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Please join my mailing list here 👉 https://briankeating.com/yt to win a meteorite 💥 What can we truly learn about the brain from a kidney cell? And what do aliens and alien-like limbs have to teach us? And if language is our escape velocity moment, what does that mean for the future of AI? Nikolay Kukushkin is a scientist who believes that memory, intelligence, and even the roots of awareness may exist in places we never thought to look in. The timing of molecules in the learning of single cells, in the slow abstractions of evolution. He takes us through all of this in this wonderful new book, One Hand Clapping. Now let's go into the impossible. KEY TAKEAWAYS 00:00 "Sea Slugs and Abstract Thought" 09:55 "Cell Intelligence and Sound" 10:47 Cellular Intelligence and Memory 19:22 "One Hand Clapping: Zen Riddle" 23:18 "Evolution of Inner Worlds" 31:05 "Einstein, Thought Experiments, and LLMs" 32:50 "Can LLMs Achieve Life?" 38:01 Alien Encounters: Unlikely Similarity 45:39 Unanticipated Findings on Cellular Memory 53:33 "Interdisciplinary Creativity and Slow Multitasking" 55:58 Evolution of the Gut 01:04:57 "Interconnection and Existential Koan" 01:08:19 "Reconstructing Nature's Patterns" 01:13:55 "Evolution of Brain's Role" - Additional resources: Get My NEW Book: Focus Like a Nobel Prize Winner: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FN8DH6SX?ref_=pe_93986420_775043100 Join this channel to get access to perks like monthly Office Hours: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/join 📚 Get a copy of my books: Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with life changing interviews with 9 Nobel Prizewinners: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu My tell-all cosmic memoir Losing the Nobel Prize: http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA The first-ever audiobook from Galileo: Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un 📺 Watch my most popular videos:📺 Neil Turok https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt5cFLN65fI Frank Wilczek https://youtu.be/3z8RqKMQHe0?sub_confirmation=1 Eric Weinstein vs. Stephen Wolfram https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI0AZ4Y4Ip4?sub_confirmation=1 Sir Roger Penrose: https://youtu.be/AMuqyAvX7Wo Sabine Hossenfelder: https://youtu.be/g00ilS6tBvs Avi Loeb: https://youtu.be/N9lUceHsLRw Follow me to ask questions of my guests: 🏄♂️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating 🔔 Subscribe https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 📝 Join my mailing list; just click here http://briankeating.com/list ✍️ Detailed Blog posts here: https://briankeating.com/blog 🎙️ Listen on audio-only platforms: https://briankeating.com/podcast #universe #podcast #briankeating #intotheimpossible #science #astronomy #cosmology #cosmicmicrowavebackground #intotheimpossible #briankeating #NikolayKukushkin Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Please join my mailing list here 👉 https://briankeating.com/yt to win a meteorite 💥 Code. It's the closest thing humans have ever invented to magic. Write symbols on a screen, and reality emerges. Money moves, doors unlock, planes land, diseases get diagnosed, and most of us have no idea how it actually works. Today's conversation is about why code feels magical and why that feeling is both powerful and also dangerous. In a moment, you'll hear why the real risk of code is artificial intelligence. It's scale. Tiny ideas multiplied across billions of lives. My guest is Sam Arbesman, complexity scientist and author of The Magic of Code, a book about how software quietly became the most influential force shaping modern civilization. magic and sorcery. Often in our stories, they require a great deal of effort, like training. And so, like, you have to go to Hogwarts for seven years to really know magic and wizardry very well. The same kind of thing is true with code like so let's go cast some spells and learn the magic of code. Let's go. KEY TAKEAWAYS 00:00 — Code feels magical because text can change reality. 00:25 — The real risk of code is scale, not intelligence. 01:55 — Software shapes modern civilization more than we realize. 02:40 — Coding is both technical and a humanistic liberal art. 03:05 — Code fulfills an ancient desire to control the world with language. 04:15 — Most “new” tech ideas have deep historical roots. 07:00 — Universal computation emerges from conditional logic and loops. 09:10 — Biological computation works very differently from digital computers. 10:30 — Biology expands the definition of computation itself. 12:00 — Software is powerful but inherently temporary. 16:00 — Code resembles magic because it requires long training to master. 17:45 — Software creation is becoming accessible to everyone. 19:40 — Not all software must scale; personal tools matter. 