About
The Beyond Podcast explores meta-topics and concepts. Note: this has nothing to do with Meta - the corporation. We will focus on mind-twisting subjects like recursion, self-similarity, self-reference, various paradoxes, and other fun puzzles and problems. We will discuss meta references in art and entertainment. And we will try to make these discussions fun and entertaining! Check out The Beyond Podcast at thebeyondpod.com, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Latest Episodes
S1 Ep 13This Episode Was Randomly Selected From The Set Of All Possible Episodes
This episode looks at probability theory, statistics, epistemology, and thought experiments involving the Self Sampling Assumption.
S1 Ep 12This Episode Halts
In this episode we discuss paradigms for naming very large numbers, and how this connects to the power of algorithms, programming languages, and the machines they run on.
S1 Ep 11This Episode’s Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny
In this episode we discuss metaness in the realm of physics.
S1 Ep 10 This Episode’s Title Exists Somewhere In the Digits of Pi
This episode discusses The Book of Tao, minimal descriptions of strings, as well as Kolmogorov Complexity.
S1 Ep 9This Episode Cannot Prove Its Own Consistency
This episode discusses the work of Alan Turing and Kurt Gödel, drawing parallels between the Halting Problem and the Incompleteness Theorems. We also review a fun book of puzzles!
S1 Ep 8This Episode’s Title Has Thirty Eight Letters
In this episode we discuss the metaness of maps, and Schelling Points.
S1 Ep 7This Episode Contains The Seeds Of Its Own Creation
In this episode we discuss Von Neumann probes, and also review Lewis Dartnell's "The Knowledge..." as well as “We Are Legion (We Are Bob)” by Dennis E. Taylor.
S1 Ep 6This Episode Is Coming From Inside Your Headphones
In this episode we will discuss JOOTsing - Jumping Out Of The System, in the context of software systems and security exploits.
S1 Ep 5The Following Episode Is False
This episode discusses metaness and Strange Loops in real life. We also review the 1985 novel "Contact" by Carl Sagan.
S1 Ep 4This Episode Contains a Hapax Legomenon
In this episode we will discuss the Chinese Room Argument, Turing Machines, and Fixed-Point proofs.
S1 Ep 3This Episode’s Transcript is a 89742 Byte PDF Document
In this episode we will discuss cellular automations, Turing machines, and the novel Permutation City by Greg Egan.
S1 Ep 2This Episode is 2580 Seconds Long
In this episode we will discuss quines - computer programs that can reproduce their own code. We will also talk about Exhalation - a sci-fi short story by Ted Chiang.
S1 Ep 1This Episode Has 6650 Words
Our first episode introduces the podcast and explores the idea of self-describing messages to send information far into the future.