# Stuart Kauffman: There Is No Theory of Everything

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/theories-of-everything-with-curt-jaimungal-6685488/stuart-kauffman-there-is-no-theory-of-everything
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/theories-of-everything-with-curt-jaimungal-6685488/stuart-kauffman-there-is-no-theory-of-everything.md
Podcast: [Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal](https://stenobird.com/podcast/theories-of-everything-with-curt-jaimungal-6685488)
Published: 2026-01-20T16:39:00+00:00
Episode link: https://s.gum.fm/s-62d83916a854b1cc0031878d/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.megaphone.fm/TEMI4934301527.mp3?updated=1768926531
Audio file: https://s.gum.fm/s-62d83916a854b1cc0031878d/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.megaphone.fm/TEMI4934301527.mp3?updated=1768926531
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/theories-of-everything-with-curt-jaimungal-6685488/episodes/stuart-kauffman-there-is-no-theory-of-everything
Duration seconds: 5289

## Resource

This is an interview with Stuart Kauffman, one of the founders of complexity theory. He invented random Boolean networks at only 23 years old and helped establish the Santa Fe Institute. Now 86, he makes a striking claim: there is no theory of everything. Kauffman argues that biological evolution creates genuinely new possibilities that cannot be deduced from prior states—paralleling the ancient Chinese Tao more than Plato's Logos. He also believes he's found something new in quantum gravity (and, in his words, "genuinely huge"). He unveils it here for the first time. As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe SUPPORT: - Support me on Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe - Support me on Crypto: https://commerce.coinbase.com/checkout/de803625-87d3-4300-ab6d-85d4258834a9 - Support me on PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=XUBHNMFXUX5S4 JOIN MY SUBSTACK (Personal Writings): https://curtjaimungal.substack.com LISTEN ON SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e LINKS MENTIONED: - Investigations [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/B00W0DHAH6?tag=toe08-20 - Stuart Kauffman's Books [Amazon]: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B000APT8XK - A Third Transition In Science? [Article]: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsfs/article/13/3/20220063/89381/A-third-transition-in-science-A-third-transition - Genetic Regulatory Mechanisms In Protein Synthesis [Paper]: https://www.gs.washington.edu/academics/courses/braun/55106/readings/jacob_and_monod.pdf - Is Mind In Spacetime? [Paper]: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38969235/ - The World Is Not A Theorem [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2101.00284 - Origins Of Order [Book]: https://amazon.com/…

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