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Up next, Sean Carroll explains the biggest ideas in the universe | Full Interview ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TBNJyztai0
A century after the birth of quantum mechanics, physicists still argue about what the theory is really describing. Does the wave function represent something real, or just our knowledge? Why does “measurement” appear in the laws of nature at all?
Sean Carroll reveals how quantum mechanics solved one set of problems while creating a deeper one.
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About Sean Carroll:
Dr. Sean Carroll is Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy — in effect, a joint appointment between physics and philosophy — at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and fractal faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. Most of his career has been spent doing research on cosmology, field theory, and gravitation, looking at topics such as dark matter and dark energy, modified gravity, topological defects, extra dimensions, and violations of fundamental symmetries. These days, his focus has shifted to more foundational questions, both in quantum mechanics (origin of probability, emergence of space and time) and statistical mechanics (entropy and the arrow of time, emergence and causation, dynamics of complexity), bringing a more philosophical dimension to his work.
Source
Stop that silly muzak
Go to the nearest nebula and run some tests in that enviroment. We try to know and sound smart. We try. The least we can do. Not we, you.
What happens when you compress or ease the string? It changes amplitude and frequency. So is it different particles or does it just adhere to the current run of thought? Compression and easing might explain more than selling an theorized idea.
So the fourth dimension is playing with particles but you can only see in three (3). Theorizing is one thing, but what happens when the same thing plays off between the sixth and seventh dimension? You want to theorize eleven? Sort out the 4 before you try to look good for 11. And that begs the question..
Oh come on Sean. I've personally heard you say that YOU understand quantum mechanics. You used those exact words. You said that, because you accept the Everettian interpretation, everything falls perfectly into place and while other people say "quantum mechanics" is un-understandable, it makes perfect sense to you. I'm beginning to think you just say whatever you need to in order to sell content. Out at nine seconds.
100 years later and we have white boards to write equations
I love how Bohr's Quantum Mechanics is oxymoronic science, because in Bohr's mind there was no mechanism to quantum mechanics. Delusional guy.
Does matter come from sub-atomic particles? Just because a thing may have particle-like properties does not mean that it is a particle. An atom is the smallest unit of matter.
Rutherford was a brilliant experimentalist who discovered the atom and predicted the presence of a neutron. @03:30 the one thing he neglects to mention is that this collapse of the atoms is based entirely on Coulomb's law of electrostatics. This was at least a decade before Irving Langmuir defined plasma, where like charges accumulate and do not repel violently. also, the concept of a dimensionless point particle is mathematically abstract.
I swear these theoreticians suffer from Dunning Krueger effect. Light as a wave and a particle is not an either-or question when it comes to plasma. Plasma is charged particles interconnected by electromagnetic fields(Plasma double layers, Marklund convection, Birkeland Currents, plasmoids), therefore it is particles with wave like properties. Is water a wave or a particle?
@4:42 Quantum mechanics that came out of the Solvay Conferences courtesy of the mystic Bohr and his positivist philosophy was the worst thing that happened to physics in the 2600 year history of natural philosophy.
I have studied the history of physics on my own and I can say that what is presented in the textbooks is propaganda and paints a very organic transition from the determinism of the natural philosopher to the indeterminism of Bohr's positivist philosophy. This philosophical move by Bohr was not justified by the failure of a single mathematical model. And this philosophical move has produced nothing in the 100 years since Bohr, unlike Maxwell's equations which dramatically technologically revolutionized society with transatlantic telegraph communication and radio within a mere three decades. QM has produced virtually nothing. But then it was never intended to. Positivist philosophy of Ernst Mach which inspired the Vienna Circle which Bohr grew up in, asserts that knowledge is limited to the senses and anything that is not viewable by the senses does not exist. Bohr was a seriously disturbed fellow. Anyone needing to continue a debate by sick bed of your opponent lacks empathy and therefore is a potential sociopath.
If the 20th century is looked back on by future historians, it will be because the 20th century physics abandoned physics in the subatomic realm.
Anybody who does not question Bohr's move away from determinism after 100 years of QM and no technological revolution is a faithful ideologue who is not practicing science. Any model that is essentially "a series of ad hoc patches not meant to last"(Freeman Dyson) is a failed model.
