Juan Maldacena: Space-Time Is Doomed
Curt Jaimungal
77,634 views
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Juan Maldacena wrote the most cited paper in theoretical physics, birthing AdS/CFT and realizing holography — and today, the problem keeping him up at night is wormholes. He suspects space-time isn't fundamental at all, that geometry itself might be what entanglement looks like from the inside. The singularity isn't a place, it's a name for everything we don't yet understand. I hope you enjoy it.
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TIMESTAMPS:
00:00:00 - Emergent Space-Time Geometry
00:05:28 - GR and QM Incompatibility
00:11:52 - The Singularity Problem
00:17:00 - Extremal Black Hole Thermodynamics
00:22:00 - The Island Formula
00:27:30 - Spacetime and Quantum Information
00:34:15 - ER equals EPR
00:41:51 - Traversable Wormhole Physics
00:47:24 - Simulating Wormholes with Qubits
00:52:53 - Celestial Holography and Symmetries
00:58:00 - dS/CFT and Dark Energy
01:04:24 - Quantum Error Correction Codes
01:10:00 - The Physicist’s Mindset
01:15:19 - Inflationary Gravity Wave Predictions
01:21:03 - Clocks and Emergent Time
01:26:44 - Is Space-Time Doomed?
01:32:00 - AI in Theoretical Physics
01:38:00 - Overcoming Academic Inadequacy
LINKS MENTIONED:
Juan Maldacena's Website: https://www.ias.edu/sns/malda
Large N Limit of Superconformal Field Theories [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9711200
Eternal Black Holes in AdS [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0106112
Holographic Derivation of Entanglement Entropy [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0603001
Real Observers Solving Imaginary Problems [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.14014
Building Spacetime with Quantum Entanglement [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1005.3035
Entropy of Bulk Quantum Fields [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1905.08762
Entanglement Wedge Reconstruction [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1905.08255
Comments on the Double Cone Wormhole [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.11617
Traversable Wormholes in Four Dimensions [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1807.04726
JT Gravity as a Matrix Integral [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.11115
Single-Minus Gluon Tree Amplitudes [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.12176
Bulk Locality and Quantum Error Correction [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1411.7041
Black Hole Information Paradox: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_h...
Chilloquium 2023 [Lecture]: Week 3: Professor Juan Maldacena, IAS | Ch...
Erik Verlinde [TOE]: This Physicist (Unexpectedly) Derived Grav...
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More links at https://curtjaimungal.substack.com
Guests do not pay to appear. #science
20 Comments
No wonder he is at home in Hilbert space!
The fact that your format allows for proper technical dives into scientific topics, without all the sensentionalist bs, and that each of them can properly educate on their personal view of the advancements in their respective fields, its geniuenly something I wished for, for a long time and your format just keeps getting better and better.
Im an enthusiast and working on my personal model for an AI algorithm and having so much access to geniuenly great minds and their approaches to science, with a relatively low barrier to entry, is incredibly enjoyable and helpful for me personally.
Thank you so much. Keep going!
I had the privilege of meeting Juan Maldacena in Amsterdam about 8 or maybe 10 years ago, at a physics symposium. Afterwards, I asked him something about dimensions, and he really took the time and effort to share his view on it.
Fantastic man. Everyone should have a teacher like that!
Juan here, cheers best one yet!
Maldacena is describing something amazing about spacetime. It’s less “wormholes are entanglement” and more “geometry is telling you something about a deeper structure we’re not fully describing yet. If that’s true, then spacetime is just a surface level description. The real question is what structure is forcing that connection in the first place. I didn’t give up and we now have a clear idea of what it is. 😉
Juan Maldacena: Space-Time Is Doomed
Curt Jaimungal
77,634 views
SPONSORS:
Go to https://shortform.com/toe for a free trial and an exclusive $50 OFF on your annual subscription
Every episode days early, ad-free, plus my essays: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/su...
Juan Maldacena wrote the most cited paper in theoretical physics, birthing AdS/CFT and realizing holography — and today, the problem keeping him up at night is wormholes. He suspects space-time isn't fundamental at all, that geometry itself might be what entanglement looks like from the inside. The singularity isn't a place, it's a name for everything we don't yet understand. I hope you enjoy it.
FOLLOW:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b9...
Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/su...
Twitter: Twitter: TOEwithCurt
Discord Invite: Discord: discord
Crypto: https://nowpayments.io/donation/TOE
PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_...
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00:00 - Emergent Space-Time Geometry
00:05:28 - GR and QM Incompatibility
00:11:52 - The Singularity Problem
00:17:00 - Extremal Black Hole Thermodynamics
00:22:00 - The Island Formula
00:27:30 - Spacetime and Quantum Information
00:34:15 - ER equals EPR
00:41:51 - Traversable Wormhole Physics
00:47:24 - Simulating Wormholes with Qubits
00:52:53 - Celestial Holography and Symmetries
00:58:00 - dS/CFT and Dark Energy
01:04:24 - Quantum Error Correction Codes
01:10:00 - The Physicist’s Mindset
01:15:19 - Inflationary Gravity Wave Predictions
01:21:03 - Clocks and Emergent Time
01:26:44 - Is Space-Time Doomed?
01:32:00 - AI in Theoretical Physics
01:38:00 - Overcoming Academic Inadequacy
LINKS MENTIONED:
Juan Maldacena's Website: https://www.ias.edu/sns/malda
Large N Limit of Superconformal Field Theories [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9711200
Eternal Black Holes in AdS [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0106112
Holographic Derivation of Entanglement Entropy [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0603001
Real Observers Solving Imaginary Problems [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.14014
Building Spacetime with Quantum Entanglement [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1005.3035
Entropy of Bulk Quantum Fields [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1905.08762
Entanglement Wedge Reconstruction [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1905.08255
Comments on the Double Cone Wormhole [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.11617
Traversable Wormholes in Four Dimensions [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1807.04726
JT Gravity as a Matrix Integral [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.11115
Single-Minus Gluon Tree Amplitudes [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.12176
Bulk Locality and Quantum Error Correction [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1411.7041
Black Hole Information Paradox: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_h...
Chilloquium 2023 [Lecture]: Week 3: Professor Juan Maldacena, IAS | Ch...
Erik Verlinde [TOE]: This Physicist (Unexpectedly) Derived Grav...
Leonard Susskind [TOE]: The Crisis in String Theory is Worse Than ...
Edward Frenkel [TOE]: Revolutionary Math Proof No One Could Expl...
More links at https://curtjaimungal.substack.com
Guests do not pay to appear. #science
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