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Physics and Consciousness Contest ($1k to winners) #PaCE1
July 26, 2022
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The Economist covers math, physics, philosophy, and AI in a manner that shows how different countries perceive developments and how they impact markets. They recently published a piece on China's new neutrino detector. They cover extending life via mitochondrial transplants, creating an entirely new field of medicine. But it's also not just science they analyze.
Culture, they analyze finance, economics, business, international affairs across every region. I'm particularly liking their new insider feature. It was just launched this month. It gives you, it gives me, a front row access to The Economist's internal editorial debates.
Where senior editors argue through the news with world leaders and policy makers in twice weekly long format shows. Basically an extremely high quality podcast. Whether it's scientific innovation or shifting global politics, The Economist provides comprehensive coverage beyond headlines. As a toe listener, you get a special discount. Head over to economist.com slash TOE to subscribe. That's economist.com slash TOE for your discount.
Think Verizon, the best 5G network is expensive? Think again. Bring in your AT&T or T-Mobile bill to a Verizon store today and we'll give you a better deal. Now what to do with your unwanted bills? Ever seen an origami version of the Miami Bull?
Jokes aside, Verizon has the most ways to save on phones and plans where you can get a single line with everything you need. So bring in your bill to your local Miami Verizon store today and we'll give you a better deal.
What 3Blue1Brown has done for mathematics is unsurpassed, not only with the channel, but with the Summer of Math Exposition contest, which, for those of you who are unfamiliar, is less of a contest and more of an ethos to create mathematical explainer videos collectively during the same time period. I'm a huge, huge fan of Grant Sanderson, the person behind 3Blue1Brown, and the Summer of Math Exposition contest,
and thought, well, since this channel, Theories of Everything, is about physics and consciousness studies, why not do a similar contest, but on those topics instead? A few weeks ago, I emailed Grant, just to not step on any toes, so to speak, and he said, go for it. So today, I'm announcing the Physics and Consciousness Explications Contest.
Essentially, it's a place and a period for you to submit your video explainer of a physics phenomenon or of a consciousness phenomenon or theory. We'll go into exactly what that means shortly. And Brilliant has similarly come on board with $1,000 to give to each one of the top five winners. That is 5,000 divided among five. I'll make a video with the top explainer videos. Of course, that's extremely subjective. And so I'll be supplementing that with a playlist inventorying each of the entries.
So what's the point of all of this? Well, number one, it's not to have winners. It's to have more disquisitions on topics that don't have readily digestible tutorials out there, at least not publicly. Number two, it's to give a nudge to you or to someone you know who you want to share this with, who is on the perimeter of deciding to make a video.
but is unsure. Perhaps this scant incentive of being recognized with views or recognized financially with a prize pushes you in the direction of making content that you may not have otherwise. Number three, the top comments on the three blue one brown YouTube video about the contest is something that I resonated with.
Blar goner. This user said that it's unfortunate that the more advanced videos, which explicitly assumed some prerequisite knowledge, got downvoted and flagged as being unclear, not explaining jargon, etc. Despite such entries indeed being allowed by the general guidelines. In the future, consider having different levels of submission, for example advanced. The point is, I have also found that a large segment of the YouTube population is starved
The Toe podcast, at least in some ways, can be thought of as speaking to that starved segment, though while in podcast form, much can be traversed quickly, much concepts verbally,
Still plenty is lost because there aren't equations and animations. It would be great if that lacuna was filled that is more advanced graduate topics since the lower year undergraduate topics seem to get all the attention. So for example, if you have a thesis or a capstone project for your master's or your PhD and you'd like to distill it down to its essence,
then communicate it via video and submit. Let's get on to tips. So number one, choose a video that you would like to see created, a video that you wish existed, and perhaps even in the style that you wish existed. Number two, don't just use PowerPoint slides and talk through it. Okay, so what are some ideas of potential videos to be submitted? Well, firstly, if you're unsure, join the Discord, the link will be in the description, as well as you can just visit tinyurl.com slash Discord Toe, that is T-O-E,
But onto some examples. What is Yang-Mills theory? How does the Atiya-Singer index theorem relate to physics? What is a Lagrangian sum manifold? And why is the symplectic creed that everything is a Lagrangian sum manifold? What's an Euler class? Or, if you're daring, what's the Churen-Gauss-Bonnet theorem's implications for supersymmetry? What is E8 as a Lie group? And what's that relation to the E8 lattice?
Or you can take some theory of everything that exists, so string theory, and explain some concept within it. Or, for example, Wolfram's physics project and explain how black holes are formed. Or the maximum quantum entanglement speed. Or in loop quantum cosmology, perhaps you'd like to explain what Ashtakar variables are and why they're useful. What's the sigma model? What's the symplectic version of quantum mechanics?
