John Horgan @Horganism Twitter profile

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John Horgan

@Horganism

5 years

The Delusion of Scientific Omniscience. As time goes on, the claim of Hawking and others that science can explain everything looks increasingly nutty.

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John Horgan

@Horganism

6 years

I asked Karl Popper if his falsification principle was falsifiable. See how he replied:

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John Horgan

@Horganism

3 years

Quantum Mechanics, Plato's Cave and the Blind Piranha. My latest column for @sciam

Quantum Mechanics, Plato's Cave and the Blind Piranha

Can we ever really know the world?

www.scientificamerican.com

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John Horgan

@Horganism

4 years

Should Scientists Take UFOs and Ghosts More Seriously? via @sciam

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John Horgan

@Horganism

5 years

On Theoretical Pluralism: Some big scientific questions, like how matter makes mind and what quantum mechanics means, might not have a single, definitive answer. via @sciam

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John Horgan

@Horganism

4 years

What's Wrong with Physics via @sciam

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John Horgan

@Horganism

19 days

Daniel Dennett died yesterday. Here's my tribute to him.

Consciousness and the Dennett Paradox — John Horgan (The Science Writer)

Hoboken, April 20, 2024. Daniel Dennett’s death feels like the end of an era, the era of ultra-materialist, ultra-Darwinian, swaggering, know-it-all scientism . Who’s left? Dawkins? Dennett isn’t as...

johnhorgan.org

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John Horgan

@Horganism

1 year

"Is Ultimate Truth an Equation? Nah." My first post of 2023, which argues against the claim that our deepest insights into reality must be mathematical.

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John Horgan

@Horganism

8 months

Mind-body researchers are bickering over whether a popular theory of consciousness is "pseudoscience." Here's my take on the controversy:

The Brouhaha Over Consciousness and “Pseudoscience” — John Horgan (The Science Writer)

September 23, 2023. You’ve been playing low-stakes poker with a bunch of buddies for years. You might peek at someone’s cards now and then, but only as a joke. Suddenly your buddy accuses you of...

johnhorgan.org

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John Horgan

@Horganism

4 years

Multiverse Theories Are Bad for Science via @sciam

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John Horgan

@Horganism

5 years

String Theory Does Not Win Nobel, and I Win Bet via @sciam

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John Horgan

@Horganism

4 years

Can Science Rule Out God? Thoughtful holiday reflections by @AlpertMark via @sciam

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John Horgan

@Horganism

2 years

Edward Wilson was an influential biologist, inspiring environmentalist, superb writer and complicated man. Here's my profile of him:

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John Horgan

@Horganism

3 years

"Self-criticism, I tell my students, is difficult. It’s much easier to spot flawed thinking in others than in yourself." From my latest column: via @sciam

Distrust Authorities, Including Me

The presidential election and pandemic have highlighted the fallibility of experts, but that doesn’t mean we should dismiss them all

www.scientificamerican.com

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John Horgan

@Horganism

6 years

Yes, Make Psychedelics Legally Available, But Don't Forget the Risks via @sciam

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John Horgan

@Horganism

5 years

Meditation Doesn't Make You Nicer. via @sciam

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John Horgan

@Horganism

4 years

Are US voters going to revolt against the rich this year? via @sciam

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John Horgan

@Horganism

8 years

My skeptical take on "Skepticism." #NECSS

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John Horgan

@Horganism

4 years

"If Whitaker is right, modern psychiatry, together with the pharmaceutical industry, has inflicted iatrogenic harm on millions of people." My Q&A with the founder of @Mad_In_America via @sciam

Has the Drug-Based Approach to Mental Illness Failed?

Journalist Robert Whitaker is more concerned than ever that psychiatric medications do more harm than good

www.scientificamerican.com

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John Horgan

@Horganism

4 months

This is a huge medical scandal, which should be much more widely disseminated and discussed.

TheRealSocraticGadfly 🥝☢️🌻🌲

@real_gadfly

4 months

@Horganism The smoking gun in just how ineffective antidepressants are has seemingly been found ... and the apparent research fraud associated with it.

