I'm going to break the rules slightly as a time travelling comedy writer and say I liked this article before even reading it. I have been writing about cosmogenesis for a few years. Black holes being the engine through which new universes are born fascinates me, and has some interesting overlap with simulation theory for sci-fi writers!
On a less silly note I quite like the idea that the universe only sustains intelligent life because intelligent life is how universes reproduce. Any universe without the weird physics that enables life will have died out, as many of our future universes will once we finish the worldmakers.
The article was indeed great. Currently watching the video, cheated my way to the Dueterium Bottleneck, not only because that was my birth name (and later the name of a postpunk band), but because the title caught my attention.
Did I say I'd reappear to talk talkshow stuff in May? I've been tidying the thing up, refining the direction of it. Some episodes are now audio only, and interestingly, will soon be spliced with video of me building the concepts talked about in Minecraft or Lego. The idea is if a guest chats about the universe, I build some cosmic stuff.
There's an interesting bridge building in my head (admittedly, that was already there from my sci-fi musings) that connects the End Poem with procedural generation of a universe and the evolution of a universe. Of course I am just throwing ideas around, it'll be your show for the day, I just exist to improvise over the wisdom of my guests.
Whilst the universe might resemble a platypus for all its multifaceted utility, I propose that if we zoomed out enough, waited enough, and imagined enough, it would actually be a giant crab. If we glance quickly (and not any longer) at biology it stands to reason the universe wants to be a crab. The convergent evolution of cosmoses leads toward crab.
Loved it! I imagine you are aware that there has been some attempts to explain complexity in the face of the 2nd law of thermodynamics. I barely know the argument, but it seems to boil down to the idea that complex structures are actually a very efficient way to disperse the energy of the universe.
Thanks Bonny! Yes, it's fascinating to look at the laws of thermodynamics through an evolutionary lens. I've been reading, and thinking, about them a lot. Peter Atkins' The Laws of Thermodynamics is a great primer. Every Life Is On Fire, by Jeremy England, has a take on them that manages to be rigorously scientific and also poetic, even spiritual... They crop up a lot in Life's Ratchet, by Peter Hoffmann, and Transformer, by Nick Lane... You're right, though, complexity and the second law are so deeply entangled. (Hmmm, I feel a post coming on...)
A theory with predictive powers. And, a nice way to situate us into a much wider structure. However, another question must be asked: wIthout evolution, would there be "nothing"? If not, then why evolution?
I think there has always been something. And there has always been time, in which that something has unfolded. The idea of "nothing" is just an idea, a mental construct, as is the idea of "no time"... or indeed, combining the two, "no spacetime".
We know there is now something; the parsimonious argument has to be that there always has been something; it has just changed in form over time and, I would argue, complexified to an astonishingly baroque extent from some absolutely simple initial/eternal ur-stuff... with the chief driver of that complexification being evolution, operating at more and more scales as time goes on.
You do need that ur-stuff to split in two, in some way, at some point, with some basic difference between the resulting halves, in order to get the whole show rolling. But if you have infinite time, and only require a very simple though perhaps very unlikely thing to happen... well, clearly it happened!
Thank you for responding. Of course, this is the Advaita point of view. We are not born, nor do we die. Also, what some poets say-beauty is truth, all ye need to know, etc. But, still so difficult to accept-and science has some responsibility in making this acceptance even more difficult. "Hard facts." Well, there's nothing hard about them; or about anything else.
It's a tree! Listening to the conversation and have put all the information, together, in a short amount of time I realised it. The universe borns it grows and makes other universes by taking matter from himself. A tree borns, grows, makes from himself flowers which became fruits which the make other trees. I LOVE MY JOB!
Is there any way (that isn't pirating) to get this in an audio format? Because as a pod listener, I have observed two big limitations with youtube. 1: you have to be online 2: your screen have to be on for 2h+
(I am now realising that both issues could technically be solved by giving google a bunch of money, but we all know that they're charging way too much at this point)
I'm going to break the rules slightly as a time travelling comedy writer and say I liked this article before even reading it. I have been writing about cosmogenesis for a few years. Black holes being the engine through which new universes are born fascinates me, and has some interesting overlap with simulation theory for sci-fi writers!
