Holiday Message: Reflections on Immortality

<p>The final Mindscape podcast of each year is devoted to a short, reflective Holiday Message. This year the theme is Immortality: whether it's an attractive idea, and whether the laws of physics and cosmology would allow for it in principle. (Spoiler: they do not.) Mindscape will return as usual on January 1, 2024. Happy holidays everyone!</p> <p>Blog post with transcript: <a href="https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2023/12/18/holiday-message-2023-reflections-on-immortality/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2023/12/18/holiday-message-2023-reflections-on-immortality/</a></p> <p>S<em>upport Mindscape on </em><a href="https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Patreon</em></a><em>.</em></p> <p>Here are some of the stories and papers mentioned in the episode:</p> <ul> <li><a href="https://matiane.wordpress.com/2019/10/11/immortal-by-jorge-luis-borges/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Borges, "The Immortal"</a></li> <li><a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-history-of-the-world-in-10-1-2-chapters-julian-barnes/6702782?ean=9780679731375" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Barnes, <em>A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters</em></a></li> <li><a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/80113701" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>The Good Place</em></a></li> <li><a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/stories-of-your-life-and-others-lib-e-ted-chiang/16687839?ean=9781101972120" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Chiang, <em>Stories of Your Life and Others</em></a></li> <li><a href="https://www.panspermia.org/revmodphys.51.447.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Dyson, "Time Without End: Physics and Biology in an Open Universe"</a></li> </ul> <p><br /></p>