24:10 — Computers are tools, not ends in themselves. 26:35 — Bugs are inevitable and often educational. 56:00 -- The Half Life Of Facts - Additional resources: Get Sam’s Book “The Magic of Code”: https://bit.ly/4qLBnXX Get My NEW Book: Focus Like a Nobel Prize Winner: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FN8DH6SX?ref_=pe_93986420_775043100 - Join this channel to get access to perks like monthly Office Hours: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/join 📚 Get a copy of my books: Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with life changing interviews with 9 Nobel Prizewinners: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu My tell-all cosmic memoir Losing the Nobel Prize: http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA The first-ever audiobook from Galileo: Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un 📺 Watch my most popular videos:📺 Neil Turok https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt5cFLN65fI Frank Wilczek https://youtu.be/3z8RqKMQHe0?sub_confirmation=1 Eric Weinstein vs. Stephen Wolfram https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI0AZ4Y4Ip4?sub_confirmation=1 Sir Roger Penrose: https://youtu.be/AMuqyAvX7Wo Sabine Hossenfelder: https://youtu.be/g00ilS6tBvs Avi Loeb: https://youtu.be/N9lUceHsLRw Follow me to ask questions of my guests: 🏄♂️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating 🔔 Subscribe https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 📝 Join my mailing list; just click here http://briankeating.com/list ✍️ Detailed Blog posts here: https://briankeating.com/blog 🎙️ Listen on audio-only platforms: https://briankeating.com/podcast #universe #podcast #briankeating #intotheimpossible #science #astronomy #cosmology #cosmicmicrowavebackground #intotheimpossible #briankeating #SamArbesman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

WANTED: Developers and STEM experts! Get paid to create benchmarks and improve AI models. Sign up for Alignerr using our link: https://alignerr.com/?referral-source=briankeating One of the most powerful AI systems we’ve ever built is succeeding for reasons we still don’t understand. And worse, they may succeed for reasons that might lock us into the wrong future for humanity. Today’s guest is Anil Ananthaswamy, an award-winning science writer and one of the clearest thinkers on the mathematical foundations of machine learning. In this conversation, we’re not just talking about new demos, incremental improvements, or updates on new models being released. We’re asking even harder questions: Why does the mathematics of machine learning work at all? How do these models succeed when they suffer from problems like overparameterization and lack of training data? And are large language models revealing deep structure, or are they just producing very convincing illusions and causing us to face an increasingly AI-slop-driven future? KEY TAKEAWAYS 00:00 — Book explores why ML works through math 02:47 — Perceptron proof shows simple math guarantees learning 05:11 — Early AI failed due to single-layer limits 07:12 — Nonlinear limits caused the first AI winter 09:04 — Backpropagation revived neural networks 10:59 — GPUs + big data enabled deep learning 15:25 — AI success risks technological lock-in 17:30 — LLMs lack human-like learning and embodiment 22:57 — High-dimensional spaces power ML behavior 27:36 — Data saturation may slow future gains 31:11 — Continual learning is still missing in AI 33:46 — Neuromorphic chips promise energy efficiency 41:49 — Overparameterized models still generalize well 45:05 — SGD succeeds via randomness in complex landscapes 48:27 — Perceptrons remain the core of modern neural net - Additional resources: Anil's NEW Book "Why Machines Learn: The Elegant Math Behind Modern AI": https://www.amazon.com/Why-Machines-Learn-Elegant-Behind/dp/0593185749 Get My NEW Book: Focus Like a Nobel Prize Winner: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FN8DH6SX?ref_=pe_93986420_775043100 Please join my mailing list here 👉 https://briankeating.com/yt to win a meteorite 💥 - Join this channel to get access to perks like monthly Office Hours: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/join 📚 Get a copy of my books: Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with life changing interviews with 9 Nobel Prizewinners: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu My tell-all cosmic memoir Losing the Nobel Prize: http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA The first-ever audiobook from Galileo: Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un 📺 Watch my most popular videos:📺 Neil Turok https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt5cFLN65fI Frank Wilczek https://youtu.be/3z8RqKMQHe0?sub_confirmation=1 Eric Weinstein vs. Stephen Wolfram