cover of episode #433 – Sara Walker: Physics of Life, Time, Complexity, and Aliens

#433 – Sara Walker: Physics of Life, Time, Complexity, and Aliens

2024/6/13
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Lex Fridman
一位通过播客和研究工作在科技和科学领域广受认可的美国播客主持人和研究科学家。
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Sara Walker
Topics
Lex Fridman: 围绕生命定义、起源和外星生命可能性与Sara Walker展开讨论，涉及到唯物主义、活力论、组装理论等多个角度。探讨了生命定义的困难，以及如何用物理学解释生命现象。 Sara Walker: 从唯物主义和活力论的差异出发，探讨了生命定义的挑战，认为现有定义难以涵盖所有情况，例如病毒和僵尸蚂蚁真菌。她认为生命是信息在时间和空间中结构化物质的过程，并提出组装理论作为解释生命起源和进化的框架。组装理论关注的是宇宙如何构建自身，以及复杂物体如何在历史偶然路径上形成。她认为生命起源是一个临界点，当组装指数达到一定阈值时，自强化结构出现，标志着生命的诞生。她还探讨了手性、技术圈等概念，认为技术圈是目前宇宙中时间维度上最大的物体，并对生命、意识和智能的本质进行了深入探讨。 Sara Walker: 详细阐述了组装理论，解释了复制数和递归步骤数两个可观测量，并指出在有机化学中，组装指数约为15时，自强化结构开始出现。她认为生命起源是一个突变的过程，组合空间的可能性骤然坍缩到一个自我强化的结构上。她还探讨了手性，认为手性打破了时间的对称性，并与生命起源密切相关。她认为生命并非化学的，而是化学中涌现的现象，并对语言、模因等概念进行了探讨，认为它们可能是超越化学范畴的生命形式。她还讨论了技术圈，认为它是目前宇宙中时间维度上最大的物体，并对生命、意识和智能的本质进行了深入探讨，认为它们是同一事物的不同表现形式。

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Materialists believe life can be explained by physical matter, while vitalists argue for a non-physical element. The debate revolves around whether matter alone can account for life's complexity or if an additional 'animating' force is necessary. However, both perspectives acknowledge the vast unknown in our understanding of life.

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Sara Walker is an astrobiologist and theoretical physicist. She is the author of a new book titled “Life as No One Knows It: The Physics of Life’s Emergence”. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: – Notion: https://notion.com/lex) – Motific: https://motific.ai) – Shopify: https://shopify.com/lex) to get $1 per month trial – BetterHelp: https://betterhelp.com/lex) to get 10% off – AG1: https://drinkag1.com/lex) to get 1 month supply of fish oil

Transcript: https://lexfridman.com/sara-walker-3-transcript)

EPISODE LINKS: Sara’s Book – Life as No One Knows It: https://amzn.to/3wVmOe1) Sara’s X: https://x.com/Sara_Imari) Sara’s Instagram: https://instagram.com/alien_matter)

PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast) Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr) Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8) RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/) YouTube Full Episodes: https://youtube.com/lexfridman) YouTube Clips: https://youtube.com/lexclips)

SUPPORT & CONNECT: – Check out the sponsors above, it’s the best way to support this podcast – Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman) – Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman) – Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman) – LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman) – Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman) – Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman)

OUTLINE: Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time. (00:00) – Introduction (10:40) – Definition of life (31:18) – Time and space (42:00) – Technosphere (46:25) – Theory of everything (55:06) – Origin of life (1:16:44) – Assembly theory (1:32:58) – Aliens (1:44:48) – Great Perceptual Filter (1:48:45) – Fashion (1:52:47) – Beauty (1:59:08) – Language (2:05:50) – Computation (2:15:37) – Consciousness (2:24:28) – Artificial life (2:48:21) – Free will (2:55:05) – Why anything exists