Show notes
This episode is sponsored by Abacus AI agent: agent.abacus.ai/keating
I fed it Carlo's recent papers and asked for the argument, the counterargument, and the evidence that would support or refute each side. Some of the questions and animations in this interview came out of that. It runs the top frontier models in one place, turns a dense PDF into a research report or a presentation with charts, builds interactive dashboards off a spreadsheet, and takes API access if you want it wired into your own tools.
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The physicist who built loop quantum gravity says the second law does not say what you were taught it says, and that freedom does not require breaking a single law of nature. Order builds itself. Your head is older than your feet. And neither one is the strangest thing here.
Carlo Rovelli founded the loop quantum gravity program and wrote the relational interpretation of quantum mechanics.
We cover: why oil separating from water is not a violation of entropy, what Galileo got wrong about the one discovery he is most famous for, the paper Einstein published denying gravitational waves, why a chess program that deliberates tells you what your own freedom actually is, and what Rovelli would build with ten years and unlimited money.
“To imagine that to be free you have to violate the laws of nature is stupid.” — Carlo Rovelli
CHAPTERS
00:00 Your head is older than your feet
00:48 Things left alone get ordered. Who ordered them?
07:00 Low entropy might be about you, not the universe
08:38 You can be in two cities at once, just not to you
11:02 Why start with Galileo when Einstein knew more?
19:34 Galileo misunderstood his own discovery
22:32 Einstein published a paper denying gravitational waves
25:08 The definition of time that explains nothing
26:50 Two clocks, two metres apart, two answers
31:06 Nothing gets recorded without something being lost
33:12 The chess program deliberates. So do you.
37:06 Can a machine have Einstein’s happiest thought?
39:52 Thirty minutes versus a month
44:10 Dark matter made of black holes the size of a hair
51:10 Ten years, unlimited money, a room full of junctions
Rovelli told me the second law does not say what I was taught it says. Order builds itself.
Transcript, bonus content, and my Monday M.A.G.I.C. Message: https://briankeating.com/yt
Three moments worth the rewatch:
07:00 The entropy you were taught is a point of view
26:50 Why your head is older than your feet
39:52 The thing Claude did in 30 minutes
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Featured Guest:
Carlo Rovelli website: https://www.cpt.univ-mrs.fr/~rovelli/
The Relational Universe (book): https://www.amazon.com/dp/0735216118
Carlo Rovelli on Twitter/X: https://x.com/carlorovelli
My books:
Losing the Nobel Prize (memoir): http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA
Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu
Focus Like a Nobel Prize Winner: https://a.co/d/hi50U9U
Galileo’s Dialogue (first-ever audiobook): https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un
Twitter/X: https://x.com/BrianKeating
Substack: https://briankeating.substack.com
Blog: https://briankeating.com/blog
Audio-only: https://briankeating.com/podcast
#CarloRovelli #freewill #entropy #physics #quantumgravity #briankeating #intotheimpossible
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