The Man Who Named the Big Bang… and Hated It! Fred Hoyle
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Fred Hoyle coined the term “Big Bang”—but he hated the theory it described. Instead, he championed the steady state universe, helped uncover the stellar origin of the elements, and gave us the immortal phrase: “We are stardust.”
This video explores Hoyle’s brilliance and contradictions:
Why he mocked the Big Bang yet proved it correct
How he predicted the “Hoyle state” that makes carbon—and life—possible
His role in the legendary B²FH paper that rewrote cosmic history
The injustices that kept him from a Nobel Prize
His radical speculations on panspermia, Stonehenge, and cosmic design
Hoyle’s story is a masterclass in scientific courage: following data even when it destroys your own theory.
👉 Subscribe for more deep dives into the rebels who reshaped science: Into the Impossible Podcast
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Key Takeaways:
00:00 Fred Hoyle: Defying Scientific Norms
06:02 "Fred Hoyle: Unconventional Scientific Curiosity"
10:11 Hoyle and Littleton's Cosmic Inquiry
12:32 Constructive Contrarianism in Cosmology
14:59 Science Communication and Public Responsibility
19:09 B2FH: Stellar Element Synthesis
21:02 Hoyle's Interdisciplinary Genius
25:53 Universe's Surprising Insights
27:46 Nobel Prize Debate: CMB Origins
32:14 "Helium Mystery and Hoyle's Concession"
35:07 Hoyle's Overlooked Nobel Stance
38:23 Hoyle's Unyielding Scientific Pursuits
42:36 Fred Hoyle: Science's Intellectual Rebel
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The first-ever audiobook from Galileo: Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un
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#universe #podcast #briankeating #intotheimpossible #science #astronomy #cosmology #cosmicmicrowavebackground #intotheimpossible #briankeating
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48:46
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48:46
David Deutsch Says We Will Build Humans Before We Build AGI
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David Deutsch offers his insights into the physics that will impact our future, challenging our new technologies, such as AGI and the development of synthetic humans, as depicted in movies. Join us for this fascinating discussion as we go INTO THE IMPOSSIBLE.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
00:00:00 – 00:00:39 Could machines experience thoughts and sensations like humans?
00:00:45 – 00:01:46 Deutsch argues subjective experiences can arise from any system replicating brain-like processing.
00:01:47 – 00:02:25 We never experience the present moment directly but recall slightly delayed interpretations.
00:02:25 – 00:03:30 Deutsch views himself as software running on brain hardware, embodiment is mainly computational.
00:03:30 – 00:04:37 Loss of physical body parts doesn’t reduce personhood
00:04:43 – 00:07:13 Story of “lock-in” from horse’s width shaping space tech leads to analogy about AI hardware lock-in.
00:08:10 – 00:09:20 Lock-in may slow progress but creativity ensures no permanent limits.
00:09:20 – 00:12:15 Square roots and complex numbers naturally emerge in physics due to algebraic structures of reality.
00:12:15 – 00:13:31 Not all mathematical structures are worth exploring—only those relevant to solving physics problems.
00:13:31 – 00:17:00 Shift to memetics: persistence of anti-Jewish patterns is deeper than typical memes.
00:17:00 – 00:19:26 Pattern predates Christianity; it persists through cultural rationalizations, not simple hatred.
00:19:50 – 00:21:23 Discussion of life vs. death choices from Torah portion ties to Deutsch’s book on infinity
00:21:44 – 00:22:32 Humanity faces no upper or lower bounds—capable of infinite progress or catastrophic mistakes
00:23:36 – 00:24:21 Advice to young self-consider interference processes as a door to quantum computation
00:25:16 – 00:26:13 Deutsch admits past mistakes—initially misjudged multiverse explanations and free will
00:27:08 – 00:28:08 David redefines free will as the ability to create objectively new knowledge.
00:28:14 – 00:28:41 AGI programs will have free will once true AI is achieved.
00:29:02 – 00:29:18 Conclusion
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Additional resources:
Get Dr. Brian Keating’s NEW Book for Only 0.99! This week only: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FN8DH6SX?ref_=pe_93986420_775043100
Get David Deutsch’s Book: https://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Infinity-Explanations-Transform-World/dp/0143121359
Please join my mailing list here 👉 https://briankeating.com/yt to win a meteorite 💥
--------------------------
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📚 Get a copy of my books:
Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with life changing interviews with 9 Nobel Prizewinners: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu
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
📺 Watch my most popular videos:📺
Neil Turok https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt5cFLN65fI
Frank Wilczek https://youtu.be/3z8RqKMQHe0?sub_confirmation=1
Eric Weinstein vs. Stephen Wolfram https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI0AZ4Y4Ip4?sub_confirmation=1
Sir Roger Penrose: https://youtu.be/AMuqyAvX7Wo
Sabine Hossenfelder: https://youtu.be/g00ilS6tBvs
Avi Loeb: https://youtu.be/N9lUceHsLRw
Follow me to ask questions of my guests:
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32:54
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32:54
Is 3I/ATLAS Alien Technolgy? Avi Loeb & MIchael Shermer DEBATE
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It’s the perfect companion to this conversation—lessons in thinking clearly, staying curious, and pushing past conventional wisdom from my conversations with 22 Nobel Prize winners!
Brian Keating sits down with Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb and renowned skeptic Michael Shermer to dissect the latest enigma sweeping through our solar system—3I/ATLAS.
• What makes 3I/ATLAS extraordinary?
