Stephen Wolfram is a computer scientist, mathematician, and theoretical physicist. This is our second conversation on the podcast.

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Here’s the outline of the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.

OUTLINE:

00:00 – Introduction

07:14 – Key moments in history of physics

12:43 – Philosophy of science

14:37 – Science and computational reducibility

22:08 – Predicting the pandemic

38:58 – Sunburn moment with Wolfram Alpha

39:46 – Computational irreducibility

46:45 – Theory of everything

52:41 – General relativity

1:01:16 – Quantum mechanics

1:06:46 – Unifying the laws of physics

1:12:01 – Wolfram Physics Project

1:29:53 – Emergence of time

1:34:11 – Causal invariance

1:53:03 – Deriving physics from simple rules on hypergraphs

2:07:24 – Einstein equations

2:13:04 – Simulating the physics of the universe

2:17:28 – Hardware specs of the simulation

2:24:37 – Quantum mechanics in Wolfram physics model

2:42:46 – Double-slit experiment

2:45:13 – Quantum computers

2:53:21 – Getting started with Wolfram physics project

3:14:46 – The rules that created our universe

3:24:22 – Alien intelligences

3:32:29 – Meta-mathematics

3:37:58 – Why is math hard?

3:52:55 – Sabine Hossenfelder and how beauty leads physics astray

4:01:07 – Eric Weinstein and Geometric Unity

4:06:17 – Travel faster than speed of light

4:16:59 – Why does the universe exist at all