Eric Weinstein

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Not to be confused with Eric W. Weisstein.

Eric Weinstein
Born
Eric Ross Weinstein

(1965-10-26) October 26, 1965 (age 59)
EducationUniversity of Pennsylvania (BA), (MA)
Harvard University (PhD)
Occupation(s)Venture capital fund manager, podcast host
Known forIntellectual dark web
SpousePia Malaney[1]
RelativesBret Weinstein (brother)
WebsiteEricweinstein.org

Eric Ross Weinstein (/ˈwaɪnstaɪn/; born October 26, 1965[2]) is an American investor and financial executive.[3] As of 2021, he was managing director for the American venture capital firm Thiel Capital.[4] Weinstein hosted a podcast called The Portal, coined the term "intellectual dark web", and has proposed a theory of everything called "Geometric Unity" that has largely been met with skepticism in the scientific community.[5][6]

Education

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Weinstein studied mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania, where he completed his undergraduate degree in 1985.[7][8]

Weinstein received a Ph.D. in mathematics from Harvard University in 1992 under the supervision of Raoul Bott.[9][10] In his dissertation, "Extension of Self-Dual Yang-Mills Equations Across the Eighth Dimension", Weinstein showed that the self-dual Yang–Mills equations were not peculiar to dimension four and admitted generalizations to higher dimensions.[11]

Career

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Finance

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In 2013, Weinstein was working as an economist and consultant at the Natron Group, a New York City–based hedge fund.[5][6][12][3] As of 2021, Weinstein is the managing director for Thiel Capital, a venture capital firm founded by American financier Peter Thiel that invests in technology and life sciences–related companies.[3][4][13][1]

Geometric Unity

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In May 2013, mathematician Marcus du Sautoy invited Weinstein to give a lecture at Oxford University's Clarendon Laboratory on a theory called "Geometric Unity";[5] Sautoy also wrote an overview for the The Guardian newspaper.[6] Physicists David Kaplan and Jim al-Khalili as well as Joseph Conlon of Oxford expressed skepticism.[5] Physicists criticized Weinstein and du Sautoy for not publishing any equations related to the theory, which is a normal part of scholarly peer review.[5][3][6][14] Science writer Jennifer Ouellette criticized the favorable coverage given to the theory by The Guardian, arguing that experts could not properly evaluate Weinstein's ideas without a published paper.[15]

In April 2021, Weinstein self-published a paper on Geometric Unity, stating that it was a "work of entertainment" and that he was "not a physicist".[3] Cosmologist Richard Easther of the University of Auckland said Weinstein's theory has had "no visible impact" and "looked massively undercooked after the buildup it got from du Sautoy".[3] Timothy Nguyen, whose PhD thesis intersects with Weinstein's work, said what Weinstein has presented so far has "gaps, both mathematical and physical in origin" that "jeopardize Geometric Unity as a well-defined theory, much less one that is a candidate for a theory of everything".[3]

Weinstein is a regular guest on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Science writer Dan Kagan-Kans has described the resentment of scientific authority expounded by Weinstein and other contemporary podcasters as "conspiracy physics".[16]

Other ventures

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Weinstein is the host of a podcast called The Portal.[17] As of 2024, he is a member of the research team on The Galileo Project, founded by astrophysicist Avi Loeb to investigate potential signs of extraterrestrial technology.[18][19]

Personal life

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Weinstein coined the term "intellectual dark web", later popularized by Bari Weiss, an opinion editor for The New York Times. The term has been applied to a loose network of public figures opposed to left-wing identity politics and political correctness.[20]

Weinstein is Jewish.[21]

