Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal

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What if you gathered every possible piece of evidence about the universe — every observation, past, present, and future — and it still wasn't enough? That's not a philosophical parlor trick. It's a theorem. J.B. Manchak proves it using the very tools of general relativity, and then connects it to Zen Buddhism's teaching on the self. This one is a quiet storm.

TIMESTAMPS:
- 00:00:00 - Unknowability of the Universe
- 00:05:14 - Space-Time Maximality Metaphysics
- 00:11:02 - Time Travel in GR
- 00:16:53 - Causal Structure and Topology
- 00:24:01 - Cauchy Surfaces and Determinism
- 00:32:13 - Solving the Halting Problem
- 00:47:38 - Cosmic Censorship Hypothesis
- 00:56:58 - The God Point Theorem
- 01:02:16 - Global Structure Underdetermination
- 01:11:21 - Heraclitus Space-Times Defined
- 01:24:22 - Hierarchy of Classical Space-Times
- 01:33:08 - The Universe Puzzle Analogy
- 01:40:51 - Underdetermination of the Self
- 01:51:39 - Zen Buddhism and Non-Self
- 02:00:57 - Repeatability and Heraclitus
- 02:06:41 - The Power of Slow Thinking
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Many people think physics / reality is either guided by a probabilistic distribution or is “determined.” Actually, there’s a third, far‐more unsettling option. Curt Jaimungal explains why Einstein’s general relativity isn't actually deterministic. He discusses how Cauchy horizons and closed time-like curves break predictability, showing that math and physics don't always guarantee a set future for our universe. This is a solo deep‑dive. One that he's been meaning to make for a while.

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LINKS MENTIONED:
- This Cosmologist Discovered Something Strange: https://youtu.be/73IdQGgfxas
- The Most Abused Theorem in Math (Gödel's Incompleteness): https://youtu.be/OH-ybecvuEo
- Harvard Scientist: "There Is No Quantum Multiverse" | Jacob Barandes [Part 3]: https://youtu.be/wrUvtqr4wOs
- The Quantum Mechanics of Time Travel: https://youtu.be/yCQ_3qE6SmQ
- The Dangerous Lie About Understanding: https://youtu.be/eASBzSNB8ts
- Discovery That Changed Physics! Gravity Is Not a Force!: https://youtu.be/3pZNzF6LBII
- Einstein's Amazing Theory of Gravity: Black Holes and Novel Ideas in Cosmology, Roger Penrose | LMS: https://youtu.be/xAcvNnSrkcM
- The Geodesic Equation: Introduction and Derivation: https://youtu.be/5_79m-kHxts
- Interpretation of the Wavefunction: https://youtu.be/R-5hjmV-bdY
- Is the Future Already Set in Stone?: https://youtu.be/JBkB2D-_ZH0
- What Is Astrophysics Actually Explained: https://youtu.be/TCrRs_OBN0E
- What Triggered the Big Bang? | How the Universe Works: https://youtu.be/gup4Cc0Ube0
- Visualization of the Gödel Universe: https://youtu.be/078jOiaevAQ
- Iceberg of String Theory: https://youtu.be/X4PdPnQuwjY
- The 300-Year-Old Physics Mistake No One Noticed: https://youtu.be/Tghl6aS5A3M
- JB Manchak: Spacetime Asymmetry: https://youtu.be/lFbfhISreFY
- Carlo Rovelli [TOE]: https://youtu.be/hF4SAketEHY
- General Relativity Is Not (Technically) Deterministic: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/p/general-relativity-is-not-deterministic
- The Strong Cosmic Censorship Conjecture by Maxime Van de Moortel [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2501.13180
- Some Black Holes Erase Your Past: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180221091334.htm
- Determinism and General Relativity [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2009.07555
- A Family of Local Deterministic Models for Singlet Quantum State Correlations [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/html/2408.09579v1
- Examples of Cosmological Spacetimes Without CMC Cauchy Surfaces: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11005-024-01843-7
- Asymptotic Dynamics on the Worldlines for Spinning Particles [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.07863
- World Line: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_line
- Counterexamples in Topology [Book]: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4612-6290-9
- Quantum Charged Black Holes [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2404.07192
- Charged Hayward Black Hole with a Cosmological Constant and Surrounded by Quintessence and a Cloud of Strings [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2511.02191
- Strong Cosmic Censorship in Charged Black-Hole Spacetimes: Still Subtle [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1808.03631
- Chaos and Deterministic Versus Stochastic Non-Linear Modelling: https://academic.oup.com/jrsssb/article/54/2/303/7035838
- Reopening the Hole Argument by Klaas Landsman [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2206.04943
- Is Time Travel Too Strange to Be Possible? [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1704.02295
- Counterexamples in Topology [Book]: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4612-6290-9

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Professor John Donoghue explains why quantum physics and gravity actually work perfectly together. He tackles quadratic gravity, effective field theory, and random dynamics, arguing that grand unification and naturalness aren't required for a theory of everything.

