Site • RSS • Apple PodcastsDescription (podcaster-provided):
The Beyond Podcast explores meta-topics and concepts. Note: this has nothing to do with Meta - the corporation. We will focus on mind-twisting subjects like recursion, self-similarity, self-reference, various paradoxes, and other fun puzzles and problems. We will discuss meta references in art and entertainment. And we will try to make these discussions fun and entertaining! Check out The Beyond Podcast at thebeyondpod.com, or wherever you get your podcasts.Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ meta concepts: recursion, self-reference, paradoxes, strange loops • computability: Turing machines, halting problem, Gödel incompleteness, quines, fixed points • information theory: Kolmogorov complexity, minimal descriptions • probability/epistemology, SSA • physics metaness, maps/Schelling points • sci‑fi and puzzle book discussionsThis podcast focuses on “meta” ideas—concepts that fold back on themselves through self-reference, recursion, self-similarity, and paradox. Across its episodes, the discussions repeatedly connect philosophical puzzles to formal tools from mathematics and computer science, using thought experiments and classic results to examine how systems describe, model, or limit themselves.
A major thread is computation and its boundaries: topics include Turing machines, the halting problem, fixed-point arguments, and quines (programs that reproduce their own source). These ideas are paired with questions from logic and the foundations of mathematics, drawing parallels between computability limits and Gödel-style incompleteness and consistency issues. The show also explores information and description—how strings can be minimally specified, what it means for a message to be self-describing, and how concepts like Kolmogorov complexity relate to patterns hidden in seemingly random places.
The podcast also branches into probabilistic reasoning and epistemology, considering how observers reason under uncertainty and how sampling assumptions shape conclusions in thought experiments. In addition, it examines “metaness” in broader domains such as physics and the way maps and shared focal points (Schelling points) influence coordination and interpretation.
Alongside these conceptual explorations, the show frequently uses references from science fiction and puzzle books as case studies, discussing novels and short stories that dramatize strange loops, self-replication, artificial intelligence, and simulated worlds. There are also occasional forays into practical system-level thinking, such as how “jumping out of the system” relates to software security and exploits. Overall, the content blends rigorous ideas with playful framing to investigate how meaning, computation, and reality can become self-referential.
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This Episode Was Randomly Selected From The Set Of All Possible Episodes 2026-Jan-03 32 minutes |
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This Episode Halts 2025-Sep-19 36 minutes |
This Episode’s Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny2025-Jul-08 34 minutes |
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This Episode’s Title Exists Somewhere In the Digits of Pi 2025-Apr-14 30 minutes |
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This Episode Cannot Prove Its Own Consistency 2024-Jun-02 36 minutes |
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This Episode’s Title Has Thirty Eight Letters 2024-Jan-29 30 minutes |
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This Episode Contains The Seeds Of Its Own Creation 2023-May-22 32 minutes |
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This Episode Is Coming From Inside Your Headphones 2023-Mar-13 38 minutes |
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The Following Episode Is False 2023-Jan-03 32 minutes |
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This Episode Contains a Hapax Legomenon 2022-Dec-05 37 minutes |
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This Episode’s Transcript is a 89742 Byte PDF Document 2022-Nov-13 35 minutes |
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This Episode is 2580 Seconds Long 2022-Oct-30 43 minutes |
This Episode Has 6650 Words2022-Oct-21 44 minutes |