Sara Walker discusses the importance of viewing life and consciousness through the lens of assembly theory, arguing that our understanding of alien life, the origin of life, and consciousness itself could be fundamentally expanded by examining the combinatorial possibilities within chemical and informational spaces on

Jim talks with Sara Walker and Lee Cronin about the ideas in their Aeon essay "Time Is an Object." They discuss the history of the idea of time, Newton's clockwork universe, the capacity for things to happen, the impossibility of time travel, Einstein's block universe theory, making time testable, conceptions of the ar

What is life, and where does it come from? These are two of the deepest, most vexing, and persistent questions in science, and their enduring mystery and allure is complicated by the fact that scientists approach them from a myriad of different angles, hard to reconcile. Whatever else one might identify as universal fe

Sara Walker is an astrobiologist and theoretical physicist. Lee Cronin is a chemist. This is a conversation and debate about alien life and alien civilizations. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: - Uncruise: https://uncruise.com/pages/lex - Linode: https://linode.com/lex to get $100 free credit -

Sara Walker is an astrobiologist and theoretical physicist interested in the origin of life. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: - Athletic Greens: https://athleticgreens.com/lex and use code LEX to get 1 month of fish oil - NetSuite: http://netsuite.com/lex to get free product tour - Blinkist: ht