StarTalk Radio

Here's one we all saw and know about, whether or not we read it, The God Delusion.

That puts you in the same plateau as... That puts you on a plateau to be identified as one of the Four Horsemen.

Not a phrase that any of us actually... It was bestowed upon you?

So it was Daniel Dannet, Christopher Hitchens. Sam Harris.

And both of them are past. Sam Harris and you.

I've read The Selfish Gene. I've read The Blind Watchmaker. I've read The God Delusion and I've read parts of other books.

I'm afraid it is, yes.

I would like it to be one of the science books, but it is, yes.

Because people are interested in the subject of God.

I've read The God Delusion

I'm afraid it is, yes.

I would like it to be one of the science books, but it is, yes.

I think you're exaggerating the desire of the secular movement to convert everybody to our point of view.

We're not like missionaries knocking on the door and sort of saying have you found Jesus or that sort of thing. Or have you not found Jesus? Yes. Have you lost Jesus yet?

It isn't really like that. It's rather more, we want to convert you not to atheism, but to the view that atheists should not be discriminated against.

I think you're exaggerating the desire of the secular movement to convert everybody to our point of view. We're not like missionaries knocking on the door and sort of saying have you found Jesus or that sort of thing.

It isn't really like that. It's rather more, we want to convert you not to atheism, but to the view that atheists should not be discriminated against.

Plus, Richard Gott has a book called Time Travel in Einstein's Universe

Which are all the ways you can use relativity to engage not only forward but also backwards time travel

In fact, he's been on StarTalk before. He wrote a book called Time Travel in Einstein's Universe and he found an solution to Einstein's equations that allows backwards time travel with the kind of a slingshot trajectory but not around the sun.

His name is Rich Gott. In fact, he's been on Star Talk before. He wrote a book called Time Travel in Einstein's Universe.

In fact, he's been on StarTalk before. He wrote a book called Time Travel in Einstein's Universe and he found an solution to Einstein's equations that allows backwards time travel with the kind of a slingshot trajectory but not around the sun.

His name is Rich Gott. In fact, he's been on StarTalk before. He wrote a book called Time Travel in Einstein's Universe.

So one of them is How the Universe Got Its Spots.

And you're Director of Science here at Pioneer Works, Editor-in-Chief of the Pioneer Works podcast, author of How the Universe Got Its Spots.

One of my favorites, Black Hole Survival Guide.

And then you had a book before that, How Black Holes Got Their Spots?

How the Universe Got Its Spots.

And that's actually just about the shape of space-time and whether or not the universe is infinite.

My first book is about whether or not the universe is infinite or finite.

How the Universe Got Its Spots is about could we tell the shape and size of the universe by looking in the hot and cold spots in the Big Bang and the light left over from the Big Bang

So How the Universe Got Its Spots is actually very similar mathematical problem because you're asking about enzymes being high or low in the developing embryo and it turns out that the shape and the size of the animal and like whether It's tubular or when those spots are hitting it that it will determine what kind of spots the animal gets

In a book published just months ago called To Infinity and Beyond, which I co-authored with our senior producer, Lindsay Nix Walker. All right. There's a whole conversation about the search for nothingness.

In fact, in the latest StarTalk book, we devote chapters and chapters to that kind of state of mind. You know, what is beyond, it's titled To Infinity and Beyond. The infinity is a moving target.

It's like in the 1700s, if I say go to the moon, say that's not possible. So the moon is at infinity to you for all your, for all you know, right? You can't ever get there.

And I'm Lindsay Nix Walker and Neil and I, we just co-authored a brand new StarTalk book and it's coming out very soon. Yeah, this is the third in a series of collaborations with National Geographic Books and this one is titled To Infinity and Beyond.

And it's available for pre-order from the StarTalk website, startalkmedia.com slash books.

Neil and I just co-authored a brand new StarTalk book coming out September 12th. Yeah, this is the third in a series of collaborations with National Geographic books And this one is titled To Infinity and Beyond.

And it's available for pre-order from the StarTalk website star talk media.com Books if you do pre-order the book you have a special access to a conversation That I'll be having with Lindsay Walker.

startalkmedia.com slash books

I just happen to be sitting in front of a book written by a colleague of mine. It's called Cosmic Discovery. This is published like 30 40 years ago. But this was very influential on me because as an astrophysicist I said I want to I want to see what he says about discovery.

And you read through it and half the book is a description of how advances in modern astrophysics only came about because of some advance in another field in particular physics.

