CM memes: Recent Episodes
Claus Metzner
I am PD Dr. Claus Metzner, a theoretical physicist. In my podcast, I share personal views mainly about Science and Philosophy, but also about Buddhism, Jazz, Good Life, and more. I am using self-played short Jazz pieces as breaks in my episodes. Please send any comments to claus.metzner@zoho.com and have a look at my website: https://tinyurl.com/clausmetzner . [ Es gibt noch 43 ältere Podcast-Folgen in deutscher Sprache: https://anchor.fm/claus-metzner ]
I talk about the mind as a strange 'compass', leading our way towards unexpected (and perhaps trans-personal) goals.
After reminding the materialists among my listeners on the distinction between physical reality and experience, I speculate that the physical world may be a rigid phase of consciousness that helps people minimize their anxiety.
I start talking about what goes wrong in modern science. In particular I discuss the difficulty of getting reliable data from complex systems and the problems that creates in society. I finally 'discover' traditional handcraft as a superior way of interacting with the world and of handling complexity. For a master craftsman, data gathering, model building and corrective action are unified to a single, continuous, subconscious process.
This is the first time I publish a genuine live conversation - with my old 'philosopher friend' Willi Schroll. No cuts, no edits. We talk about whether idealism is still stuck in misleading metaphors and discover our slightly different interpretations of 'existence'.
This episode is a mixed bag. After some announcements, I talk about my 'rediscovery' of room stereo, explorative habit changes, Twitter, my repeated knocking down of open doors, non-metacognitive consciousness, binaural beats and self-hypnosis.
In response to recent listener comments, I try to clarify the 'screen of perception'-metaphore and to substantiate my naive goal of short-term happiness maximization.
After some of my usual detours and personal anecdotes, I further explore the practical aspects of Idealism: How to live when subjective experience (instead of knowledge, abstract ideas, power and material property) are of central importance ? To be continued ...
I tried to report and record what is going on in mind while doing my daily 20 minutes of 'free-style' meditation.
I first reflect on my recent experiment with having a time-delayed interview on the show. Then I review the steps that let to my flip to idealism, in order to answer a listener question about how idealism has changed my daily life. Finally, I start to explore a new, 'practical' way of 'living' idealism - a topic some future episodes of this podcast may return to. References: The Lagrangian of the Standard Model (Ugly stuff) and Ian Miller's blog (Beautiful stuff).
We start to talk about the theoretical possibility of top-down-causation, using arguments from cybernetic control theory. We end with an hypothetical agent that dreams up the world and has a bias for simplicity.
In this first non-solo episode, I have a (time-delayed) conversation with Dr. Arthur Franz, who is devoting his time to built a 'thinking machine' - a generally intelligent agent that can create deep models of the world. This episode mainly serves a test case for the 'new' podcast format and to introduce Arthur and his way of thinking. Further conversations are planned in the future where we will dive deeper into Artificial General Intelligence and related scientific and philosophical topics. You can visit Arthur's WEBSITE to learn more about his unique approach.
In this improvised episode, I talk about the beauty and danger of reductionistic worldviews.
I struggle (again) with the Buddhist concept of emptiness and offer a (preliminary) interpretation from my naive perspective as a scientific idealist.
Motivated by a listener comment, I first reflect on whether it is a problem to talk publicly about topics without (much) knowledge. Finally, as part 1 of a new mini series on Buddhist concepts, I talk about Emptiness.
I first talk about the vagueness of notions like matter and mind, then about perplexity as a desirable mind state.
I start with new theories of natural evolution, touch on the limits of present AI, and end with new interpretations of prediction error minimization. LINKS
I respond to two important listener comments on existence (W.S.) and artificial consciousness (C.M.), ending up with the speculation that the brain is actively preventing us from leaving the 'human subspace of consciousness'.
Motivated by a listener comment, I end up trying to define 'existence' from the standpoint of an idealist (naively, with a beginner's mind). Finally I talk about the incompleteness of science.
I first provide some background information for my new listeners and then (re-)consider the role of science under idealism. Finally, I start to think about the minimum required ingredients for a scientifically transparent idealist worldview. To be continued ...
