Poetic Naturalism (Sean Carroll)

Comments · 290

• CO

  @code_monkey_steve · 13 years ago

  &quot;Unless you have the Large Hadron Collider in your pocket ...&quot;<br><br>No, just happy to see you.

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• JO

  @JohnMartinJrJazz · 11 years ago

  So awesome to live in a time where I can find so much informative media so easily.

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• ER

  @ericbrown9900 · 10 years ago

  Wish some who knew someone would get Sean Carroll to host the next season of Cosmos.

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• FR

  @FrancisSkodzinski · 2 weeks ago

  One of my favorite speakers. Just an absolute, effortless genius.

• RG

  @rgaleny · 12 years ago

  Out of Greek Stoicism the idea that life is hard but it&apos;s good to be alive, that for all it&apos;s short coming, you shouldn&apos;t reject existence as St Augustine did, but, rather approach it with &quot;Grateful Indifference&quot;.

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• FE

  @fernandodosa2964 · 11 years ago

  Very insightful agree with everything he said in a language that is easily understandable <br>Excellent communicator thanks dr Carroll.

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• BI

  @bioblitz6897 · 10 years ago

  I have watch this video a bunch of time and I never get tired of It.

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• DL

  @dlbooneok · 5 years ago (edited)

  Ferris Bueller got smart ! I could listen to Dr. Carroll for hours on end.

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• DR

  @Drew15000 · 8 years ago

  Sean Carroll is the best.

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• BE

  @bendavis2234 · 5 years ago

  I wouldn’t say that “moral reasoning” is nowhere to be found in that equation. It’s damn complicated, but by definition it HAS to be in that equation if it exists. Since morals exist as a thought in humans, my guess is that is how you’d represent it in the equation. This doesn’t mean that there’s a fundamental grounding for morals, just that it’s subject to the laws of physics just like the rest of human ideas. <br><br>Anyways, great talk Sean!

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• TE

  @tejasgokhale01 · 12 years ago

  Sean Caroll, Absolutely fantastic!!!!<br><br>Especially heartening for those like me who would never understand the equations of standard model nor would need a god but still strive to take a moral side on things ... lol

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• CO

  @colinshawhan8590 · 8 years ago (edited)

  Sean Carroll is my favorite scientific communicator. He is not only overwhelmingly well-informed, making arguments so thoroughly as to make countering them seem utterly pointless, but funny! I never fail to laugh during his lectures because he is clever and witty as well as extremely intelligent and vastly well educated. A true gem of a speaker and author.<br><br>My take is this: physics is a membrane on which life as we experience it vibrates, like music on a speaker or carried on the radio, digits or record grooves. Paganini looks remarkably similar to Necrophagist (extreme death metal) physically. Physics doesn&apos;t care if the music is Paganini or Necrophagist, but you might. One may be quite nice for an evening meal, the other is more of a niche taste. Which is better?<br><br>On the topic of life after death I would go further and say life and death are both concepts, but in a different sense polar ends of the same phenomenon. This is a life-death with nothing &quot;before&quot; or &quot;after&quot; except for the causal conception of the artifacts we can see that indicate that something occured that led to this now. We have no way of proving they did occur in a past &quot;time,&quot; that is just a useful concept in making sense of our observations.<br><br>I wholeheartedly agree with no lige after death but no life before birth, either. We just are, now, unless we aren&apos;t. If we are thinking the thought we are, which is living-dying as energy is used and entropy increases. One day entropy will be locally high enough awareness will no be possible so it will stop. For now we are aware.<br><br>Further, as I type this paragraph I am no longer the same person who began typing it. This is quantum mechanically true, though on a certain level we see continuity from moment to moment. This is useful for brains building pictures of the world, and memories, but not necessary for life to exist. Does a plant &quot;know&quot; it&apos;s a plant?<br><br>The self is an idea, and a very dangerous one. Time is an idea. Life and death are ideas. Look at the boundaries and we observe they aren&apos;t very well defined. What about brain death or even dementia? If I forget that I am, am I? Am I alive in deep (non-REM sleep)? Is a virus alive?<br><br>Physics doesn&apos;t really care. If I am an atheist or Amish I look very much the same to an equation, or a computer. I would say it is valuable to explore the fuzziness of concepts like life and time and death because they underly the very structures of society which determine how we treat each other.<br><br>What does anyone care if I were to love another man? This only matters from a standpoint of very rigid belief in concepts of life, death, time, etc.<br><br>Doubting or questioning these makes us more reasonable, and probably nicer.

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