Conversations on the Nature of Reality

For millennia, humans have sought to answer a seemingly unsolvable problem: What is the relationship between our conscious, subjective experience—what we see, hear, smell, taste, feel, and think—and the physical world that surrounds us? Is the reality of the physical world constructed through our subjective experience, or does the physical world we perceive have an independent, objective reality? To date, no scientific theory has succeeded in unifying consciousness (i.e., conscious experiences) and what we take to be the physical world.

All science aims to understand the fundamental nature of reality through the formulation of hypotheses, the staging of experiments, the detection of patterns, and the discovery of laws and theorems. But this project is not just limited to scientists. Artists, philosophers, novelists, and musicians also aspire to capture and convey the reality of our existence by invoking the realm of subjective emotions and experience. Drawing upon an infinite reservoir of creativity, they express powerful sentiments of love, beauty, hope, fear, loss, imagination, and the human condition.

Led by Steve Paulson, Executive Producer of Wisconsin Public Radio’s To the Best of Our Knowledge, this provocative and engaging three-part series will feature in-depth and wide-ranging conversations with leading scientists and thinkers on the ideas and challenges surrounding the fundamental nature of reality. Each session will present two prominent speakers who share how their personal stories and experiences have come to shape their current thinking and work in their respective fields of expertise.

The Mystery of Our Mathematical Universe
Wednesday, October 10, 2018 | 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM Sold Out

Why is it that fundamental laws discovered through pure mathematics have been able to describe the behavior of our physical world with such precision? Given that the physical universe is comprised of mathematical properties, some have posited that mathematics is the language of the universe, whose laws reveal what appears to be a hidden order in the natural world. Physicist S. James Gates, Jr. and science writer Margaret Wertheim explore the uncanny ability of mathematics to reveal the mystery of our universe. Learn More
Webcast Podcast

Human Cognition and the AI Revolution
Thursday, December 6, 2018 | 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM Sold Out

Discovering the true nature of reality may ultimately hinge on grasping the nature and essence of human understanding. What are the fundamental elements or building blocks of human cognition? And how will the rise of superintelligent machines challenge our ideas about cognition, reality, and the limits of human understanding? Logician/mathematician Roger Antonsen and computer science pioneer Barbara J. Grosz join forces to shed light on these questions and the horizon of AI. Learn More
Webcast Podcast

Reality Is Not As It Seems
Thursday, February 7, 2019 | 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM Sold Out

The prevalent view in cognitive science is that we construct our perception of reality in real time. But could we be misinterpreting the content of our perceptual experiences? Does what we perceive with our brain and senses reflect the true nature of reality? Might evolution have shaped our perceptions to guide adaptive behavior, without enabling us to see reality as it actually is? Cognitive scientist Donald D. Hoffman and neurologist Suzanne O’Sullivan analyze these questions and their profound implications for our understanding of human consciousness. Learn More
Webcast Podcast

The Mystery of Our Mathematical Universe
October 10, 2018

Human Cognition and the AI Revolution
December 6, 2018

Reality Is Not As It Seems
February 7, 2019

Margaret Wertheim is a science writer, curator, and artist whose work focuses on relations between science and the wider cultural landscape. She is the author of six books including Pythagoras' Trousers, a history of physics and religion; The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace, a history of scientific concepts of space; and Physics on the Fringe, a ground-breaking exploration of outsider science. .... Read More

S. James Gates Jr. is the Ford Foundation Professor of Physics at Brown University. He was previously at the University of Maryland for several decades, where he was named a Distinguished University Professor, University System of Maryland Regents Professor, and John S. Toll Professor of Physics. Professor Gates is known for his work on supersymmetry, supergravity, and superstring theory. ... Read More

Barbara J. Grosz is the Higgins Professor of Natural Sciences at Harvard University. From 2007-2011 Grosz served as interim dean and then dean of Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and from 2001-2007 she was the Institute’s first dean of science, designing and building its science program. She currently serves on the Science Board and Science Steering Committee at the Santa Fe Institute. .... Read More

Donald D. Hoffman is a Professor in the Department of Cognitive Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, with joint appointments in the Department of Philosophy, the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, and the School of Computer Science. He received his BA from UCLA in Quantitative Psychology and his Ph.D. from MIT in Computational Psychology. He received the Distinguished ... Read More

Roger Antonsen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Informatics in the research group Logic and Intelligent Data (LogID) at the University of Oslo, and is also currently a Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley, California. He is a logician, mathematician, computer scientist, researcher, author, lecturer, and public speaker who specializes in logical calculi, proof theory, mathematical logic, complexity theory, ... Read More

Suzanne O’Sullivan has been a consultant in neurology since 2004, first working at The Royal London Hospital and now as a consultant in clinical neurophysiology and neurology at The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London, and for a specialist unit based at the Epilepsy Society. She studied medicine at Trinity College in Dublin and trained in neurology and clinical neurophysiology. .... Read More

Conversations on the Nature of Reality

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