References

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  1. ^ a b McClurg, Lesley (May 7, 2015). "Let's Talk About Death Over Dinner". The Salt. NPR. Retrieved July 10, 2024.
  2. ^ Weinstein, Eric [@EricRWeinstein] (October 26, 2020). "Midway through my 55th birthday. Still no sign of a personal 'I can't turn 55.' message from @sammyhagar ...despite obvious hinting earlier in the day. Still, any day that starts with wine tasting can't be all bad..." (Tweet). Retrieved October 26, 2020 – via Twitter.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Ongweso, Edward Jr. (April 12, 2021). "Eric Weinstein Says He Solved the Universe's Mysteries. Scientists Disagree". Motherboard. Vice. Retrieved July 10, 2024.
  4. ^ a b Wallace-Wells, Benjamin (May 13, 2021). "The Rise of the Thielists". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on August 30, 2021. Retrieved July 10, 2024.
  5. ^ a b c d e Jha, Alok (May 23, 2013). "Roll over Einstein: meet Weinstein". Notes & Theories. The Guardian. Retrieved July 10, 2024. Until Weinstein produces a paper, physicists will remain unconvinced and, crucially, unable to properly assess the claims he is making.
  6. ^ a b c d Aron, Jacob (June 2013). "How to test Weinstein's provocative theory of everything". New Scientist. Vol. 218, no. 2920. pp. 10 ff. doi:10.1016/s0262-4079(13)61403-7. ISSN 0262-4079. [W]ith no published equations to review, the highly public airing of his theory has generated heated controversy. Today, Weinstein attempted to rectify the situation by repeating his lecture at Oxford. This time a number of physicists were in the lecture hall. Most remain doubtful.
  7. ^ "Commencement Program, 1985". University of Pennsylvania Archives & Records Center. University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved September 11, 2025.
  8. ^ "Eric Weinstein on X (formerly Twitter): "My undergraduate university @Penn..."". X (formerly Twitter). April 12, 2020. Retrieved September 11, 2025.
  9. ^ Eric Weinstein at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  10. ^ Tu, Loring W. (May 2006). "The Life and Works of Raoul Bott" (PDF). Notices of the American Mathematical Society. 53 (5): 558. ISSN 1088-9477. Reprinted in:
    Tu, Loring W., ed. (2018). Raoul Bott: Collected Papers, Volume 5. Cham: Birkhäuser. p. 47. ISBN 978-3-319-51781-0.
  11. ^ Beaulieu, Laurent; Kanno, Hiroaki; Singer, I. M. (1998). "Special Quantum Field Theories in Eight And Other Dimensions". Communications in Mathematical Physics. 194 (1): 149–175. arXiv:hep-th/9704167. Bibcode:1998CMaPh.194..149B. doi:10.1007/s002200050353. ISSN 0010-3616. S2CID 3238703.
  12. ^ Mack, Katherine J. (June 6, 2013). "Einstein to Weinstein: the lone genius is an exception to the rule". The Conversation. Retrieved July 10, 2024.
  13. ^ Illing, Sean (July 4, 2018). "Why capitalism won't survive without socialism". Vox (interview). Retrieved July 10, 2024.
  14. ^ Pontzen, Andrew (May 24, 2013). "Weinstein's theory of everything is probably nothing". New Scientist. Retrieved June 2, 2013. Grand claims like Weinstein's would – in the normal course of science – be accompanied by a technical paper explaining their foundations. [...] Du Sautoy – the University of Oxford's professor of the public understanding of science, no less – has short-circuited science's basic checks and balances.
  15. ^ Ouellette, Jennifer (May 24, 2013). "Dear Guardian: You've Been Played". Cocktail Party Physics. Scientific American Blog Network. Archived from the original on February 10, 2021. Retrieved July 10, 2024.
  16. ^ Kagan-Kans, Dan (September 11, 2025). "The Rise of 'Conspiracy Physics'". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved September 13, 2025.
  17. ^ Castronuovo, Celine (January 15, 2021). "Eric Weinstein: It's time to end the business model of division". The Hill. Retrieved July 13, 2024.
  18. ^ Smith, Ryan (July 2, 2024). "Joe Rogan pushes back against Terrence Howard during podcast". Newsweek. Retrieved May 24, 2025.
  19. ^ "Eric Weinstein". The Galileo Project. Harvard University. n.d. Retrieved July 10, 2024.
  20. ^ Postill, John (2024). The Anthropology of Digital Practices: Dispatches from the Online Culture Wars. New York: Routledge. pp. 7–8. doi:10.4324/9781003335238. ISBN 978-1-003-85133-2.
  21. ^ Weinstein, Eric [@EricRWeinstein] (July 12, 2020). "And as an American Jew, I've every right to speak my mind [...]" (Tweet) – via Twitter.

Further reading

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Wikiquote has quotations related to Eric Weinstein.