Conjecture Institute

While Newtonian mechanics, quantum mechanics, and general relativity consist of radically different conceptual frameworks and mathematical infrastructure, they are all expressible in what David Deutsch and Chiara Marletto call the prevailing or traditional conception. If you know the current positions and velocities of the planets, Newton’s laws let you calculate where they will be next year, or where they were last year. If you know the wave function of an electron and the rule governing how it changes, quantum mechanics lets you compute its entire future and its entire past. If you know the positions and velocities of two black holes at the current moment, Einstein’s equations in general relativity fix their entire evolution in spacetime — forward or backward.   Read: https://conjectureinstitute.org/courses/constructor-theory/Constructor%20Theory%20Module%201.pdf   Visit Conjecture Institute: https://www.conjectureinstitute.org/   Donate to Conjecture Institute: https://www.every.org/conjecture-institute-inc#/donate/card   Follow Conjecture Institute on X: https://x.com/ConjectureInst  

The scope of a scientific theory is not a matter of subjective preference, and that judging a theory by its scope is a mistake. Judging a scientific theory by its structure—for example, whether or not it consists of algebraic equations and dynamical laws of motion—is also a mistake. Absent a good explanation for why a given theory’s scope is too great, or why a given theory’s structure renders it inviable, it is irrational to dismiss a theory just because its scope or structure does not meet your preferences.   Read: https://www.conjectureinstitute.org/courses/constructor-theory/Logan%20Constructor%20Theory%20Module%200%20-%20Google%20Docs.pdf   Visit Conjecture Institute: https://www.conjectureinstitute.org/   Donate to Conjecture Institute: https://www.every.org/conjecture-institute-inc#/donate/card   Follow Conjecture Institute on X: https://x.com/ConjectureInst  

Philosophy is often divided into three branches: metaphysics or ontology (what is existence, why do reality’s constituent parts behave the way they do, what constrains and explains Nature’s regularities), epistemology (how knowledge grows, how people come to know what we think we know), and morality (what one should and should not do, how to choose some values over others).   Read: https://www.conjectureinstitute.org/courses/people-reason-reality/Logan%20-%20Reason%20Module%204%20-%20Google%20Docs.pdf   Visit Conjecture Institute: https://www.conjectureinstitute.org/   Donate to Conjecture Institute: https://www.every.org/conjecture-institute-inc#/donate/card   Follow Conjecture Institute on X: https://x.com/ConjectureInst  

A walkthrough of what makes explanations reliable and why many familiar accounts fail. They contrast mythic and natural answers for earthquakes and unpack Deutsch’s hard-to-vary idea. The talk explores coherence between explanations and why true-sounding theories can still miss the point. It ends by outlining three constraints that narrow the space of acceptable explanations.

Evidence-based anything is an illusion. There is no evidence-based science, evidence-based policy, evidence-based argument (see this very paragraph).   In reality, a mind first guesses—conjectures—an idea. This could be a scientific idea, a moral idea, an economic idea, a political idea, an idea about beauty—anything.   One then criticizes it: is it internally consistent? Does it cohere with our other ideas about how the world works? Is it arbitrary? Is it consistent with our observations?   Read: https://www.conjectureinstitute.org/courses/people-reason-reality/Logan%20%E2%80%93%20Reason%20Module%202%20-%20Google%20Docs.pdf   Visit Conjecture Institute: https://www.conjectureinstitute.org/   Donate to Conjecture Institute: https://www.every.org/conjecture-institute-inc#/donate/card   Follow Conjecture Institute on X: https://x.com/ConjectureInst

Taking Schrödinger Seriously, Module 1: What Is the Schrödinger Equation?, by Conjecture Institute Fellow Maxime Desalle   By the end of this module, you will be able to: -Identify each symbol in the Schrödinger equation and explain what it represents, -Describe what the wave function is and why it must be complex (here, complex means ‘having both real and imaginary components’), -Explain why the equation uses only the first derivative of Ψ, and what this implies about determinism, -Read the Hamiltonian as a specification of what physical situation the system is in, and -Articulate what the equation says, and what it does not say.   Read: https://www.conjectureinstitute.org/courses/schrodinger/Maxime%20Module%201.pdf   Visit Conjecture Institute: https://www.conjectureinstitute.org/

People, Reason, & Reality Part I: Reason: Module 1: The Paths to Adopting an Idea, by Conjecture Institute President Logan Chipkin   The relationships between errors, problem solving, thinking, and rationality are not as straightforward as common sense might suggest.   Read: https://www.conjectureinstitute.org/courses/people-reason-reality/Logan%20%E2%80%93%20Reason%20Module%201%20-%20Google%20Docs.pdf   Visit Conjecture Institute: https://www.conjectureinstitute.org/

Conjecture Institute President & Cofounder Logan Chipkin speaks with Oxford physicist and Conjecture Institute Senior Scientist Chiara Marletto about constructor theory, a theory in fundamental physics that seeks to express all of the laws of physics in terms of transformations that are possible, transformations that are impossible, and why. Logan and Chiara discuss constructor theory’s motivations, its basic structure, and its applications to the physics of information, time, probability, quantum gravity, and other areas. Visit Chiara’s website: https://www.chiaramarletto.com Learn more about constructor theory: https://www.constructortheory.org Visit Conjecture Institute: https://www.conjectureinstitute.org Donate to Conjecture Institute: https://www.every.org/conjecture-institute-inc#/donate/card

Conjecture Institute Advisor, Lord Daniel Hannan is in conversation today about democracy, free trade and freedom broadly. Lord Hannan has a comprehensive website containing his work which is found at https://danielhannan.info/ while his Youtube channel is a catalogue of speeches, talks, interviews, lectures and more defending the ideas and ideals of the Enlightenment and Western Civilization. Chapters/Timestamps are below 00:00 Introduction 00:04 Preview 00:56 Introduction to Lord Hannan 01:29 Upper Houses and the functions of a Parliament. 09:21 Democracy and the EU Parliament 17:19 “The Will of the People” and referenda. 23:47 The English vs Spanish “Western” civilisations” and political stability. 29:00 The Invention of Freedom and Resource Extraction 37:31 Climate Change, Net Zero and Politics 39:53 Doomerism, Regulation and Social Control. 43:39: Lord Hannan on Nick Bostrom, Techno-Pessimism and AI 45:47 Existential Risk, Property Rights, Wealth 49:56 Common Law, Property Rights and Conservationism 52:12 Free speech and The First Amendment

Maria is fellow of Conjecture Institute https://www.conjectureinstitute.org/ and physicist with her own Youtube Channel where she takes deep dives into many aspects of quantum theory - especially quantum computation. Subscribe to her channel here:    / @maria_violaris