The physicist invented some other detector or some other tool or some other thing. Then it gets applied to our work and then we make discoveries.

In my book, Letters from an Astrophysicist, there's an entire chapter of me communicating with people who had religious experiences or deep thoughts at the intersection between religion and science.

One of my books, Letters from an Astrophysicist was being translated into Portuguese in Brazil. And they said, do you mind writing a letter to the Portuguese people as a, just to welcome them to this book, to this translated book?

Let me write it to something that's not going to complain. Something that can't say anything. So I said, I wrote a letter to Brazil and that letter that it leads off the Brazilian translation of it. And it was, it's a celebration of all that we in America know in the United States know of Brazil and things that maybe they can be more proud of.

I was honored, Michael, that you had invited me onto your podcast for my last book which was Letters from an Astrophysicist.

I was honored that you saw that in me enough to have me as a guest on your podcast.

At the risk of sounding like it's a shameless plug, um, I, I have a book coming out on Tuesday. It's called 'Letters from an Astrophysicist'.

And it contains correspondence I've had over the years with the public on all manner of very personal, private things that I just never talked about on YouTube videos or on shows such as this.

And you've never seen me debate a creationist, for example, or a ufologist. I'd never, I, they're in here.

Uh, someone asked is there a large hairy ape wandering the Pacific Northwest. I engaged that person in this book. Three letters are from prisoners.

One who's serving time and he won't be able to watch his kids grow through their teenage years wrote to me and said I just learned that they like science. Is there any advice you can give me that I can share with them to reassure them that I still love them?

And I'll add, if you ever read Origin of Species, Darwin did all kinds of very diligent naturalist experiments. He's a really impressive guy.

By the way, Darwin and Russell discovered evolution without any knowledge of DNA.

Don't forget if you ever read Origin of Species, Darwin did all kinds of very diligent naturalist experiments.

If you ever read Origin of Species, Darwin did all kinds of very diligent naturalist experiments.

And don't forget if you ever read Origin of Species, Darwin did all kinds of very diligent naturalist experiments.

I'm sure that people here, kids here are influenced by reading Darwin and his Darwin's account of the history of life on Earth. Just as they are on the UK.

He collected beetles or thousands of beetles.

And that led people to think, why? And some people would say, because the good Lord decided he wanted three thousand. Good Lord likes beetles.

He came up with quite an important theory. What was that? According to evolution by natural selection.

Darwin collected stuff.

Is that you going far back on this? No, Star Trek Discovery. Star Trek Discovery. Okay. Yes, they travel around just as Chuck was saying in my CM Drive. I'm older than you. Discovery to me is the ship from 2001.

You and I both are children of Apollo and we grew up dreaming about space and going into space in 2001 of Space Odyssey and that was going to be the future in our life and neither one of us has gotten to go into space yet we're getting a little bit older who knows what's going to happen

So start with 2001 A Space Odyssey. That had aliens in them, you just never saw them. You saw the manifestation of their intelligence.

So start with 2001 A Space Odyssey. That had aliens in them, you just never saw them. You saw the manifestation of their intelligence.

You and I both are children of Apollo and we grew up dreaming about space and going into space in 2001 of Space Odyssey and that was going to be the future in our life and neither one of us has gotten to go into space yet we're getting a little bit older

So Abbott talks about what he calls Flatland, which is a two-dimensional surface.

He was a mathematician and circles and lines and polygons move around on this two-dimensional space.

He criticizes Victorian values, especially with regard to women. Women are just lines.

The polygons that have more sides are above, superior to triangles for example. The ideal is a circle.

He's taken to the third dimension. One of these creature characters in 2D. Yeah, he's a creature in 2D but a third-dimensional entity comes and takes him up and shows him what the third dimension looks like and he goes back and he kind of proselytizes for the existence of this.

Now remember the beautiful book Flatland from By Eben Abed From decades ago A century ago

There was a book written about this. I forget. Late 1800s, it was called Flatland by Edwin Abbott.

In fact, I've just been recently been asked to write a guest forward to a new edition of sort of a new printing of that book.

It's still in print and it explores what this community of shapes do when one of them pops out of their world and sees three dimensions.

So Abbott talks about what he calls Flatland, which is a two-dimensional surface. He was a mathematician.

He criticizes Victorian values, especially with regard to women. Women are just lines.

The polygons that have more sides are above, superior to triangles for example. The ideal is a circle.

