From Ancient Egypt to Leibniz... Brand‑new interview out with Robert Spekkens of the Perimeter Institute, one of the sharpest minds working on quantum foundations. In 2004, he constructed a classical toy theory where your maximum knowledge is always incomplete—and out popped the no-cloning theorem, teleportation, and interference effects Feynman deemed impossible to reproduce classically. Spekkens compares our situation to Egyptian hieroglyphs before Champollion: a category mistake where we treat quantum states as descriptions of reality when they actually describe knowledge of reality. If you’re interested in the topics above, you’ll love this podcast.As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toeSUPPORT:- Support me on Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe- Support me on Crypto: https://commerce.coinbase.com/checkout/de803625-87d3-4300-ab6d-85d4258834a9- Support me on PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=XUBHNMFXUX5S4JOIN MY SUBSTACK (Personal Writings): https://curtjaimungal.substack.comLISTEN ON SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4eTIMESTAMPS:- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - LINKS MENTIONED:Journals, papers, books:- https://www.rwspekkens.com- https://pirsa.org/speaker/Robert-Spekkens- https://arxiv.org/pdf/2507.01122- https://arxiv.org/pdf/quant-ph/0401052- https://arxiv.org/abs/0706.2661- https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0406166- https://arxiv.org/pdf/2207.11779- https://amazon.com/dp/1108066488?tag=toe08-20- https://www.jstor.org/stable/687269- https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qm-copenhagen/- https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/identity-indiscernible/- https://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/einstein/specrel/specrel.pdf- https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spacetime-holearg/- https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/mathematics/hidden-variable-theory- https://www.nature.com/articles/299802a0- https://arxiv.org/pdf/2011.01286- https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02058098- https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.07161- https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/maxwells-equation- https://www.einstein-online.info/en/spotlight/equivalence_principle/- https://perimeterinstitute.ca/- https://amazon.com/dp/9810241054?tag=toe08-20- https://journals.aps.org/pr/pdf/10.1103/PhysRev.47.777- https://arxiv.org/abs/1111.3328- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/rosetta-stone-hieroglyphs-champollion-decipherment-egypt-180980834/- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0160932707000282Videos:- https://youtu.be/gEK4-XtMwro- https://youtu.be/YWbjI-QsH2E- https://youtu.be/fU1bs5o3nss- https://youtu.be/NKOd8imBa2s- https://youtu.be/6I2OhmVWLMs- https://youtu.be/Tghl6aS5A3M- https://youtu.be/HIoviZe14pY- https://youtu.be/bprxrGaf0Os- https://youtu.be/4MjNuJK5RzM- https://youtu.be/c8iFtaltX-s- https://youtu.be/9AoRxtYZrZo- https://youtu.be/uOKOodQXjhc- https://youtu.be/3mhctWlXyV8- https://youtu.be/gsSJPLX-BTA- https://youtu.be/FFW14zSYiFY- https://youtu.be/HhWWlJFwTqs Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal features long-form, technically detailed interviews with leading researchers in physics, mathematics, consciousness, and philosophy, exploring topics at the level of active research. For academics, graduate students, and anyone seeking depth beyond popular science.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices