PodcastsNatuurkundeThe Last Theory

The Last Theory

Mark Jeffery
The Last Theory
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82 afleveringen

  • The Last Theory

    Wolfram on philosophy

    22-03-2026 | 7 Min.
    Stephen Wolfram has many philosophical ideas, but I’ve not heard him talk about pure philosophy.
    When I asked him about the relationship between physics and philosophy, I understood why.
    Stephen revealed that he’s much more at home in the concrete world of computer experiments than in the arguments of the philosophers.
    “When I look at the arguments,” he says, “I can’t tell if they make sense or not. There’s too much wiggling...”


    Stephen Wolfram
    Stephen Wolfram
    The Wolfram Physics Project
    Wolfram Institute
    Wolfram Institute Community Discord
    People and concepts mentioned by Stephen
    Immanuel Kant
    Kant’s antinomies
    Computational equivalence
    The Ruliad
    The Concept of the Ruliad

    The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery founder of Open Web Mind
    I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.
    Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.
  • The Last Theory

    How different observers think differently with Stephen Wolfram

    05-03-2026 | 9 Min.
    Do different observers think differently? Or does the principle of computational equivalence mean that all observers think the same way?
    Stephen Wolfram takes this question and runs with it.
    If we had brains the size of planets, he suggests, the finite speed of light would force us to think of space and time differently, and abandon the fiction of an instantaneous state of space.
    If we had brains the size of molecules, he says, we’d no longer think of the motion of molecules as random, and we’d find the heat death of the universe a far more interesting prospect.
    And if we were able to hold multiple paths through the multiway graph in our minds at the same time, we’d have multiple threads of experience... and some complicated conversations!
    We think the way we think because we are the way we are... if we were much larger-scale, much smaller-scale or if we had multiway minds, then we’d think very differently.
    And this has some serious consequences, Stephen suggests, in fields as diverse as molecular biology and parallel computing.

    Stephen Wolfram
    Stephen Wolfram
    The Wolfram Physics Project
    Wolfram Institute
    Wolfram Institute Community Discord
    Credits
    Fullerene by YassineMrabet licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0

    The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery founder of Open Web Mind

    I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.
    Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.
  • The Last Theory

    What is time in Wolfram Physics?

    05-02-2026 | 18 Min.
    Physics, the way we’ve thought about it for the last few hundred years, requires us to make assumptions about time.
    In our old way of thinking, just as we must assume three axes of space – scales along which we can measure what’s where – so we must assume an axis of time – a scale along which we can measure what happens when.
    It doesn’t matter whether, like Newton, we assume an absolute scale along which we can measure what happens when according to a giant clock in the sky, or whether, like Einstein, we assume a relative scale along which we can measure what happens when according to a tiny clock in each and every reference frame.
    Either way, we must assume an axis of time.
    Wolfram Physics, on the other hand, doesn’t require us to make anyassumptions about time.
    We need only posit the application of rules to the nodes and edges of the hypergraph, and time emerges.
    The evolution of the hypergraph is time...
    ...which gives us a profound clue, not just to the nature of time, but to the nature of the universe.

    References
    The canonical mass of a neutron star is 1.4 solar masses
    The mass of the Sun is 1.988416 × 10^30 kg
    The mass of a neutron is 1.67492750056(85) × 10^-27 kg
    So the number of neutrons in a neutron star, assuming neutron stars are made entirely of neutrons (which they’re not), is 1.4 × 1.988416 × 10^30 kg / 1.67492750056(85) × 10^-27 kg ~ 10^57
    Credits
    Pulsar animation by Michael Kramer licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
    Retina image by د.مصطفى الجزار licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

    The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery founder of Open Web Mind

    I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.
    The full article is here.
    Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.
  • The Last Theory

    Think like an alien with Stephen Wolfram

    02-01-2026 | 9 Min.
    Different observers, from different regions of the ruliad, experience the universe in different ways.
    To what extent can these different observers communicate their different experiences?
    Can dogs, with their olefactory ways of mapping their worlds through scent, truly understand humans, with our one-dimensional ways of mapping our world through language?
    Can humans, with our one-dimensional streams of language, truly understand AI image generators, with their parallel diffusion models?
    If we ever met aliens, would we be able to communicate with them?
    How might it be to think like an alien?
    Stephen Wolfram explores some of the mind-bending implications of different regions of the ruliad giving rise to different experiences of the universe. 

    Stephen Wolfram
    Stephen Wolfram
    The Wolfram Physics Project
    Wolfram Institute
    Wolfram Institute Community Discord
    References
    Ruliad definition
    Ruliad article

    The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery founder of Open Web Mind

    I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.
    Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.
  • The Last Theory

    Ruliad + observer = physics ... also aliens

    18-12-2025 | 12 Min.
    The ruliad is every possible computation. What could you possibly say about such an enormous, all-encompassing object?
    Well, that’s where we come in.
    Particular observers sample the ruliad in particular ways.
    Observers like us sample the ruliad in ways that give rise to physics as weknow it.
    Ruliad + observer = physics.
    In this excerpt from my conversation with Stephen Wolfram, he explores how physics, mathematics and biology all arise from this same enormous, all-encompassing object, the ruliad.
    He gets to aliens, too, asking such provocative questions as how far from us in rulial space are the nearest aliens?

    Stephen Wolfram
    Stephen Wolfram
    The Wolfram Physics Project
    Wolfram Institute
    Wolfram Institute Community Discord
    References
    Ruliad definition
    Ruliad article
    Second Law of Thermodynamics article
    Second Law of Thermodynamics history
    Metamathematics article
    Metamathematics book
    Biological evolution article
    Biological evolution follow-up
    Computational irreducibility

    The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery founder of Open Web Mind

    I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.
    Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

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Over The Last Theory

The Last Theory is an easy-to-follow exploration of what might be the last theory of physics. In 2020, Stephen Wolfram launched the Wolfram Physics Project to find the elusive fundamental theory that explains everything. On The Last Theory podcast, I investigate the implications of Wolfram's ideas and dig into the details of how his universe works. Join me for fresh insights into Wolfram Physics every other week.
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