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Superdeterminism – Why Are Physicists Scared of It? – Sabine Hossenfelder

Alex O'Connor | August 2, 2025



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– VIDEO NOTES

Sabine Hossenfelder is a German theoretical physicist, author, science communicator, and YouTuber. She is the author of Existential Physics: A Scientist’s Guide to Life’s Biggest Questions.

– LINKS

Buy Existential Physics: https://amzn.to/3IXmxMU

– TIMESTAMPS

0:00 – Is There Free Will in Physics?
2:53 – Physics and Consciousness
20:43 – Physics and Philosophy
24:44 – What is Superdeterminism?
46:56 – Is Panpsychism Bad Philosophy?
53:00 – Can Science Explain Anything?

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Written by Alex O'Connor

Comments

This post currently has 47 comments.

  3. @hugh3431

    August 2, 2025 at 10:20 am

    My problem with this episode, is that Sabine’s ideas and views are not being properly challenged, which is something Alex has done so well in the past. As a listener with many objections to the views and ideas of the interviewee, our point of view is represented when Alex challenges them and points out their inconsistencies. There was a bit of that at the end with the trumpet, but it seems like Sabine really missed that criticism, and maybe more could have been done to show her why what she says about panpsychism isn’t fair.

    Her response to Mary’s room I felt needed more challenging, what about representing Annaka Harris’s ideas – knowing a subjective felt experience from the inside is not transmitting brain functions. I was disappointed she wasn’t challenged more there with Annaka’s ideas.

    Superdeterminism I feel especially needed challenging – I understand if Alex isn’t as comfortable strongly challenging without the physics background. But the crazy ideas of Superdeterminism weren’t challenged at all here, and they really needed to be. A photon which could be traveling for billions of years from a distance galaxy and hits my detector as I decide to measure it either as a wave or a particle. She’s saying the universe knew when it created that photon all those light years away and eons ago, to factor in all the other variables so that a complex system (my brain) evolving from a complex process would do one thing rather than another. That sounds like a lot of complex data processing and book keeping being done the universe. Randomness makes so much more sense.

    I like learning about what views people hold that are different, and not mainstream – but they need to be challenged.

  4. @TakeMeToYourLida

    August 2, 2025 at 10:20 am

    Saying “it just is” is obviously not an explanation. This lady doesn’t seem to understand some pretty basic stuff and is more judgmental than thoughtful. She doesn’t seem to give any valid arguments against panpsychism either.

  6. @djayjp

    August 2, 2025 at 10:20 am

    The resolution of the Mary's Room paradox: yes, she does learn something new, but only because current science can't transmit subjective mental experience.

  8. @josieb3238

    August 2, 2025 at 10:20 am

    Sometimes I think my wonderful old car is conscience. I feel something from rocks when I’m near deposits of basalt. Everything is conscience, but not chatgbt and the like.

  10. @jwave13

    August 2, 2025 at 10:20 am

    Sabines answer for the trumpet light scenario is bang on in my opinion. Let's say you dig deeper and find out that the trumpet is wirelessly sending a signal to the light. Is that enough of an explanation? Maybe, but then someone says, "But how does the wireless signal move through the air?". Then you investigate and find out and that is being transmitted via radio waves. But then how do radio waves move through the air?!? It's just infinite layers on layers, unless there is some super fundamental layer at the bottom. You just stop asking when you're satisfied with what you've got, or you keep learning. Welcome to science!

  11. @jwave13

    August 2, 2025 at 10:20 am

    I think of mental imagery as just that. It's no different to seeing things with your eyes. Your brain takes the data input from the eyes and constructs a mental image. Just like a modern camera takes the light input and can process that digitally. It's just that using input from your eyes to construct the mental image is like UHD but if there is no input from the eyes then your mind isn't designed to be able to produce a clear image without sensory input. It's more like looking at a 240p greyscale Picasso on a Nokia 3210 underwater.

  14. @trihnaa

    August 2, 2025 at 10:20 am

    Donald Hoffman please 🤞 I’m curious what you think on his views that consciousness is fundamental and reality as we perceive it is like wearing a vr headset lol

  16. @spaz1002

    August 2, 2025 at 10:20 am

    I think this is ultimately a failure of language.

    “Explanation” can mean two different things. It can mean “what caused this to happen” and it can mean “what was the purpose of this happening”.

    “The trumpet makes the light turn on” is a causal explanation, but it is not an explanation of purpose. I don’t think science deals in purpose, so I don’t think it can make those kinds of explanations. But the lack of distinct terminology is what causes the confusion.

  18. @AlgeistNydream

    August 2, 2025 at 10:20 am

    Alex, I know how physics allows free will. I am afraid an explainer vid might just get some 100 views instead of 100K now.
    I invited Sabine for a collab many times. She dodges me.
    I am definitely at her level, since I've correctly debunked Veritasium twice in the last two years.
    Maybe I'll publish the solution video in fall. We'll see. Looking forward to an interview with you then. Keep it up!