He's taken to the third dimension. One of these creature characters in 2D. Yeah, he's a creature in 2D but a third-dimensional entity comes and takes him up and shows him what the third dimension looks like and he goes back and he kind of proselytizes for the existence of this.

They get angry because they can't conceive of it and they think he's some sort of quack or whatever.

There was a book written about this. I forget. Late 1800s, it was called Flatland by Edwin Abbott.

It's still in print and it explores what this community of shapes do when one of them pops out of their world and sees three dimensions.

Carl Sagan had a great line that I quoted in my first book, Why People Believe Weird Things on the kind of healthy skepticism that finding the rub between being open minded enough to accept radical new ideas, but not so open minded that your brains fall out and you believe every wacky thing that comes down the pike.

By the way, there are people out there who do this professionally. So this is just a service to our listeners, but there are books written by folks who, for example, Michael Schirmer, who wrote Why People Believe Weird Things.

By the way, while I have a lot of thoughts to share about pseudoscience, there are people out there who do this professionally. So this is just a service to our listeners but there are books written by folks who, for example, Michael Schirmer who wrote Why People Believe Weird Things.

Why People Believe Weird Things

By the way, while I have a lot of thoughts to share about pseudoscience, there are people out there who do this professionally. So this is just a service to our listeners but there are books written by folks who, for example, Michael Schirmer who wrote Why People Believe Weird Things.

I just learned your book just came out.

Yes, very excited about it. Yes, yes and it's called Space Man or something?

Space Man.

I just learned your book just came out.

Yes, very excited about it. Yes, yes and it's called Space Man or something?

Space Man.

And also this story and others we can find in your book, Spaceman.

Yes, it is a plug. It's authentically conceived. You're a great storyteller and I love the book.

I just learned your book just came out.

Yes, very excited about it. Yes, yes and it's called Space Man or something?

Space Man.

Yeah, alright. You can come up with that title. We kind of had a lottery and it was like Space Man, Fire Man, Garbage Man, Jump Man.

I just learned your book just came out.

Yes, very excited about it. Yes, yes and it's called Space Man or something?

Space Man.

And to help us achieve this, we have the multi-talented Alan Hachet, author of Slap Shot Science and the physics of hockey and professor of physics at Moncon University in Canada,

And to make sure we give you the best answers to what are some brilliant questions, we have Professor Alan Hache, author of Slap Shot Science and the physics of hockey and professor of physics at Moncton University in Canada.

And illuminating it for us will be Alan Heshey, physics professor and author of Slap Shot Science and the physics of hockey.

And to begin, we examine the science of the shot. The pass and the engineering and tech inside the sticks that bring it all together.

illuminating it for us will be Alan Heshey, physics professor and author of Slap Shot Science and the physics of hockey.

Not just a professor, but an author too. Author of Slap Shot Science as well as the physics of hockey.

And to help us achieve this, we have the multi-talented Alan Hachet, author of Slap Shot Science and the physics of hockey and professor of physics at Moncon University in Canada,

And to make sure we give you the best answers to what are some brilliant questions, we have Professor Alan Hache, author of Slap Shot Science and the physics of hockey and professor of physics at Moncton University in Canada.

And illuminating it for us will be Alan Heshey, physics professor and author of Slap Shot Science and the physics of hockey.

Not just a professor but an author to author of Slap Shot Science as well as the physics of hockey.

I'm reminded of the charming illustrated book series by George Gamow, Mr. Tompkins in I guess Wonderland.

And so I remembered both Brian Green and I when we grew up, we read a book series called Mr. Tompkins. And Mr. Tompkins in Wonderland. And this was a brilliantly conceived series. It's for curious kids where Mr. Tompkins occupies a world where the laws of physics are slightly different so that things that will otherwise be hidden from you in our world are completely manifest in his world.

One of the stories I remember they changed the value of Planck's constant to be something that produced macroscopic phenomenon. So you would walk... Macroscopic quantum phenomenon. Macroscopic quantum phenomenon. So you'd walk through a doorway and then you would refract. The way light would do it.

Or you play pool in the pool hall and you hit the cue ball and it passes through the ball that you're shooting at. Quantum tunnels. Yeah, that'd be like a really cool universe. It'd be a totally cool universe.

Oh, you mean Mr. Tompkins' Wonderland? Yeah, that was from, I think, the 1940s or something like that. And yeah, it was a wonderful series of books in which he imagined a universe in which somehow human beings are the same, but the constants of nature have a different value.

So Mr. Tompkins is doing the kinds of things that Paul Rudd is doing, but with not quite the same special effects.

