Though part of me - the worst part - would like to join the clever crowd who endlessly pontificate and interview each other, I'm held back by my intense aversion to publicly talking about:
1) consciousness
2) free will
3) string theory and other theories of everything
4) are mathematical objects real?
5) quantum computers
6) large language models, machine learning, AI
and most other topics that the "digiterati", the "intellectual dark web" and other quasi-scientific talking heads seem to enjoy. I'd much rather settle down and read a good book about the life cycle of lichens, or the organizational structure of car repair shops.
@johncarlosbaez Isn't #3 something you've already written about on many occasions (or perhaps I'm misremembering)? Or do you just not want to *talk* about it?
I will say that I admittedly find it silly when things like string theory are discussed on a general-interest show/podcast, since the discussion is necessarily at such a superficial/simplified level. But there are exceptions, like Sean Carroll's Mindscape, which generally takes significant time to build up discussions of prerequisites to have a bit more meat to the discussions.
@internic - yes, I've written about string theory and other theories of everything, and talked about them. I just see little point in talking about them publicly, like in an interview or debate, especially since other people do more than enough of that already.
@johncarlosbaez Well, yes, I can't argue with your last point. However, it is sometimes interesting to hear people speak about these things from different points of view. But, again, it's only interesting if they're given the time to explain potentially subtle points.
