Top physicists Emily Adlam and Jacob Barandes deliver a powerful takedown of the Many Worlds Interpretation. In this episode, they expose why it’s more philosophical fantasy than scientific theory, revealing its lack of testability, predictive power, and real-world grounding. If you’ve ever questioned whether parallel universes are legitimate physics or just sci-fi masquerading as science, this conversation will challenge everything.

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Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction

01:08 Philosophical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics

3:22 The Nature of Self-Identity

10:59 Exploring Branching Universes

12:54 Collaboration Between Physicists and Philosophers

16:51 Understanding Probability and Credence

29:12 The Role of Indexicals in Consciousness

36:36 Causation and Its Implications

45:45 Disagreement on Personal Identity

51:03 The Hard Problem of Consciousness

1:00:35 Reflections on Conscious Experience

1:08:05 Concluding Thoughts on Mind and Identity

1:08:48 Time and Mind

1:09:09 The Concept of the World Line

1:14:43 Active Consciousness and Agency

1:19:12 The Hard Problem of Consciousness

1:36:15 Emergence in Physics

1:55:46 Speculation vs. Rigorous Argument

2:06:13 Philosophy's Contribution to Physics

2:12:43 Bridging Philosophy and Physics

Links Mentioned:

•⁠ ⁠Emily’s first appearance on TOE: https://youtu.be/6I2OhmVWLMs

•⁠ ⁠Emily’s profile: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Emily-Adlam

•⁠ ⁠Jacob’s first appearance on TOE: https://youtu.be/7oWip00iXbo

•⁠ ⁠Jacob’s website: https://www.jacobbarandes.com/

•⁠ ⁠Jacob Barandes on TOE: https://youtu.be/YaS1usLeXQM

•⁠ ⁠Against Self-Location (paper): https://arxiv.org/pdf/2409.05259

•⁠ ⁠Eddy Chen & Barry Loewer on TOE: https://youtu.be/xZnafO__IZ0

•⁠ ⁠Julian Barbour on TOE: https://youtu.be/bprxrGaf0Os

•⁠ ⁠Robert Sapolsky on TOE: https://youtu.be/z0IqA1hYKY8

•⁠ ⁠Curt’s Consciousness Iceberg: https://youtu.be/65yjqIDghEk

•⁠ ⁠Iain McGilchrist on TOE: https://youtu.be/Q9sBKCd2HD0

•⁠ ⁠Stories of Your Life and Others (book): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1101972122

•⁠ ⁠Matt Segall on TOE: https://youtu.be/DeTm4fSXpbM

•⁠ ⁠TOE’s Free Will compilation: https://youtu.be/SSbUCEleJhg

•⁠ ⁠Manolis Kellis & Jacob Barandes debate: https://youtu.be/MTD8xkbiGis

•⁠ ⁠“The Incompatibility of Free Will and Determinism” (paper): https://iweb.langara.ca/rjohns/files/2013/01/van_inwagen.pdf

•⁠ ⁠After Physics (book): https://www.amazon.com/dp/067497087X

•⁠ ⁠Michael Levin on TOE: https://youtu.be/c8iFtaltX-s

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