Questions

This page lists articles arranged by category. Note that unwritten articles are not yet linked. If you have an idea for a future article topic or a question to tackle, please suggest it in a comment below.

Origins

Reality

Mathematics

  • Do objects in math exist independently?
  • Is math invented or discovered?
  • Where does mathematical knowledge come from?

Time

  • What is time?
  • Why does time have an arrow?
  • Is time travel possible?

Relativity

  • If spacetime is 4D, why can we only move in 3D?
  • Why are mass and energy equivalent?
  • Why does time slow down at high speeds?
  • Does relativity imply eternal life?

Quantum Mechanics

  • Does everything that can happen, actually happen?
  • How do quantum computers work?
  • Does quantum mechanics imply immortality?
  • What is entanglement?

Consciousness

  • What makes something conscious?
  • Can a machine be conscious?

Artificial Intelligence

Future

  • How will the world end?
  • What is the limit to human population growth?
  • Can medicine cure any disease and heal any injury?
  • Will life inherit the universe?
  • Can life survive beyond the end of the universe?

Technology

  • How good can technology get?
  • Why does technology improve exponentially?
  • How do computers work?

Biology

Economics

  • Can technology make us infinitely wealthy?
  • Where does money come from?

Life

Religion

Ethics

52 Replies to “Questions”

      1. Hi Chaithanyan,

        I plan to address that question in an upcoming article. I hope to get to it soon. But I can give you a preview here. Ultimately all value boils down to experience. Everything we do is motivated by the desire to increase the quantity, quality, or diversity of life experiences. Nothing can be known outside of experience.

        From this we can conclude the purpose of live is to have experiences and to create opportunities for experience for others. To have more of them, a higher quality of them, and more unique and varied of them.

        Jason

          1. Hi Abhinay,

            I think it is normal to have such fears. We fear the unknown and what comes after death is the ultimate unknown.

            I think you might reduce your fear by watching some of the videos on this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7KRgluYeps&list=RDCMUC65BYtqlRNjR93D5UxGVfXw

            Also, if you haven’t already, you might check out the article on is there life after death: https://alwaysasking.com/is-there-life-after-death/ which covers some of the possibilities for what might come next. It will also be available as a video within the next few days.

            Please let me know if you have any specific questions and I will do my best to answer them.

    1. Hello, new to your channel but I am completely obsessed with the content and I am happy to have found your channel before it “blows up”… It is severely under-viewed and deserves to be way, way more known. I subscribed to youtube channel and signed up for notifications for your book upon publication… Do you have a Patreon? I’d like to support you and your work anyway I can… Is the youtube channel “all you”? Thank you for the great content!!

      1. Hi Joe,

        Thank you for your kind comments and for subscribing! The growth has been gaining momentum lately. I have faith that if I keep putting out more episodes it will continue.

        I don’t have a Patreon but I very much appreciate your offer of support. So far the YouTube channel has been just me but I have a friend starting to assist with editing; keep an eye out for some revamped versions of the episodes to be out soon.

    2. Hello, I am a frequent viewer of your YouTube channel and am particularly inspired/intrigued with your content. My question is perhaps more like a request or suggestion… I would like to know more about how the range of people you quote (e.g. Descartes, Feynman, Watts & Tegmark), which are all from different backgrounds, disciplines, and even the eras they came from. Perhaps an insight to their thought processes, approach to “problems” and how they differ and/or are similar as the case may be..? Additionally, I’d really be interested in some lesser known minds that you could suggest for further examination. Thank You
      JoeY

      1. Hi Joe,

        Thank you, I am so happy to hear you find the content inspiring. Though I am by no means a biographical expert on those I quote, I have noticed some commonalities.

        I would say they all possessed a boldness that’s necessary to challenge the status quo. It requires some amount of bravery to put forward ideas counter to what is broadly held, to go against the grain with an unconventional, if not controversial, theory.

