In this episode Urs Schreiber explains how higher category theory can generate physical structures—from the empty set to fermions and even 11‑dimensional supergravity—by treating mathematics as the structure of structure. The discussion weaves philosophy, topology, and gauge theory to show how “something” can emerge from “nothing.”

- 00:00 - Introduction
- 01:27 - The Creation of nLab
- 04:36 - Philosophy Meets Physics
- 07:55 - The Role of Mathematical Language
- 09:32 - Emergence from Nothing
- 16:25 - Towards a Theory of Everything
- 22:21 - The Problem with Modern Physics
- 25:31 - Diving into Category Theory
- 35:30 - Understanding Adjunctions
- 41:46 - The Significance of Duality
- 52:54 - Exploring Toposes
- 1:14:20 - The UNEDA Lemma and Generalized Spaces
- 1:16:37 - Charts in Physics
- 1:20:55 - Introduction to Infinitesimal Disks
- 1:23:56 - The Emergence of Supergeometry
- 1:27:33 - Transitioning to Gauge Theories
- 1:28:11 - Exploring Singularities in Physics
- 1:32:50 - The Role of Superformal Spaces
- 1:36:44 - Functors and Their Implications
- 1:40:51 - From Nothing to Emergent Structures
- 1:43:04 - Hegel's Influence on Modern Physics
- 1:54:07 - Discovering Higher-Dimensional Structures
- 1:56:30 - The Path to 11-Dimensional Supergravity
- 1:57:21 - Universal Central Extensions
- 2:03:21 - The Journey to M-Theory
- 2:11:19 - Globalizing the Structure of Supergravity
- 2:15:36 - Understanding Global Charges in Physics
- 2:23:31 - Dirac's Insights into Gauge Potentials
- 2:30:21 - The Quest for Non-Perturbative Physics
- 2:39:04 - Conclusion

SPONSORS:

- The Economist: special 20% off discount for TOE listeners – https://www.economist.com/toe
- Curt Jaimungal Substack: Personal writings – https://curtjaimungal.substack.com
- Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/SpotifyTOE
- YouTube Membership: Early Access Videos – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdWIQh9DGG6uhJk8eyIFl1w/join
- Patreon: Support TOE – https://patreon.com/curtjaimungal

RESOURCES:

- Link to technical details are here from Urs Schreiber: https://ncatlab.org/schreiber/show/Peri+Pantheorias
- nLab website: https://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/HomePage
- Paper on category theory: https://people.math.osu.edu/cogdell.1/6112-Eilenberg&MacLane-www.pdf
- "Higher Topos Theory for Physics" (Urs's talk): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD20W6vxMI4
- "Higher Topos Theory for Physics" (Urs's paper): https://arxiv.org/pdf/2311.11026
- Stephen Wolfram on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YRlQQw0d-4
- Feynman's thesis: https://faculty.washington.edu/seattle/physics541/2012-path-integrals/thesis.pdf
- Differential cohomology in a cohesive ∞-topos (Urs's paper): https://arxiv.org/pdf/1310.7930
- M-Theory from the Superpoint (paper): https://arxiv.org/pdf/1702.01774
- Character Map in Non-Abelian Cohomology, The: Twisted, Differential, and Generalized (textbook): https://amzn.to/4bFuz7H
- TOE's String Theory Iceberg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4PdPnQuwjY

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices