Do we invent the laws of physics? Why are we driven to find explanations? Brian Greene sits down with Marcelo Gleiser, theoretical physicist at Dartmouth College and Templeton Prize winner, for a conversation that moves between physics, philosophy, and the psychology of mortality. Gleiser and Greene discuss whether life required more than ordinary chemistry to emerge, and what it would actually mean if scientists created life from scratch in a laboratory. The two confront the question of whether math is a human invention rather than something waiting to be discovered, and find a rare point of agreement with Greene’s own long-held view. They also discuss what psychedelics might reveal about the nature of reality, and whether consciousness could extend beyond the human brain into simpler forms of life. Later they address artificial intelligence: whether an AI that provides correct answers we can’t independently verify still counts as real knowledge, and why Gleiser doesn’t believe a machine could ever be conscious.
This program is part of the Rethinking Reality series, supported by the John Templeton Foundation.
This program can be watched here, and on our YouTube channel, starting at 7PM on Friday, August 21.
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