The wave function that he and his ilk with their blinders do not comprehend is an electromagnetic standing wave that oscillates with near relativistic velocities giving the illusion of matter. And as long as they continue to treat the atom as a nondeterministic entity they will continue to be blind to the subatomic reality.
Stopped 5 minutes in and scanned the transcript instead as further viewing is a waste of my time. This is not a lecture on science it is a lecture on a certain positivist ideology supported by questionable mathematics pushed forth by Bohr the OG of new age spirituality.
Sean Carrol is very intelligent and has memorized his scripture well, but just like any religious faithful he refuses to question his prophet Bohr. Shut up and calculate is the cry of the QM priesthood.
QM ain't science, it is the new religion of the Brave New World.
At 64 I'm heading for life's exit. When I come back, in my next life I will study under you. Thank you.
The problem is that must of you think in 2d and that is why you can convinve others that they would be wrong.
While you pist on every one with new idea's that might explain it !
because you are lacking your selfs.
This is an extremely stimulating and novel approach to the Standard Model. Thank you. Well worth the time.
The question concerning whether consciousness is an emergent property of the physical universe seems to me the wrong place the begin. It makes more sense to start with whether or not information is the emergent property. Where does information come from? It also seems that all of physics including fundamental particles and forces are built on information and not the other way around. I address some of these questions in my book Sculpting Cyber Utopia: Carving Order Out of Chaos published by Peter Lang 2026. Great video!
I don't think consciousness has any effect on the collapse of the wave function, but if things like fear and pain evolved to alter our behaviors (as I think most people accept) then consciousness must have some impact on physics at the level of feedback into the neurons of the brain.
Mystery the quantum.
Money 🤑 🌯 slit to me. For once 🔂
Have you seen red pill’s videos where space is assumed to be an elastic medium, alot of the mysteries of physics are easily explained with this one assumption
Imagine having this guy for a professor! I could listen to him forever.
Wtf is a field exactly lol
Brendan Lee Mulligan's cooler older brother
They won't let new physics out
I love Mr. Caroll but I dont agree his views at all. But I love him really. He is a great person.
What if fields are made of particles. Sure we're back to Aether, but Aether limits our measurements to C. The interesting thing about Maxwell's Aether particles is that they each move at the speed of light, in every direction. Thus our biggest problem is assuming that C is THE speed limit, not our limitation, the limitation of our measurements.
This comcepr of not knowing where a negqtive charge value resides is a matter of two smqll amd too fast. If this is the case looknfor analogy. Stars also have a negative charge field that doesnt resolve. You should be looking at what the gluon fields are doing to prevent this. I have my own ontology that ss QCD lattice compliant and derives H0 as drag on quantum motion. I have some math at galaxy scale Im suwwing out but inputs are derived outside of mond and land within 3% but Im not satisfied. I want a method that uses fewer variables so it can be easily applied to other galaxies.
Quantum is basically contradiction embodied.
The sad thing is talking about quantum mechanics while we have 1000s of people making a living thinking the earth is flat still
This is a problem with Sean Carroll, not a problem with quantum mechanics.
???
Try a Paradigm Shift, A geometric Torsion view of Standard Quantum Mechanics, would be:
Physics is about particles > Physics is about geometry, Gravity is a force > Gravity is a projection, Time flows > Traversals accumulate, Objects exist > Objects are persistent regions of stabilized traversal, The shadow is an absence > The shadow is a projection, Laminar flow is a property >Laminar flow is a configuration.
Particles are "probability clouds" > Particles are stable torsion knots in spacetime, Wave-particle duality is mysterious > "Wave-particle" is twist propagation modes, Tunneling is "borrowing energy from vacuum" > Tunneling is geometric phase rotation through barrier,Measurement "collapses" the wavefunction > Measurement is torsion coupling to detector, Uncertainty is fundamental randomness > Uncertainty is geometric constraint from 720° rule.
Love him and the series (except for those infuriating little chimes).
Aha you mention it later
You state that photons and the graviton are the o nly massless particles how about the gluon?
OK, so when you measure a particle does the particle just become entangled with something else (whatever it is that you used to measure it)? It seems to me like the life of a particle is just a series of entanglements (I guess a lot of our lives are basically just series of entanglements but I'm trying to focus on physics here).