Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal

What if physics is just the universe learning? Most Theories of Everything episodes are mind‑bending for their math, physics, philosophy, or consciousness implications. This one hits all four simultaneously. Professor Vitaly Vanchurin joins me to argue the cosmos isn't just modeled by neural networks—it literally is one. Learning dynamics aren't a metaphor for physics; they are the physics. Vanchurin shows why we need a three‑way unification: quantum mechanics, general relativity, and observers.

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TIMESTAMPS:
- 00:00:00 - The Neural Network Universe
- 00:05:48 - Learning Dynamics as Physics
- 00:11:52 - Optimization and Variational Principles
- 00:21:17 - Deriving Fundamental Field Equations
- 00:28:47 - Fermions and Particle Emergence
- 00:37:17 - Geometry of Learning Algorithms
- 00:44:53 - Emergent Quantum Mechanics
- 00:50:01 - Renormalization and Interpretability
- 00:57:00 - Second Law of Learning
- 01:05:10 - Subatomic Natural Selection
- 01:15:40 - Consciousness and Learning Efficiency
- 01:24:09 - Unifying Physics and Observers
- 01:31:01 - Qualia and Hidden Variables
- 01:40:24 - Free Energy Principle Integration
- 01:46:04 - Epistemological Doubt and Advice

LINKS MENTIONED:
- Vitaly's Papers: https://inspirebeta.net/literature?sort=mostrecent&size=25&page=1&q=find%20author%20vanchurin
- Vitaly's Lecture: https://youtu.be/TagDLiLb2VQ
- Vitaly's Website: https://cosmos.phy.tufts.edu/~vitaly/
- Towards A Theory Of Machine Learning [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2004.09280
- Autonomous Particles [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2301.10077
- Emergent Field Theories From Neural Networks [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2411.08138
- Covariant Gradient Descent [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2504.05279
- A Quantum-Classical Duality And Emergent Spacetime [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.06083
- Emergent Quantumness In Neural Networks [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2012.05082
- Predictability Crisis In Inflationary Cosmology And Its Resolution [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9905097
- Stationary Measure In The Multiverse [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/0812.0005
- The World As A Neural Network [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2008.01540
- Self-Organized Criticality In Neural Networks [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2107.03402v1
- One Hundred Authors Against Einstein [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/B09PHH7KC8?tag=toe08-20
- Geocentric Cosmology: A New Look At The Measure Problem [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1006.4148
- Jacob Barandes [TOE]: https://youtu.be/gEK4-XtMwro
- Yang-Hui He [TOE]: https://youtu.be/spIquD_mBFk
- Eva Miranda [TOE]: https://youtu.be/6XyMepn-AZo
- Felix Finster [TOE]: https://youtu.be/fXzO_KAqrh0
- Stephen Wolfram [TOE]: https://youtu.be/FkYer0xP37E
- Stephen Wolfram 2 [TOE]: https://youtu.be/0YRlQQw0d-4
- Avshalom Elitzur [TOE]: https://youtu.be/pWRAaimQT1E
- Ted Jacobson [TOE]: https://youtu.be/3mhctWlXyV8
- Geoffrey Hinton [TOE]: https://youtu.be/b_DUft-BdIE
- Wayne Myrvold [TOE]: https://youtu.be/HIoviZe14pY
- Cumrun Vafa [TOE]: https://youtu.be/kUHOoMX4Bqw
- Claudia De Rham [TOE]: https://youtu.be/Ve_Mpd6dGv8
- Lee Smolin [TOE]: https://youtu.be/uOKOodQXjhc
- Consciousness Iceberg [TOE]: https://youtu.be/65yjqIDghEk
- Matthew Segall [TOE]: https://youtu.be/DeTm4fSXpbM
- Andres Emilsson [TOE]: https://youtu.be/BBP8WZpYp0Y
- Will Hahn [TOE]: https://youtu.be/3fkg0uTA3qU
- David Wallace [TOE]: https://youtu.be/4MjNuJK5RzM
- Karl Friston [TOE]: https://youtu.be/uk4NZorRjCo
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From Ancient Egypt to Leibniz... Brand‑new interview out with Robert Spekkens of the Perimeter Institute, one of the sharpest minds working on quantum foundations. In 2004, he constructed a classical toy theory where your maximum knowledge is always incomplete—and out popped the no-cloning theorem, teleportation, and interference effects Feynman deemed impossible to reproduce classically. Spekkens compares our situation to Egyptian hieroglyphs before Champollion: a category mistake where we treat quantum states as descriptions of reality when they actually describe knowledge of reality. If you’re interested in the topics above, you’ll love this podcast.

