Conjecture Institute

Conjecture Institute Fellow Jaber Hassoun

Jaber is a Fellow of Conjecture Institute. A computer science graduate and educational Youtuber focused on science and philosophy communication, Jaber's videos and interviews are dedicated to promoting Enlightenment values, progress, optimism in Deutsch's sense, the open/dynamic society and a Critical Rationalist attitude. His is one of the only Arabic-speaking channels that offers deep dives into the Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch and Popperian epistemology in general.

Economics, Module 0: The Constraints of Personhood

In explaining the regularities of an economy, of the conditions under which wealth can and cannot grow, we may begin with the fact that man acts purposefully—that is, he employs some scarce means to achieve some desired ends. This is typically called the action axiom, but I prefer to call it the action conjecture. As with many apparently simple principles in science and philosophy, the action conjecture and its logical consequences will take us very far in our journey to explain how wealth is created, how resources are allocated, and how individuals coordinate their idiosyncratic means and ends between each other and with their future selves.
 
Written version: https://conjectureinstitute.org/courses/economics/Economics%20Module%200.pdf
 
Discover more course modules: https://conjectureinstitute.org/university/courses

History of Ideas, Module 1: Ancient Greeks: Thales of Miletus

With his advent of a tradition of criticism, materialism, and the notion of universal principles, Thales gave every subsequent philosopher and scientist indispensable tools of reason that have lasted for thousands of years.
 
Read the entire module: https://conjectureinstitute.org/courses/business/history_of_ideas_module_1.pdf

Gravity Without Absolutes, by Julian Barbour

Physicist Julian Barbour discusses the ideas in his essay, Gravity Without Absolutes.
Julian's essay is one of several written for our upcoming compendium, Bold Conjectures, Volume II: Essays Across Physics.

Constructor Theory, Module 3: Four Laws of Thermodynamics

In this module, we will explore the content and shortcomings of four laws of thermodynamics.
 
Read the module: https://conjectureinstitute.org/courses/constructor-theory/Constructor%20Theory%20Module%203.pdf
 
Visit Conjecture Institute: https://conjectureinstitute.org/

Effective Field Theory and the Shape of Realism, by Abdullah Afzal and Hassaan Saleem

Physicist Abdullah Afzal discusses the ideas in his essay, Effective Field Theory and the Shape of Realism (cowritten with Hassaan Saleem).
 
Abdul and Hassaan's' essay is one of several written for our upcoming compendium, Bold Conjectures, Volume II: Essays Across Physics.

Another Triumph of Locality: Colliding Histories Skew Handshakes, by Fellow Charles Bedard

Conjecture Institute Fellow Charles Bedard discusses the ideas in his essay, Another Triumph of Locality: Colliding Histories Skew Handshakes.
 
Charles' essay is one of several written for our upcoming compendium, Bold Conjectures, Volume II: Essays Across Physics.

The Fate of Spacetime: What Many Worlds Means for Gravity, by Fellow Sam Kuypers

Conjecture Institute Fellow Sam Kuypers discusses the ideas in his essay, The Fate of Spacetime: What Many Worlds Means for Gravity.
 
Sam's essay is one of several written for our upcoming compendium, Bold Conjectures, Volume II: Essays Across Physics.

Constructor Theory, Module 2: Irreversibility

As we saw in Module One, all dynamical laws of motion are time-reversal symmetric: if the trajectory of a system from state A to state B is allowed by particular laws of motion, then the trajectory of that system from state B to state A is also allowed by those same laws.
 
Yet this fundamental reversibility sits in stark tension with the one-way processes we observe all around us.
 
Since 1870, a number of attempted solutions to this conflict have been offered that can’t quite solve the problem. But, as is often the case in science, understanding the reasons why they fail shed light on what attributes the actual solution must have.
 
Read: https://conjectureinstitute.org/courses/constructor-theory/Constructor%20Theory%20Module%202.pdf
 
Visit Conjecture Institute: https://www.conjectureinstitute.org/
 
Donate to Conjecture Institute: https://www.every.org/conjecture-institute-inc#/donate/card
 
Follow Conjecture Institute on X: https://x.com/ConjectureInst
 

Constructor Theory, Module 1: The Prevailing Conception and the Big Bang

While Newtonian mechanics, quantum mechanics, and general relativity consist of radically different conceptual frameworks and mathematical infrastructure, they are all expressible in what David Deutsch and Chiara Marletto call the prevailing or traditional conception. If you know the current positions and velocities of the planets, Newton’s laws let you calculate where they will be next year, or where they were last year. If you know the wave function of an electron and the rule governing how it changes, quantum mechanics lets you compute its entire future and its entire past. If you know the positions and velocities of two black holes at the current moment, Einstein’s equations in general relativity fix their entire evolution in spacetime — forward or backward.
 
Read: https://conjectureinstitute.org/courses/constructor-theory/Constructor%20Theory%20Module%201.pdf
 
Visit Conjecture Institute: https://www.conjectureinstitute.org/
 
Donate to Conjecture Institute: https://www.every.org/conjecture-institute-inc#/donate/card
 
Follow Conjecture Institute on X: https://x.com/ConjectureInst