Caleb Scharf: The Ascent of Information (#163)

Caleb Scharf was born and educated in England. He received his
B.Sc. in physics from Durham University, and his Ph.D. in astronomy
from the University of Cambridge. Following postdoctoral work in
X-ray astronomy and observational cosmology at the NASA Goddard
Space Flight Center and the Space Telescope Science Institute in
Maryland, he has been a research scientist at Columbia University
in New York. He is currently the director of the multidisciplinary
Columbia Astrobiology Center. His research interests include the
study of exoplanets, exomoons, and the nature of environments
suitable for life. Thanks to our sponsors!
https://magbreakthrough.com/impossible
http://betterhelp.com/impossible About Caleb's new book, THE ASCENT
OF INFORMATION Your information has a life of its own, and it’s
using you to get what it wants. One of the most peculiar and
possibly unique features of humans is the vast amount of
information we carry outside our biological selves. But in our rush
to build the infrastructure for the 20 quintillion bits we create
every day, we’ve failed to ask exactly why we’re expending
ever-increasing amounts of energy, resources, and human effort to
maintain all this data. Drawing on deep ideas and frontier thinking
in evolutionary biology, computer science, information theory, and
astrobiology, Caleb Scharf argues that information is, in a very
real sense, alive. All the data we create—all of our emails,
tweets, selfies, A.I.-generated text and funny cat videos—amounts
to an aggregate lifeform. It has goals and needs. It’s an organism
that has evolved right alongside us. This symbiotic relationship
with information offers a startling new lens for looking at the
world. Data isn’t just something we produce; it’s the reason we
exist. This powerful idea has the potential to upend the way we
think about our technology, our role as humans, and the fundamental
nature of life. 00:00:00 Intro 00:04:37 How did you come up with
the title and cover? 00:07:09 About Boltzman Brains 00:12:32 Is it
possible to erase information? Does it live on forever? 00:16:32
What is the Dataome? 00:20:32 Is there an upper limit on the amount
of information? 00:28:45 Will AI have imagination? 00:33:46 What
are the initial conditions require to create information? 00:39:55
Where are the alien dataomes? 00:50:31 What would you put on your
billion year monolith? Join this channel to get access to perks:
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