First, I find it interesting that the guy is not actually an atheist, although I can understand why they chose the title. Second, I found this bit at the end very insightful:
“Q: Can’t you do a project of this scope at a top university like Caltech?
Koch: No. Universities are great at producing individual scientists who are brilliant at pushing new ideas, but the entire scientific endeavor is constructed on the notion of being hyper-competitive and as different as possible from other people. Otherwise, you don’t get a Ph.D. You don’t get tenure. You don’t get grants. You don’t get papers in high profile journals. So it’s very difficult to focus an enormous amount of research in a disciplined way.”
On Reconciling Atheism and Meaning in the Universe
“Romantic reductionist” neuroscientist Christof Koch discusses the search for meaning in the world of science, and the philosophical influence of working with Francis Crick.
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