Careful, I could go back even further in time, and make my previously great article terrible, thus confounding your plan…
On a less silly note I quite like the idea that the universe only sustains intelligent life because intelligent life is how universes reproduce. Any universe without the weird physics that enables life will have died out, as many of our future universes will once we finish the worldmakers.
The article was indeed great. Currently watching the video, cheated my way to the Dueterium Bottleneck, not only because that was my birth name (and later the name of a postpunk band), but because the title caught my attention.
Did I say I'd reappear to talk talkshow stuff in May? I've been tidying the thing up, refining the direction of it. Some episodes are now audio only, and interestingly, will soon be spliced with video of me building the concepts talked about in Minecraft or Lego. The idea is if a guest chats about the universe, I build some cosmic stuff.
There's an interesting bridge building in my head (admittedly, that was already there from my sci-fi musings) that connects the End Poem with procedural generation of a universe and the evolution of a universe. Of course I am just throwing ideas around, it'll be your show for the day, I just exist to improvise over the wisdom of my guests.
If you're still up for it sometime, my email is halfplanetpress@gmail.com :)
Whilst the universe might resemble a platypus for all its multifaceted utility, I propose that if we zoomed out enough, waited enough, and imagined enough, it would actually be a giant crab. If we glance quickly (and not any longer) at biology it stands to reason the universe wants to be a crab. The convergent evolution of cosmoses leads toward crab.
My vote is on the crabniverse.
Loved it! I imagine you are aware that there has been some attempts to explain complexity in the face of the 2nd law of thermodynamics. I barely know the argument, but it seems to boil down to the idea that complex structures are actually a very efficient way to disperse the energy of the universe.
Thanks Bonny! Yes, it's fascinating to look at the laws of thermodynamics through an evolutionary lens. I've been reading, and thinking, about them a lot. Peter Atkins' The Laws of Thermodynamics is a great primer. Every Life Is On Fire, by Jeremy England, has a take on them that manages to be rigorously scientific and also poetic, even spiritual... They crop up a lot in Life's Ratchet, by Peter Hoffmann, and Transformer, by Nick Lane... You're right, though, complexity and the second law are so deeply entangled. (Hmmm, I feel a post coming on...)
A theory with predictive powers. And, a nice way to situate us into a much wider structure. However, another question must be asked: wIthout evolution, would there be "nothing"? If not, then why evolution?
I think there has always been something. And there has always been time, in which that something has unfolded. The idea of "nothing" is just an idea, a mental construct, as is the idea of "no time"... or indeed, combining the two, "no spacetime".
We know there is now something; the parsimonious argument has to be that there always has been something; it has just changed in form over time and, I would argue, complexified to an astonishingly baroque extent from some absolutely simple initial/eternal ur-stuff... with the chief driver of that complexification being evolution, operating at more and more scales as time goes on.
You do need that ur-stuff to split in two, in some way, at some point, with some basic difference between the resulting halves, in order to get the whole show rolling. But if you have infinite time, and only require a very simple though perhaps very unlikely thing to happen... well, clearly it happened!
Thank you for responding. Of course, this is the Advaita point of view. We are not born, nor do we die. Also, what some poets say-beauty is truth, all ye need to know, etc. But, still so difficult to accept-and science has some responsibility in making this acceptance even more difficult. "Hard facts." Well, there's nothing hard about them; or about anything else.
It's a tree! Listening to the conversation and have put all the information, together, in a short amount of time I realised it. The universe borns it grows and makes other universes by taking matter from himself. A tree borns, grows, makes from himself flowers which became fruits which the make other trees. I LOVE MY JOB!
Is there any way (that isn't pirating) to get this in an audio format? Because as a pod listener, I have observed two big limitations with youtube. 1: you have to be online 2: your screen have to be on for 2h+
(I am now realising that both issues could technically be solved by giving google a bunch of money, but we all know that they're charging way too much at this point)
this'll certainly keep me preoccupied for a couple hours, thanks again
You’re very welcome. Hope you like it.
Thanks! Yogi and the Zone crew made it easy for me. Hope you enjoy it...