podcast:: [[modern wisdom]] guest:: [[Brian Greene]] topic:: [[physics]]

https://pca.st/episode/b7d35dc4-5e20-46bc-93cf-46888e4f2293

Topics

• [[inflationary theory]]
• [[Albert Einstein]]
• [[2nd law of thermodynamics]]
• [[../_inbox/inbox-2020/inbox-2020-12/Nick Bostrom]]
• [[Boltzmann brain]] More of a diagnostic tool than a serious theory.
• In a roundabout way; [[The Great Filter]]
• Existential crises in phycicists
  • Boltzman took his own life.
  • Brian Greene mentions that he does not know that many (phycicists) who have (had a deep existential crises as a result of their phycicisting)
    • Admits he has had periods of darkness himself due to taking in the ideas of physics fully.
    • Most phycicists don't take these ideas in in an emotional level, but see them as a mathematical game, better explanations of the phenomena observed.
• Brian does physics because he wants to understand reality, "I mean really understand reality"
• Chris Williamson mentions feeling warm towards phycicists who have to pay this existential price to further our understanding of what the physical world is.
• Brian; "I would not call physicists the most introspective of our species"
  • Have had so many students for whom this is just maths and equations, and would have no patience for existential philosophising.
  • Some colleagues are open to this, others would just roll their eyes. And that's fine, it takes all sorts to make a rich and vibrant community.
  • Brian is more open to discussing the emotional response to these results.

"I don't see how you can think deeply about these ideas without at least having an urge for them to inform some sense of meaning or purpose"

[[There is no fundamental notion of meaning in reality – There is no fundamental meaning of purpose – There is no fundamental meaning of value]] Brian Greene, 57m30s

Paraphrasing Brian Greene: [[faced with the existentialism of physics – you can go to a dark place or to a place of appreciation and gratitude]]

• [[fine-tuning hypothesis]] Greene mentions what my sentiment is; namely that it's a matter of our human perspective exactly how special the values of the physical lawas actually are, how unlikely.

Let's not squander what the universe has produced once, and maybe just once

• between 1h and 1h23m there is some gold… relisten!

• planck scale

  • mind blown: there could be a length where beyond it, length ceases to have meaning. In other words; space no longer… exists. It seems however to be like singularities, in that our physical laws, our equations approach infinity/infinitesimality?

copenhagen interpretation bohr saw it as a tool; "don't think about the meaning of it, it's an algorithm" maybe an ultimate version of what brian discussed earlier, physicists not being concidered with the emotional/spiritual/existential meaning of physics at all.

• to.sample 1h0m0s #todo #someday

Thoughts about the topics discussed:

• [[spiritual reality may be as unintuitive to us as physical reality is]]
• [[There is no fundamental notion of meaning in reality – There is no fundamental meaning of purpose – There is no fundamental meaning of value]]
• [[faced with the existentialism of physics – you can go to a dark place or to a place of appreciation and gratitude]]

Related:

• [[bio.cosmological cry]]