Genius Philosopher: The Law of Physics That Explains Why Your Life Falls Apart
Into the Impossible With Brian Keating
Heroic Strivers and Existential Stakes
Rebecca describes heroic strivers whose mattering depends on excellence and why failures feel existential.
Please join my mailing list here š https://briankeating.com/list to win a meteorite š„
Rebecca Newberger Goldstein is a MacArthur Genius Award recipient, philosopher, novelist, and author of The Mattering Instinct. Her verdict on why human beings are driven to matter ā and what threatens that drive ā might change how you think about your own life. Check out her recent appearance on Mindscape here.
In this conversation, we discuss why every human being is haunted by the need to matter, the four types of people and how each one tries to satisfy that longing, why Ludwig Boltzmann's tragic death is a thermodynamic story, how depression maps onto entropy, whether AI can ever have a mattering instinct, and why heroic strivers are the most threatened by artificial intelligence. We also get into what Freud got wrong about what women want, the physics of matter versus the philosophy of mattering, and why the second law of thermodynamics may be the most personal law in all of science.
Rebecca Newberger Goldstein is a philosopher, novelist, and MacArthur Genius Award recipient. She is the author of multiple books including Plato at the Googleplex and 36 Arguments for the Existence of God. Her newest book, The Mattering Instinct, is one of Apple's most anticipated books of the year.
00:00 Why every human being needs to matter ā and what happens when they can't
03:30 The second law of thermodynamics and what it has to do with your life
13:10 The 4 types of people: Transcenders, Socializers, Heroic Strivers, and Competitors
16:25 Why fame-seeking millennials will give up everything ā including relationships
22:05 Zero-sum mattering: the competitor who was happy for 15 minutes after winning a Nobel Prize
23:20 Ludwig Boltzmann solved one of physics' greatest paradoxes ā then despaired
28:45 All tragedies are thermodynamic ā and so is depression
35:40 Life as resistance to entropy: what flourishing actually means
48:35 Can AI have a mattering instinct? What that would mean for human rights and everything we think we are
ā”ļø Follow Rebecca Newberger Goldstein
š Website: https://rebeccagoldstein.com/
š The Mattering Instinct: https://www.amazon.com/Mattering-Instinct-Deepest-Longing-Divides/dp/1324096853
š¦ Twitter/X: https://x.com/platobooktour
āļø Substack: https://rebeccanewbergergoldstein.substack.com/
Join this channel to get access to perks like monthly Office Hours: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/join
š Get my books:
Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with productivity tips from 9 Nobel Prize winners: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu
Focus Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with life-changing interviews with 9 Nobel Prizewinners: https://a.co/d/hi50U9U
My tell-all cosmic memoir Losing the Nobel Prize: http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA
The first-ever audiobook from Galileo: Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un
Follow me to ask questions of my guests:
šāāļø Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating
š Subscribe https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1
š Join my mailing list; just click here http://briankeating.com/list
āļø Detailed Blog posts here: https://briankeating.com/blog
šļø Listen on audio-only platforms: https://briankeating.com/podcast
#philosophy #podcast #briankeating #intotheimpossible #mattering #entropy #meaningoflife #RebeccaNewbergerGoldstein #thermodynamics #AIandhumanity
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The AI-powered Podcast Player
