Introduction

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

Sean Carroll is Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University and fractal faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. He is also the host of Sean Carroll’s Mindscape, a podcast about science, society, philosophy, culture, arts, and ideas. This is Sean’s fourth appearance on the show. He appeared with David Albert of Columbia University on episode 106, which covers the Many-Worlds theory of quantum mechanics, Boltzmann Brains, and the fine-tuned universe. He was also on episode 118 with Slavoj Žižek on quantum physics, the multiverse, time travel, and a whole lot more, and then episode 200 with Daniel Dennett and Steven Pinker on AI, parapsychology, and consciousness. This episode is coming out in advance of Sean’s next book, Quanta and Fields: The Biggest Ideas in the Universe (Penguin, 2024), which will be released on May 14, 2024. Sean and Robinson discuss many of the topics and themes of Quanta and Fields, including the books’ namesake subjects, as well as more decides, like scientific realism, free will, the simulation hypothesis, and the end of physics. If you’re interested in the foundations of physics—which you absolutely should be—then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute’s life.

Sean’s Website: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com

Sean’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/seanmcarroll

Quanta and Fields (The Biggest Ideas in the Universe): https://a.co/d/gfMDLQo

The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

5:00 The Biggest Ideas in the Universe

9:38 Do Physicists Understand Physics?

15:51 What Is the Role of Philosophers in Physics?

18:24 The Measurement Problem and Quantum Field Theory

20:24 Scientific Realism and the Standard Model of Particle Physics

25:11 What Is the Wave Function?

34:46 What Is Quantum Field Theory?

37:45 What Is the Fundamental Layer of Reality?

41:01 What Is the Standard Model of Particle Physics?

45:42 What Are the Fundamental Objects in the Standard Model of Particle Physics?

47:39 How Do We Test the Standard Model of Particle Physics?

49:38 What Are the Weaknesses of the Standard Model of Particle Physics?

54:41 Will We Ever Find a Theory of Everything?

56:19 Is String Theory the Final Theory of Physics?

58:14 String theory and the Fine-Tuning Problem

01:00:18 Is Quantum Gravity the End of Progress in Physics?

01:06:12 What is Philosophical Naturalism?

01:08:05 On Naturalized Epistemology

01:10:24 On the Philosophy of Mathematics

01:19:08 On Naturalizing Morality

01:22:33 The Myths of Quantum Entanglement

01:29:53 Is There Only One Electron?

01:34:09 Are Atoms Mostly Empty Space?

01:36:51 Are We Living in a Simulation?

01:39:58 Is Infinity a Problem for Quantum Mechanics? 

01:41:59 The Mysteries of Quantum Mechanics

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-between.