Rick Rosner: “Optimism drives innovation. Unrealistic optimism ignores thermodynamics, economics, and biology.”
Tag: science
Ask A Genius 1620: Geometry, Association Engines, and the Crackpot Index
“If you want to feel like you are a genius—misunderstood, unappreciated by the world—there is a lot of support for that. There is a whole misinformation industry, a delusion industry.”
Ask A Genius 1587: Why Rick Rosner Wants to Die by Cryonic Preservation
“I would choose cryonic preservation. Your blood and water are replaced with cryoprotective solutions, then your body is cooled to liquid-nitrogen temperatures to avoid ice crystals that destroy tissue. Revival remains speculative—no one has ever been brought back—but if identity can be preserved, I believe it is worth attempting.”
Ask A Genius 1577: Mel Brooks, Meta-Primes, and the Future of AI
In this Thanksgiving conversation, Rick Rosner talks with Scott Douglas Jacobsen about the enduring genius of Mel Brooks, from Young Frankenstein to Get Smart, and the changing sophistication of television from Hill Street Blues to today’s streaming era. Rosner laments no longer working for Kimmel, where legends like Norman Lear once appeared, and reflects on how creative legacies still shape culture. He riffs on AI’s multimodal future, humanoid robots, and the risks of systems with agency. He revisits his “meta-primes” idea on twin primes and information in the number line, and recalls favourite reading like Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age.
Ask A Genius 1572: Movies, Mega Test, AI, and Consciousness
In this interview, Scott Douglas Jacobsen talks with Rick Rosner about movies, mega-IQ tests, AI, and the future of consciousness. Rosner explains why Long Shot succeeds as sharp wish-fulfillment, reflects on the brutal difficulty of Cooijmans and Hoeflin high-range tests, and worries that humans may become like dogs—immersed in sensation but missing understanding. He sketches consciousness as a crisis-response system that allocates attention under pressure and predicts that only tightly AI-augmented people will ride the coming tsunami of complexity, while most drift through frictionless entertainment, sporadic insight, and increasingly outsourced thinking, with ethics and meaning left dangerously unresolved for everyone.
Ask A Genius 1492: Television, Writing, Alien, and the Poetry of Physics
In this in-depth conversation, Rick Rosner reflects on how five years of watching well-written television with his wife, Carole, has sharpened his writing skills and ability to anticipate dialogue and plot twists. He shares insights on Noah Hawley’s upcoming Alien series, the evolution of science fiction horror, and the role of originality in storytelling. Rosner also discusses Mel Brooks’s creative longevity, his own struggles with writing about the future amid AI and political upheaval, and broader reflections on cosmology, intelligence, and scientific discovery. With humor and humility, he compares himself to Feynman, Gamow, and Darwin—highlighting the complexity of intelligence.
Ask A Genius 1476: Human Features and Flaws: Evolutionary Strengths, Brain Bugs, and Big-Data Limits
Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner examine human strengths like abstract thinking, endurance, and reproductive success, alongside evolutionary flaws—such as brain vulnerabilities, adrenal overactivation, and limited big-data capacity. They explore how modern life misaligns with our biology, creating stress and irrationality, while AI emerges as our likely cognitive successor.
Ask A Genius 1440: Is the Universe Algorithmic or Contextual? Quantum Logic, Non-Contradiction, and Emergent Time
Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner discuss whether the universe operates in a purely algorithmic fashion or allows for non-algorithmic, contextual, or indeterminate behavior. They explore quantum mechanics, contextual truth, intuitionist logic, temporal logic, and the foundational role of non-contradiction in shaping reality, arguing for a mostly stable, logic-grounded universe.
Ask A Genius 1426: When Does the Universe Shift from Objective Matter to Subjective Awareness?
Rick Rosner talks about James Comey's cryptic "86 47" tweet sparked backlash, with critics accusing him of inciting violence against Trump. Experts argue the phrase more likely implies political rejection. The controversy echoes past misjudgments by Comey and others, as media attention shifts from substantive issues like Republican tax proposals.
Ask A Genius 1391: Can AI Revolutionize Physics and Rewrite the Big Bang Theory?
Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner discuss the future of physics in the age of artificial intelligence. They explore how AI might challenge the Big Bang theory, synthesize new models of the universe, and employ both brute-force and poetic reasoning to redefine cosmology in ways beyond current human capacity.
Rick Rosner 