#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