David Deutsch and Naval Ravikant — The Fabric of Reality

Brought to you by AG1 all-in-one nutritional supplement: https://drinkag1.com/tim Resources from this episode: https://tim.blog/2023/03/23/david-deutsch-naval-ravikant/#more-66873 David Deutsch (@DavidDeutschOxf) is a visiting professor of physics at the Centre for Quantum Computation, a part of the Clarendon Laboratory at Oxford University, and an honorary fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford. He works on fundamental issues in physics, particularly the quantum theory of computation and information and especially constructor theory, which he is proposing as a new way of formulating laws of nature. He is the author of The Fabric of Reality and The Beginning of Infinity, and he is an advocate of the philosophy of Karl Popper. Naval Ravikant (@naval) is the co-founder of Airchat and AngelList. He has invested in more than 100 companies, including many mega-successes, such as Twitter, Uber, Notion, Opendoor, Postmates, and Wish. You can see his latest musings on Airchat and subscribe to Naval, his podcast on wealth and happiness, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find his blog at nav.al. For more Naval-plus-Tim, check out my wildly popular interview with him from 2015 (nominated for “Podcast of the Year”) and our conversation from 2020. Naval also co-piloted the interviews with Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin and famed investor Chris Dixon. Please enjoy! Tim Ferriss is one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business People” and an early-stage tech investor/advisor in Uber, Facebook, Twitter, Shopify, Duolingo, Alibaba, and 50+ other companies. He is also the author of five #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers: The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, The 4-Hour Chef, Tools of Titans and Tribe of Mentors. The Observer and other media have named him “the Oprah of audio” due to the influence of his podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show, which has exceeded 900 million downloads and been selected for “Best of Apple Podcasts” three years running. Sign up for "5-Bullet Friday" (Tim's free weekly email newsletter): https://go.tim.blog/5-bullet-friday-yt/ Follow the Tim Ferriss Podcast: https://tim.blog/podcast/ Visit the Tim Ferriss Blog: https://tim.blog/ Follow Tim Ferriss on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tferriss/ Follow Tim Ferriss on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/timferriss/ Like Tim Ferriss on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TimFerriss/ [00:00] Intro [08:03] The impact The Fabric of Reality and The Beginning of Infinity have had on Naval. [10:07] The four strands. [13:04] Dispelling common misconceptions about science. [19:26] How does knowledge grow? [24:26] The benefits of understanding the four strands. [32:47] How quantum computing arose from trying to test a multiverse theory. [37:40] What a good explanation looks like. [42:43] How do conjecture and criticism give us a basis for optimism? [48:38] Translating knowledge into action. [51:20] Artificial intelligence (AI) vs. artificial general intelligence (AGI). [56:54] AGI is people! But how do we ensure it’ll be good people? [1:03:03] What’s taking AGI so long to get here? [1:08:59] Chemical scum that dream of distant quasars. [1:17:47] Are humans central to the universe, or just a sideshow? [1:20:17] Wealth and resources. [1:25:30] Recommended thinkers. [1:28:05] Taking Children Seriously, ToKCast, Critical Rationalists, and Popper 101. [1:31:55] David’s most interesting problems right now. [1:39:24] Parting thoughts.

Tim FerrisshostNaval RavikantguestDavid Deutschguest

Mar 24, 20231h 48mWatch on YouTube ↗

EPISODE INFO

Released: March 24, 2023
Duration: 1h 48m
Channel: Tim Ferriss
Watch on YouTube: ▶ Open ↗

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Brought to you by AG1 all-in-one nutritional supplement: https://drinkag1.com/tim Resources from this episode: https://tim.blog/2023/03/23/david-deutsch-naval-ravikant/#more-66873 David Deutsch (@DavidDeutschOxf) is a visiting professor of physics at the Centre for Quantum Computation, a part of the Clarendon Laboratory at Oxford University, and an honorary fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford. He works on fundamental issues in physics, particularly the quantum theory of computation and information and especially constructor theory, which he is proposing as a new way of formulating laws of nature. He is the author of The Fabric of Reality and The Beginning of Infinity, and he is an advocate of the philosophy of Karl Popper. Naval Ravikant (@naval) is the co-founder of Airchat and AngelList. He has invested in more than 100 companies, including many mega-successes, such as Twitter, Uber, Notion, Opendoor, Postmates, and Wish. You can see his latest musings on Airchat and subscribe to Naval, his podcast on wealth and happiness, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find his blog at nav.al. For more Naval-plus-Tim, check out my wildly popular interview with him from 2015 (nominated for “Podcast of the Year”) and our conversation from 2020. Naval also co-piloted the interviews with Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin and famed investor Chris Dixon. Please enjoy! Tim Ferriss is one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business People” and an early-stage tech investor/advisor in Uber, Facebook, Twitter, Shopify, Duolingo, Alibaba, and 50+ other companies. He is also the author of five #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers: The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, The 4-Hour Chef, Tools of Titans and Tribe of Mentors. The Observer and other media have named him “the Oprah of audio” due to the influence of his podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show, which has exceeded 900 million downloads and been selected for “Best of Apple Podcasts” three years running. Sign up for "5-Bullet Friday" (Tim's free weekly email newsletter): https://go.tim.blog/5-bullet-friday-yt/ Follow the Tim Ferriss Podcast: https://tim.blog/podcast/ Visit the Tim Ferriss Blog: https://tim.blog/ Follow Tim Ferriss on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tferriss/ Follow Tim Ferriss on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/timferriss/ Like Tim Ferriss on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TimFerriss/ [00:00] Intro [08:03] The impact The Fabric of Reality and The Beginning of Infinity have had on Naval. [10:07] The four strands. [13:04] Dispelling common misconceptions about science. [19:26] How does knowledge grow? [24:26] The benefits of understanding the four strands. [32:47] How quantum computing arose from trying to test a multiverse theory. [37:40] What a good explanation looks like. [42:43] How do conjecture and criticism give us a basis for optimism? [48:38] Translating knowledge into action. [51:20] Artificial intelligence (AI) vs. artificial general intelligence (AGI). [56:54] AGI is people! But how do we ensure it’ll be good people? [1:03:03] What’s taking AGI so long to get here? [1:08:59] Chemical scum that dream of distant quasars. [1:17:47] Are humans central to the universe, or just a sideshow? [1:20:17] Wealth and resources. [1:25:30] Recommended thinkers. [1:28:05] Taking Children Seriously, ToKCast, Critical Rationalists, and Popper 101. [1:31:55] David’s most interesting problems right now. [1:39:24] Parting thoughts.

SPEAKERS

Tim Ferriss
host
Host of The Tim Ferriss Show and author/podcast interviewer.
Naval Ravikant
guest
Entrepreneur and investor who participates here as a co-questioner discussing epistemology, wealth, and decision-making.
David Deutsch
guest
Physicist and author of The Fabric of Reality, known for work on quantum computation and constructor theory.

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Tim Ferriss, featuring Tim Ferriss and Naval Ravikant, David Deutsch and Naval Ravikant — The Fabric of Reality explores deutsch and Ravikant link knowledge, explanation, optimism, and reality’s “strands” Naval Ravikant argues that David Deutsch’s books synthesize a worldview by weaving together Popperian epistemology, evolution, computation, and quantum theory into mutually reinforcing “strands.”

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