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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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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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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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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Sean Carroll

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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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?

#Caturday theme: catching rays.

Good: in that mode where you're so engrossed in the paper you're writing that you dream about it all night. Bad: waking self not nearly as clever as dream self.

By means of a comical witticism

einstein sent this to curie in 1911 when she was being harassed by tabloids. it contains everything you’d want in such a letter: (1) your haters are trash (2) you’re a baller, a true queen (3) i have determined the statistical law of motion of the diatomic molecule in planck’s radiation field 🧪⚛️

I was surprised at first, because thermodynamically, the brain is incredibly efficient- it produces much less waste heat per computation than a computer. But if you’re talking chemicals, then sure.

The brain makes a lot of waste. Now scientists think they know where it goes www.npr.org/sections/sho...

The brain makes a lot of waste. Now scientists think they know where it goeswww.npr.org The brain appears to rely on synchronized waves to wash out waste products, including toxins associated with Alzheimer's disease.

Being poor is a trap that is very hard to escape, and giving people a bit of money can make all the difference.

45% of participants secured housing, while $589,214 was saved in public service costs.

Denver gave people experiencing homelessness $1,000 a month. A year later, nearly half of participants had housing.www.businessinsider.com Participants in Denver's basic income program received up to $1,000 a month. They became more housing secure and landed full-time jobs.

The Principle of Sufficient Reason says that there is a reason for everything that happens. Does physics somehow provide support for this idea? Not really! Or so I suggest in this short paper. philarchive.org/rec/CARPAT-30

Sean M. Carroll, Physics and the Principle of Sufficient Reason - PhilArchivephilarchive.org The Principle of Sufficient Reason (PSR) holds that, for everything that exists or occurs or holds true, there is a reason why that is the case. I consider three possible ways ...

Mindscape 280 | François Chollet @fchollet.bsky.social on Deep Learning and the Meaning of Intelligence. An important conversation to be having, I think. #MindscapePodcast www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2024...

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

Democritus stretching through time to look over my shoulder and ask whether I really need another book on information theory instead of reading the ones I have.

“The unwise desire the things they do not have, but the things they have they neglect, though they are more profitable than the things that are gone.” — Democritus, Fragments, B202 #philosophy #philsky

One thing about complex systems is: the space of possibilities is mind-bogglingly large. Consider DNA. The human genome has about 3 billion base pairs. How well has evolution searched through all the possible genomes to find the fittest ones? Not very well at all. 🧵

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Congratulations to SFI Miller Scholar Ted Chiang for winning the 2024 PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story. santafe.edu/news-center/news/ted-chiang-receives-2024-penmalamud-award

Being an "evangelical Christian" in the US has become a predominantly cultural/political signifier, disconnected from church attendance or religious doctrine.

What? The proportion of evangelicals who believe that abortion is wrong, or that sex outside traditional marriage is wrong, is considerably higher than the proportion who believe that Jesus is God. I understand nothing anymore.