Episode · Lex Fridman Podcast · 2019-03-20
Books mentioned on Eric Weinstein: Revolutionary Ideas in Science, Math, and Society
Eric Weinstein is a mathematician, economist, physicist, and managing director of Thiel Capital. He formed the “intellectual dark web” which is a loosely assembled group of public intellectuals including Sam Harris, Jordan Peterson, Steven Pinker, Joe Rogan, Michael Shermer, and a few others.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Love and Math
Love and Math by Edward Frenkel is a popular mathematics book that blends memoir with an accessible exploration of advanced concepts like the Langlands program, arguing that numbers possess an intrinsic beauty akin to art.
Discussed“One of my favorite people, Edward Franco, Berkeley professor, author of Love and Math, great title for a book, said that you were quite a remarkable intellect to come up with such beautiful, original ideas in terms of unified theory and so on.”
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What is Life?
What is Life? by Erwin Schrödinger is a classic collection of physics lectures that explores the biological concept of living systems through the lens of thermodynamics, famously describing life as a continual attempt to constrain entropy.
Discussed“Yeah, I mean you know, Schrodinger wrote What is Life and that was highly inspirational.”
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The Double Helix
The Double Helix by James D.
Recommended“you ever read The Double Helix? - It's a book? - Oh, you have to read this book-- - Not only did Jim Watson half discover this three dimensional structure of DNA, he was also one hell of a writer before he became an ass.”
