[Recording Start] Rick Rosner: So, you sent me close to a dozen definitions of information as defined by various disciplines. Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Yes. Then I decided to take a broader, big-picture angle by examining the different levels of information. It fundamentally revolves around incompleteness. Our methods of understanding, such as the scientific method, rely …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 942: Information by the Definition, Boys
[Recording Start] Rick Rosner: In my novel, the main character, similar to myself, possesses a framework that, if not a complete theory of the universe, points towards one. As he ages, he increasingly treats it with casual disregard and allows it to diminish in importance. As he becomes engrossed in the minutiae of daily life, he …
[Recording Start] Rick Rosner: Yesterday, we discussed the possible reasons why birth rates are declining globally. You are 32, correct? Scott Douglas Jacobsen: No, I am 34. Rosner: I see. At some point, do you wish to have a wife and children? Jacobsen: I don't know. Rosner: We could examine why you do not feel a sense …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 940: Marriage, Kids, and Scotty
[Recording Start] Rick Rosner: A few weeks ago, I read about rapidly changing estimates of the maximum human population, the peak human population, at which point we'll have the most humans ever, and then the total human population will subsequently decline. The estimate has been revised from about 10.8 billion in the year 2100 to …
[Recording Start] Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Masculinity—you get a pair of these giant testicles made out of plastic and hang them from the rear of your truck. So, your truck has testicles. What is another American cultural item, an Americanism that is also like this? Rick Rosner: It used to be barbed wire tattoos that run all the …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 938: Porn, Masculinity, and Virginity
[Recording Start] Rick Rosner: Right, so you just showed me a clip from the roast of Joan Rivers featuring Gilbert Gottfried, where he describes in great, flowery detail what it is like to have sex with Joan Rivers. It was all made up, but it went on for a long time. I've seen him perform …
[Recording Start] Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So, you have had opportunities to gain fame. Rick Rosner: Yes, I have done four pilots centered on either myself as a smart person or involving other people as well. None of these pilots have been successful, which is not unusual, but it is frustrating. I have a significant number …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 936: Opportunities for the Fabled Fame
[Recording Start] Scott Douglas Jacobsen: There it is. So we are back after a while. I wanted to cover a little bit about the colossal amount of work over a decade or more, in fact, more than a decade, doing a lot of the independent journalistic work that I've done. I typically pick a topic, and …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 935: Mathematicizing Our Collaborations
[Recording Start] Rick Rosner: All right, I eat fruit with a knife because I’m a badass, or maybe because I don’t want to break off my old teeth. Scott Douglas Jacobsen: I’m skeptical of the badass. Rosner: Say again? Jacobsen: I’m skeptical of the badass. Rosner: I’m sitting here with a knife, just cutting on a peach. I don’t even …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 934: A badass with fruits and a knife
[Recording Start] Rick Rosner: Okay, we will discuss population dynamics and energy consumption. Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Do you want to start with population or energy? Rosner: Well, I am just going to start with how I came upon it. I just read an article that people have been saying for a while because it’s true that a quarter …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 933: Population Dynamics and Energy Consumption
Rick Rosner 