#124 – Stephen Wolfram: Fundamental Theory of Physics, Life, and the Universe

Stephen Wolfram is a computer scientist, mathematician, and
theoretical physicist. This is our second conversation on the
podcast. Please check out our sponsors to get a discount and to
support this podcast: - SimpliSafe: https://simplisafe.com/lex -
Sun Basket, use code LEX: https://sunbasket.com/lex - MasterClass:
https://masterclass.com/lex If you would like to get more
information about this podcast go to
https://lexfridman.com/podcast or connect with @lexfridman on
Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Medium, or YouTube where you can watch
the video versions of these conversations. If you enjoy the
podcast, please rate it 5 stars on Apple Podcasts, follow on
Spotify, or support it on Patreon. 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