Recently, Professor Avi Loeb was tasked by the White House, AARO, ODNI, and the FBI with assembling and leading a new UAP Science Advisory Council — comprising astrophysicists, AI experts, and psychologists — to advise the intelligence community on unidentified anomalous phenomena. It was announced the same week the government released its third batch of declassified UAP files. Now he joins us live to talk about what that actually means — and what it doesn't.

This is not a "the aliens are here" stream. It's the harder conversation. I study the cosmic microwave background, and when we find an anomaly, we exhaust every instrument artifact and foreground before anyone whispers "new physics." I want to know why UAP science should run on a different evidentiary standard — and Loeb is exactly the right person to push on it, because he's already attributing much of the released footage to cosmic rays, balloons, and possibly Chinese drones, while holding the door open for the small fraction that stays unexplained.

WHAT WE GET INTO:

- The council, its mandate, and the question nobody's asking: does "advisory" mean anyone has to listen?

- The orbs — Chinese surveillance drones, classified US tech, or something else — and the prior you'd need before you say "non-human"

- Whether "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" gets applied selectively

- AI in the Galileo Project's detection pipeline, and the false-positive problem: what's the training comparison class for "non-human technology"?

- The critique that a council built to study the object ignores where the data actually comes from — human witnesses

GUEST:

Professor Avi Loeb — Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard, former chair of the Astronomy department, head of the Galileo Project, author of "Extraterrestrial" and "Interstellar."

Avi on X: https://x.com/ProfAviLoeb

Avi's Medium: https://avi-loeb.medium.com

Galileo Project: https://galileoproject.org

HOST:

Brian Keating — experimental cosmologist, UC San Diego.

Brian on X: https://x.com/briankeating

Brian's Medium: https://drbriankeating.medium.com/

Loeb's essay "Keeping Our Eyes on the Orbs, Not the Audience": https://avi-loeb.medium.com

CHAPTERS:

00:00 — "Chinese drones, or the biggest discovery in history?"

00:10 — Avi Loeb, live

00:40 — The White House just put him in charge of UAPs

10:00 — Legitimacy, or a gilded cage?

13:00 — The orbs: Chinese drones or something else?

24:00 — The prior: what's your base rate for "non-human"?

28:00 — The CMB standard: how a cosmologist kills an anomaly

33:00 — AI, SETI, and the false-positive problem

44:00 — Two cosmologists, one Nobel, one council

47:00 — Lightning round

50:00 — The Impossible Question

#uap #AviLoeb #UFO #Astrophysics #GalileoProject #SETI #IntoTheImpossible

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Roman Yampolskiy has spent two decades trying to prove that superintelligent AI can be controlled. He couldn’t. I invited him on to make his case. Subscribe if you want science with evidence, not speculation.

Roman is a professor of computer science at the University of Louisville and one of the earliest researchers in AI safety. His book AI: Unexplainable, Unpredictable, Uncontrollable started as an attempt to solve the alignment problem. After decades of work, it became a proof that the problem cannot be solved. Not difficult. Mathematically impossible.

I push back hard. We go after the Einstein test: can a large language model trained only on pre-1911 physics reproduce what Einstein did with the same data? We ran that experiment. It failed. Roman and I disagree about what that means. We also get into the halting problem and what it actually tells us about predicting smarter-than-human behavior, whether value alignment is a real problem or a well-funded category error, the case for a government moratorium on frontier model development, and why Roman thinks giving an AI agent access to your computer is the dumbest thing a smart person can do.

What you’ll hear:

Whether AI control is mathematically impossible or just unsolved

Why Roman thinks all current AI safety work is security theater

What the halting problem actually means for superintelligence

The alignment problem: real issue or well-funded category error

Why Roman wants a moratorium on frontier model development

What to tell your kids about careers in a world where Roman might be right

If you listen to other people, the best you can become is average.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Creating a mind without an off switch

01:34 Solving problems beyond our own intelligence

04:08 Einstein’s epiphany and the limit of AI intuition

08:18 Assessing the Einstein test: Why the experiment failed

12:22 Path dependency: Are LLMs and GPUs our QWERTY?