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John Horgan

@Horganism

5 years

Was Darwin Wrong? My latest column, plus response from postmodern historian of science James McClellan

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John Horgan

@Horganism

1 year

We're constantly told that screening asymptomatic people with colonoscopy "saves lives." But that claim is contradicted by the best study to date.

Do Colonoscopies Really Save Lives? — John Horgan (The Science Writer)

May 6, 2023. Last September Lead From Behind , an organization founded to “get the word out that colon cancer is preventable,” released a video starring Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney . The...

johnhorgan.org

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John Horgan

@Horganism

2 months

Frans de Waal, the great primatologist, just died. Here is what he told me about chimps, bonobos and the origins of war in 2007.

Frans de Waal (RIP) and the Origins of War — John Horgan (The Science Writer)

March 17, 2024. I was scrolling through Twitter last night when I came across an RIP for primatologist Frans de Waal. The news caught me off guard. How could de Waal be dead? He was just out there...

johnhorgan.org

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John Horgan

@Horganism

3 years

Does physicists' fear of death make them embrace multiverses and other flimsy theories? via @sciam

Death, Physics and Wishful Thinking

Fear of mortality might underlie physicists’ fondness for the anthropic principle, multiverses, superdeterminism and other shaky ideas

www.scientificamerican.com

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John Horgan

@Horganism

3 years

Somehow, thinking about quantum mechanics led me to the Chinese Room Experiment. via @sciam

Quantum Mechanics, the Chinese Room Experiment and the Limits of Understanding

All of us, even physicists, often process information without really knowing what we’re doing

www.scientificamerican.com

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John Horgan

@Horganism

6 years

Just posted my new online book: Mind-Body Problems: Science, Subjectivity & Who We Really Are via @sciam

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John Horgan

@Horganism

4 years

Quantum Escapism: How quantum mechanics gives me a refuge from reality. via @sciam

Quantum Escapism

How quantum mechanics gives me a refuge from reality

www.scientificamerican.com

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John Horgan

@Horganism

6 months

Robert Sapolsky embodies a paradox: when you decide free will does not exist because you have weighed arguments for and against it, you prove free will exists.

Free Will and the Sapolsky Paradox — John Horgan (The Science Writer)

November 5, 2023. Not free will again! Yeesh! Is there really more to say about it? Yes, there is, and I suspect there always will be, just as there will always be more to say about what quantum...

johnhorgan.org

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John Horgan

@Horganism

5 years

Visions of a Better World: Chomsky, Dawkins and others answer the question, What’s Your Utopia? via @sciam

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John Horgan

@Horganism

5 years

My "I am me" moment. via @sciam

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John Horgan

@Horganism

6 years

Study questions claim that meditation makes us nicer.

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John Horgan

@Horganism

4 years

My pal @skdh is polling people on whether physicist David Bohm, who I interviewed in 1992, was a "genius" or "nutcase." Both, I answered. Here's my take on him.

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John Horgan

@Horganism

4 years

Physicist @michiokaku just formally, and graciously, conceded his $2000 Long Bet with me on string theory. The backstory:

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John Horgan

@Horganism

7 years

Lax U.S. Gun Controls Pose Greater Threat Than Terrorism

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John Horgan

@Horganism

5 years

Cancer medicine is doing more harm than good.

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John Horgan

@Horganism

2 months

If you're curious about quantum mechanics but tired of pop, hand-wavy books, here are 10 serious books that helped me.

Ten Tough, Terrific Quantum Books — John Horgan (The Science Writer)

February 25, 2024. In May 2020, I set out to learn quantum mechanics the way physicists learn it, with the math. I recently published a memoir about that project, My Quantum Experiment . You can read...

johnhorgan.org

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John Horgan

@Horganism

5 years

Physicists have discovered a new force of nature, and its name is Sabine. @skdh

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John Horgan

@Horganism

8 years

Now more than ever, we can't lose faith in progress #science

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John Horgan

@Horganism

7 years

If psychoanalysis is a pseudo-science, why does it endure? #science

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John Horgan

@Horganism

9 months

I met Paul Feyerabend, the alleged "anti-science" philosopher, in 1992. Here's what happened.

