Abhay Ashtekar on Gödel Universes, Buddha's Poison Arrow, Time Travel, and Loop Quantum Cosmology

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/03ReIvXKrrU

Sponsors:

-Brilliant: https://brilliant.org/TOE for 20% off

-Get Exclusive NordVPN deal here ↣ https://nordvpn.com/theories It’s risk- free with Nord’s 30-day money back guarantee!

-Get 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code [EVERYTHING20] at Manscaped.com. That’s 20% off with free shipping at manscaped.com and use code [EVERYTHING20].

-Sign up through wren.co/theories to make a difference in the climate crisis, and Wren will plant 10 extra trees in your name!

-Trade Coffee is offering our listeners a total of $30 off your first order plus free shipping at drinktrade.com/everything.

-Sign up today at butcherbox.com/THEORIES to get two, 10 oz New York strip steaks and 8 oz of lobster claw and knuckle meat FREE in your first order.

Patreon: https://patreon.com/curtjaimungal

Crypto: https://tinyurl.com/cryptoTOE

PayPal: https://tinyurl.com/paypalTOE

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt

Discord Invite: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs

iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/better-left-unsaid-with-curt-jaimungal/id1521758802

Pandora: https://pdora.co/33b9lfP

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e

Subreddit r/TheoriesOfEverything: https://reddit.com/r/theoriesofeverything

Merch: https://tinyurl.com/TOEmerch

LINKS MENTIONED:

- Physics and Consciousness Contest: https://youtu.be/V93GQaDtv8w

- Dialect's video on Newton's Bucket: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz3mOlUOGoY

- Brian Roberts (physicist and philosopher): https://personal.lse.ac.uk/robert49/

- The Monk and the Philosopher: https://amzn.to/3Bva2mf

- More on the Gödel Universe: https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/15/1/013063

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00:00 Introduction

00:00:00 Inner World (conscious experience) vs. Outer World (physics)

00:05:35 Buddha's Parable of the Poison Arrow

00:11:05 Philosophy and Physics should be merged

00:13:33 No one wants to say that the Buddha was wrong

00:19:30 Scientifically studying "enlightenment"

00:23:29 When to stop taking psychedelics ("when you get the call, hang up!")

00:25:17 What is Loop Quantum Gravity?

00:36:39 Wheeler DeWitt equation

00:44:48 Self Dual and Anti Self Dual

00:48:16 Hodge Dual and the Metric

00:52:06 Linearized Gravity

00:55:32 Quantum Gravity

01:03:22 Einstein vs. Schrödinger (the behind the scenes scuffle)

01:09:24 Technical details of quantizing geometry

01:13:41 What is Yang Mills theory?

01:20:52 Tetrads and Vierbeins

01:24:26 Roger Penrose's approach to quantum gravity (Twistor Theory)

01:26:44 Einstein's "Hole argument"

01:40:48 Mach's Principle

01:49:04 Singularities and Black Holes

02:12:18 Quantum Bounce (the "Ashtekar Bounce")

02:23:07 Pure and Mixed Quantum Mechanical States

02:26:38 Black Holes and Event Horizons

02:42:09 ADM Decomposition

02:43:55 The Gödel Universe, Time Travel, and Closed Timelike Curves

02:52:38 Salvatore Pais asks about the Superforce

02:56:13 The universe before the Big Bang

03:01:44 String Theory vs. Loop Quantum Gravity

03:17:31 Ed Witten disses Loop Quantum Gravity and Ashtekar responds

03:21:14 Duality between String theory and LQG?

03:25:20 The Philosopher and the Monk

* * *

Just wrapped (April 2021) a documentary called Better Left Unsaid http://betterleftunsaidfilm.com on the topic of "when does the left go too far?" Visit that site if you'd like to watch it.