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SUPPORT:
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LISTEN ON SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e

TIMESTAMPS:
- 00:00:00 - Defining Quantum Innovation
- 00:06:40 - Realism vs. Empiricism
- 00:12:12 - Leibnizian Methodological Principle
- 00:23:40 - Causal Explanations of Correlations
- 00:30:24 - Epistemic Quantum States
- 00:41:00 - Foil Theory Methodology
- 00:54:00 - Causal Influence vs. Signaling
- 01:07:27 - Thermodynamics and Ignorance
- 01:15:00 - Conceptual Understanding in Physics
- 01:21:00 - Philosophy of Physics Utility
- 01:30:00 - Speckins' Toy Theory Origins
- 01:40:13 - Perimeter Institute's Ambitious DNA
- 01:52:00 - PBR Theorem Implications
- 02:05:40 - Ontic Separability Assumptions
- 02:17:40 - Hieroglyphs and Category Mistakes
- 02:29:00 - Revolutionizing Modern Physics
- 02:37:20 - Unscrambling Causation and Inference

LINKS MENTIONED:
Journals, papers, books:
- https://www.rwspekkens.com
- https://pirsa.org/speaker/Robert-Spekkens
- https://arxiv.org/pdf/2507.01122
- https://arxiv.org/pdf/quant-ph/0401052
- https://arxiv.org/abs/0706.2661
- https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0406166
- https://arxiv.org/pdf/2207.11779
- https://amazon.com/dp/1108066488?tag=toe08-20
- https://www.jstor.org/stable/687269
- https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qm-copenhagen/
- https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/identity-indiscernible/
- https://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/einstein/specrel/specrel.pdf
- https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spacetime-holearg/
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/mathematics/hidden-variable-theory
- https://www.nature.com/articles/299802a0
- https://arxiv.org/pdf/2011.01286
- https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02058098
- https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.07161
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/maxwells-equation
- https://www.einstein-online.info/en/spotlight/equivalence_principle/
- https://perimeterinstitute.ca/
- https://amazon.com/dp/9810241054?tag=toe08-20
- https://journals.aps.org/pr/pdf/10.1103/PhysRev.47.777
- https://arxiv.org/abs/1111.3328
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/rosetta-stone-hieroglyphs-champollion-decipherment-egypt-180980834/
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0160932707000282
Videos:
- https://youtu.be/gEK4-XtMwro
- https://youtu.be/YWbjI-QsH2E
- https://youtu.be/fU1bs5o3nss
- https://youtu.be/NKOd8imBa2s
- https://youtu.be/6I2OhmVWLMs
- https://youtu.be/Tghl6aS5A3M
- https://youtu.be/HIoviZe14pY
- https://youtu.be/bprxrGaf0Os
- https://youtu.be/4MjNuJK5RzM
- https://youtu.be/c8iFtaltX-s
- https://youtu.be/9AoRxtYZrZo
- https://youtu.be/uOKOodQXjhc
- https://youtu.be/3mhctWlXyV8
- https://youtu.be/gsSJPLX-BTA
- https://youtu.be/FFW14zSYiFY
- https://youtu.be/HhWWlJFwTqs
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Hot off the press, Professor Subir Sarkar makes the case that dark energy doesn’t exist (and he’s not being provocative for its own sake). He’s the former head of Oxford’s particle theory group, serves on the Particle Data Group. Sarkar's group has found that the cosmic acceleration supposedly driving the universe's expansion is directional—not uniform as required by a cosmological constant—appearing only in the direction we're moving through space. He claims the 2011 Nobel Prize-winning discovery rests on a century-old assumption of cosmic isotropy that his data now falsifies at over 5 sigma. "We need to go back to square one."