16:10 The barriers preventing AI from solving physics

21:54 Safety vs. Capability: Why toddlers are safe but teens are not

23:06 The halting problem: Predicting agents smarter than us

25:58 The impossibility of a system proving its own integrity

28:18 Regulation: Genuine safety or a gift to oligarchs?

33:28 Is human cognition non-computable? Penrose vs. the field

39:00 Ethical duties: Must we treat AI with humanity?

43:00 From internet memes to monsters: Decoding the book cover

46:22 Customized realities: Can everyone have their perfect world?

49:50 Von Neumann probes and the panspermia hypothesis

55:02 Categorizing AI: The one version that should terrify you

58:22 Pause AI: The movement for a development moratorium

59:58 Career advice for kids in a post-professional world

01:07:58 Cross-examining Sam Altman

01:15:48 Roman’s dream debate

01:19:50 Lessons for a younger self

Substack: https://briankeating.substack.com

Get the transcript, fascinating bonus content, and my Monday M.A.G.I.C. Message: https://briankeating.com/yt

Have a .edu email and live in the USA? You automatically win a meteorite: https://BrianKeating.com/edu

Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1

Support Into the Impossible on Patreon, get my weekly M.A.G.I.C. Message, unfiltered bonus content, and live monthly Office Hours with me: https://www.patreon.com/drbriankeating

Join this channel for perks, monthly Office Hours, and your name in the Member Roster at the end of every episode: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/join

Featured Guest:

Roman Yampolskiy on Twitter/X: https://x.com/romanyam?lang=en

AI: Unexplainable, Unpredictable, Uncontrollable: https://www.romanyampolskiy.com/books/

My books:

Losing the Nobel Prize (memoir): http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA

Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu

Focus Like a Nobel Prize Winner: https://a.co/d/hi50U9U

Galileo’s Dialogue (first-ever audiobook): https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un

Twitter/X: https://x.com/BrianKeating

Substack: https://briankeating.substack.com

Blog: https://briankeating.com/blog

Audio-only: https://briankeating.com/podcast

#intotheimpossible #briankeating #AIrisk #artificialintelligence #aisafety #podcast #superintelligence #RomanYampolskiy

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Physicist fact-checks Michio Kaku's biggest claims — quantum collapse of capitalism, Theory of Everything, black hole gateways. Does celebrity physics do more damage than good?

Brian Keating breaks down Michio Kaku's viral @TheDiaryOfACEO "World-Renowned Physicist: They Are Lying To You About UFOs & Reality - Michio Kaku" https://youtu.be/opB7_JXL0LA?si=RzVyEgwKtQRzs9Ao

I fact-check everything from quantum computing to black holes to the multiverse.

Why quantum computers won't kill capitalism overnight

String theory: candidate framework or confirmed Theory of Everything?

"Read the mind of God" — Einstein's phrase or Hawking's?

Tabby Star: aliens vs. dust, and why Kaku buries the retreat

Black holes as gateways, wormholes as cousins of black holes, and what spaghettification actually rules out

Celebrity physicists who present speculation as settled science set back the field more than any funding cut.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Quantum computers and capitalism collapse

01:23 What quantum computing actually can and can't do

03:39 String theory and the Theory of Everything

06:16 Who really said "read the mind of God"

09:40 Tabby Star: aliens or something boring?

13:45 11 dimensions: prediction or math requirement?

18:19 Is dark matter made of string vibrations?

23:03 The multiverse bubble bath — poetry or physics?