https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI0AZ4Y4Ip4?sub_confirmation=1 Sir Roger Penrose: https://youtu.be/AMuqyAvX7Wo Sabine Hossenfelder: https://youtu.be/g00ilS6tBvs Avi Loeb: https://youtu.be/N9lUceHsLRw Follow me to ask questions of my guests: 🏄♂️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating 🔔 Subscribe https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 📝 Join my mailing list; just click here http://briankeating.com/list ✍️ Detailed Blog posts here: https://briankeating.com/blog 🎙️ Listen on audio-only platforms: https://briankeating.com/podcast #universe #podcast #briankeating #intotheimpossible #science #astronomy #cosmology #cosmicmicrowavebackground #intotheimpossible #briankeating #AnilAnanthaswamy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Get My NEW Book: Focus Like a Nobel Prize Winner: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FN8DH6SX Andrew Jaffe Book: The Random Universe: https://www.amazon.com/Random-Universe-Models-Probability-Cosmos/dp/0300250509 Is the universe intrinsically random? In this conversation, we dive deep into why the universe may be fundamentally, intrinsically random. Whether inflation on life support, the truth behind the Hubble tension, and whether cosmology is approaching the event horizon, limits beyond which humans can never know. Today we're joined by one of the architects of modern cosmological inference, Professor Andrew Jaffee, author of a new book called The Random Universe that argues that every observation in science is shaped by the models we bring to it, biases and all. KEY TAKEAWAYS 00:00–01:13 — Science and life rely on building models. 01:13–03:35 — Models of people and reality are often wrong and revised. 04:04–06:01 — Observation depends on prior theories. 06:01–07:32 — Models can’t be escaped, only improved. 07:32–08:57 — No single scientific method exists. 08:57–11:25 — Science uses induction, not pure proof. 11:25–13:22 — Induction isn’t certain, only probabilistic. 13:22–15:36 — Induction works because nature is regular. 17:44–19:08 — Big Bang emerges from well-tested models. 19:08–21:15 — Current cosmology is stressed, not broken. 29:19–30:36 — Probability gives meaning to models. 39:45–41:11 — Randomness often reflects limited knowledge. 43:46–45:00 — Quantum physics is fundamentally probabilistic. 49:09–50:04 — Inflation awaits decisive observational tests. - Additional resources: Get My NEW Book: Focus Like a Nobel Prize Winner: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FN8DH6SX?ref_=pe_93986420_775043100 Please join my mailing list here 👉 https://briankeating.com/yt to win a meteorite 💥 - Join this channel to get access to perks like monthly Office Hours: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/join 📚 Get a copy of my books: Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with life changing interviews with 9 Nobel Prizewinners: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu My tell-all cosmic memoir Losing the Nobel Prize: http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA The first-ever audiobook from Galileo: Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un 📺 Watch my most popular videos:📺 Neil Turok https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt5cFLN65fI Frank Wilczek https://youtu.be/3z8RqKMQHe0?sub_confirmation=1 Eric Weinstein vs. Stephen Wolfram https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI0AZ4Y4Ip4?sub_confirmation=1 Sir Roger Penrose: https://youtu.be/AMuqyAvX7Wo Sabine Hossenfelder: https://youtu.be/g00ilS6tBvs Avi Loeb: https://youtu.be/N9lUceHsLRw Follow me to ask questions of my guests: 🏄♂️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating 🔔 Subscribe https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 📝 Join my mailing list; just click here http://briankeating.com/list ✍️ Detailed Blog posts here: https://briankeating.com/blog 🎙️ Listen on audio-only platforms: https://briankeating.com/podcast #universe #podcast #briankeating #intotheimpossible #science #astronomy #cosmology #cosmicmicrowavebackground #intotheimpossible #briankeating #AndrewJaffe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Win a $100 Amazon Gift Card! Help me help you get great guests on the Into the Impossible podcast and spread the message throughout the universe. Fill out this listener survey: https://forms.gle/EUKzyE2ZqXDYJ2F47 Please join my mailing list here 👉 https://briankeating.com/yt to win a meteorite 💥 --- Enjoy this classic episode from the vault: Max Tegmark & Eric Weinstein, New Years Eve 2020! Brian Keating brings together two thought leaders at the edge of physics and philosophy: Max Tegmark, physicist, cosmologist, and pioneer at MIT, and Eric Weinstein, mathematician, economist, and creator of Geometric Unity. Timestamps: 00:00 "Ambitions in AI, Physics, News" 16:58 "Emergent Reality