Sean Carroll
Sean Carroll
@seancarroll·255K subscribers·596 videos

Mindscape 167 | Chiara Marletto on Constructor Theory, Physics, and Possibility

Posted

October 4, 2021

Views

27,450

Likes

653

Comments

76

Engagement

2.66%

Search the Record

Indexed

Every word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.

Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.

Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line

YouTube Description

as posted by the channel

Blog post with audio player, show notes, and transcript

Traditional physics works within the “Laplacian paradigm”: you give me the state of the universe (or some closed system), some equations of motion, then I use those equations to evolve the system through time. Constructor theory proposes an alternative paradigm: to think of physical systems in terms of counterfactuals — the set of rules governing what can and cannot happen. Originally proposed by David Deutsch, constructor theory has been developed by today’s guest, Chiara Marletto, and others. It might shed new light on quantum gravity and fundamental physics, as well as having applications to higher-level processes of thermodynamics and biology.

Chiara Marletto received her DPhil in physics from the University of Oxford. She is currently a research fellow at Wolfson College, University of Oxford. Her new book is The Science of Can and Can’t: A Physicist’s Journey Through the Land of Counterfactuals.

Mindscape Podcast playlist

Sean Carroll channel

#podcast #ideas #science #philosophy #culture

Guests & Subjects Covered

Patreon BlogDavid DeutschChiara MarlettoOxford SheWolfson College UniversityOxford HerThe ScienceCounterfactuals Mindscape Podcast

Sentinel Indexing in Progress

Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.

All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.

Mindscape 167 | Chiara Marletto on Constructor Theory, Physics, and Possibility · Sean Carroll · Sentinel