These are some illustrated podnotes to go with the Modern Wisdom Podcast - Brian Greene - The Mind-bending Physics Of Eternity.
Here is the introducti0n that accompanied the podcast:
Brian Greene is a theoretical physicist, mathematician, an author and the Director of Columbia University’s Centre for Theoretical Physics.
Nothing short of fascinating stuff today with one of the most popular public physicists of our age. Brian is an absolute titan. Expect to hear answers to some of the biggest and most fundamental questions we have.
What happens if the universe is infinite? When will time end? What is time? What is the relationship between entropy and evolution? What do people get wrong about the Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum physics? Just how finely tuned for life is our universe? Why does the Planck Scale exist? Is there such a thing as meaning in a universe which doesn't care if we live or die? How will ultra-advanced civilisations behave in the future?
Einstein was a bundle of emotion that had access to powerful rational intelligence - and it’s the union of the two that has been the source of our success.
If you take it all in, you can do nothing else but stare at the fact that we’re here at all.
Who knows, maybe the dinosaurs would have evolved to a place of self-reflection - I think it’s unlikely.
Awe and dread dance in tandem.
Let’s not squander what the universe has been able to do once and maybe only once.
Let Brahms compose Brahms’s 4th Symphony. He doesn’t need to be thinking about extraterrestrial life.
We as individuals have the power to figure out which of these narratives are most compelling to us and to ise them to invent our own sense of purpose and meaning.
If you’re at the top of the Empire State Building, your watch is ticking off time a little more quickly than the clock of someone on the ground. That sounds crazy but that’s the way time actually works.
The goal is not to simply exist.
You can check out the podcast here:
https://modernwisdom.libsyn.com/308-brian-greene