
Sean Carroll: The Passage of Time and the Meaning of Life
Long Now
The Laws of Physics - Time Is Flowing
The laws of physics tell you exactly what was going on in the entire past history of the system. Real astronomers actually do this. They extrapolate the current state of the solar system millions or billions of years into the past and the future. All the information you need about the system right now, its positions, its velocities and so forth, suffices to predict the entire future and past of thesystem. This is the disappearance of this idea that time is flowing.
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Mean, i can't lie to you, because if i lie, to you, you've got to be them. I've got to be straight with you. I can't afford anything else, cause if i create more of them, i'm just isolating myself, becoming an island under myself more and more. I can't afford it. Social responsibility doesn't come out of somebody saying, you should be socially responsible, because that kind of responsibility comes with guilt and it comes with anger, and it means doing something good for them. And it the same moment you are increasing the themness in the universe. And that is a peculiar predicament of activism. 19 69, that we that we absorb huge amounts of new energy because many, many, many millions of people came much more into the hereand now. They came into the here and now through so many over determined factors, through changing of the cultural moras, through psychodalics, through television, through on and on and on and on, through crises in the world, through the going to the moon and seeing that the earth is a village. And so all that stuff set in to us coming into the here and now, many of us. And that here andnowness released huge amounts of energy. And we all began to dig about ecology suddenly. Because when we threw a piece of paper out of the window of our car, we were the one in the car behind it that was en up to look at it. And when we bouchd smoke out of our bzarst we had to smell it. You couldn't keep going, because it was all a circle, and you kept coming back. And here we all are, and we're all stuck together. So now one, ecology is a product of consciousness, that ecological awareness, not ecology, but the awareness of the predicament that finally we go as farance cluckhone's distinction fromb a culture that is man over naturet the mastery of the rational mind, will control it all for our own gratification, to understanding that the dil is true, that we are part of it, and that all we can do is figure out how to live in harmony with it. And in fact, the next level of opening, the next level of power, is the next of it all comes from merging into larger and larger units. Because when you identify with a larger boundary of self, then more energy is capable of passing through the system. And when you get to the point whereas christ said, hedgy, but fait, he could move mountains. You are expanded so much that you are the mountain. And when get up and move and move, you don't sit around and push them otn social responsibility doesn't come out of guilt, and it doesn't come out of ing that one has to be socially responsible. It comes out if that's the only thing you can do. You try to explain to us about reincarnation, karma, and how karma says it's all determined in somebody says, well, if that's true, then i don't have to do anything. And i always say, well, that's right. Fact, buddha say, as long as you think you're doing anything yet, stut say, gishis all right. I won't do anything. He's in this world of doing. He's going to do nothing. Sa, do you say? Ok, which nothing are you going to do? Well, i'm just going to lie in bed. Man, well, that's a good nothing. We'll start with that. Ok. What doe you do? Am doing nothing? All right, keep doing nothing. What are you doing? Well, i'm hungry. Oh, but i'm not going to do anything. Right? Well, i guess i'll go to the refrigery and get some food. But i'm not really doing anything. You understand that? Che ti's no food in the refrigerator. Well, may i have to go and get some. Well, i'll have to get a job to get some bread, to get some bread to ea, but i'm not doing anything. I want you to understand, i am not going to do a thing, ok? Don't do anything. Try saying in your body. So you'm not doing anything. It's very far out. You going to breathe. Come on. I thought you said you weren't going to do anything. I mean, is it your time to do nothing, or are you gin o doing something trip in this body? And if you're in a doing something trip, then what do you do? Well, we got all this time and eternity to hang out. What'll we do? Since there's nothing to do anyway, what are we gong to do?
What is time? What is humankind’s role in the universe? What is the meaning of life? For much of human history, these questions have been the province of religion and philosophy. What answers can science provide?
In this talk, Sean Carroll will share what physicists know, and don’t yet know, about the nature of time. He’ll argue that while the universe might not have purpose, we can create meaning and purpose through how we approach reality, and how we live our lives.
Sean Carroll is a Research Professor of theoretical physics at the California Institute of Technology, and an External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. His research has focused on fundamental physics and cosmology, especially issues of dark matter, dark energy, spacetime symmetries, and the origin of the universe.
Recently, Carroll has worked on the foundations of quantum mechanics, the emergence of spacetime, and the evolution of entropy and complexity. Carroll is the author of Something Deeply Hidden, The Big Picture, The Particle at the End of the Universe amongst other books and hosts the Mindscape podcast.