How do you formulate quantum mechanics without complex numbers and what are the trade-offs and benefits? On the consciousness side, some example videos would be to explain Joschabach's computational model of consciousness, or to explain Bernardo Kastrup's analytical idealism,
or to explain why Phi has anything to do with consciousness in integrated information theory or why it may not and you can explain global neuronal workspace theory what are the technical problems perhaps epistemic perhaps ontological with having neural correlates of consciousness be an explainer of consciousness how does Douglas Hofstadter's strange loop concept work and where does it fall short you can even combine consciousness and physics with an explainer of orchestrated objective reduction that's Penrose's theory
or perhaps you can explain just an aspect of it that is what is frolic resonance there was a study recently that apparently shows some limits of certain quantum theories of consciousness well does it what are the limitations of this study what is conway's free will theorem it doesn't have anything to do with free will what is super determinism and now we're back on the
Physics side, Sabine Hassenfelder is working assiduously on that, so you're welcome to email her and say, hey, would it be okay if I took some voice clips of yours from this timestamp and this timestamp and added animations, perhaps your own narration? Some people in the TOE audience are studying neuroscience, and so if you want, you can show how machine learning is related to concepts in consciousness or qualia or perception, because perhaps that's what you're writing your PhD thesis on.
Feel free to go ahead and make a video, even if it means that you're submitting to two different places like your advisor, perhaps another contest. That doesn't matter to me. In fact, I encourage it because it adds extra motivation. I should emphasize that you don't have to submit an idea that incorporates both physics and consciousness.
but instead it's best to just focus on one of the two that is make a physics submission or make a consciousness submission as generally those that try to combine both tend to lack the rigor that we're aiming for with pace one there are exceptions of course again if you're unsure if your idea for your video fits then visit the discord and ask that's tinyurl.com slash discord toe okay so what are the rules well number one you're allowed to submit to multiple contests
That is to say, if you're submitting to Summer of Math Exposition number two, that doesn't preclude you from submitting here as well. Another rule is that you must make your video public. It can't be unlisted because the primary point is to have more commentary and explorations on physics and consciousness, both prevalent and overt. Number three, unlike the ThreeBlueOneBrown video, this is exclusive to video content, so no blog posts are allowed. Number four is make sure that you have one entry per group or per individual.
October 12, 2022, 11.59pm, Toronto time.
Now let's get to what are some possible styles for the videos. So obviously, you could do a lecture with a blackboard and a tablet. That's not terribly engaging, but perhaps you can make it so. There's animation. That's the three blue, one brown style. That's extremely difficult, but wonderfully engaging. Number three, you can make it a documentary style. So I'll give some examples of those on screen right now.
Number four is you can make it exploratory, where you throw out ideas, it's you learning the topic, you going through a journey, you're showing your mistakes along the way, open questions you still have, showing connections between different fields and related concepts. It's not you as an expert, it's you as a student learning the topic. Another style is to take some work that exists and remix it, with the original creator's permission of course,
So for example, Richard Borchardt's leech lattice explanation, or Donald Hoffman here, or like I mentioned with Sabine Hassenfelder in Super Determinism. Another style is to take an article or a paper that you want to learn and then you go through it. So for example, the papers that got Witton the Fields Medal, at least in part the Jones polynomial, you go through it and then you explain it, maybe line by line or maybe paragraph by paragraph or page by page.
Or combine it with animations or simply just remix it with any of these styles. Okay, so now, what are the criteria for winning?
Again, please, this is not about winning. This is simply to have more explications out there. However, if you're interested, one of the criteria is to take something that's traditionally complex and then make it digestible. So that is this ratio between complexity and simplicity. So for example, elucidating what Yang-Mills theory is rigorously is notoriously difficult. Perhaps you can find some analogies to make it more digestible.
Number two, it needs to be engaging and entertaining. And then number three is that you keep in the rigor. So no hand waving, no
If you're doing something regarding consciousness know using the word quantum as some let's say new age people may incorrectly use the words that they sound more scientific instead for this contest please stick to equations precision and logical rigor and when I say rigor I mean a physicist rigor which essentially is a mathematician's hand wavy but you understand what I mean good luck and again if you have questions go to the discord which is linked below tinyurl.com slash discord TOE
It's at this point that on the YouTube video we have some visuals, so I recommend you click the YouTube link in the description.
Hey guys welcome back to another video!
drink from McDonald's, you may suddenly crave one too. And that's normal. It's more than a drink. It's a McDonald's drink. All your ice-cold go-to drinks are here whenever that mood hits. From classic Coca-Cola, to a sparkling Sprite, to a sweet, sweet tea. Get any size for just $1.39, only at McDonald's. Price and participation may vary, cannot be combined with any other offer.
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No transcript available.