28:39 Wormholes vs. black holes: not very similar

34:22 Simulation theory and Kaku's "Option Four"

37:37 Verdict: great communicator, bad epistemics

———

📬 Get the transcript, fascinating bonus content, and my Monday M.A.G.I.C. Message: https://briankeating.com/yt

🌠 Have a .edu email and live in the USA 🇺🇸? You automatically win a meteorite: https://BrianKeating.com/edu

🔔 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1

🎯 Support Into the Impossible on Patreon — get my weekly M.A.G.I.C. Message, unfiltered bonus content, and live monthly Office Hours with me: https://www.patreon.com/drbriankeating

⭐ Join this channel for perks, monthly Office Hours, and your name in the Member Roster at the end of every episode: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/join

📚 My books:

Losing the Nobel Prize (memoir): http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA

Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu

Focus Like a Nobel Prize Winner: https://a.co/d/hi50U9U

Galileo's Dialogue (first-ever audiobook): https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un

🌐 More:

🏄‍♂️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrianKeating

📚 Substack: https://briankeating.substack.com/ss

✍️ Blog: https://briankeating.com/blog

🎙️ Audio-only: https://briankeating.com/podcast

#intotheimpossible #briankeating #science #physics #astronomy #cosmology #podcast #universe #michiokaku

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A practicing astrophysicist who doesn't believe in the tunnel of light, the hovering soul, or the wailing relatives — but believes in one near-death experience that changed science forever. By the end you'll believe in it too.

Today on Into the Impossible: the strangest, darkest, most personal origin story behind the world's most famous prize — and what it should make you do with the time you have left.

🔴 Just released — my conversation with Mayim Bialik on her pod that goes even deeper on near-death experiences: 👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwFTWTbC5lk

If you came here from Mayim's channel — welcome. Subscribe and stay for science with evidence, not speculation: 👉 https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1

Dr. Brian Keating is a cosmologist at UC San Diego and author of Losing the Nobel Prize. He has a personal stake in this story — and he's nominated Nobel winners twice.

We cover: why a physicist takes near-death experiences seriously, the four deaths that built a fortune on nitroglycerin, the newspaper that confused two brothers and printed the wrong man's obituary, the one-page handwritten will that gave away 94% of an estate — and the wishes the Nobel Committee has quietly ignored ever since.

Rosalind Franklin never won. Vera Rubin never won. That's not a footnote.

CHAPTERS

00:00 A physicist who believes in near-death experiences. Why?

00:54 Four sons, one dangerous liquid

02:00 Emil dies at 20 — Alfred isn't at the factory

03:40 The inventor who died with nothing

05:16 The company that pumped half the world's oil

06:00 The newspaper prints the wrong obituary

07:04 Why the real notice is worse than the myth

09:06 Scrooge, George Bailey, and a literary near-death experience

10:40 94% of his estate, five prizes, one rule

13:00 Why Nobel cut out his own family

15:22 My BICEP announcement — and my stake in the prize

16:44 Where the Nobel Committee strayed from the will

Get the transcript, fascinating bonus content, and my Monday M.A.G.I.C. Message: https://briankeating.com/yt

Have a .edu email and live in the USA? You automatically win a meteorite: https://BrianKeating.com/edu

Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1

Support Into the Impossible on Patreon — weekly M.A.G.I.C. Message, unfiltered bonus content, monthly Office Hours: https://www.patreon.com/drbriankeating

Join this channel for perks, monthly Office Hours, and your name in the Member Roster: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/join

My books: Losing the Nobel Prize (memoir): http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA

Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu

Focus Like a Nobel Prize Winner: https://a.co/d/hi50U9U

Galileo's Dialogue (first-ever audiobook): https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un

Twitter/X: https://x.com/BrianKeating

Substack: https://briankeating.substack.com

Blog: https://briankeating.com/blog

Audio-only: https://briankeating.com/podcast

#intotheimpossible #briankeating #NearDeathExperience #NobelPrize #AlfredNobel #science #physics #podcast

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Peter Diamandis has built more of the future than almost anyone alive. He founded XPRIZE. He co-founded Singularity University with Ray Kurzweil. He started Human Longevity with Craig Venter. And in his new book with Steven Kotler, We Are as Gods, he argues that artificial intelligence isn't just changing what we can do. It's changing what it means to be human.

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An astrophysicist and founder of Reasons to Believe argues the universe looks increasingly designed for life — while a cosmologist challenges whether fine-tuning proves anything at all.

If we're alone in the cosmos, the implications are staggering. If we're not, it could change science, religion, and humanity's future forever.

Hugh Ross is an astrophysicist, founder of Reasons to Believe, and author focused on the intersection of science and faith.