        But it is said the world is only changed by those who believe they have the power to change the world.

        As to how they approach problems, Feynman’s books, “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!”, and “What do you care what other people think?” are good insights into Feynman’s mind.

        But I would add, I think Feynman’s mind is quite unique, and I don’t know if these other thinkers share common methods for tackling programs. Though some amount of obsession is, I think, a necessary ingredient.

        Based on your suggestion, I created a page listing some of the great thinkers whose ideas have brought us closer to finding answers to the big questions:
        https://alwaysasking.com/great-thinkers/

      1. Hi Silvia,

        That is a very interesting question. It is difficult to approach this scientifically as it relies on first-hand accounts, but there are plausible explanations for such situations under the assumption this world is a kind of simulation. Look out for the article “Are we living in a computer simulation?” which will have more to say about this. Thank you for your question!

  1. Dear Jason —

    If awaken awareness was to evolve and spread in the population what would that network look like?

    PS. I connected with your father yesterday and live next door. I wonder if you are familiar with the Fetzer Institute and some of the work they support in areas you seem to have an interest and apparently a great deal of knowledge. Best wishes on all of you endeavors. Sincerely Keith

    1. Hi Keith,
      That’s an excellent question. I think we can learn something from historic examples of lower-level awakenings. For example, the evolving morals for how humans treat other humans, and also in how humans treat other creatures. Each step in that evolution begins with recognizing one’s self in others. At first the awakenings might occur individual-by-individual, but once a large enough fraction of the society accept it and are raised in it, that new awareness becomes part of their ingrained truth.
      I was not aware of the Fetzer Institute, though after looking at their site I can say that my next post will discuss the concept of a shared humanity. Thanks for sharing and for your best wishes!
      Jason

  2. Hi Jason,

    I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on the morality/ethics of whether we, as a society, should utilize advances in psychology such as Nudging, to further the evolution of humanity as a whole, and what could be done to prevent it being used for nefarious purposes.

    Justin

  3. Hi Ram,

    Thanks for that suggestion! I do think that question makes for an interesting article. Perhaps it even makes sense to have a category of questions devoted to ethics.

    As far as the morality of nudging, or anything for that matter, generally speaking, simple answers on these questions can at best only offer a heuristic. That heuristic may often be right, but it will also have special cases where it gives the wrong answer.

    Specific moral questions require a dedicated investigation and analysis. For instance:
    Is it right or wrong to pay students for good attendance?
    Is it right or wrong to tax people for buying soda?
    Is it right or wrong to subsidize corn production?

    All might be considered examples of nudging. But all have different sets of unintended consequences, and different classes of people who benefit and who lose.

    Further complicating moral questions is that the answers depend on what you are trying to optimize. What values do you hold as good and bad? How do you compare and weigh competing values? How do you account for those in society whose values differ from yours or those who share similar values but weight them differently?

    To your question, which I think asks is nudging a step forward or step backward in arranging society, my answer is that it depends. All societies use coercion in one form or another, whether it be a king’s threat of beheading or a modern society’s imposition of fines or prison.

    Nudging provides a new way to push preferences without overt coercion. This could be seen as an improvement, but it also introduces a new downside: it can be done covertly. Whereas king’s decrees and society’s laws are by definition public, nudging can be done surreptitiously.

    The benefit of transparency of laws is that it enables scrutiny and debate by society. It gives a society a chance to review a given policy and decide whether or not it is in alignment with the collectively weighted values of that society.

    If applications of nudging are debated and decided openly, then it retains this benefit of today’s laws while at the same time reducing overt coercion based on threats. Is this a good thing? That depends on your own values.

    Jason

      1. Hi Lisa,

        That is certainly possible, and perhaps likely. For instance, in the case of an afterlife where one has previously experienced other lives and upon passing regains access to those memories, then the benefit of those other perspectives provide for greater understanding, compassion and capacity to forgive.

