who has ever participated in a brainstorming session will know that most of us do not lack ideas. Yet, many people never breathe life into these ideas. To turn inspiration into real achievement, you…

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Can Dualism Explain Consciousness? 27:01

7M ago27:01

27:01

Donate to Closer To Truth and help us keep our content free and without paywalls. Dualism claims reality has two parts, a physical and a nonphysical (mental or spiritual), both equally real. Dualism is believed by most people but rejected by most philosophers and scientists. Featuring interviews with Yujin Nagasawa, Richard Swinburne, Jaron Lanier,…

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Aggregation – how the Wolfram model weaves the future – with Stephen Wolfram 8:51

7M ago8:51

8:51

In the previous excerpt from my conversation with Stephen Wolfram, I asked him how I can remain a single, coherent, persistent consciousness in a branching universe. In this excerpt, we went deeper into this question. As a conscious observer, I have a single thread of experience. So if the universe branches into many timelines, why don’t I branch i…

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Robin Hanson on the Age of AI and Large Language Models 46:23

7M ago46:23

46:23

Innovative economist Robin Hanson discusses the age of artificial intelligence, decision making and predictive markets, astrobiology, and AI consciousness. Robin Hanson is an author, economist, and associate professor of economics at George Mason University and a former research associate at the Future of Humanity Institute of Oxford University. Hi…

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Terry Sejnowski on ChatGPT and the Future of AI 1:21:03

8M ago1:21:03

1:21:03

Contribute what you can to help Closer To Truth continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls. Terry Sejnowski offers a nuanced exploration of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and what their future holds. How should we go about understanding LLMs? Do these language models truly understand what they are sayi…

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What is the Philosophy of Scientific Breakthroughs? 27:16

8M ago27:16

27:16

Help Closer To Truth continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls with a tax-deductible donation of any amount/ To explore scientific Breakthroughs is to find theories or discoveries that challenge conventional wisdom, change patterns of thought, provide novel frameworks for research. What is the deep essence or ge…

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Aspects of Consciousness 37:56

8M ago37:56

37:56

Consider supporting Closer To Truth in our quest to explore life's deepest questions by making a donation of any amount. We offer distinctive approaches to consciousness including cognitive science, phenomenology, and even the implications of aesthetics like fiction and films. We observe the richness of consciousness studies.v This episode features…

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What is Extended Mind? 27:10

8M ago27:10

27:10

Donate to Closer To Truth and help us keep our content free and without paywalls. What is extended mind? How does the mind work? It’s not obvious. Where does the mind stop and the rest of the world begin? What is extended mind? What is embodied mind? Featuring interviews with David Chalmers, Andy Clark, and Raymond Tallis.…

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Does a Fine-Tuned Universe Lead to God? 27:17

8M ago27:17

27:17

Donate to Closer To Truth and help us keep our content free and without paywalls. We human beings sit roughly midway between atoms and galaxies, and both must be so perfectly structured for us to exist. It's called "fine tuning" and it's all so breathtakingly precise that it cries out for explanation. To some, fine-tuning leads to God. To others, t…

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Annaka Harria on Consciousness and the Cosmos 1:33:24

9M ago1:33:24

1:33:24

In a follow-up to her seminal book, "Conscious", Annaka Harris' new audio original documentary offers beginners and experts alike a chance to unravel some of humankind’s most enduring puzzles. Where "Conscious"presents new questions about felt experience, Lights On seeks to find the answers. Lights On: How Understanding Consciousness Helps Us Under…

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When the universe branches, what happens to me? with Stephen Wolfram 12:32

9M ago12:32

12:32

When the universe branches, we branch with it. Those branches don’t remain forever apart. They come back together. So we, as conscious observers, are rescued from splitting into an immense number ever-so-slightly different versions of ourselves. When the branches of the universe – and the versions of ourselves – come back together, we don’t worry t…

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Do Human Brains Have Free Will? 27:02

9M ago27:02

27:02

Donate to Closer To Truth and help us keep our content free and without paywalls. Free will seems the simplest of notions. Why then is free will so vexing to philosophers? Here's why: no one knows how free will works! Science, seemingly, permits no "gaps" in which free will can operate. This episode features interviews with John Searle, Rodolfo Lli…

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Janna Levin on Cosmology: Black Holes, the Big Bang, and More 1:13:41

9M ago1:13:41

1:13:41

Help Closer To Truth continue exploring the world's biggest questions with a donation of any amount. Astrophysicist and science visionary Janna Levin discusses all things cosmology: black holes, gravitational waves, the James Webb Space Telescope discoveries, early galaxies, and more. Janna J. Levin is a theoretical cosmologist and a professor of p…