Episode · Lex Fridman Podcast · 2020-07-29
Lex Fridman & Ian Hutchinson: books mentioned on Lex Fridman Podcast #112
#112 – Ian Hutchinson: Nuclear Fusion, Plasma Physics, and Religion
Ian Hutchinson is a nuclear engineer and plasma physicist at MIT. He has made a number of important contributions in plasma physics including the magnetic confinement of plasmas seeking to enable fusion reactions, which is the energy source of the stars, to be used for practical energy production.
Lex Fridman recommended Can a Scientist Believe in Miracles? by Ian Hutchinson and Monopolizing knowledge by Ian H. Hutchinson, and discussed Solaris by Stanisław Lem. Ian Hutchinson recommended Paradise Lost by John Milton, and discussed Job by Joseph Roth.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Can a Scientist Believe in Miracles?
Can a Scientist Believe in Miracles? by Ian Hutchinson is a thought-provoking exploration of the relationship between scientific inquiry and religious faith.
Recommended“on this latter topic i recommend two of his books his new one can a scientist believe in miracles where he answers more than 200 questions on all aspects of god and science and his earlier book on scientism called monopolizing knowledge”
Where to get it
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Monopolizing knowledge
Monopolizing Knowledge by Ian H.
Recommended“on this latter topic i recommend two of his books his new one can a scientist believe in miracles where he answers more than 200 questions on all aspects of god and science and his earlier book on scientism called monopolizing knowledge”
Where to get it
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Solaris
Solaris by Stanisław Lem is a classic science fiction novel about a scientific research station hovering above an enigmatic, sentient ocean planet that manifests the deeply repressed psychological traumas of the human crew.
Discussed“this podcast is my humble attempt to explore a complicated human nature what stanislav in his book solaris called our own labyrinth of dark passages and secret chambers”
Where to get it
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Job
Job is a biblical book that examines the profound problem of human suffering, divine testing, and the persistence of faith through unimaginable loss.
Discussed“if we try to give intellectual solutions to these problems were going to be like like the comforters that were in the book of job in the in the bible um who who brought no comfort to job himself um with their intellectual answers”
Where to get it
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Paradise Lost
John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost explores the fall of man, temptation, and the battle between good and evil.
Recommended“you're gonna have to read paradise last to get your answer to that”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (4) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“and and actually uh you know i've written a whole book about the question of of scientism and the and the over emphasis on science both as a way of of solving problems through technology but also as a way of gaining knowledge”
“yeah in my in my latest book uh can a scientist believe in miracles i i i devote most of the first chapter to telling how how i became a christian um why i became a christian”
“and the book in which i explored it most most thoroughly was actually an earlier book called monopolizing knowledge and and the the purpose of that title is to is to draw attention to the fact that in our society as a whole in particular in the west today we we have grown so reliant on science that we that”
“um i i tell a story in my book that um when i was a student before i became a christian i read a philosophy book whose approximate title was um what you know what is the meaning of life”