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LINKS MENTIONED:
- https://inspirehep.net/literature/52370
- https://journals.aps.org/pr/abstract/10.1103/PhysRev.174.2168
- https://www.nature.com/articles/srep35596
- https://arxiv.org/abs/1610.08972
- https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1993ApJ...413L.105P/abstract
- https://arxiv.org/abs/1503.01229
- https://inference-review.com/article/heart-of-darkness
- https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/206/2/377/1024995
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235329300_The_NRAO_VLA_sky_survey
- https://arxiv.org/pdf/1304.3627
- https://arxiv.org/abs/1608.06483
- https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=hYPXSjkAAAAJ&citation_for_view=hYPXSjkAAAAJ:k_IJM867U9cC
- https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.18.533281v2.full
- https://amazon.com/dp/0486472051?tag=toe08-20
- https://youtu.be/xZnafO__IZ0
- https://youtu.be/kUHOoMX4Bqw
- https://youtu.be/5pOpcCT6AmY
- https://youtu.be/guQIkV6yCik
- https://youtu.be/6I2OhmVWLMs
- https://youtu.be/dG_uKJx6Lpg
- https://youtu.be/sGm505TFMbU
- https://youtu.be/Ve_Mpd6dGv8
- https://youtu.be/hF4SAketEHY
- https://youtu.be/X4PdPnQuwjY
- https://youtu.be/zNZCa1pVE20
- https://youtu.be/ZUp9x44N3uE
- https://youtu.be/fAaXk_WoQqQ
- https://arxiv.org/abs/1506.01354
- https://www.nature.com/articles/366029a0
- https://arxiv.org/pdf/1808.04597
- https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/pdf/2014/08/aa23413-14.pdf
- https://arxiv.org/pdf/2411.10838
- https://archive.org/details/generalprinciple0000paul/page/n1/mode/2up
- https://arxiv.org/pdf/1205.3365
- https://amazon.com/dp/0471925675?tag=toe08-20
- https://arxiv.org/abs/1112.3108
- https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-ph/9506283
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/037026938491565X
- https://journals.aps.org/rmp/pdf/10.1103/RevModPhys.79.1349
- https://link.springer.com/article/10.1140/epjs/s11734-021-00199-6
- https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10701-005-9042-8
- https://journals.aps.org/rmp/abstract/10.1103/9ygx-z2yq
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This is an interview with Stuart Kauffman, one of the founders of complexity theory. He invented random Boolean networks at only 23 years old and helped establish the Santa Fe Institute. Now 86, he makes a striking claim: there is no theory of everything. Kauffman argues that biological evolution creates genuinely new possibilities that cannot be deduced from prior states—paralleling the ancient Chinese Tao more than Plato's Logos. He also believes he's found something new in quantum gravity (and, in his words, "genuinely huge"). He unveils it here for the first time.

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SUPPORT:
- Support me on Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe
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LISTEN ON SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e

LINKS MENTIONED:
- Investigations [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/B00W0DHAH6?tag=toe08-20
- Stuart Kauffman's Books [Amazon]: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B000APT8XK
- A Third Transition In Science? [Article]: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsfs/article/13/3/20220063/89381/A-third-transition-in-science-A-third-transition
- Genetic Regulatory Mechanisms In Protein Synthesis [Paper]: https://www.gs.washington.edu/academics/courses/braun/55106/readings/jacob_and_monod.pdf
- Is Mind In Spacetime? [Paper]: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38969235/
- The World Is Not A Theorem [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2101.00284
- Origins Of Order [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0195079515?tag=toe08-20
- The Universal Constructor [Article]: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.157.3785.180.a
- Metabolic Stability And Epigenesis In Random Genetic Nets [Paper]: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0022519369900150
- Antichaos And Adaptation [Article]: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24938683
- The Selfish Gene [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0199291152?tag=toe08-20
- Biological Organization As Closure Of Constraints [Paper]: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022519315001009
- Physics And Philosophy [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0061209198?tag=toe08-20
- Combinatorial Chemistry: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/nursing-and-health-professions/combinatorial-chemistry
- Connections [Series]: https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/amzn1.dv.gti.484e32c5-60bd-4493-a800-e44fd0940312
- Gonen Ashkenasy's Papers: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=7kP7Fi4AAAAJ
- Michael Levin [TOE]: https://youtu.be/c8iFtaltX-s
- Anna Ciaunica & Michael Levin [TOE]: https://youtu.be/2aLhkm6QUgA
- Plato's Cave [TOE]: https://youtu.be/PurNlwnxwfY
- "Is God A Taoist?" [TOE]: https://youtu.be/P-jh6tRh3Jw
- Chiara Marletto [TOE]: https://youtu.be/40CB12cj_aM
- John Donoghue [TOE]: https://youtu.be/dG_uKJx6Lpg
- Yang-Hui He [TOE]: https://youtu.be/wbP0KjWm0pw
- Tim Palmer [TOE]: https://youtu.be/vlklA6jsS8A
- Tim Maudlin [TOE]: https://youtu.be/fU1bs5o3nss
- Lee Smolin [TOE]: https://youtu.be/uOKOodQXjhc
- Carlo Rovelli [TOE]: https://youtu.be/hF4SAketEHY
- Geoffrey Hinton [TOE]: https://youtu.be/b_DUft-BdIE
- Richard Dawkins's Lecture: https://youtu.be/nfZMyJq6BBM