        There are also conceptions of an afterlife where one’s life experiences merge with or otherwise become part of a God-like mind, which possesses memories of all lives. This mind would be the ultimate in terms of understanding. Understanding promotes compassion, and compassion promotes forgiveness.

        I hope this answer is helpful to you.

  4. Hi Axl Hugh Calunsag,

    To your first question, if the universes is infinite, (and all indications suggest it is, then the answer to your first questions is yes. Other life forms exist and are exploring the universe.

    To the second question, of whether Earth has been visited, this depends on several factors, such as how rare or common life is in the universe, and whether life is motivated enough to spread throughout the cosmos. It remains an open question, but some possibilities are explored on: https://alwaysasking.com/are-we-alone/

    I can also recommend reading https://www.accelerating.org/articles/transcensionhypothesis as well as https://frombob.to/you/index.html for other viewpoints on this question.

    1. Hi Shweta,

      That’s an interesting question, and one I haven’t researched myself. My assumption is that at least in some cases we can, particularly in the case of illness. I will have to look into this more.

    1. Hi Thoriso Gaobidiwe,

      Thank you for your question.

      As to the details of how alien species live (their routines, culture, beliefs, foods, tools, societal organization, etc.) I could not say. It is likely these vary significantly from alien civilization to alien civilization. Even humans live quite differently from each other and we are the same species living on the same planet.

      That said, alien species, and for that matter all conscious life, is driven by the same universal goal. This goal motivates what aliens pursue for their own lives and their civilizations. This goal is explained in the article: https://alwaysasking.com/what-is-the-meaning-of-life/

      This may not be the answer you are looking for, but I hope it might shed some light on your question. Best wishes.

  5. If an infinite number of possibilities exist after death as stated in the cosmic inflation theory, then one of those possibilities would be that you would die and become nothing for all eternity or worse, that you would die and would suffer in an eternal hell. These two possibilities brings an end to the so called infinite possibilities that await you. If the cosmic inflation theory were the universe, then these two possibilities would be black-holes.

    1. Hi Mark,

      You raise some good points. However, there are reasons to suspect that it is impossible for one’s conscious state to get stuck eternally in the confines of one reality. Essentially if your same mind-state is realized elsewhere, it provides a chance to escape. There will be more to say on this in an upcoming article on personal identity, but see this article for an outline of how one can “escape from a pit”: https://archive.is/GNlyk

      As for one dying and entering and getting stuck in a “null state” of consciousness, was this “null state” not the state you were in before you were born? Alan Watt’s describes this in more detail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMRrCYPxD0I&t=104s

  6. Hi Jason. As I mentioned in the “Why Does Anything Exist” video on YouTube, I absolutely love your videos! You explain concepts super clearly without sacrificing rigor and detail. It’s truly a marvel (and I say this as a college professor whose job is to communicate ideas). Anyway, in terms of topic suggestions, I would love if you made a video on the science of psychedelics. That might be outside your wheelhouse but the topic is truly fascinating and links up with a lot of the themes explored in your videos. It would also be great if you could make a video on climate change. I feel like you would offer a really solid assessment that I could trust as a basis for assessing different arguments on the subject. I’d also love a video on virtual particles and/or superposition in quantum physics and different ways of interpreting these concepts. You offer one explanation of quantum physics I n the “Why Does Anything Exist” that leans toward a “many worlds” perspective (in my view) but it would be fantastic if you could review other perspectives as well. Finally, I would love a video that unpacks and explains the concept of entropy in detail, particularly in relation to quantum physics. Thanks for considering!

    1. Hi Josh,

      Thank you for your kind comments and wonderful suggestions for topics to cover in future articles and videos.

      I think these are all great ideas, though to do justice for some of these I will need to do a lot more research.

      I have some upcoming videos planned which will mention ego death and similar experiences. And the limits on population article will cover environmental limitations, though with a much longer time horizon.

      The next article will be on consciousness, but I will do one on QM and entropy soon!

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