Back to the Stone Age

Scott Soames: Truth, Philosophy of Language and Saul Kripke #10

#12

09/26/2024

Scott Soames is a professor of philosophy at the University of Southern California.

His website: https://dornsife.usc.edu/scottsoames/

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Outline

00:34 - What Is Meaning?

05:10 - How Do Words Refer To Things?

10:37 - Language And Logic

19:06 - Relativity Of Truth

22:26...

John L. Bell: Philosophy of Mathematics, Axiom of Choice, Continuum and Consciousness #9

#11

09/02/2024

John is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Western Ontario. You can find his website here: https://publish.uwo.ca/~jbell/

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YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZrhMJ5eusE_ACw6Ec3TqCbvDVZ6HP809&si=WhVnrLLAUuYW-AnySpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3pT8MUeR8bskcsuu8gmUGKApple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/back-to-the-stone-age/id1741219288

Outline

00:41 - John's introduction

08:35 - Is The Universe Mathematical in Nature?

25:50 - Limitations of Language in Philosophical Enquiries

31:20 - Mathematical Constructivism<...

Thomas Van Riet: String Theory, Extra Dimensions, The Landscape and Swampland #8

#10

08/06/2024

Thomas is a professor of Physics at KU Leuven (https://shorturl.at/IVa8S).

He's on Twitter: https://x.com/ThomasVanRiet2

Find Back to the Stone Age on:

YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZrhMJ5eusE_ACw6Ec3TqCbvDVZ6HP809&si=WhVnrLLAUuYW-AnySpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3pT8MUeR8bskcsuu8gmUGKApple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/back-to-the-stone-age/id1741219288

Outline

00:24 - General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics

11:50 - String Theory

21:41 - Singularities in String Theory

37:47 - Extra Dimensions in String Theory<...

Andrea Caputo: The Standard Model of Particle Physics and Current Limitations #7

#9

07/08/2024

Andrea is a theoretical physicist and he works on Dark Matter and Particle Physics.

He was awarded the ERC (European Research Council) Starting Grant.

Andrea on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-caputo-ph-d-2475999b/?locale=en_US

Seeing my interviews from one year ago is a bit cringe, but I'm working on it 😜 Hope you like it anyway!

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K. Brad Wray: Philosophy of Science, Epistemology, Thomas Kuhn, and Scientific Realism #6

#8

07/01/2024

Do you like philosophising? Then this conversation is for YOU! 🫵🏻

Brad Wray (https://shorturl.at/gY9Oh) is Associate Professor at Aarhus University, and together we tackle deep philosophical questions.

Find Back to the Stone Age on:

YouTube: https://shorturl.at/c5a37Spotify: https://shorturl.at/11x47Apple Podcast: https://shorturl.at/pFRCC

Outline

00:35 - Philosophy of Science

01:17 - Definition of knowledge

01:52 - How do scientific discoveries shape our understanding of reality?

02:26 - Metaphysics

09:56 - God in Philosophy

1...

Daniel Ruberman: Mathematics, Topology and Manifolds #5

#7

06/25/2024

Here is a conversation I've had with Daniel Ruberman, Professor of Mathematics.

Daniel's website: https://people.brandeis.edu/~ruberman/

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YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZrhMJ5eusE_ACw6Ec3TqCbvDVZ6HP809&si=WhVnrLLAUuYW-AnySpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3pT8MUeR8bskcsuu8gmUGKApple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/back-to-the-stone-age/id1741219288

Outline

00:16 - Is math invented or discovered?

05:30 - Mathematics and the physical world

28:02 - Topology

38:00 - Manifolds and smooth manifolds

<...

Gimmy Tomaselli: Physics, Mathematics, The Universe and Fundamental Thoughts #4

#6

06/20/2024

Some fundamental questions today with Gimmy, PhD student at GRAPPA doing research in black holes, gravitational-wave astronomy, and dark matter.

Gimmy is soon going to the Institute of Advanced Study of Princeton for a postdoc!

Gimmy's website: https://gimmytomas.github.io/index.html

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YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZrhMJ5eusE_ACw6Ec3TqCbvDVZ6HP809&si=WhVnrLLAUuYW-AnySpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3pT8MUeR8bskcsuu8gmUGKApple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/back-to-the-stone-age/id1741219288

Outline

00:32...

Joel David Hamkins: Philosophy of Set Theory, Mathematics and Infinity #3

#5

06/07/2024

Journey to the edge of reason with Professor Hamkins!

Joel is a Professor of Philosophy and Mathematics at the University of Notre Dame. His research work spans Mathematical Logic and Set Theory.

You can find him here:

Personal website: https://jdh.hamkins.orgTwitter: https://twitter.com/JDHamkinsGoogle Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MHLQDYQAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

Back to the Stone Age is on:

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Consciousness, Feelings and Human Life | Conversations with Friends: Greta #2

#4

06/03/2024

Conversations with Friends: Greta Galluzzo.

Greta is a Psychology master's student and she's on Erasmus here in Amsterdam.

Find Back to the Stone Age on:

YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZrhMJ5eusE_ACw6Ec3TqCbvDVZ6HP809&si=WhVnrLLAUuYW-AnySpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3pT8MUeR8bskcsuu8gmUGKApple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/back-to-the-stone-age/id1741219288

Outline:

00:32 - Consciousness

06:32 - Animal consciousness and death

11:22 - Intelligence and language

17:18 - Empathy

20:01 - Awareness

22:35 - Mathematics

32:40...

Geetanjali Sethi: Dark Energy Models and Cosmology #2

#3

05/22/2024

Geetanjali is Associate Professor at St. Stephen’s College. She has a PhD in Cosmology from Delhi University. She's working on the Variable Chaplygin Gas model of dark energy.

Reach out to her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geetanjali-sethi-a7b201aa/?originalSubdomain=in

Find her research work on Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=EK8KFB0AAAAJ

Back to the Stone Age is on:

- YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZrhMJ5eusE_ACw6Ec3TqCbvDVZ6HP809&si=WhVnrLLAUuYW-Any

- Spotify: https://open.sp...

Addictions, Dopamine, Boredom, "God" and Godliness | Conversations with Friends: Florens #1

#2

05/15/2024

Conversations with Friends: Florens van der Moezel

https://www.linkedin.com/in/florens-van-der-moezel-a657a0276/

Find Back to the Stone Age on:

YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZrhMJ5eusE_ACw6Ec3TqCbvDVZ6HP809&si=WhVnrLLAUuYW-AnySpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3pT8MUeR8bskcsuu8gmUGKApple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/back-to-the-stone-age/id1741219288

Thanks to our sponsor Maryse Moerel (Florens' mother) for the chairs, table and car!

Outline:

00:00 - Introduction

01:10 - Alcohol

04:39 - Mental state under addiction

07:10...

Nick Van Remortel: CMBR, Standard Model, Gravitational Waves #1

#1

05/07/2024

Nick Van Remortel is a professor of physics at the University of Antwerp, find him on Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-van-remortel-83a16373/

Outline:

00:00 - Introduction

00:36 - Cosmic microwave background radiation

25:10 - Size of the universe and infinity

30:20 - Expansion of the universe

40:45 - The standard model

01:02:30 - Greater purpose of fine-tuning and randomness

01:11:39 - Gravitational waves

01:18:10 - Principle of detection of gravitational waves

01:29:47 - Experimental effort of detection

01:32:29 - Information from gravitational waves<...