from Proto-Spacetime" 22:50 "Rethinking Unification in Physics" 36:09 "Value of Disagreeable Individualism" 45:32 "Optimism for Academia Careers" 01:04:08 "Dangers of Oversimplifying Physics" 01:07:34 "On Success, Science, and Wonder" 01:18:47 "Funding and Advancing Physics Research" 01:30:28 "Perspective on Science and Society" 01:43:13 "Three Types of Scientific Experiments" 01:52:05 "Collaboration and Discovery in Science" 02:02:20 "The Messiness of Scientific Truth" 02:13:08 "Simulation, AI, and Ethics" 02:20:55 "Limits of Technology in Cosmos" --- Join this channel to get access to perks like monthly Office Hours: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/join 📚 Get my books: Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with productivity tips from 9 Nobel Prize winners: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu Focus Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with life-changing interviews with 9 Nobel Prizewinners: https://a.co/d/hi50U9U My tell-all cosmic memoir Losing the Nobel Prize: http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA The first-ever audiobook from Galileo: Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un Follow me to ask questions of my guests: 🏄♂️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating 🔔 Subscribe https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 📝 Join my mailing list; just click here http://briankeating.com/list ✍️ Detailed Blog posts here: https://briankeating.com/blog 🎙️ Listen on audio-only platforms: https://briankeating.com/podcast #universe #podcast #briankeating #intotheimpossible #science #astronomy #cosmology #cosmicmicrowavebackground #intotheimpossible #briankeating Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Get started with 1 month free of Superhuman today, using my link: https://try.sprh.mn/briankeating What if cells from your own trachea sitting in a petri dish right now, could spontaneously organize into swimming robots that heal brain tissue? What if frog skin cells with no genetic modification whatsoever, could build copies of themselves from spare parts lying around? This isn't science fiction. This is the work of Michael Levin at Tufts University and is completely rewriting the rules of biology. Michael Levin's research challenges our fundamental understanding of what life is and where biological properties emerge from. Michael Levin is a distinguished biologist at Tufts University and director of the Allen Discovery Center, whose groundbreaking research on bio electricity and regenerative biology is reshaping our understanding of how biological systems process information and pursue goals. His Xenobots, living robots built from frog cells, swim around, work together, and reproduce in ways that have never existed on Earth. What does this tell us about consciousness, intelligence, and the nature of life itself? KEY TAKEAWAYS 00:00 "Bioelectricity: Nature’s Cognitive Glue" 04:57 Neuronal Voltage Gradients Enable Computation 08:17 Magnetic Fields and Living Systems 11:43 "Voltage, Membranes, and Injury Signals" 14:51 "Bioelectric Properties in Cells" 15:59 Cell Circuits and Networks 19:31 "Ion Drugs Overcome Electrode Limits" 22:53 Asymmetric Features in Living Creatures 26:00 Embryo Symmetry Breaking Mechanism 30:11 "Space-Time Effort and Goal Scope" 33:19 "Origins: Universe and Life" 36:29 Causal Integration and Emergence Insights 42:02 Cell Liberation Enables Autonomous Behavior 43:53 "Xenobots: Self-Replicating Robots" 47:04 "Consciousness, Life, and Intelligence" - Additional resources: Levin Lab https://www.drmichaellevin.org/ Follow Michael on X https://x.com/drmichaellevin?s=21 Michael Levin’s book: https://a.co/d/dzl9wPQ Please join my mailing list here 👉 https://briankeating.com/yt to win a meteorite 💥 - Join this channel to get access to perks like monthly Office Hours: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/join 📚 Get a copy of my books: Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with life changing interviews with 9 Nobel Prizewinners: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu My tell-all cosmic memoir Losing the Nobel Prize: http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA The first-ever audiobook from Galileo: Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un 📺 Watch my most popular videos:📺 Neil Turok https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt5cFLN65fI Frank Wilczek https://youtu.be/3z8RqKMQHe0?sub_confirmation=1 Eric Weinstein vs. Stephen Wolfram https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI0AZ4Y4Ip4?sub_confirmation=1 Sir Roger Penrose: https://youtu.be/AMuqyAvX7Wo Sabine Hossenfelder: https://youtu.be/g00ilS6tBvs Avi Loeb: https://youtu.be/N9lUceHsLRw Follow me to ask questions of my guests: 🏄♂️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating 🔔 