  20. @RunningOnAutopilot

    August 2, 2025 at 10:20 am

    Time for some unserious bs about how the wave function actually can collapse instantly.
    If the speed of light is instant in one direction and 1/2C in another direction then everything still checks out. So if it is instant in one direction, away from the point of collapse, and 1/2C in another direction, towards the point of collapse, then everything works out.
    This presents many problems but if I’m correct than reality will eventually show us how everything works out in the end.

  21. @twocenttalon6412

    August 2, 2025 at 10:20 am

    16:51 sabine clocks alex looking corny talking about a very popular v sauce video. is my red the same as your red? says i thought the color was red. is it just me or that very powerful for some reason. nothing on you alex big love for you <3

  22. @IvanusPrime

    August 2, 2025 at 10:20 am

    If you can map out exactly how the connection between presing the button on the trumpet and blowing in it reacts with the light in the other room I don't see why you would need a deeper explanation as to why this occurs. It just does and we explained how. To ask why seems like trolling. No diss, just my 2 cents

  28. @asktoobtain

    August 2, 2025 at 10:20 am

    Dude, y'all talk about "bad philosophy" while appealing to the metaspell casting that is your word "scientific law" magic is literally the same as axiomatic, philosophy, opinion…etc. y'all are terrible at social engineering… obfuscation and jargon are funny to watch because they are antithetical to Occam's razor… no, you know not authority lest thee appeal to the pointing finger where no authority is noticed… #TheEyeIgnoresTheEyeing

  32. @asktoobtain

    August 2, 2025 at 10:20 am

    funny when you see "recreation versus creation" you notice that if creation then recreation at all moments is needed had it first been necessary… and if not creation then recreation at all moments is necessary lmao

  36. @Actful

    August 2, 2025 at 10:20 am

    Consciousness is a process. Everyone keeps trying to separate the process from the action and says, "where is this consciousness? I can't find it, it's a mystery". Well, can you observe heat without the action of fast moving molecules? Can you see walking without seeing legs? Consciousness is the process of our complex (human) actions. Searching for consciousness is a very Kantian concept.

  41. @kk-cr4db

    August 2, 2025 at 10:20 am

    The response in this comment section is unproportionally negative to what actually people accuse her of. This is the information I gathered so far from the accusations: Sabine critiques the way the science is being made right now, which MAY contribute to people being more sceptical about scientific community, she does some clickbaity titles, she removed an article from her website of a guy that criticised Weinstein bs theory of general unity, a generally liked debunker Prof Dave made a video about her. So that’s what I gathered but the response is to deplatform her and that she should not be treated seriously? That’s so random. Seems like a generally good science educator who had some bad personal experience in academia and gave some mostly mild critique of what should be improved. Almost like there is something more here underneath, cause it seems like the response is coming from tribalism rather than facts.

  42. @kk-cr4db

    August 2, 2025 at 10:20 am

    I think the issue that most people have with Sabine is due to association to other anti-science grifters. But in my opinion a bit of a nuanced take that criticizes the way science is made is needed. Maybe if it will attract the same audience that the full anti science grifters have it will expose them to more nuanced perspective. I think avoiding talking about these problems in scientific community is just radicalising the public because they will go listen to other people who are not afraid to speak up and those ones might tell people that the earth is flat and humans lived along side with dinosaurs

  43. @mattyrhea1314

    August 2, 2025 at 10:20 am

    I've heard Alex mention this idea of science being only descriptive and not explanatory a few times now. I'd be very curious to hear what a hypothetical TRUE explanation of something like gravity would look like. I don't quite see what he's getting at.

  45. @antimatterhorn

    August 2, 2025 at 10:20 am

    it's strange to see Sabine demonstrate so much humility about the subject of philosophy when speaking to an actual philosopher, when on her own channel, she absolutely does dismiss the entire subject, and explicitly dismissed all philosophers in one of her videos where she discussed how stupid p-zombies are as a thought experiment (and in that video gave an incredibly ignorant description of what a p-zombie is that could only have come about from never having engaged with the subject at all). her assertion that she only dismisses "bad" philosophy just doesn't comport with her actual words on the subject, which are helpfully recorded on her youtube channel where she absolutely does say philosophers (in the main) dream up stupid scenarios and then think they're doing science when they're not. if she wants to now say she was only describing bad philosophers, then i would humbly suggest she stop talking about the subject since she's incapable of being clear about what she means when she does talk about it.

  47. @TheGreyson_GH

    August 2, 2025 at 10:20 am

    Alex for the trumpet at the end the next question you can ask after describing everything about it is how does it know to turn on when I play? To wich most people would go to because there is a microphone.

Comments are closed.

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