• It’s the third confirmed interstellar object to visit our solar system—after ʻOumuamua and Borisov—racing through space at hyperbolic speeds and exhibiting an orbit intriguingly aligned with our ecliptic plane
• Observations by Hubble and James Webb reveal a coma dominated by carbon dioxide, with traces of water, carbon monoxide, nickel, and cyanide—an unusual chemical signature even among comets.
• Avi Loeb’s provocative hypothesis: He and collaborators propose that 3I/ATLAS might not be natural at all—but potentially a piece of alien technology, given its improbable trajectory, ecliptic alignment, and close approach to Mars and other planets—arguably orchestrated rather than accidental.
• Michael Shermer pushes back: A constructive skeptic’s view on whether the evidence truly supports Loeb’s scenario, grounding the discussion with a critical evaluation of observational data versus speculative inference.
Don’t miss this rare convergence of cutting-edge astrophysics and disciplined skepticism—because how we interpret 3I/ATLAS could redefine our understanding of interstellar visitors.
Key Takeaways:
•00:00 NASCAR Fascination with 3i Atlas
•07:40 Cosmic Anomalies Suggest Tech Origins
•13:02 Interstellar Comets: Ubiquitous Wanderers
•17:11 Interstellar Object Frequency Dilemma
•23:46 Challenging Mainstream Scientific Conformity
•31:09 Balancing Exoplanet Exploration Funding
•35:33 Comet Nickel Detection, No Iron
•38:39 Open-Mindedness in Scientific Consensus
•45:53 "Trusting Experts vs. Skepticism"
•50:09 "Assessing Extraterrestrial vs. Natural Objects"
•55:48 Hallucinations During Transcontinental Bike Race
•01:02:13 Eyewitness Testimony's Unreliability
•01:05:34 Government Secrecy and National Security
•01:12:54 Seeking Direct Evidence of UFO Claims
•01:16:44 Comet: A Dirty Iceberg Analogy
•01:21:27 New Astrobiology Approach: Onsite Sampling
•01:29:18 Analyzing Spacecraft Non-Gravitational Acceleration
•01:31:52 Free Moon Rocks: Myths and Offers
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1:38:16
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1:38:16
Thomas Hertog: What Came Before The Big Bang?
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In a sweeping conversation drawn from his collaboration with Stephen Hawking, Thomas Hertog explores the radical “no-boundary” theory—a vision of the cosmos with no singular beginning, evolving laws of physics, and a past that isn’t fixed until observed. Rejecting the untestable multiverse, Hertog and Hawking built a fully quantum cosmology that embeds the observer within the equations, predicting inflation and replacing anthropic guesswork with a falsifiable framework.
Hertog explains how time could emerge from something deeper than the Big Bang, why constants of nature may be dynamic, and how holography hints the laws of physics themselves might fade away at the origin. He then turns to the experiments—from next-generation CMB polarization to gravitational wave backgrounds—that could confirm or refute this bold vision, challenging us to see the universe as a living, evolving system whose history we help to shape.
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Key Takeaways:
00:00 Intro
01:03 Thomas’s first reaction to Hawking’s theory
03:38 Hawking’s model of the Big Bang
07:20 The no-boundary proposal
22:18 The role of conscious observers in cosmology
24:34 The wick rotation and its implications
29:29 The future of physics and experimental tests
37:57 The experimental minimum
40:04 The holographic principle
43:57 Work Thomas would like to share with Hawking
49:11 Outro
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Additional resources:
📚 On the Origin of Time by Thomas Hertog: https://a.co/d/ftze4JC
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Into the Impossible with Brian Keating is a podcast dedicated to all those who want to explore the universe within and beyond the known.
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54:23
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54:23
Ben Shapiro: Free Will, AGI, and the Scavengers Ruining America's Future
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We talk with Ben Shapiro about his new book “Lions and Scavengers” and how we each have a lion and a scavenger inside of us. Today’s society is shaped by lions who build great things, while the scavengers try to tear them down.
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Additional resources:
Ben Shapiro’s NEW Book Lions and Scavengers: https://www.amazon.com/Lions-Scavengers-Story-America-Critics/dp/1668097885
Ben Shapiro’s Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@BenShapiro
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Join this channel to get access to perks like monthly Office Hours:
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📚 Get a copy of my books:
Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with life changing interviews with 9 Nobel Prizewinners: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu
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
📺 Watch my most popular videos:📺
Neil Turok https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt5cFLN65fI
Frank Wilczek https://youtu.be/3z8RqKMQHe0?sub_confirmation=1
Eric Weinstein vs. Stephen Wolfram https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI0AZ4Y4Ip4?sub_confirmation=1
Sir Roger Penrose: https://youtu.be/AMuqyAvX7Wo
Sabine Hossenfelder: https://youtu.be/g00ilS6tBvs
Avi Loeb: https://youtu.be/N9lUceHsLRw
Follow me to ask questions of my guests:
🏄♂️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating
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#universe #podcast #briankeating #intotheimpossible #science #astronomy #cosmology #cosmicmicrowavebackground #intotheimpossible #briankeating #benshapiro
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Think like a physicist. Wonder like a human. Into the Impossible is where Cosmic Conversations happen — uniting Nobel Prize winners, iconoclasts, authors, and technologists to explore reality’s deepest questions. From AI to aliens, from biophysics to the brain, from the cosmos to the multiverse, Brian Keating, Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of Physics at UC San Diego covers it all.
If you’ve ever asked What’s out there? or What’s next?, this is where curiosity meets clarity.
Learn to think like this. 🎙 Full episodes, notes & more: briankeating.com/podcast