323 | Jacob Barandes on Indivisible Stochastic Quantum Mechanics
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
Release Date: 07/28/2025
AMA | Feb 2026
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
Welcome to the February 2026 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by (who are also the ones asking the questions). We take questions asked by Patreons, whittle them down to a more manageable number -- based primarily on whether I have anything interesting to say about them, not whether the questions themselves are good -- and sometimes group them together if they are about a similar topic. Enjoy! Blog post with AMA questions and transcript: Note that Mindscape now has a new hosting provider, . (Actually a return home, as that was my first host when...
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Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
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Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
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Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
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Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
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336 | Anil Ananthaswamy on the Mathematics of Neural Nets and AI
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
Machine learning using neural networks has led to a remarkable leap forward in artificial intelligence, and the technological and social ramifications have been discussed at great length. To understand the origin and nature of this progress, it is useful to dig at least a little bit into the mathematical and algorithmic structures underlying these techniques. Anil Ananthaswamy takes up this challenge in his book Why Machines Learn: The Elegant Math Behind Modern AI. In this conversation we give a brief ove
info_outlineThe search for a foundational theory of quantum mechanics that all physicists can agree on remains active. Over the last century a number of contenders have emerged, including Many-Worlds, pilot-wave theories, and others, but all of them have aspects that many people object to. Jacob Barandes has taken up the challenge, proposing a new formulation of quantum theory in which there is no wave function, only real degrees of freedom with fundamentally stochastic dynamics. We talk about this new theory and the challenges facing it.
Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/07/28/323-jacob-barandes-on-indivisible-stochastic-quantum-mechanics/
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Jacob Barandes received his Ph.D. in physics from Harvard University. He is currently Senior Preceptor in Physics and Associated Faculty in Philosophy at Harvard. He teaches both physics and philosophy courses at Harvard, where he has been the recipient of several teaching awards.