Metaphysics and modern AI: What is space and time?

The AI Fundamentalists

We explore how space and time form a single fabric, testing our daily beliefs through questions about free-fall, black holes, speed, and momentum to reveal what models get right and where they break.

To help us, we’re excited to have our friend David Theriault, a science and sci-fi afficionado; and our resident astrophysicist, Rachel Losacco, to talk about practical exploration in space and time. They'll even unpack a few concerns they have about how space and time were depicted in the movie Interstellar (2014).

Highlights:

• Introduction: Why fundamentals beat shortcuts in science and AI
• Time as experience versus physical parameter
• Plato’s ideals versus Aristotle’s change as framing tools
• Free-fall, G-forces, and what we actually feel
• Gravity wells, curvature, and moving through space-time
• Black holes, tidal forces, and spaghettification
• Momentum and speed: Laser probe, photon momentum, and braking limits
• Doppler shifts, time dilation, and length contraction
• Why light’s speed stays constant across frames
• Modeling causality and preparing for the next paradigm
This episode about space and time is the second in our series about metaphysics and modern AI. Each topic in the series is leading to the fundamental question, "Should AI try to think?"

Step away from your keyboard and enjoy this journey with us.
Previous episodes:

• Introduction: Metaphysics and modern AI
• What is reality?

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1. Framing space and time (00:00:00)

2. Why fundamentals matter In AI (00:03:20)

3. Time as a human and physical concept (00:10:56)

4. Plato, Aristotle, and change (00:14:50)

5. Practical problems in space-time (00:19:55)

6. G-forces versus free-fall intuition (00:23:40)

7. Gravity control and sci‑fi acceleration (00:28:55)

8. Newton to Einstein: Curved space-time (00:33:40)

9. Black holes and spaghettification (00:37:15)