We cover:

- Why the search for extraterrestrial life may be making Earth look more unique

- Whether fine-tuning points to a Creator or a multiverse

- What happens if AI becomes the dominant intelligence in the universe

- Why scientists increasingly believe intelligent aliens exist despite lacking evidence

- The cosmic time windows that make human existence possible

Can hope survive in a universe that eventually dies?

Timestamps:

00:00 Why Are We Here at All?

10:44 Is the Universe Designed to Kill Us?

20:25 The Evidence That Humans Are Different

29:42 Why Scientists Still Believe in Aliens

40:08 The 25 Conditions Life Needs to Exist

49:42 Does Fine-Tuning Prove a Creator?

55:37 Could an Alien Have a Soul?

1:03:26 What Happens After This Universe Ends?

1:05:59 Do Parallel Universes Solve Anything?

1:12:09 Will AI Replace Humanity First?

1:17:55 The Strongest Case Against Fine-Tuning

1:24:00 Would You Baptize an Alien?

———

📬 Get the transcript, fascinating bonus content, and my Monday M.A.G.I.C. Message: https://briankeating.com/yt

🌠 Have a .edu email and live in the USA 🇺🇸? You automatically win a meteorite: https://BrianKeating.com/edu

🔔 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1

🎯 Support Into the Impossible on Patreon — get my weekly M.A.G.I.C. Message, unfiltered bonus content, and live monthly Office Hours with me: https://www.patreon.com/drbriankeating

⭐ Join this channel for perks, monthly Office Hours, and your name in the Member Roster at the end of every episode:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/join

📚 My books:

Losing the Nobel Prize (memoir): http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA

Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu

Focus Like a Nobel Prize Winner: https://a.co/d/hi50U9U

Galileo's Dialogue (first-ever audiobook): https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un

🌐 More:

🏄‍♂️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating

📚 Substack https://briankeating.substack.com/ss

✍️ Blog: https://briankeating.com/blog

🎙️ Audio-only: https://briankeating.com/podcast

#intotheimpossible #briankeating #science #physics #astronomy #cosmology #podcast #universe #extraterrestrial #scienceandfaith

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An experimental cosmologist with 35 years of CMB research breaks down the curvature tension — and why the viral claim that "everything we know about cosmology is wrong" doesn't survive contact with the actual data.

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What you think is "the world" isn't outside you. It's a simulation your brain produces, and the self that experiences it may not exist in the way you think it does.J oscha Bach is an AI researcher and cognitive scientist whose work sits at the intersection of computation, consciousness, and the architecture of the mind. He's one of the few thinkers willing to explain what experience actually is in mechanistic terms — without retreating to mysticism or handwaving.

We cover:

-why the world you perceive is a model your brain generates — not the physical world itself

-what's actually wrong with Roger Penrose's quantum consciousness theory

-why simulating a connectome won't produce behavior

-what neuroscience is still missing; whether AGI is possible on current hardware -how religion functions as an operating system for civilizations

-why atheists like Sam Harris may be more Protestant than they realize

The self is not the substrate. You are not your neurons — you're the pattern running on them.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

00:00 You Don't Live in the World — It Lives in You

10:05 Why Scientists Refuse to Explain Reality

14:50 Where Joscha Disagrees with David Deutsch

21:10 What Would a Truly Intelligent Machine Actually Do?

25:00 Why Chess Destroys Good Minds30:40 Can You Upload a Brain? What Neuroscience Gets Wrong

38:45 Why Einstein Needed a Body to Discover Relativity

46:00 AI Companies as Prophets of the New Religion

50:10 You Don't Die Because You Were Never Really Alive

57:50 Religion as a Civilizational Operating System

1:04:00 What the Torah Knew That Sam Harris Doesn't

1:12:00 What Is God, Actually?

1:18:00 What Bach University Would Teach

1:27:50 Confronting Your Own Death

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Juan Maldacena is a theoretical physicist at the Institute for Advanced Study whose 1997 paper remains the most cited in the history of theoretical physics.

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A Princeton cognitive scientist says AI can't think like a child — and giving it more data won't fix that.

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