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244. Johnjoe McFadden — Life is Simple: How Occam’s Razor Set Science Free and Shapes the UniverseMcFadden — Life is Simple: How Occam’s Razor Set Science Free and Shapes the Universe

244. Johnjoe McFadden — Life is Simple: How Occam’s Razor Set Science Free and Shapes the UniverseMcFadden — Life is Simple: How Occam’s Razor Set Sci…

FromThe Michael Shermer Show


244. Johnjoe McFadden — Life is Simple: How Occam’s Razor Set Science Free and Shapes the UniverseMcFadden — Life is Simple: How Occam’s Razor Set Sci…

FromThe Michael Shermer Show

ratings:
Length:
118 minutes
Released:
Jan 25, 2022
Format:
Podcast episode

Description

Centuries ago, the principle of Ockham’s razor changed our world by showing simpler answers to be preferable and more often true. In Life Is Simple, scientist Johnjoe McFadden traces centuries of discoveries, taking us from a geocentric cosmos to quantum mechanics and DNA, arguing that simplicity has revealed profound answers to the greatest mysteries. In McFadden’s view, life could only have emerged by embracing maximal simplicity, making the fundamental law of the universe a cosmic form of natural selection that favors survival of the simplest. Shermer and McFadden discuss: from what was science set free?; what William of Occam’s razor cut; Bayes’s probability razor; Ptolemaic vs. Tychonic vs. Copernican world systems in terms of simplicity; simplicity in math, physics, biology, medicine, and the social sciences; Einstein’s razor: how does relativity theory simplify the universe?; Postmodernism and the search for Truth; McFadden’s explanations for solving the hard problems of consciousness, free will, and determinism, and more …
Released:
Jan 25, 2022
Format:
Podcast episode

Titles in the series (100)

In the tradition of the Enlightenment salons that helped drive the Age of Reason, Science Salon is a series of conversations between Dr. Michael Shermer and leading scientists, scholars, and thinkers, about the most important issues of our time.