Dror Bar-Natan: What Knots Reveal About Quantum Field Theory

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Previously titled “Dror Bar Natan on Knot Theory, Learning from Ed Witten, Eric Weinstein, and Quantum Field Theory” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 3, 2026

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Recorded08 Sep 2021

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YouTube link: https://youtu.be/rJz_Badd43c Dror Bar-Natan is a Professor of mathematic who's interests include knot theory, QFT, and Khovanov homology Sponsors: https://brilliant.org/TOE for 20% off. http://algo.com for supply chain AI. Patreon: https://patreon.com/curtjaimungal Crypto: https://tinyurl.com/cryptoTOE PayPal: https://tinyurl.com/paypalTOE Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt Discord Invite: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/better-left-unsaid-with-curt-jaimungal/id1521758802 Pandora: https://pdora.co/33b9lfP Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e Subreddit r/TheoriesOfEverything: https://reddit.com/r/theoriesofeverything LINKS MENTIONED: PDF link of notes: https://tinyurl.com/4u4ru2yh TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 Introduction 00:03:29 Quantum Field Theory and Knot Theory 00:10:19 Another QFT / Knot Theory connection or analogy 00:20:46 Knot Theory and Gravity + Bar-Natan's PhD on Chern-Simons 00:24:08 Homology and Cohomology 00:32:54 Dror's average day / routines / laziness 00:35:23 What is "work" for a Professor? How much of it is thinking vs. reading etc.? 00:36:50 All the research is to support teaching 00:41:34 Motivated examples are what's missing in math teaching 00:47:35 Are you more creative when younger or older? 00:48:43 Being "systematic" with learning and research 00:50:37 Rant against theorems and proofs (emphasis) 00:54:51 What understanding a mathematical concept looks like 01:03:35 On laziness, strengths, and weaknesses in mathematics 01:07:47 Advice for the struggling mathematician 01:09:30 What did Dror learn from studying with Ed Witten 01:12:12 On Eric Weinstein 01:19:32 Knot Theory and Physics (again) 01:20:10 Why can't physics of 2 or 3 dimensions be extended to 4 easily? 01:34:21 Hard Problem of Consciousness 01:35:54 The problems Dror thinks about daily 01:37:49 What direction would he like mathematics research to head in? 01:40:26 Philosophy of math (ultra-finitism) 01:44:45 Pure mathematics in service to applied mathematics 01:47:14 How to learn a new field of mathematics 01:47:15 [the scientific mystical philosopher] Unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics 01:48:28 [Romain Gicquad] On IQ 01:51:06 [Tori Ko] What do you think about biology / psychology / philosophy 01:54:03 [Phill Thomas] What led him into the field of mathematics? Can anyone can learn advanced math? 02:03:52 [Tyler Goldstein] Do we need to make new research institutions not linked to academia? 02:06:04 Bias in academia 02:10:15 What's a mathematician? Who's a mathematician and who's not? 02:14:31 [Ashley Shipp] Does he think there is a connection between knot theory and protein folding? 02:19:49 [Jack Dysart] Is math a human construct? 02:22:50 [cx777o] Does he believe in a concept of god? 05:19:49 [Bill McGonigle] Ramanujan and his Goddess 02:23:47 Revealed story that Dror has about Curt and the Prisoner's Dilemma 02:30:27 [Harinivas P] Bible Code and applying advanced math in one's life 02:37:26 [Roy Dopson] Why does it take 360 pages to "prove" that 1+1=2? * * * Just wrapped (April 2021) a documentary called Better Left Unsaid http://betterleftunsaidfilm.com on the topic of "when does the left go too far?" Visit that site if you'd like to watch it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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