My Encounter with Philosophical Anarchist Paul Feyerabend — John Horgan (The Science Writer)

August 6, 2023. As things get crazier, philosopher Paul Feyerabend makes more sense. Below is an updated version of a piece I wrote after meeting him in 1992. Consider reading this after checking out...

johnhorgan.org

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John Horgan

@Horganism

4 months

Neuroscientist @erikphoel blasts neuroscience, likening it to physics before Newton. I love it when smart scientists savagely, and brilliantly, attack their own field.

Neuroscience is pre-paradigmatic. Consciousness is why

Nothing in the brain makes sense except in the light of consciousness

www.theintrinsicperspective.com

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John Horgan

@Horganism

1 year

Noam Chomsky throws cold water on AI hype:

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John Horgan

@Horganism

3 years

I'd enjoy that! Your podcast or mine?

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

3 years

I would love to have a fight with @Horganism about the "End of Science." For four reasons: A) Because I think we likely have an actual disagreement which is relatively rare. Most "disagreements" to me are really people talking past each other. B) I think we would fight fairly.

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John Horgan

@Horganism

6 months

Wow, love the way you summarize my end-of-science argument, Sabine!

Sabine Hossenfelder

@skdh

6 months

In today's video I discuss why science might end and why it might not end and why I think about such things at all. In honour of @Horganism

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John Horgan

@Horganism

7 years

How to Resist an Unjust Regime Nonviolently #science

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John Horgan

@Horganism

5 years

Free Will Is Real! via @sciam

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John Horgan

@Horganism

3 years

Nobody cuts through quantum bullshit like @skdh

Sabine Hossenfelder

@skdh

3 years

Quantum simulations, quantum computing, the quantum internet: What's all that, why is it interesting, and how likely is it to change our lives? That's what we go through in today's video.

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John Horgan

@Horganism

5 years

"Most scientists today are devoid of ideas, full of fear, intent on producing some paltry result so that they can add to the flood of inane papers that now constitutes 'scientific progress' in many areas." Paul Feyerabend, 1975.

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John Horgan

@Horganism

4 years

Optimism in a Dark Time: The Pandemic Might Have Positive Consequences. via @sciam

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John Horgan

@Horganism

3 years

Steven Weinberg, a great and brutally honest physicist, has died. Here, he explains his "tragic" view of existence for me. via @sciam

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John Horgan

@Horganism

3 years

What God, Quantum Mechanics and Consciousness Have in Common via @sciam

What God, Quantum Mechanics and Consciousness Have in Common

Theories that try to explain these big metaphysical mysteries fall short, making agnosticism the only sensible stance

www.scientificamerican.com

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John Horgan

@Horganism

1 year

Is supersymmetry, the phlogiston of physics, falling out of fashion?

Not Even Wrong

@notevenwrong

1 year

New post: What’s Going Right in Particle Physics

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John Horgan

@Horganism

1 month

Curious about information theory and its inventor, Claude Shannon? I met Shannon in 1989 at his home, Entropy House. Here's my story about him and his theory.

My Meeting With Claude Shannon, Father of the Information Age — John Horgan (The Science Writer)

June 29, 2023. No scientist has an impact-to-fame ratio greater than Claude Elwood Shannon, the inventor of information theory, who died in 2001 at the age of 84. Information theory underpins all our...

johnhorgan.org

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John Horgan

@Horganism

5 years

A year ago, after years of dissing Buddhism, I went on a silent Buddhist retreat. Here's what happened:

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John Horgan

@Horganism

5 years

The Horgan Surface and The Death of Proof. Why mathematicians took revenge on me by naming an object after me. via @sciam

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John Horgan

@Horganism

3 years

Hey @jessesingal , thanks for the plug on @joerogan ! That will impress my students more than anything I've ever done.

