Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal

What is mathematics, really? Mathematician David Bessis joins me to argue that math isn't about numbers in a Platonic realm or a meaningless game of symbols—it's a cognitive technology for rewiring your brain. We explore why the official definitions of mathematics have been unresolved for 2,300 years, why understanding something means finding it obvious, and how the gap between a beginner and Terence Tao looks less like genetic destiny and more like compound interest on intuition. When asked what mathematics fundamentally is, his answer cuts through millennia of philosophy: it's what happens in your head when you pretend something is true until it feels real.

LINKS MENTIONED:
Papers, books, websites:
- https://davidbessis.substack.com/
- https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=YmJL9KwAAAAJ
- https://amazon.com/dp/0300283288?tag=toe08-20
- https://davidbessis.substack.com/p/the-magic-of-mathematical-intuition
- https://davidbessis.substack.com/p/weve-been-wrong-about-math-for-2300
- https://arxiv.org/abs/math/9404236
- https://amazon.com/dp/0387900926?tag=toe08-20
- https://davidbessis.substack.com/p/the-curious-case-of-broken-theorems
- https://mathworld.wolfram.com/FermatsLastTheorem.html
- https://xenaproject.wordpress.com/2024/12/11/fermats-last-theorem-how-its-going/
- https://gwern.net/doc/math/1979-hersh.pdf
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_of_universals
- https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/set-theory/zf.html
- https://imperialcollegelondon.github.io/FLT/blueprint/
- https://amazon.com/dp/1015393233?tag=toe08-20
- https://annals.math.princeton.edu/2015/181-3/p01
- https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0610778
- https://pi.math.cornell.edu/~bts82/events/homotopyF20/notes/bar-construction-typed.pdf
- https://www.edge.org/conversation/reuben_hersh-reuben-hersh-1927-2020
- https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Ramanujan/
- https://amazon.com/dp/1107536510?tag=toe08-20
- https://viennot.org/abjc-lectures.html
- https://pdf.sciencedirectassets.com/272332/1-s2.0-S0021869306X06555/1-s2.0-S0021869305006150/main.pdf
Videos:
- https://youtu.be/tYgiVnQubyw
- https://youtu.be/RX1tZv_Nv4Y
- https://youtu.be/73IdQGgfxas
- https://youtu.be/lhpRAWxvY5s
- https://youtu.be/rJz_Badd43c
- https://youtu.be/c8iFtaltX-s
- https://youtu.be/81sPQGIWEfM
- https://youtu.be/wbP0KjWm0pw
- https://youtu.be/mTwvecBthpQ
- https://youtu.be/_sTDSO74D8Q
- https://youtu.be/DeTm4fSXpbM

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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What if gravity is just entropy in disguise? Professor Erik Verlinde joins me to argue that gravity isn't a fundamental force—it's thermodynamic, emerging from quantum information the way gas pressure emerges from molecules bouncing around. We explore why spacetime may be stitched together by entanglement, and how dark energy and dark matter both pop out automatically without extra particles or parameters. Verlinde explains why the cosmological constant problem is a red herring, and why there may be no final theory of physics. When asked where the universe comes from, his answer is one word: chaos.

SUPPORT:
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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 - Thermodynamic Gravity and Information
- 00:06:35 - Beyond Effective Field Theory
- 00:13:08 - Turtles All The Way Down
- 00:25:41 - Entropy as a Force
- 00:36:31 - Entanglement and Spatial Connectivity
- 00:47:31 - Deriving Inertia and F=ma
- 00:56:41 - De Sitter Space Challenges
- 01:02:01 - Dark Matter and Milgram
- 01:11:51 - The Emergence of Time
- 01:21:01 - Statistical Gravity Fluctuations
- 01:27:01 - Quantum Computational Complexity
- 01:36:01 - Physics Intuition and Mentorship
- 01:47:31 - Beauty, Garbage, and Chaos

LINKS MENTIONED:
Papers, books, websites:
- https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Tm64-J0AAAAJ
- https://journals.aps.org/prb/pdf/10.1103/PhysRevB.4.3174
- https://arxiv.org/abs/1001.0785
- https://arxiv.org/abs/1611.02269
- https://journals.aps.org/pr/pdf/10.1103/PhysRev.47.777
- https://amazon.com/dp/0486600688?tag=toe08-20
- https://www.nature.com/articles/248030a0
- https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:The_Field_Equations_of_Gravitation
- https://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9504004
- https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0603001
- https://arxiv.org/abs/1005.3035
- https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0106112
- https://arxiv.org/pdf/1408.3203
- https://arxiv.org/abs/1911.02087
- https://arxiv.org/abs/1905.08255
- https://www.ias.edu/sns/events/iaspctspgi-workshop-quantum-aspects-black-holes-and-spacetime
- https://amazon.com/dp/0262533413?tag=toe08-20
Videos:
- https://youtu.be/HIoviZe14pY
- https://youtu.be/X4PdPnQuwjY
- https://youtu.be/xZnafO__IZ0
- https://youtu.be/gEK4-XtMwro
- https://youtu.be/-BsHh3_vCMQ
- https://youtu.be/3mhctWlXyV8
- https://youtu.be/bprxrGaf0Os
- https://youtu.be/zNZCa1pVE20
- https://youtu.be/ZUp9x44N3uE
- https://youtu.be/2p_Hlm6aCok
- https://youtu.be/kUHOoMX4Bqw
- https://youtu.be/_yebLXsIdwo
- https://youtu.be/Ve_Mpd6dGv8
- https://youtu.be/0YRlQQw0d-4
- https://youtu.be/Bnh-UNrxYZg
- https://youtu.be/hF4SAketEHY
- https://youtu.be/Iya6tYN37ow
- https://youtu.be/0_Px5gbs9i0
- https://youtu.be/gsSJPLX-BTA
- https://youtu.be/73IdQGgfxas
- https://youtu.be/c8iFtaltX-s
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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:
- Support me on Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe
- Support me on Crypto: https://commerce.coinbase.com/checkout/de803625-87d3-4300-ab6d-85d4258834a9
- Support me on PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=XUBHNMFXUX5S4

JOIN MY SUBSTACK (Personal Writings): https://curtjaimungal.substack.com

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."

SUPPORT:
- Support me on Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe
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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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