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This is an interview with Oxford’s Timothy Williamson. He’s one of the most cited living philosophers, and simultaneously one of the most controversial (yet respected). He dismantles physicalism, solipsism, and reductionism––explaining why consciousness is philosophically overrated and why AI in its current form likely lacks genuine mental states. This will be a tour‐de‐force episode into all things related to looking deeply and fundamentally. If you’re interested in consciousness, free will, art, language, and meaning, I believe you’ll love this episode.

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SUPPORT:
- Support me on Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe
- Support me on Crypto: https://commerce.coinbase.com/checkout/de803625-87d3-4300-ab6d-85d4258834a9
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JOIN MY SUBSTACK (Personal Writings): https://curtjaimungal.substack.com

LISTEN ON SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e

TIMESTAMPS:
- 00:00:00 - Vagueness & Sorites Paradox
- 00:07:12 - Identity, Physicalism, Non-Physicals
- 00:22:30 - Realism vs. Anti-Realism
- 00:29:50 - The Problem of Skepticism
- 00:35:40 - Cognitive Heuristics & Doubt
- 00:43:00 - Solipsism's Appeal & Pitfalls
- 00:50:00 - Solipsism: A Critique
- 00:57:30 - Pluralism & Consciousness
- 01:06:00 - AI, Mental States, Ontology
- 01:15:50 - Mind, Knowledge, Meaning
- 01:26:00 - Philosophical Heuristics
- 01:32:00 - Counterfactuals & Logic
- 01:38:00 - Personal Philosophy

LINKS MENTIONED:
- Overfitting and Heuristics in Philosophy [Book]: https://www.amazon.com/Overfitting-Heuristics-Philosophy-Rutgers-Lectures/dp/0197779212
- Timothy Williamson's Published Papers: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=IH-44VwAAAAJ&hl=en
- Sorites Paradox: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/sorites-paradox/
- Philosophical Investigations [Book]: https://www.amazon.com/Philosophical-Investigations-Ludwig-Wittgenstein/dp/0631205691
- I Do Not Exist [Paper]: https://academic.oup.com/book/53296/chapter-abstract/422023005
- O'Shaughnessy Ventures: https://www.osv.llc/
- Barry Loewer & Eddy Chen [TOE]: https://youtu.be/xZnafO__IZ0
- Bas Van Fraassen [TOE]: https://youtu.be/lhpRAWxvY5s
- Matthew Segall [TOE]: https://youtu.be/DeTm4fSXpbM
- Jennifer Nagel [TOE]: https://youtu.be/CWZVMZ9Tm7Q
- Leo Gura [TOE]: https://youtu.be/YspFR9JAq3w
- Iain McGilchrist [TOE]: https://youtu.be/M-SgOwc6Pe4
- The Consciousness Iceberg [TOE]: https://youtu.be/65yjqIDghEk
- Karl Friston [TOE]: https://youtu.be/uk4NZorRjCo
- Geoffrey Hinton [TOE]: https://youtu.be/b_DUft-BdIE
- Elan Barenholtz [TOE]: https://youtu.be/A36OumnSrWY
- Ben Goertzel & Joscha Bach [TOE]: https://youtu.be/xw7omaQ8SgA
- Claudia de Rham [TOE]: https://youtu.be/Ve_Mpd6dGv8
- Stephen Wolfram [TOE]: https://youtu.be/0YRlQQw0d-4
- Elan Barenholtz & Will Hahn [TOE]: https://youtu.be/Ca_RbPXraDE
- Greg Kondrak [TOE]: https://youtu.be/FFW14zSYiFY
- Robert Sapolsky [TOE]: https://youtu.be/z0IqA1hYKY8

SOCIALS:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt
- Discord Invite: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs

Guests do not pay to appear. Theories of Everything receives revenue solely from viewer donations, platform ads, and clearly labelled sponsors; no guest or associated entity has ever given compensation, directly or through intermediaries.

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