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SUPPORT:
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TIMESTAMPS:
- 00:00:00 - Limits of Quantum Mechanics
- 00:06:35 - Effective Field Theory
- 00:12:24 - Gravity: Geometry or Force?
- 00:18:46 - QFT and Gravity Tension
- 00:24:59 - Quadratic Gravity Theory
- 00:34:16 - Dueling Arrows of Causality
- 00:41:57 - Random Dynamics and Anti-Unification
- 00:48:13 - The Naturalness Problem
- 00:53:40 - Questioning Hidden Assumptions

LINKS MENTIONED:
- John's lectures: https://www.youtube.com/@johndonoghue469/featured
- John's papers: https://arxiv.org/a/donoghue_j_1.html
- The Renormalization Group and Critical Phenomena [Paper]: https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2018/06/wilson-lecture-2.pdf
- Anthropic Considerations in Multiple-Domain Theories [Paper]: https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.80.1822
- Old "Ghost" Theory of Quantum Gravity Makes a Comeback [Article]: https://www.quantamagazine.org/old-ghost-theory-of-quantum-gravity-makes-a-comeback-20251117/
- Unitarity, Stability and Loops of Unstable Ghosts [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1908.02416
- An Effective Field Theory of Gravity for Extended Objects [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0409156
- Not Quite a Black Hole [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1612.04889
- On Quadratic Gravity [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2112.01974
- Quadratic Gravity [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1804.09944
- Renormalization of Higher Derivative Quantum Gravity [Paper]: http://www.weylmann.com/stelle.pdf
- Quantum Theory in a Nutshell [Book]: https://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Field-Theory-Nutshell-nutshell/dp/0691140340
- Field Theory: A Modern Primer [Book]: https://www.amazon.com/Field-Theory-Modern-Frontiers-Physics/dp/0201546116
- Origin of Symmetries [Book]: https://amzn.to/4qxnLzj
- String Theory Iceberg [TOE]: https://youtu.be/X4PdPnQuwjY
- Neil Turok [TOE]: https://youtu.be/zNZCa1pVE20
- Avshalom Elitzur [TOE]: https://youtu.be/pWRAaimQT1E
- Sir Roger Penrose [TOE]: https://youtu.be/iO03t21xhdk
- Ted Jacobson [TOE]: https://youtu.be/3mhctWlXyV8
- Leonard Susskind [TOE]: https://youtu.be/2p_Hlm6aCok
- Jonathan Oppenheim [TOE]: https://youtu.be/NKOd8imBa2s
- Peter Woit [TOE]: https://youtu.be/TTSeqsCgxj8
- Joseph Conlon & Peter Woit [TOE]: https://youtu.be/fAaXk_WoQqQ
- Michael Levin [TOE]: https://youtu.be/c8iFtaltX-s
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Physicist Nir Lahav joins me to argue that the hard problem isn't hard so much as confused—a consequence of treating consciousness as an absolute property rather than a relative one. Drawing on the principle of relativity, he proposes that subjective experience is a genuine physical property that manifests only from within a cognitive system's own internal simulation, where the felt sense of good and bad becomes as real as location in space. This conversation requires zero prior background in physics or philosophy. Every concept is built from scratch.

SUPPORT:
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LISTEN ON SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e

LINKS MENTIONED:

- Nir's Website: https://www.lahavnir.com/about-me
- Nir's Papers: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=LFMD5RkAAAAJ
- Nir's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Nir.Lahav
- Nir's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thewonderofscience9863/videos
- A Relativistic Theory of Consciousness [Paper]: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.704270/full
- Church-Turing Thesis: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/church-turing/
- What Is It Like to Be a Bat? [Paper]: https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~cavitch/pdf-library/Nagel_Bat.pdf
- On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies [TOE]: https://users.physics.ox.ac.uk/~rtaylor/teaching/specrel.pdf
- Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/037575766X?tag=toe08-20
- Discourse on Metaphysics [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/1474457789?tag=toe08-20
- The Foundation of the General Theory of Relativity [Paper]: https://sites.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/teaching/cosmology_2025/pdf/Einstein_Extension_Relativity_1916.pdf
- Some Functional Effects of Sectioning the Cerebral Commissures in Man [Paper]: https://www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.1073/pnas.48.10.1765
- Reasoning or Reciting? [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.02477
- The Conscious Mind [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0195117891?tag=toe08-20
- Consciousness Iceberg [TOE]: https://youtu.be/65yjqIDghEk
- Michael Levin [TOE]: https://youtu.be/c8iFtaltX-s
- Karl Friston [TOE]: https://youtu.be/2v7LBABwZKA
- Daniel Dennett [TOE]: https://youtu.be/bH553zzjQlI
- Bernardo Kastrup [TOE]: https://youtu.be/lAB21FAXCDE
- Joscha Bach [TOE]: https://youtu.be/3MNBxfrmfmI
- Matt Segall [TOE]: https://youtu.be/DeTm4fSXpbM
- Leo Gura [TOE]: https://youtu.be/YspFR9JAq3w
- What Is Energy, Actually? [TOE]: https://youtu.be/hQk9GLZ0Fms
- Plato's Cave [TOE]: https://youtu.be/PurNlwnxwfY
- Iain McGilchrist [TOE]: https://youtu.be/Q9sBKCd2HD0
- Andres Emilsson: https://youtu.be/BBP8WZpYp0Y
- Ruth Kastner [TOE]: https://youtu.be/-BsHh3_vCMQ
- Urs Schreiber [TOE]: https://youtu.be/1KUhLHlgG2Q
- Ted Jacobson [TOE]: https://youtu.be/3mhctWlXyV8
- Stephen Wolfram [TOE]: https://youtu.be/0YRlQQw0d-4
- Emily Adlam and Jacob Barandes [TOE]: https://youtu.be/rw1ewLJUgOg
- David Chalmers [TOE]: https://youtu.be/RH5qjdHhtBk
- Donald Hoffman and Philip Goff [TOE]: https://youtu.be/MmaIBxkqcT4
- Donald Hoffman [TOE]: https://youtu.be/CmieNQH7Q4w
- Michael Levin and Anil Seth [TOE]: https://youtu.be/_kuwwmFnxGY
- Elan Barenholtz [TOE]: https://youtu.be/A36OumnSrWY
- Geoffrey Hinton [TOE]: https://youtu.be/b_DUft-BdIE

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Curt Jaimungal argues that astrophysicists like Neil deGrasse Tyson and spiritual gurus Deepak Chopra and Thomas Campbell can’t logically claim they don’t hold beliefs. This “Theories of Everything” with Curt Jaimungal episode uses analytic philosophy to show why belief’s vital for understanding physics and consciousness, countering what Thomas Campbell and NASA scientist Nathalie Cabrol say.

As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe

TIMESTAMPS:
- 00:00 - The "No Belief" Fallacy
- 03:00 - Faith vs. Propositional Belief
- 04:57 - Implicit Belief in Hypotheses
- 07:10 - van Fraassen’s Constructive Empiricism
- 11:51 - Fallibilism and Epistemic Virtue

SUPPORT:
- Support me on Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe
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JOIN MY SUBSTACK (Personal Writings): https://curtjaimungal.substack.com

LISTEN ON SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e

LINKS MENTIONED:
- Neil deGrasse Tyson [TOE]: https://youtu.be/HhWWlJFwTqs
- Kierkegaard: The Most Terrifying Philosopher I've Encountered [TOE]: https://youtu.be/BWYxRM__TBU
- Curt Interviews NASA Scientist on NPR: https://youtu.be/C8zrfZq1XEs
- Bayesian Epistemology: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epistemology-bayesian/
- Belief: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/belief/
- The Norm Of Assertion: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29684696/
- Truth And Objectivity [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0674910877?tag=toe08-20
- Constructive Empiricism Now [Paper]: https://www.princeton.edu/~fraassen/articles/pdfs/CE_Now.pdf
- Willard Quine: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/quine/

SOCIALS:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt
- Discord Invite: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs

Guests do not pay to appear. Theories of Everything receives revenue solely from viewer donations, platform ads, and clearly labelled sponsors; no guest or associated entity has ever given compensation, directly or through intermediaries.

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