Sean Carroll

@seanmcarroll.bsky.social

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Physics, philosophy, complexity. Johns Hopkins & Santa Fe Institute. Host, #MindscapePodcast. Married to @jenlucpiquant.bsky.social.
In May: Quanta & Fields, book 2 of The Biggest Ideas in the Universe.
https://preposterousuniverse.com/

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To be fair, democracy is generally not taken away, it is given away. Most citizens aren't that energized to defend the idea of democracy for its own sake. Its continued survival depends on institutions working (even if implicitly) to keep it healthy, and those institutions are completely failing.

Bold take: when certain people are trying to threaten democracy, the act of pointing out that they are trying to threaten democracy is not, actually, the real threat to democracy.

Mindscape 282 | Joel David Hamkins on Puzzles of Reality and Infinity. We aim for the big game on #MindscapePodcast. www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2024...

282 | Joel David Hamkins on Puzzles of Reality and Infinity – Sean Carrollwww.preposterousuniverse.com

It would be better if there were fewer people shooting other people.

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The alarms are blinking red. Trump's allies are plotting a second coup attempt right out in the open. We should fear a genteel January 6 with fewer riots and more lawsuits; the means may differ but the intent is the same.

While the Democratic Party decides which presidential candidate has the best chance to defeat Trump, the Republican Party focuses on making sure that the election doesn't matter. Plan accordingly. www.nytimes.com/2024/07/13/u...

Unbowed by Jan. 6 Charges, Republicans Pursue Plans to Contest a Trump Defeatwww.nytimes.com Mr. Trump’s allies are preparing to try to short-circuit the election system, if he does not win.

Wow, this is awful. Jamelle Bouie was one of the best things about this place.

He left. A MAJOR loss.

This is great. XENON is a big experiment looking for weakly-interacting dark matter. No luck yet, but it has started to see neutrinos from the Sun. #Physics

Earlier this week the @XENONexperiment released a new result on neutrino scattering. In this #thread I explain why this is a big deal Useful to know: I’m not working on this project but am a working particle physicist. So I can give context but don’t know about internal details

Paradigm shift: I now think LLMs will make better PhD advisors than most humans.

Honestly impressed with the deranged persistence of Meta’s Science Experiment Sidekick bot

The Ars Technica time travel discussion was one of the most fun panels I've ever been on. www.youtube.com/live/PNUSUZr...

Ars Live: Time Travel In Movies—The Science Behind The Fictionwww.youtube.com Ars Technica Senior Reporter Jennifer Ouellette is joined in conversation by Ed Solomon, Sean Carroll, and James Kakalios

Wow this is true! As far as I can tell, all from the days when our blog Cosmic Variance was hosted by Discover magazine, so apparently that's a favorite source of examples for this particular Merriam-Webster online dictionary.

Your sentences are used as examples for many words: www.google.com/search?q=%22...

"Sean Carroll" site:www.merriam-webster.com - Google Searchwww.google.com

Mindscape Ask Me Anything | July 2024. We talk about transporter machines, what tensor really are, declining democracy, and how cats adjust to new homes. #MindscapePodcast www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2024...

AMA | July 2024 – Sean Carrollwww.preposterousuniverse.com

Disturbed to look up "construal" in the online dictionary (to verify I was using it correctly), and find that the example given was a sentence by me. Don't other people use this wonderful word? www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/c...

Definition of CONSTRUALwww.merriam-webster.com interpretation… See the full definition

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The first episode of my new video series, Cosmology 101, is out now! This one is about cosmic expansion. Check it out and subscribe to the Perimeter Institute’s YouTube channel to get the whole series! youtu.be/7GC8XOKwRpM?... #Cosmology101

Expansion of the Universe Explained | Cosmology 101 Episode 1youtu.be In this episode of Cosmology 101, we dive into the concept of an expanding universe. From the first moments of the Big Bang, our cosmos has been stretching i...

British politics can be confusing for outsiders, but at least we get updates on Larry the Cat, official mouser of 10 Downing St.

Larry the cat poised to welcome Britain's next prime minister

Larry the cat poised to welcome Britain's next prime ministerapnews.com Downing Street's resident cat remains at Number 10, waiting to welcome the winner of this week's British General Election.

