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well i want to talk about

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where it all starts

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the foundations

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the the the deeper understanding that we

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would all like about what's going on in

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the world and particularly what's going

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on

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in the universe as a whole how it got

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this way and how

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uh any understanding that we might have

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of the universe as a whole could be

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applied locally to our own situations

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and to some of the phenomenon that we're

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bernie talked about the constants

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of the

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universe and

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i won't say a whole lot more about that

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but it's worth just reflecting on the

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fact that it seems that there are a few

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numbers a few constants a few parameters

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that uh determine a great deal of what

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goes on in the universe and

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um

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the phenomenon that take place within it

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and these

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constants seem at least to be

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somewhat independent and rather

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arbitrary and yet we know that in

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several cases these constants

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um

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are very finely tuned to support the

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kind of universe that we see and the

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life that we experience here

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and if they were different uh the

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universe would have been different and

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we would not have evolved to have

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noticed this

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so um

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there's a question about how it got

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there how those constants got that way

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and by the way how did all that stuff

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get out there in particular places

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even if we knew what those constants

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those parameters were to determine the

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physical laws and the properties of

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matter and energy we would still have

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this question of the initial condition

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why is it that the

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cosmic background radiation the oldest

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thing we can measure

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is not uniform as a matter of fact it

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seems to have some pattern to it big big

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mystery

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um

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how did it how did it get that way and

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how are these parameters derived could

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the universe be some other way

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the constants could be determined a lot

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of different ways here are four of them

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by some supernatural being

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perhaps they're determined at random and

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there are a lot of different

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subuniverses that have different values

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for these constants in which case we

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sort of invoke an anthropo

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anthropic principle

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um

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those constants and those laws could

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have been in some way determined by our

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interactions with them our observations

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we created all by observing uh somewhat

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like similar

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previous uh talk

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or the the case that i'm more interested

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in perhaps that these constant really

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aren't independent and arbitrary but

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rather are mathematically derived and

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related in some interesting way so i'll

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give a couple of thoughts about that i'm

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reminded of clark's third law and by the

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way he added a fourth law in 99 for

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every expert there's an equal and

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if you've ever been involved in patent

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litigation as i have

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this is very uh apropos

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so i think it's uh

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any sufficiently advanced technology is

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indistinguishable from god we're really

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not imaginative enough to think of what

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advanced technology really advanced

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technology could be

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like and

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to say as some would say that they can't

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be here because it would violate the

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speed of light and too much energy is

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involved and all that kind of stuff

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is nonsense they have complete

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control of time and space and a lot more

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things that we haven't even thought of

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yet so

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if you think you have a guardian angel

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or some interaction with god i don't see

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any way to rule out that as being

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interaction with really advanced beings

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in advanced technology

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but beside the point back to physical

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constants here are some of them

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um bernie gave a nice summary of

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of a particular list michi akaku thinks

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maybe there are 19 numbers enumerates

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those john baez counts 26 numbers

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martin reese's book just six numbers

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which is a very nice read

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um

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uh derives the basis in an entirely

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different way using dimensionless

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numbers

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number of spatial dimensions and so on

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another interesting way of saying how

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many degrees of freedom are there

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maybe the real number is somewhere

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between 6 and 26 i don't i don't know

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the usual assumptions that are made

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before we start thinking about these

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things i have some trouble with

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not because the principles are

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necessarily invalid for any reason but

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because of the way they're usually

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thought about

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materialism usually means there's stuff

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out there there are things in space

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whether those things are particles and

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fields or whether they are strings or

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i'm much more tending these days toward

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thinking about differences and

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boundaries and transitions rather than

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the objects to me the

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the differences define the objects not

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the other way around

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and there's some precedence for this so

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maybe be able to go into that a little

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bit more later

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reductionism

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the idea that the whole is equal to some

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of the parts people always say no no

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something emerges when you get all the

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parts together that wasn't there among

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the parts forgetting that if you know

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the parts and all their interactions you

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really do have the whole nevertheless

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reductionism is not the only way to

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understand things and i would like to

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promote more constructivism that is

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starting from first principles or no

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principles and building upwards as well

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as reductionism taking things apart and

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trying to figure out how they work

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so the usual interpretation of that

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bothers me a bit randomness and the idea

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that there are truly causeless events at

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the core of physics

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i've totally um

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bogus that one it seems to me that

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quantum measurement is not random at all

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and there's a big mistake that we've

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been making by making that assumption

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and it is an assumption in quantum

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mechanics it just happens to work very

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well so

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we believe it but

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i don't think anything is truly random

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in the sense of being a causeless event

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even at the core of physics cause and

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effects might might be the most

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pernicious about of these in the sense

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that everyone thinks about cause and

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effect as a unidirectional

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uh thing and uh this leads to the idea

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of time as a dimension and flowing in

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one direction and so on

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bad idea it seems to me that physics is

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telling us that everything is

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symmetrical in time and that

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all relationships of the causal nature

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are bi-directional

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and

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influence travels in both directions

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if we take these assumptions and

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formalize them in some way we usually

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get what's called a system of axioms you

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could say the standard model of

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physics is a kind of set of formal

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assumptions quantum theory in

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mathematics set theory and predicate

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calculus and so forth so we tend to

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formalize this and one might say that

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the

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more complex

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well let's say the less complex the set

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of axioms and beliefs are the more

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likely it is that we're close to the

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bottom that we're close to really

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understanding something or closer to

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bedrock and the more complex things are

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the reverse so here's an example from

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mathematics the zamelo frankel and the

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axiom of choice set theory

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eight axioms two of which at least are

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infinite axiom schema

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now i ask you does this look like we

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really understand the foundations of set

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theory or maybe sets are not such a good

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idea in the first place which is where

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where it's where i go

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uh henry prank

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carre said later generations will regard

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set theory is a disease from which one

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has recovered well we haven't recovered

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yet this is really one of the most

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fundamental things that are taught in

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mathematics

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congruent versus deep

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models a congruent model is really a

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kind of a theory it's an abstract

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something another that we sometimes

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try to tune

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to be the same shape as whatever it is

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we're modeling and so the more tuning is

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necessary that added assumptions and fud

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factors show up and and this is not

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necessarily explaining things but merely

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modeling them so we can do stuff and try

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things to the model

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that will then be reflected in the in

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the real world somehow whereas a deeper

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model has something that's simpler and

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is really more fundamental and more like

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how it really is how the the phenomenon

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or whatever it is is actually generated

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and tells us something more about its

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place in the world here are some

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discrete physical models that i think

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are really um becoming more and more

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interesting

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string theory hasn't quite paid off but

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still there's something very importantly

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correct about it even if it's not the

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whole story even in the standard model

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group symmetries as an abstract

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idea can model three of the four forces

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at least in some respects

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some of you may have seen causal

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dynamical triangulations