Subscribe https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 📝 Join my mailing list; just click here http://briankeating.com/list ✍️ Detailed Blog posts here: https://briankeating.com/blog 🎙️ Listen on audio-only platforms: https://briankeating.com/podcast #universe #podcast #briankeating #intotheimpossible #science #astronomy #cosmology #cosmicmicrowavebackground #intotheimpossible #briankeating #michaellevin Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brian Keating dives into some of the universe's biggest mysteries, from the search for extraterrestrial life and the nature of the Big Bang to cutting-edge discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope. Joined by Young and Alive, they explore how scientific beliefs are constantly evolving, how astronomers confront existential threats like asteroids, and why a sense of wonder drives the quest to understand our place in the cosmos. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As a listener of Dr. Brian Keating, you get a special 20% off discount. 👉 Head over to The Economist's website at www.economist.com/Keating to get started.What really happened during the controversy over the discovery of Haumea? Why was Pluto actually demoted? And is there a hidden Planet Nine lurking in the outer solar system?I’m joined today by none other than the Pluto Killer himself, Mike Brown. Mike is an astronomer and professor of planetary astronomy at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). His groundbreaking discoveries of dwarf planets like Eris, Haumea, and Makemake shook up the astronomy world and led to the controversial redefinition of what constitutes a planet.In this gripping episode of Into the Impossible, Mike opens up about the ethical challenges he faced in his career, including the Haumea data theft that caused a massive controversy, the truth behind the demotion of Pluto, and the ongoing search for Planet Nine.—Key Takeaways: 00:00 Intro 01:26 How Mike killed Pluto 03:50 Defining planets 08:48 Being an astronomer 13:31 Controversy over the discovery of Haumea 29:56 The search for Planet Nine 39:14 Balancing high and low-risk research 43:43 Did Neil deGrasse Tyson kill Pluto? 44:34 Planet Nine’s effects on the solar system’s evolution 46:47 The relevance of exoplanets 52:52 Outro —Additional resources: ➡️ Learn more about Mike Brown:💻 Website: https://mikebrown.caltech.edu/ 📚 How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming: https://a.co/d/9jQp3nt ➡️ Follow me on your fav platforms:✖️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating 🔔 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 📝 Join my mailing list: https://briankeating.com/list ✍️ Check out my blog: https://briankeating.com/cosmic-musings/ 🎙️ Follow my podcast: https://briankeating.com/podcast —Into the Impossible with Brian Keating is a podcast dedicated to all those who want to explore the universe within and beyond the known.Make sure to follow/subscribe so you never miss an episode! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Please join my mailing list here 👉 https://briankeating.com/list to win a meteorite 💥Dick Bond is a theorist who has helped reshape our understanding of dark matter, entropy, and quantum mechanics. Dick is a renowned astrophysicist known for his significant contributions to cosmology and the study of the universe's large-scale structure. He has worked extensively on topics such as dark matter, dark energy, the cosmic microwave background (CMB), and quantum cosmology. As a treat for all my members, Dick has graced us with a lecture titled Entropy in a Coherent Universe: Quantum Information Flows in the Cosmic SuperWeb. Don’t miss out! Join my YouTube membership to watch the full 90-minute lecture recording: Join this channel Additional resources: ➡️ Learn more about Dick Bond: 💻 Website: https://www.cita.utoronto.ca/~bond/ ➡️ Follow me on your fav platforms:✖️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating 🔔 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 📝 Join my mailing list: https://briankeating.com/list ✍️ Check out my blog: https://briankeating.com/cosmic-musings/ 🎙️ Follow my podcast: https://briankeating.com/podcast —Into the Impossible with Brian Keating is a podcast dedicated to all those who want to explore the universe within and beyond the known.Make sure to follow so you never miss an episode! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brian Keating explores the buzz around a possible sign of alien life on exoplanet K2-18 b, discussing the detection of dimethyl sulfide—a molecule that on Earth is linked only to biology. He urges caution, explaining that while the findings are exciting and headline-grabbing, the evidence is not yet conclusive and scientific skepticism is essential. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices