Brian Keating’s Universe🔭 — Issue #4 | New Universe, New You!
Monday M.A.G.I.C. Message
(Memory, Appearance, Genius, Image, Conversation)
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from MAGIC!” Sir Arthur C. Clarke
Dear Impossible Family,
January is named after Janus the god of gates and portals, a time to look forward and also reflect. So at the end of last year, I sent some ideas to accomplish goals in 2022. Since the year is 1/12th over already it’s a good time to check in on progress towards our goals. I found some more tips:
Write it down! In a study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, researchers found that people who commit to taking action and have a means of accountability saw a ~25% increase in goal achievement when compared to those who just wrote them down. The same study by Dr. Gail Matthews that showed the value of written goals, saw an even greater increase in goal achievement when goals were shared and progress reports were used. So, share your goals. And if you want an even bigger boost, share them with someone you look up to.
Get Accountability The key to goal-setting is accountability. If you know that someone else is going to ask you about your goals regularly, it’s much harder to ignore them or put them off in favor of something easier or more fun. This simple tweak can have a big impact on how quickly you achieve your goals.Recent research has shown that we’re likely to achieve our goals faster when we share them with someone else. For example, researchers at the University of Chicago found that people who share their goals with just one other person are 25% more likely to accomplish them.
This is because publicly announcing your goals makes you accountable for them. You can’t afford to make excuses if you tell someone your goal and how you plan to achieve it — like telling a friend you want to run a marathon in the next six months and then posting your training schedule online. The benefits of pairing accountability with written goals can be even more powerful.
Share your goals with me ➤ While I can’t promise to respond, I read every reply.
One goal I had this year was to appear on the Lex Fridman podcast, and as you can see below, I achieved it. Now on to losing that stubborn last 5 pounds… at least after I lose the first 20 😂
I hope you will soon note improvements from my upgraded home studio [thank you Patreon patrons and Youtube Members!]. And, as mentioned in my recent video, look for the first-ever audiobook by Galileo produced by yours truly, featuring my voice alongside my heroes Carlo Rovelli, Lucio Piccirillo, Frank Wilczek, Fabiola Gianotti, and Jim Gates.
Have a magical week!
CONVERSATION: Professor Paul Davies was my guest last week on The INTO THE IMPOSSIBLE Podcast. Paul is an internationally acclaimed physicist, cosmologist, and astrobiologist at Arizona State University, where he runs the pioneering Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science. He also chairs the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Post-Detection Task group, so that if SETI succeeds in finding intelligent life, he will be among the first to know.
Davies is the recipient of the 1995 Templeton Prize — the world’s largest annual prize — for his work on science and religion. He is the author of more than twenty books including the subject of our conversation, What’s Eating The Universe We covered a lot of ground including, How do you know when to pursue a scientific hint with further research? What’s unique about your approach to science? The laws of nature are not perfectly symmetrical. Why tro to find a unifying theory? And more!http:// https://briankeating.com/podcast.php
IMAGE: This week, the INTO THE IMPOSSIBLE Podcast hit #1 on Apple charts in Natural Science and #9 in all of Science! There are literally thousands of other podcasts in these categories. I simply can’t express how proud I am and, more than that, how thankful I am for all of you sharing my work with your friends & family. I could not do it without you. Thank you!
GENIUS: Last time I described the challenges of the translation of the Rosetta Stone and how, layered on top of the linguistic accomplishment, was a race between superpowers, Britain and France, for global intellectual supremacy — every bit evocative of the Space Race. Here is an image from the Space Race and another story of dire competition for international prestige which also involves writing implements 😀
During the Space Race of the 1960’s, Russia and America were head-to-head against one another. The two had zero intention of helping the other out. One huge challenge was how to write down Information in space. Pens wouldn’t function because gravity wouldn’t cause the pens’ ink to flow down to the ballpoint.
NASA spent millions of dollars over the years developing a ballpoint pen that could function in zero gravity. And what did the crafty Ruskies do? They just used pencils.
While the story is a bit of a myth, there are lessons to learn: sometimes it’s fun to plan a technical solution to a new problem. But sometimes the best solution is the tried-and-true oldest one. After all, it’s been around a lot longer than new fangled ball points have been. More here.
APPEARANCE: I was delighted to check off one of my biggest goals of this year [or any other] last week. Please enjoy my massive conversation with Lex Fridman. We discussed a lot of fun stuff ranging from Galileo to the meaning of life. Here are a few timestamps to get started… Telescope 5:51 — Beginning of the universe 26:04 — Science and the Soviet Union 31:30 — What it’s like to be a scientist 50:26 — Age of the universe 53:17 — Expansion of the universe 1:01:18 — Gravitational waves 1:04:30 — BICEP 1:29:45 — Nobel prize 1:52:47 — Joe Rogan 2:00:02 — Recognition in science 2:08:11 — Curiosity and more. Note: Lex has a clips channel where you can find these, and more, in bite sized formats.
Happening NOW!!!! Catch my live ‘life’ debate with Professor Lee Cronin on Curt Jaimungal’s Theories of Everything. We fought over many topics, ranging from the definition of life to the search for 👽 life.
MEMORY Bittersweet memories from just three years ago… a conversation I hosted between Freeman Dyson and Gregory Benford in January 2019. I miss you Freeman.. The only thing I want for Groundhog Day is for you to leave a review of The INTO THE IMPOSSIBLE Podcast! We are up to 322 reviews. Will you be #323? Every Review helps so much!
