Lee Cronin: Controversial Nature Paper on Evolution of Life and Universe | Lex Fridman Podcast #404

I love the attitude that Lee brings to scientific inquiry. "Here's an idea. I know I'm wrong; but how am I wrong, and how wrong am I?" The guy genuinely cares about advancing the conversation and creating opportunities for the next person to build on his ideas. It's cool to see.

It used to be if you weren't in these fields or a researcher you didn't have much access to conversations like these. I feel privileged to understand a solid 10% of what's being said.❤

This is the type of scientist you want to have sitting on a bar stool next to you for a Saturday afternoon

I'm only a few minutes in, but I wanted to take a moment to thank you for tastefully and helpfully adding in reference material, diagrams, and sources into the video. Amazing discussion and production value as usual.

Here are the timestamps. Please check out our sponsors to support this podcast. 0:00 - Introduction & sponsor mentions: - NetSuite: http://netsuite.com/lex to get free product tour - BetterHelp: https://betterhelp.com/lex to get 10% off - Shopify: https://shopify.com/lex to get $1 per month trial - Eight Sleep: https://www.eightsleep.com/lex to get special savings - AG1: https://drinkag1.com/lex to get 1 month supply of fish oil 1:15 - Assembly theory paper 21:45 - Assembly equation 34:57 - Discovering alien life 53:16 - Evolution of life on Earth 1:01:12 - Response to criticism 1:18:50 - Kolmogorov complexity 1:30:40 - Nature review process 1:51:34 - Time and free will 1:57:59 - Communication with aliens 2:19:57 - Cellular automata 2:24:26 - AGI 2:41:15 - Nuclear weapons 2:47:00 - Chem Machina 2:59:54 - GPT for electron density 3:09:24 - God

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” --- This is FANTASTIC. Thank you!

Its amazing to me how throughout this he openly admits to making things up as he goes along, or as he's talking he'll stop and say "oh! here's an idea that might build upon this topic". Its this kind of mind that is required for massive leaps in scientific understanding. So incredibly interesting to hear him speak.

i was taken aback at 1:36 when bloke got emotional about the process. I appreciated this very much. It got real. I appreciate his tenacity. I appreciate Lex's holding the space for discussion- discourse. Thank you for being willing to be vulnerable, because science isn't just mechanical, it's as human as anything. As a teacher this is extremely helpful for me.

The sheer curiosity and inventiveness of his methods are astounding to see. We need renegade science like this.

This conversation makes me realise how smart Lex is