#269 – Lee Cronin: Origin of Life, Aliens, Complexity, and Consciousness

[0] The following is a conversation with Lee Cronin, a chemist from University of Glasgow, who's one of the most fascinating, brilliant, out -of -the -box thinking scientists have ever spoken to.

[1] This episode was recorded more than two weeks ago, so the war in Ukraine is not mentioned.

[2] I have been spending a lot of time each day talking to people in Ukraine and Russia.

[3] I have family, friends, colleagues, and loved ones in both countries.

[4] I will try to release a solo episode on this war.

[5] but I've been failing to find the words that make sense of it for myself and others, so I may not.

[6] I ask for your understanding, no matter which path I take.

[7] Most of my time is spent trying to help as much as I can privately.

[8] I'm talking to people who are suffering, who are angry, afraid.

[9] When I returned to this conversation with Lee, I couldn't help but smile.

[10] He's a beautiful, brilliant, and hilarious.

[11] human being.

[12] He's basically a human manifestation of the mad scientist Rick Sanchez from Rick and Morty.

[13] I thought about quitting this podcast for a time, but for now at least, I'll keep going.

[14] I love people too much.

[15] You, the listener.

[16] I meet folks on the street or when I run.

[17] You say a few kind words about the podcast, and we talk about life, the small things, and the big things.

[18] All of it gives me hope.

[19] People are just amazing.

[20] You are amazing.

[21] I ask for your support, wisdom, and patience as I keep going with this silly little podcast, including through some difficult conversations.

[22] And hopefully, many fascinating and fun ones too.

[23] And now, a quick few second mention of each sponsor.

[24] Check them out in the description.

[25] It's the best way to support this podcast.

[26] First is PaperSpace, a platform I use to train and deploy machine learning models.

[27] Second is Athletic Greens, the all -in -one nutrition drink I drink twice a day.

[28] Third is Notion, a note -taking and team collaboration tool.

[29] Fourth is Blinkist.

[30] The app I use to read summaries of books.

[31] Fifth is On It, a nutrition, supplement, and fitness company.

[32] So the choice is machine learning, note -taking, literary wisdom, or health.

[33] choose wisely my friends and now onto the full ad reads as always no ads in the middle I hate those I try to make these ad reads interesting but if you skip them please still check out the sponsors I enjoy their stuff maybe you will too this show is brought to you by Paper Space Gradient which is a platform that lets you build train and deploy machine learning models of any size and complexity I use it I'm likely going to use it for a couple of machine learning experiments.

[34] Fast

[35].A