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John Horgan

@Horganism

2 years

"Please enjoy your stories and articles and videos about the multiverse. But don’t mistake it for science." @skdh nails it again:

The Multiverse: Science, Religion, or Pseudoscience?

🌎 Get our exclusive NordVPN deal here ➡️ https://NordVPN.com/sabine It's risk-free with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee!This video comes with a quiz: htt...

www.youtube.com

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John Horgan

@Horganism

3 years

A leader in quantum computing agonizes over the growing hype.

QC ethics and hype: the call is coming from inside the house

For years, I’d sometimes hear discussions about the ethics of quantum computing research. Quantum ethics! When the debates weren’t purely semantic, over the propriety of terms like R…

scottaaronson.blog

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John Horgan

@Horganism

9 months

The idea that science can explain everything, which was popular a few decades back, was a really dumb idea espoused by really smart people:

The Delusion of Scientific Omniscience — John Horgan (The Science Writer)

August 13, 2023. This is an updated version of a paywalled column I posted on Scientific American a while back. I think it makes a nice follow-up to my recent post on pluralism . –John Horgan Does...

johnhorgan.org

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John Horgan

@Horganism

11 months

Can science explain consciousness? The backstory of a 25-year-old bet about science's deepest mystery.

A 25-Year-Old Bet about Consciousness Has Finally Been Settled

A brain scientist and a philosopher have resolved a wager on consciousness that was made when Bill Clinton was president

www.scientificamerican.com

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John Horgan

@Horganism

5 years

Legendary chaos pioneer Mitchell Feigenbaum has died. Here is my encounter with him, which took surprising turns. via @sciam

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John Horgan

@Horganism

7 years

If philosophers can’t reach agreement on anything, why keep arguing? #science

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John Horgan

@Horganism

8 months

My thoughts on theories that place us, or consciousness, at the center of things. A followup to my recent column on integrated information theory:

The Rise of Neo-Geocentrism — John Horgan (The Science Writer)

September 25, 2023. You’re a born narcissist. Only you and your experiences matter. The world is a stage for the drama of your life. You are reality’s epicenter . As you grow up, you realize others...

johnhorgan.org

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John Horgan

@Horganism

4 years

Will the Nature/Nurture Debate Ever End? My Q&A with @carlzimmer via @sciam

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John Horgan

@Horganism

2 years

Best critique I've seen on quantum computing of course by @skdh

Sabine Hossenfelder

@skdh

2 years

How much of what you hear about quantum computing is real promise and how much of it is hype? I sort it out for you in today's video.

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John Horgan

@Horganism

6 months

Life deals @philipball a terrible blow, and he affirms life's beauty and meaning. Science writing at its most sublime.

How Life Really Works

Just as I uncovered a new way to understand life, I got news about my own.

nautil.us

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John Horgan

@Horganism

7 years

Is Self-Knowledge Overrated? #science #philosophy

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John Horgan

@Horganism

4 years

I've been blogging for Scientific American for 10 years. Here are my 10 favorite columns. via @sciam

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John Horgan

@Horganism

4 years

What do you meditate on when you meditate during a plague? via @sciam

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John Horgan

@Horganism

5 years

My Regrets about Controversial Anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon (RIP) via @sciam

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John Horgan

@Horganism

8 years

My Bunk-Bashing Diatribe at a Deepak Chopra Conference #science

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John Horgan

@Horganism

5 years

Here's a critique I wrote of panpsychism and other "neo-geocentric" ideas: @Philip_Goff

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John Horgan

@Horganism

6 months

My pal @skdh , who just critiqued The End of Science, inspired me to study quantum mechanics, which forced me to rethink The End of Science.

