James Kerwin on Quantum Consciousness in 'Yesterday Was A Lie'

James Kerwin on Quantum Consciousness in 'Yesterday Was A Lie'

Author: Marty Kurylowicz and Holly Carson January 16, 2025 Duration: 46:57
Marty speaks with Hollywood writer and director James Kerwin about Quantum Consciousness in his sci-fi film noir ‘Yesterday Was a Lie’, as well as in Robert J. Sawyer's books 'Quantum Night' and 'The Downloaded. We do a bit of a deep dive into the role of consciousness in the foundations of quantum mechanics, discussing the Copenhagen interpretation, the Many Worlds theory, and the Penrose/Hameroff Orchestrated Objective Reduction theory. We go all the way from the quantum superpo...

Ever wonder how close that far-future technology in your favorite novel really is, or what a biologist thinks about the alien ecosystems a writer dreams up? That’s the space where The Science in The Fiction lives. Hosted by Marty Kurylowicz and Holly Carson, this series bridges two worlds that often talk past each other. Each episode begins with a conversation with a science fiction author, pulling apart the big ideas and speculative concepts woven into their work. Then, they bring a scientist or expert into the studio to examine those same ideas through the lens of current research and theory. The real magic happens when these perspectives collide, creating a genuine dialogue. You’ll hear a physicist geek out over warp drive mechanics with an author who just wrote about them, or an ethicist debate artificial consciousness with the novelist who imagined it. It’s not just about fact-checking fiction; it’s about using narrative to ask better questions and using science to deepen our sense of wonder. This podcast operates on a simple, powerful belief: that science fiction can make science more compelling and accessible, and that solid science can, in turn, inspire more thoughtful and visionary stories. If you’ve ever finished a brilliant sci-fi book and immediately fallen down a research rabbit hole, this show feels built for you. Tune in for conversations that are as insightful about human creativity as they are about quantum mechanics or xenobiology, all designed to fuel your curiosity.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 65

The Science in The Fiction
Podcast Episodes
David Brin on First Contact in 'Existence' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:04:12
We speak with David Brin, science fiction icon, scientist, futurist and civilizational optimist. We discuss his particular view of first contact with extraterrestrial intelligence, as portrayed in his 2012 novel 'Existen…
Avi Loeb on First Contact in 'Extraterrestrial' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:07:55
Marty and Holly speak with Professor Avi Loeb from the Harvard Astronomy department, and he is one of the most generous, gregarious, kind and thoughtful people we’ve ever spoken with. Not only that, he embodies the spiri…
David Curtin on Dark Matter in 'Sunfall' (Part 2) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 38:20
This is the second part of our interview with Dr. David Curtin, Canada Research Chair in Theoretical Particle Physics at the University of Toronto. In response to the kind of dark matter model found in Jim Al-Khalili's s…
David Curtin on Dark Matter in 'Sunfall' (Part 1) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 45:40
Dr. David Curtin is the Canada Research Chair in Theoretical Particle Physics at the University of Toronto, and specializes in exotic theories of dark matter that describe a "dark sector" which may include complex dark m…
Jim Al-Khalili on Dark Matter in 'Sunfall' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:18
Our theme in the next two episodes is dark matter, the kind of far-out science that is stranger than fiction and presents realms of possibility that are both more plausible and more interesting than parallel worlds or ex…
Edward M. Lerner on Planetary Protection in 'Life and Death on Mars' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 55:19
In this episode we return to the theme of Planetary Protection, continuing the conversation we started in episodes 19 and 20 where we discussed the return of samples from Asteroid Bennu to Earth in NASA’s recent OSIRIS R…