And so I remembered both Brian Green and I when we grew up, we read a book series called Mr. Tompkins. And Mr. Tompkins in Wonderland. And this was a brilliantly conceived series. It's for curious kids where Mr. Tompkins occupies a world where the laws of physics are slightly different so that things that will otherwise be hidden from you in our world are completely manifest in his world.

One of the stories I remember they changed the value of Planck's constant to be something that produced macroscopic phenomenon. So you would walk... Macroscopic quantum phenomenon. Macroscopic quantum phenomenon.

And I just want you to know Chuck that Angela wrote the book on Grit. She actually did. Wait a minute. Literally. Literally. See what happened there? You see what I did there? It's just so meta all over the place.

And there it is, author of Grit, The Power of Passion and Perseverance.

And that was released five years ago back in 2016. And it was on the New York Times Best Seller list for 21 weeks. So it hit a chord with many, many people.

I own a copy of your book, and if we're ever in person, I'm going to get you to sign it. It's an important book on the landscape of how we can all be all that we can be.

And you're author of an amazing book called Grit, The Power and Passion of Perseverance. Love it.

So in a nutshell, what I mean by Grit is this combination of passion and perseverance for really long-term goals.

And I think that's the part I really want to emphasize, not being like, oh my God, I want to be a standup comic and I so want to do it.

It's really like how do you sustain passion and perseverance for honestly years or decades?

Because I just don't think anything great ever happens overnight.

Author of Grit, The Power and Passion of Perseverance.

And that is to say they have passion and perseverance over really long time frames.

In fact, she wrote the book on Grit, literally and figuratively.

Author of Grit, The Power and Passion of Perseverance.

After I wrote the book, I actually collected more data and most people actually would like to be Grittier.

And the one I think most people know if they know you at all, the elegant universe.

Until the End of Time was that your more recent memorization and that came out how long ago? 2020 right at the pandemic.

and your books are still out there uh elegant universe uh uh give me the other two fabric of the cosmos hidden reality but the most recent is Until the End of Time and my most favorite so and is that out yet till the end of time

yeah that's out yeah oh cool and who published that that was khanoff khanoff very nice Until the End of Time we'll look for them all right dude thanks chuck always good to have you man always a pleasure all right this has been cosmic queries with the one the only inimitable brian green friend and colleague professor of physics and math right up the street here in new york city at columbia this is neil degrasse tyson as always bidding you to keep looking up

That's the title. That's the title. That's the title. No, the subtitle. What's the subtitle? Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe.

Your book, Until the End of Time, brings me to the conclusion.

It's conceivable. I'm looking at the questions. He's got a fan base out there. He does.

This is his fourth book.

And his first book that anyone knows about was a mega bestseller, which was? The Elegant Universe.

And let me get the title correct of his latest book, because this title leaves nothing out. Here it is, Until the End of Time, Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe, came out last year.

Brian Green whose most recent book is, I gotta like read this title because it's so inclusive. Until the End of Time, mind matter and our search for meaning in an evolving universe.

Today's guest has a doctorate in mathematics from Oxford. That's the English. Love it. Was researching astrophysics and then decided to switch to AI. Author, yes, published author of a book in 2018 called Factor Man.

You've got a book out there, a fictional book, The Factor Man.

I like fiction that is deeply informed by math and physics and the universe. And that's one such book where you introduced God's algorithm, the secret formula that will solve all the problems of the world and the fight to take command of it.

I love that. Maybe we'll talk about it later. Love where that's going.

It's about a guy who finds what's called God's algorithm. It lets him solve basically any problem. And my view is that he's anybody who finds this is it's a race whether the government kills him or he takes over the world first. And this guy realizes he realizes he's in this race. He doesn't actually want to take over the world. He mostly just wants to go to Disneyland with his kids. And it's about his attempted journey to make the world a better place before this technology is used to mess everything up.

And I think I think something like 10 percent of the serious computer scientists believe it.

You've got a book out there, a fictional book, The Factor Man.

And that's one such book where you introduced God's algorithm, the secret formula that will solve all the problems of the world and the fight to take command of it.

It's about a guy who finds what's called God's Algorithm. It lets him solve basically any problem.

And my view is that anybody who finds this, it's a race, whether the government kills him or he takes over the world first. And this guy realizes he's in this race.

He mostly just wants to go to Disneyland with his kids. And it's about his attempted journey to make the world a better place before this technology is used to mess everything up.