Introduction: Old Man Gets More Befuddled — John Horgan (The Science Writer)

johnhorgan.org

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John Horgan

@Horganism

7 years

Is Nuclear War the Only Cure for Inequality? #science

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John Horgan

@Horganism

4 months

Sharp, skeptical take on quantum computing from @IEEESpectrum :

Quantum Computing’s Hard, Cold Reality Check

Hype is everywhere, skeptics say, and practical applications are still far away

spectrum.ieee.org

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John Horgan

@Horganism

3 months

The time felt right to post this critique of the notion that science can explain everything:

The Delusion of Scientific Omniscience — John Horgan (The Science Writer)

August 13, 2023. This is an updated version of a paywalled column I posted on Scientific American a while back. I think it makes a nice follow-up to my recent post on pluralism . –John Horgan Does...

johnhorgan.org

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John Horgan

@Horganism

6 years

Kicking My Caffeine Addiction via @sciam

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John Horgan

@Horganism

7 years

Some philosophers seem more concerned with winning than wisdom. #science

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John Horgan

@Horganism

2 years

Wise words from an old pro.

Scientific American

@sciam

2 years

In scientific research, the newest thing is often the *least* definitive—we have seen this over and over with COVID—with science reported, then revised, as more information comes in.

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John Horgan

@Horganism

4 years

Jeffrey Epstein and the Decadence of Science via @sciam

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John Horgan

@Horganism

3 years

Did the US Overreact to 9/11? A 2013 analysis is still relevant. via @sciam

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John Horgan

@Horganism

1 year

My annual Thanksgiving Guilt Trip: via @sciam

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John Horgan

@Horganism

5 years

"Maybe in another universe Carroll and Siegfried have convinced me to take multiverses seriously, but I doubt it." From my @WSJ review of books by @seanmcarroll and @tom_siegfried

‘Something Deeply Hidden’ and ‘The Number of Heavens’ Review: You in Another Universe

Multiverse theories may goad our imaginations, but are they good science—or science at all?

www.wsj.com

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John Horgan

@Horganism

6 months

Is Science Hitting a Wall? Physicist @skdh takes a close, hard look at my book The End of Science and concludes... See for yourself.

Is Science Dying?

Expand your scientific horizon with Brilliant! First 200 to use our link https://brilliant.org/sabine will get 20% off the annual premium subscription.Is sci...

www.youtube.com

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John Horgan

@Horganism

3 years

My pal @skdh reflects on whether physics is ending.

From the vault: Who's killing physics? | Cosmos Weekly Taster

The renowned German author, theoretical physicist and Research Fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies thinks she’s found the root of evil: quantum mechanics.

cosmosmagazine.com

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John Horgan

@Horganism

4 years

How Do I Know I'm Not the Only Conscious Being in the Universe? via @sciam

How Do I Know I'm Not the Only Conscious Being in the Universe?

The solipsism problem, also called the problem of other minds, lurks at the heart of science, philosophy, religion, the arts and the human condition

www.scientificamerican.com

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John Horgan

@Horganism

10 months

Here is the real story behind a fictional scene in the film Oppenheimer, in which Oppenheimer talks to Einstein about the possibility that a nuclear test will destroy the planet.

Oppenheimer, Bethe and the Doomsday Hypothesis — John Horgan (The Science Writer)

July 28, 2023. I haven’t seen Oppenheimer yet, but I’d like to chime in on a fictional scene in the film, in which Oppenheimer asks Einstein whether an atomic detonation might incinerate the entire...

johnhorgan.org

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John Horgan

@Horganism

6 years

Lots of beautiful ideas are false, and truth can be ugly:

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John Horgan

@Horganism

7 years

Inside a Native American Church peyote ceremony. #science

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John Horgan

@Horganism

4 years

What are Differential Equations and how do they work? @skdh has an uncanny knack for addressing questions plaguing me. via @YouTube

What are Differential Equations and how do they work?

In this video I explain what differential equations are, go through two simple examples, explain the relevance of initial conditions and how differential equ...

www.youtube.com

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John Horgan

@Horganism

3 years

Quantum Mechanics, Free Will and the Game of Life. My tribute to "mathematical magician" John Conway. via @sciam