253 | David Deutsch on Science, Complexity, and Explanation

<p>David Deutsch is one of the most creative scientific thinkers working today, who has as a goal to understand and explain the natural world as best we can. He was a pioneer in quantum computing, and has long been an advocate of the Everett interpretation of quantum theory. He is also the inventor of&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructor_theory" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">constructor theory</a>, a new way of conceptualizing physics and science more broadly. But he also has a strong interest in philosophy and epistemology, championing a Popperian explanation-based approach over a rival Bayesian epistemology. We talk about all of these things and more, including his recent work on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/302687a0" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the Popper-Miller theorem</a>, which specifies limitations on inductive approaches to knowledge and probability.</p><p>Blog post with transcript: <a href="https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2023/10/16/253-david-deutsch-on-science-complexity-and-explanation/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2023/10/16/253-david-deutsch-on-science-complexity-and-explanation/</a></p><p>S<em>upport Mindscape on&nbsp;</em><a href="https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Patreon</em></a><em>.</em></p><p>David Deutsch received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the University of Oxford. He is currently a visiting professor in the Department of Atomic and Laser Physics at Oxford. He is a pioneer in quantum computation as well as initiating&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructor_theory" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">constructor theory</a>. His books include&nbsp;<em>The Fabric of Reality</em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em>The Beginning of Infinity</em>. Among his awards including the Dirac Prize, the Dirac Medal, the Edge of Computation Science Prize, the Isaac Newton Medal, the Breakthrough Physics