Edward Frenkel: Infinity, Ai, String Theory, Death, The Self

Math professor Edward Frenkel discusses his work on the Langlands Program while reflecting on the profound themes of infinity, limits of computation / Ai, death, and self-understanding. He also talks about the failure of string theory. Patreon:   / curtjaimungal   (early access to ad-free audio episodes!) Crypto: https://nowpayments.io/donation/TOE PayPal: https://tinyurl.com/paypalTOE Twitter:   / toewithcurt   Discord Invite:   / discord   Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b9... Subreddit r/TheoriesOfEverything:   / theoriesofeverything   TOE Merch: https://tinyurl.com/TOEmerch I personally subscribe to The Economist. TOE listeners get 35% off the annual subscription. No other podcast has this! https://economist.com/TOE BOOKS MENTIONED: Love and Math (Edward Frenkel): https://amzn.to/3ZiXyI1 From Mathematics to Philosophy (Hao Wang): https://amzn.to/3ZkIcTD The Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien): https://amzn.to/46bZnsw Works of Carl Jung (Carl Jung): https://amzn.to/44UKJF7 Works of Marie-Louise von Franz (Marie-Louise von Franz): https://amzn.to/3sWWg9D Bhagavad Gita: https://amzn.to/3sTfrB8 The Undecidable (Martin Davis): https://amzn.to/48njW7u The Emperor's New Mind (Roger Penrose): https://amzn.to/44Zabcw Not Even Wrong (Peter Woit): https://amzn.to/44XJlBx The Trouble with Physics (Lee Smolin): https://amzn.to/3sXpmG6 Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray (Sabine Hossenfelder): https://amzn.to/3Pna7xy ARTICLES MENTIONED: Computing Machinery and Intelligence (Alan Turing): https://cs.mcgill.ca/~dprecup/courses... Solvable and Unsolvable Problems (Alan Turing): https://academic.oup.com/book/42030/c... VIDEOS MENTIONED: Sabine Λ Bernardo: Superdeterminism [TOE]:    • Bernardo Kastrup Λ Sabine Hossenfelder: Su...   Podcast w/ Norman Wildberger TOE:    • Norman Wildberger: The Problem with Infini...   Dror Bar Natan [TOE]:    • Dror Bar Natan: Knot Theory & Quantum Fiel...   Podcast w/ Lex Fridman and Frenkel:    • Edward Frenkel: Reality is a Paradox - Mat...   Richard Borcherds [TOE]:    • Richard Borcherds: E8, Witten, Langlands, ...   [Part 2] and    • Richard Borcherds: Monster Group, String T...   [Part 1] Sabine Hossenfelder [TOE]:    • Lost in Math? Questioning Physics Dogmas |...   Bernardo Kastrup [TOE]:    • Escaping the Illusion: Bernardo Kastrup Ex...   Eric Weinstein [TOE]:    • Eric Weinstein: My Struggle with Conventio...   Angela Collier on String Theory:    • string theory lied to us and now science c...   Mike Wallace's Interview of Aldous Huxley (1958):    • Aldous Huxley interviewed by Mike Wallace ...   WEBSITES MENTIONED: Edward Frenkel's Official Site: https://edwardfrenkel.com Edward Frenkel's Soundcloud (DJ Moonshine):   / moonstein   Twitter (Edward Frenkel):   / edfrenkel   YouTube (Edward Frenkel):    / edfrenkel   Instagram (Edward Frenkel):   / edfrenkel   Peter Woit's Blog: https://math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordp... ARTICLES MENTIONED: AI Safety: A First-Person Perspective (Edward Frenkel): https://edwardfrenkel.com/ai-safety-f... Computing Machinery and Intelligence (Alan Turing): https://edwardfrenkel.com/turing-inte... Strominger's Quote about String Theory: https://math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordp... Interview Extract with David E. Kaplan: https://math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordp... TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 Introduction 00:03:40 The Langlands Program 00:09:23 Love and Math: An ode to mathematics 00:13:09 Art as a two-way street (reciprocal nature of artistic expression) 00:18:28 The Weil conjectures 00:24:53 Romantic side of math and the "Theory of Everything" as a process vs. a state 00:30:39 Paradoxes in math & axioms 00:33:57 Observer problem in mathematics 00:39:55 The debate on philosophy's role in science 00:51:44 "You can't get away from infinity." 01:07:41 Are computers conscious? Can they "think"? Turing's quotation 01:18:33 The limitations of computation and artificial intelligence 01:23:29 Blurring lines between truth & beauty (algebraic-geometric interplay) 01:33:48 The terrifying question of self 01:36:07 Childhood memories and personal growth (transformative power of pain) 01:49:30 The struggle for excellence & reconnecting with the past 02:17:26 Death is love exposed most bare 02:19:10 Function fields in higher dimensional algebraic varieties 02:25:12 Superdeterminism w/ Sabine Hossenfelder Λ Bernardo Kastrup 02:37:08 The human aspect in scientific theories 02:39:00 Even atheists reason backward from God to interpretations of quantum mechanics (Richard Hamming) 02:43:02 The unfulfilled promise of string theory 03:01:33 Credit and ethics in scientific fields (Eric Weinstein)