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Hey patrons!! I got to talk to my absolute favourite physicist and ask him all my head-scratchers. Hope you enjoy it!

Reminder: This isn't a paid post. You only pay me when I make songs :)

Cheers!

-Tim

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Sean Carroll & Tim Blais: Physics Conundrums and the Big Picture | Science Life

New apartment! Meeting my physics idol! Sean Carroll makes great conversation. Science Life Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeizoRIlzOywxVpv178TZQw Science Life on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/science-life/id1230957504 Subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=acapellascience Science Life on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/science-life-podcast Support A Capella Science on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/acapellascience Sean Carroll's blog: http://preposterousuniverse.com This has got to be one of my all-time favourite conversations. CalTech cosmologist Sean Carroll and I sat down over Skype and spent an hour chewing through some of the deepest questions of physics.. and then some! Things like.. Why does time run forward? Is matter fundamentally made of particles or waves? (Hint: It's waves. Waving fields, like stretched rubber sheets.) How can we understand the bizarre symmetries of the nuclear forces? What's the right interpretation of quantum mechanics, and why does it seem to work at more levels of analysis than it has a right to? Why do we say that the Many Worlds hypothesis is actually simpler than alternatives? Is there a bottom layer to reality? Does "turtles all the way down" make sense? How should we think about systems arising from the complexity of physics, like chemistry, biology, psychology, philosophy, morality? Can you get an "ought" from an "is"? Why does matter bend space-time? And why do so many physicists seem to hate philosophy?

Comments

wls@rainfarm.com

Thanks Tim. I love hearing smart people talk about what they do, and you did a good job of keeping him moving and focused on interesting stuff. Definitely missing my days at MIT where stuff like this was regular everyday lunch conversation.

wls@rainfarm.com

Hey again Tim BTW, one concept you were reaching for has been named "chunking", which is the technique whereby low level details are shoved into a black box to allow our minds to process a single *named* higher level concept. e.g. a chess master might represent the locations of all 64 squares of the board as "Ruy-Lopez opening with an extra knight move" The morality issue was also interesting. I seem to agree with you, but I liked how he asked why. I also haven't studied the math enough to know which side of string-theory I should be on, but "lemonade"? ouch. Still, I found him clear on many complex issues and his passion for curiosity was sweet. I think I'm going to show this to my 7 & 10 Y.O.boys. Thanks again.