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Sean Carroll

Not to be corny but I do think the ongoing aspiration to make America a pluralist democracy of equals is righteous, beautiful, and worth honoring, even if it has more often been the struggle of minorities & dissenters than the policy of the government. 🇺🇸

I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting @harthanson.bsky.social in person, but I did have a great time briefly serving as a science consultant on BONES. Now I’m reading The Seminarian, and it’s so much fun. Recommended for anyone who loves rompy mystery novels. E.g.:

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Not that anyone is asking me, but I have no idea what the Democrats should do right now. All the options seem bad, and there isn’t one that seems less bad than the others. And as a professional opinion-haver, it’s disorienting to have no strong opinion about something so enormously consequential.

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Something that always amazes me: When you turn on the tap in your home, you're draining the water out of a giant tower, by gravity. From the point of view of the water, it must be a wild ride.

Math don't lie.

I'm in a hipster cafe (okay it's a Peets) overhearing these two young women in table next to me. "She *just* came out as bisexual. That means I have an infinitely greater chance with her. Because the difference between a 0 and a 1 is infinite." The kids are alright.

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Sean Carroll

The States Project is one of the best bang-for-your-buck options for your campaign donations. Even beyond it, though, state legislatures deserve your attention. Next time you're tempted to send money to whoever's going to lose to MTG, send it instead to a contested state leg seat.

Looking for one person to join me today in donating to flipping both statehouses in Arizona to create a new trifecta for democracy. This is the smartest political donation we can make this year.

Flipping Arizona | The States Projectwww.grapevine.org Learn more about Flipping Arizona such as its mission, community impact, and how you can join or make a one-time online donation.

Ariel has been frustrated by the slippery nature of mathematical truth, and has decided to take it out on Kurt Gödel.

The find-the-keys scene in Bill & Ted is the most perfectly executed time-travel gimmick in cinema. Hear us chat about it and all the others.

Ars Live: Join us July 9 for a lively discussion on time travel in the movies. "Bill & Ted" co-creator @edsolomon.bsky.social joins physicists @seanmcarroll.bsky.social and Jim Kakalios. arstechnica.com/culture/2024...

Ars Live: Join us July 9 for a lively discussion on time travel in the moviesarstechnica.com Bill and Ted co-creator Ed Solomon joins physicists Sean Carroll and Jim Kakalios

SCOTUS rulings aren't as visceral as debate performances or even felony trials, so I suspect a lot of people are undercounting the impact of this last week. Democracy dies, not in darkness, but right there under the bright lights for everyone to see.

Such pronouncements are often premature and exaggerated, but not today. This is one of the worst things the Supreme Court has ever done. You could reasonably argue the worst in living memory, which is a very high bar. It’s that much of an abomination.

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Sotomayor:

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Sean Carroll

My first read: If a president commits crimes unrelated to him being the most powerful person in the world, he can be prosecuted. But if explicitly uses his powers to commit crimes, he is at least presumptively, and probably absolutely immune from prosecution. I mean, holy shit.

Now I'm depressed about politics again. But I had a good 12 hours where basketball was keeping me joyful.

“A former president is entitled to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his ‘conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority,’ ” the 6-3 ruling says. “There is no immunity for unofficial acts.” Read the full decision here:

Read the full text of Supreme Court’s decision on Trump’s immunitywww.washingtonpost.com Former presidents are immune from prosecution for their official actions taken while in the White House, but don’t have immunity for unofficial acts, the Supreme Court ruled Monday.

Mindscape 281 | Samir Okasha on the Philosophy of Agency and Evolution. #MindscapePodcast www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2024...

281 | Samir Okasha on the Philosophy of Agency and Evolution – Sean Carrollwww.preposterousuniverse.com

I may be a fundamentally frivolous person, but can't let politics get me down when the Sixers are dominating the offseason so thoroughly. Can't wait for the season to start!

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Sean Carroll

On the nature of LLMs: @fchollet.bsky.social discusses AI with @seanmcarroll.bsky.social in the latest episode of Mindscape: www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2024... Podcast profile: truesciphi.org/podcast-prof...

280 | François Chollet on Deep Learning and the Meaning of Intelligence – Sean Carrollwww.preposterousuniverse.com

Since Trump is a convicted felon and spent the whole debate fabricating falsehoods and is an autocratic insurrectionist, it’s time to think about who the Republican convention should replace him with once he’s forced to withdraw. Romney, maybe?