A Twitter user raised the topic of experiencing without experiencer. I approach the question first introspectively, then from the viewpoint of analytic idealism. This brings me to the predictive processing model and the notion of pure information.
After a comment on the 'bit string universe', I speculate about a possible link between Platonic ideal forms and cosmic evolution, and then present highlights from podcast interviews with Elon Musk and Gordon Hempton.
In this episode, I argue that some people misunderstand what is consciousness and what is physicality. I discuss the idea that the physical universe can be seen as pure evolving information, an abstract string of (q)bits, which our mind renders into structured experiences.
In this multi-topic episode, after some meta-talk about podcasting, I argue that minimalism will not work for everyone, that bodily health is not the only important goal in life, and that physicists and life scientists have a different notion of 'understanding a system'. Finally I present an idea from Michael Levin about the almost inevitable evolution of intelligence.
I first talk about our difficulties as humans to update our beliefs properly. I then discuss possibilities how our seemingly deterministic universe could be manipulated from outside our known reality. I then relate this idea to the latest trends in the UFO community. Link to a thought provoking comment of Luis Elizondo. Link to the conference video of 'Our future in Space'.
I first comment on a listener email and then talk about micro stress, caused by checkmark thinking and bad law making.
[Topical Review, Part 4: Minimalism, Jazz and Good Life]. I talk about these three topics and finally explore an analogy between food and information.
[Topical Review, Part 3: Buddhism] I start with my life-long interest in Buddhism and end up with sharing a recent dream.
[Topical Review, Part 2: Philosophy] I start with the question 'Is Idealism a functional worldview ?' and end with a speculation about the meaning of life (-: I start with the question 'Is Idealism a functional worldview' and end with a speculation about the meaning of life (-:
[Topical Review, Part 1: Science] I talk about my current research project, the life as a scientist, and about having fun with 'fringe science'. Also play the 'sound of a sleeping brain'. Mentioned: Michael Levin, Mike McCulloch, Paul LaViolette and Thomas Townsend Brown, Kaluza-Klein theory.
I talk about Stochastic Electrodynamics (SED), the Zero Point Field (ZPF), and the ideas of Joachim Keppler, who links these concepts from physics to consciousness.
After reporting a recent 'anxiety attack', I discuss the possibility that science might even work better under idealism.
A long-time listener, A.T., asked for my opinion on a talk between John Horgan and Sabine Hossenfelder. This episode is (part 1 of) my reply.
Reply to listener comments; New evidence for the 'Desktop' and 'Software' metaphors of mind and body.
References to 'That UFO podcast', an interview of Luis Elizondo on the 'Theories of Everything' podcast, an interview of Kevin Knuth also on TOE, and an interview of Sarah Walker on the Lex Fridman podcast.
Private News (Covid progress, Sleep research, Lucid dreaming); The common ground of materialism/physicalism and idealism; Idealism and scientific knowledge; The gap in our worldview; Reference to Max Tegmark: The universe IS mathematics . Really ???; Becoming agnostic about the 'Matrix'; The arrogance of present science; The independence of technological success and correct understanding.
Markov models of human behavior (Reference to video on computer composition); The strange persistence of the universe; Escaping the boring trap of materialism
Why the measurement problem has still not been solved. Watch this excellent, simple video on Decoherence Theory.
Getting rid not only of matter, but also of consciousness as a carrier or generator of experiences.
The idea of 'dreamed up reality' and a concrete model based on deep belief networks. See also this book, this video, and this paper.
Some personal news and a short introduction to the philosophy of Idealism. See also my essay and watch the following video segment from a talk of Rupert Spira.
Meditation and the deconstruction of our world model. Mindfulness versus Zen. Self inquiry as a guide to nonduality. [Reference to Rupert Spira and Adyashanti].
Serendipity, recognizing happiness, preparing for the worst without hoping for the best, and exploring consciousness to stop boredom.
Mindfulness training as a method to manipulate the transition probabilities between conscious experiences.
On the meaning of 'bonus episodes' and two simple exercises that might change your worldview.
This is just a bonus episode, without any real content. CM is sharing a leisurely Sunday afternoon hike in the forest close to his apartment. [ Comments please to claus.metzner@zoho.com ]
What this podcast is about and why the episodes will be very short. [ Comments please to claus.metzner@zoho.com ]