“Wealth is not a number. I don’t think it can be characterized very well by a number. It is the set of all transformations that you are capable of bringing about. That is your wealth. And if optimism is true, then there’s no limit to wealth.“

— David Deutsch

David Deutsch (@DavidDeutschOxf) is a visiting professor of physics at the Centre for Quantum Computation, a part of the Clarendon Laboratory at Oxford University, and an honorary fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford. He works on fundamental issues in physics, particularly the quantum theory of computation and information and especially constructor theory, which he is proposing as a new way of formulating laws of nature. He is the author of The Fabric of Reality and The Beginning of Infinity, and he is an advocate of the philosophy of Karl Popper. 

Naval Ravikant (@naval) is the co-founder of Airchat and AngelList. He has invested in more than 100 companies, including many mega-successes, such as Twitter, Uber, Notion, Opendoor, Postmates, and Wish. You can see his latest musings on Airchat, and subscribe to Naval, his podcast on wealth and happiness, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find his blog at nav.al.

For more Naval-plus-Tim, check out my wildly popular interview with him from 2015 (nominated for “Podcast of the Year”) and our conversation from 2020. 

Naval also co-piloted the interviews with Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin and famed investor Chris Dixon. 

Please enjoy!

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs recruitment platform with 900M+ users, FreshBooks cloud-based small business accounting software, and Athletic Greens’s AG1 all-in-one nutritional supplement.

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This episode is brought to you by Athletic Greens. I get asked all the time, “If you could use only one supplement, what would it be?” My answer is usually AG1 by Athletic Greens, my all-in-one nutritional insurance. I recommended it in The 4-Hour Body in 2010 and did not get paid to do so. I do my best with nutrient-dense meals, of course, but AG further covers my bases with vitamins, minerals, and whole-food-sourced micronutrients that support gut health and the immune system. 

Right now, Athletic Greens is offering you their Vitamin D Liquid Formula free with your first subscription purchase—a vital nutrient for a strong immune system and strong bones. Visit AthleticGreens.com/Tim to claim this special offer today and receive the free Vitamin D Liquid Formula (and 5 free travel packs) with your first subscription purchase! That’s up to a one-year supply of Vitamin D as added value when you try their delicious and comprehensive all-in-one daily greens product.

This episode is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. Whether you are looking to hire now for a critical role or thinking about needs that you may have in the future, LinkedIn Jobs can help. LinkedIn screens candidates for the hard and soft skills you’re looking for and puts your job in front of candidates looking for job opportunities that match what you have to offer.

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This episode is brought to you by FreshBooks. I’ve been talking about FreshBooks—an all-in-one invoicing + payments + accounting solution—for years now. Many entrepreneurs, as well as the contractors and freelancers that I work with, use it all the time.

FreshBooks makes it super easy to track things like expenses, project time, and client info and then merge it all into great-looking invoices. And right now, there’s a special offer just for my listeners. Head over to FreshBooks.com/Tim to get 90% off your FreshBooks subscription for 4 months.

Want to hear another episode that ponders the nature of reality? Have a listen to my conversation with Professor Donald Hoffman, in which we discuss the science of consciousness, how perception may influence the physical world, the holographic model of the universe, panpsychism (and influential panpsychists), cosmological polytope, the use of hallucinogenic drugs to tap into deeper reality and interact with conscious agents, QBism, the probability of zero that humans evolved to see reality in full, and much more.

What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

• Connect with David Deutsch:

Website | Twitter

• Connect with Naval Ravikant:

Website | Twitter | Airchat

SHOW NOTES

• [08:03] The impact The Fabric of Reality and The Beginning of Infinity have had on Naval.
• [10:07] The four strands.
• [13:04] Dispelling common misconceptions about science.
• [19:26] How does knowledge grow?
• [24:26] The benefits of understanding the four strands.
• [32:47] How quantum computing arose from trying to test a multiverse theory.
• [37:40] What a good explanation looks like.
• [42:43] How do conjecture and criticism give us a basis for optimism?
• [48:38] Translating knowledge into action.
• [51:20] Artificial intelligence (AI) vs. artificial general intelligence (AGI).
• [56:54] AGI is people! But how do we ensure it’ll be good people?
• [1:03:03] What’s taking AGI so long to get here?
• [1:08:59] Chemical scum that dream of distant quasars.
• [1:17:47] Are humans central to the universe, or just a sideshow?
• [1:20:17] Wealth and resources.
• [1:25:30] Recommended thinkers.
• [1:28:05] Taking Children Seriously, ToKCast, Critical Rationalists, and Popper 101.
• [1:31:55] David’s most interesting problems right now.
• [1:39:24] Parting thoughts.

MORE DAVID DEUTSCH QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW

“In many ways, our institutions are wiser than we are. “
— David Deutsch

“AI [artificial intelligence] has nothing to do with AGI [artificial general intelligence]. It’s a completely different technology and it is in many ways the opposite of AGI … An AGI can do anything, whereas an AI can only do the narrow thing that it’s supposed to do.”
— David Deutsch

“Even the most careful scientific observation is all theory-laden, and theories are inherently fallible.”
— David Deutsch

“Good explanations begin with bad explanations. And you get there—between the bad explanation and the good explanation—by criticism, by conjecturing variance of the story, and then criticizing both them and the original story, and then choosing the one that survives the criticism, and then you can move on from there to a better thing.”
— David Deutsch

“Knowledge can live inside our DNA and our genes, and the genes that are correct and useful get replicated — not just in the universe, but possibly even in the multiverse.”
— David Deutsch

“Wealth is not a number. I don’t think it can be characterized very well by a number. It is the set of all transformations that you are capable of bringing about. That is your wealth. And if optimism is true, then there’s no limit to wealth.“
— David Deutsch

PEOPLE MENTIONED

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