#370 – Edward Frenkel: Reality is a Paradox – Mathematics, Physics, Truth & Love

Edward Frenkel is a mathematician at UC Berkeley working on the interface of mathematics and quantum physics. He is the author of Love and Math: The Heart of Hidden Reality. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:

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EPISODE LINKS:

Edward's Website: https://edwardfrenkel.com

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Edward's Twitter: https://twitter.com/edfrenkel

Edward's YouTube: https://youtube.com/edfrenkel

Edward's Instagram: https://instagram.com/edfrenkel

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OUTLINE:

Here's the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.

(00:00) - Introduction

(05:54) - Mathematics in the Soviet Union

(16:05) - Nature of reality

(27:23) - Scientific discoveries

(40:45) - Observing reality

(56:57) - Complex numbers

(1:05:42) - Imagination

(1:13:33) - Pythagoreanism

(1:21:28) - AI and love

(1:34:07) - Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems

(1:54:32) - Beauty in mathematics

(1:59:02) - Eric Weinstein

(2:20:57) - Langlands Program

(2:27:36) - Edward Witten

(2:30:41) - String theory

(2:36:10) - Theory of everything

(2:45:03) - Mathematics in academia

(2:50:30) - How to think

(2:56:16) - Fermat's Last Theorem

(3:11:07) - Eric Weinstein and Harvard

(3:18:32) - Antisemitism

(3:38:45) - Mortality

(3:46:42) - Love