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Late Night Thoughts on Determinism
Last week, we had some discussion of free will, which prompted some comments about determinism. I’m not convinced that determinism has all that much to do with free will one way or the other, but since...
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Simple as ABC
The (really really) big news in the math world today is that Shin Mochizuki has (plausibly) claimed to have solved the ABC problem, which in turn suffices to settle many of the most vexing outstanding...
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WWCT? (What Would Copernicus Think?)
In The Big Questions, I argued that math is all there is: The Universe we live in is a mathematical object and is no more or less “real” than any other mathematical object. Thus, for example, the Godel...
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Accounting for Numbers
Over at Less Wrong, the estimable Eliezer Yudkowsky attempts to account for the meaning of statements in arithmetic and the ontological status of numbers. I started to post a comment, but it got long...
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Unreasonable
Brad DeLong appears to argue here that because pure reason once led him, Brad Delong, to an incorrect conclusion about which direction he was facing, it follows that pure reason can never be a source...
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Friedman on Psychic Harm
Four terrific posts by David Friedman, partly on psychic harm, partly on talking about psychic harm. I’d recommend these highly even if they hadn’t invoked my name. Landsburg v Bork: What Counts As...
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Many Many Worlds
Max Tegmark is a professor of physics at MIT, a major force in the development of modern cosmology, a lively expositor, and the force behind what he calls the Mathematical Universe Hypothesis — a...
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Flashback
Last week, I posted video of my talk to the undergraduate math students on truth, provability and the fabric of the universe — and heard from several readers who requested that I post it in a non-flash...
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Day of Thanks
This is a slightly revised version of my Thanksgiving post from five years ago. I think it bears repeating: After the philosopher Daniel Dennett was rushed to the hospital for lifesaving surgery to...
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Bosonic Ka-Ching Theory
George Johnson of the New York Times writes that: In a saner world, where science and the law meshed more precisely, a case like Firstenberg v. Monribot would have been dead on arrival in court. Arthur...
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Where I’ll Be
I’ll be speaking this Saturday at the Freethought Festival in Madison, Wisconsin (follow the link to register!) on the topic “Truth, Provability and the Fabric of the Universe”. I’ll be glad to see you...
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Aha!
Christmas week seems like a good time to share this video of my talk on “Truth, Provability and the Fabric of the Universe” delivered in March, 2018 in Madison, Wisconsin. The venue was the Free...
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Where I’ve Been
Video of my recent talk to the Philadelphia Association for Critical Thinking (topic: Why is There Something Instead of Nothing?”) is now available here. Click here to comment or read others’ comments.
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Where to Find Me
I don’t always enjoy being interviewed, but I do always enjoy being interviewed by the thoughtful and provocative (in the best way!) Bob Murphy. You’ll see why if you listen to the latest episode of...
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Nightmare Scenarios
Here’s a question to ponder: Question 1: If forced to choose, which of these nightmare scenarios would you prefer? Scenario A: An evil alien flips a coin. If it comes up heads, he destroys all human...
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Another Nightmare
Yesterday’s nightmare scenarios triggered some good discussion, so let me throw out another one, which I think will help to isolate some of the issues that came up yesterday. Sometime next week I’ll...
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That Does Not Compute
Stanley Tennenbaum was an itinerant mathematician with, for much of his adult life, no fixed address and no permanent source of income. Sometimes he slept on park benches. He didn’t have a lot of...
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The Number Devil
In the comments section of Bob Murphy’s blog, I was asked (in effect) why I insist on the objective reality of the natural numbers (that is, the counting numbers 0,1,2,3…) but not of, say, the real...
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The Long Now
Here is a link to my piece in today’s issue of Time.com; and here’s the executive summary: Deep inside a West Texas mountain, engineers are building a clock designed to click for 10,000 years....
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Free to Choose
The subject of free will came up earlier this week, and I notice that Sam Harris has a new book on the subject, which I have not yet read. Some of you have asked for me to elaborate on my remarks on...
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