It is, I have spent a lot of my professional career working on a particular technical problem and if you solve it, you can solve all the other problems literally. And it's a book about a guy who does. And it's a novel.

It's a thriller. It's a thriller. A mathematical thriller. Two words you've never seen in the same sentence.

I've often talked to my friends about, you know, if you solve this problem, it is actually a race between whether you take over the world or the government kills you. And this guy who solves this problem is in this race. He knows he's in this race. He doesn't really want to.

there's a brand new book out I'm sure that you have heard about it I didn't write it a British woman wrote it it's called 50 Shades of Grey and women love it and it's very interesting

in the olden days the British mother used to tell her daughter the Victorian Puritan mother lie back and think of England nothing in it for you right now there's a British woman she writes beautifully and it's very explicit I don't want to have the guy

I don't want to have that guy in my practice because I sent him to psychiatrist but it's interesting it proves the point professor I have talked about that a long time women first of all need a longer time to be sexually aroused than a man

a man when he's aroused is aroused a woman needs a longer time to get up off the curve of sexual arousal and they used to say that women are not aroused by pictures or by pornography it's actually explicit material not so women right now are devouring that book

which is a very interesting point in things have changed but we have to find a middle way so it's the freedom of women in society is what this is

50 shades of scales

There's a brand new book out I'm sure that you have heard about it I didn't write it a British woman wrote it it's called 50 Shades of Grey and women love it and it's very interesting.

In the olden days the British mother used to tell her daughter the Victorian Puritan mother lie back and think of England nothing in it for you right now there's a British woman she writes beautifully and it's very explicit I don't want to have the guy I don't want to have that guy in my practice because I sent him to psychiatrist but it's interesting it proves the point professor I have talked about that a long time women first of all need a longer time to be sexually aroused than a man.

Of all other living creatures, elephants cannot abide a mouse or a rat.

Of all other living creatures, elephants cannot abide a mouse or a rat.

Of all other living creatures, elephants cannot abide a mouse or a rat.

Of all other living creatures, elephants cannot abide a mouse or a rat.

The music never stopped... It's based on one of his essays called The Last Hippie which was published in his book and anthropologist on Mars.

Oliver Sacks wrote this book An Anthropologist On Mars okay and that title refers to Temple Grandin which I think is cool because it first it references Mars for any other reason and it also references that Mars had a civilization that way it says though you are you are from another planet then everything else is a fresh observation for you right watching people be behaving conduct themselves.

well you see when I was very young I didn't know that my thinking was different I didn't even know that people had all these eye signals until I read about them when I was 50 years old and but sometimes I mean when they give hints to one another from a distance. Sometimes I felt like I wasn't anthropologist on Mars like beyond a plane for example I'm in a window seat and the people in the aisle in the middle seat are like having a romance going on and they're kind of looking at each other's eyes and they're just like they're often heaven and I'm like I feel like I am An Anthropologist On Mars you know studying the Martians here on this planet beside me.

It's based on one of his essays called The Last Hippie which was published in his book and anthropologist on Mars.

Oliver Sacks wrote this book An Anthropologist On Mars okay and that title refers to Temple Grandin which I think is cool because it first it references Mars for any other reason and it also references that Mars had a civilization that way it says though you are you are from another planet then everything else is a fresh observation for you right watching people be behaving conduct themselves.

Well you see when I was very young I didn't know that my thinking was different I didn't even know that people had all these eye signals until I read about them when I was 50 years old and but sometimes I mean when they give hints to one another from a distance. Sometimes I felt like I wasn't anthropologist on Mars like beyond a plane for example I'm in a window seat and the people in the aisle in the middle seat are like having a romance going on and they're kind of looking at each other's eyes and they're just like they're often heaven and I'm like I feel like I am An Anthropologist On Mars you know studying the Martians here on this planet beside me.

Well, if you read the book, there was a tandem book. Matt, I guess you didn't get the book. The book is an explanatory book, The Science of Interstellar.

And also, he wrote a companion book to the movie Interstellar called The Science of Interstellar.

Well, if you read the book, there was a tandem book. Matt, I guess you didn't get the book. The book is an explanatory book, The Science of Interstellar.

Written by one of the co-executive producers who's a professor of theoretical physics at Caltech.

And also, he wrote a companion book to the movie Interstellar called The Science of Interstellar.

I'm reading Kevin Kelly's What Technology Wants.

I'm reading Kevin Kelly's What Technology Wants.

I'm reading Kevin Kelly's What Technology Wants.

I'm reading Kevin Kelly's What Technology Wants.