yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Nullius in Verba


2m read
·Nov 3, 2024

The beginning of infinity is not an easy book to read. To some level, Deutsch could not but write for other physicists. He has a certain peer group that he respects and who respect him, and he has to meet them at their level. So, he has to write for other physicists and philosophers.

Part of what I wanted to do was I wanted to understand these principles in the book; verify, confirm them for myself or not. I love the old motto from the Royal Society, which says "Nelius in Verba," which says take no one's word for it. In other words, figure it out yourself; that's the only way you know anything.

So I wanted to confirm the principles in The Beginning of Infinity or to refute them for myself. To do that, I was reading and rereading the book. I started reading some blog posts on it, and then eventually I found a guy online named Brett Hall. I started listening to his podcast, which was called "Talk Cast," but spelled "Tok Cast" for the Theory of Knowledge Cast.

And Brett, I'm going to let you introduce yourself, but I would say that listening to your podcast has helped me clarify a lot of these principles. I would love to have you talk with me so that we can both understand the depth, the clarity, the reach, the importance of these ideas. Then hopefully someone else out there can become smarter by it.

Hello Naval, and it's great to be here! You've raised so many interesting aspects of The Beginning of Infinity, which has become a real passion of mine. Like many people who enter into science, when I was at school, I thought, "Well, I want to be an astronomer." When I entered university, I wanted to go and do a physics degree, do an astronomy degree, and then become a professional astronomer.

It wasn't until one day I was in a bookstore and I found this book called The Fabric of Reality by David Deutsch. I started reading it, and the first chapter described what I was trying to achieve in my life. It was putting into words what I felt my university studies and my general outlook on life was about.

Because David Deutsch says there, the ancient philosophers thought that they could get an understanding of the entire world. Then later on, as time passed, modern science made it seem as though this was an impossible project. There's no way you could understand everything about reality; there's too much to know. How could you possibly know everything?

More Articles

View All
Kevin O'Leary's Exclusive Abu Dhabi Investment Talk | Virgin Radio Dubai Interview
[Music] Kevin: Oir, welcome back to Virgin Radio Dubai on the Maz Hakeim podcast! Maz: I feel like I live here. Kevin: Well, I feel like you live here as well. It’s so nice to have you back. Last time we spoke, you were in Abu Dhabi. You were doing a h…
Would You Bite Into a Raw Bison Liver? | Expedition Raw
What am I supposed to do with this? I am a white kid from Brooklyn, and I’d never been to an Indian Reservation before. Is this the liver? Take a bite. The bite like this. I’ll never… just like this. You all have to now. It’s completely sterile. There you…
Animal Storm Squad: Saving Pets From Natural Disasters | Nat Geo Live
Karissa: Almost three years ago, my life changed. A powerful EF-5 tornado ripped through Moore, Oklahoma, which, tragically, killed twenty people. That day, my friend Dave Holder, he’s a Meteorologist, and he called me about forty-five minutes after the t…
Nuclear Energy Explained: How does it work? 1/3
Have you ever been in an argument about nuclear power? We have, and we found it frustrating and confusing, so let’s try and get to grips with this topic. It all started in the 1940s. After the shock and horror of the war and the use of the atomic bomb, n…
Machu Picchu 101 | National Geographic
[Narrator] The stone city of Machu Picchu is one of the most fascinating archeological sites on the planet. Located northwest of Cuso, Peru, Machu Picchu is a testament to the power and ingenuity of the Inca people. During its prime, the Inca civilizati…
BEST of MARGIN CALL #3 - First Meeting
So, Sam, what do you have for us? It’ll be here in a minute. Finding somebody in the copy room at this hour was a little bit of a challenge. Okay, let’s go right into the introductions. This is Sarah Robertson, who you know. Chief Risk Management Office…