Lee Smolin - What is a Theory of Everything?

A 'theory of everything' is the ultimate workings of physics, the ideas and equations that undergird the physical universe at its deepest level. What can theory of everything explain? And what can it not explain? To have a theory of everything, what do you need? And if you get it, what can you do with it?



Lee Smolin is an American theoretical physicist, a researcher at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, and an adjunct professor of physics at the University of Waterloo. He is best known for his work in loop quantum gravity.


Closer to Truth presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.

[Grandunifiedcelery]

As always, thank you so much for the great video! In fact, Robert seems to know the Standard Model of particle physics and its beyond very well...

[freidenker]

I very much appreciated Lee Smolin's book "The Trouble with Physics - The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next".

[jc.]

These are some of the most narcissistic comments I've ever seen.

[WhiteChocolate]

I like his more philosophical approach to science. A breath of fresh air in today's world

[markhiggins]

It's such a shame that so many people who contribute to these comments sections are often too lazy to go to the trouble of understanding the subject and prefer to offer their half baked mystical thoeries or perversely choose to criticise the scientists for not having all the answers mainly due to their misconceptions regarding the scientific process.
Such egotism and rampaging Dunning Kruger behavior is quite depressing.

[Farsider]

Another excellent video on this topic - thanks! Once we are able to define and comprehend infinity we might arrive at a unified ‘theory of everything’. That might require an infinite amount of uh.... time?

[LaurenDove-xx]

It would be good to know the original date of this interview.
Are you still stuck?

L. Dove
Arbiter - Universal Law

[communist-hippie]

Maybe the issue is that we want to unify everything, when we dont know everything. I guess theres a few puzzle pieces still to be explord before we can see the whole picture

[robertm]

Id argue that Einstein naming the other component of the universe(materia with it's properties) a fourth dimension was a mistake like naming the initial state of the observable universe just before BB a singularity. Mistakes because these have leaded to certain absurdities like ..extra dimensions.. while trying to formulate the structure(&/properties of materia) of the universe(how materia is organised in this one infinite universe) in the field of mathematics and singularity in the ..beginning.. has diverted the thought processes of scientists to determine an absolute beginning for the universe which is absurd and outrageous imo. No multiverse, but just one infinite space with a certain amount of materia which can never be proven due to a fact, that one can never observe infinity. All is natural i.e. materia. No reason why the universe exists, because there never was a beginning. My guess, life and intelligent life is a common feature of the universe, but wonder how many life forms have ever.. become eternal forms of life, if that's even an option(a cyclical universe, where everything is reorganised once in a while for ex.). Imo, we get some very basic level facts wrong about the world, thus wondering why anything exists etc. trying to find a theory of everything, as we can not observe reality as it is, but just go further step by step like Smolin said. Also, consciousness is just a concept for any intelligent unit to understand reality i.e. nothing mystical etc. supernatural about it as nothing is.

[robertm]

The concept of elementary particle is highly contradictory, as all there is has dimension/volume. Maybe a ..multiverse.., but i rather look in to how materia is organised. Can be hierarchies to infinity with ever changing properties and so on.

[rumidude]

THIS was a great piece that clearly explains the issue at hand in Physics.

[erawanpencil]

Was this before or after the Higgs discovery? 2012?

[joqqy]

String theory is like astrology with advanced math.

[mehdibaghbadran]

There’s too many’s, why ! in our nature’s & our life’s, and it’s our duty’s to find the answers, and we have to be patient, and focus on the subjects, and that’s taking more time’s, the unknowns are huge !

[brainstormingsharing]

Absolutely well done and definitely keep it up!!! 👍👍👍👍👍

[akumar]

How exciting to hear from the brightest minds, thank you for sharing .

[amiraslkhalili]

7:51 I need to deepen my understanding about, how gauge theories are used to describe particle physics, however my intuition tell me that quantum field theory, requires more that gauge theories .

[jeremyduguay]

Everything can’t be judged until we know everything. Do you guys know everything yet?

[davidvegabravo]

4:10 - "Is an answer absolutely required?". "Sure". Religion vs science in a nutshell.

[mksensej]

How about is not an hierarchy, but the forces we know are the same only scaled down or up in strength from the elementary particles base on different rule we don't know yet. The symmetry of charge is just a local phenomenon that has the origin the same particles. As we observed the protons and electrons do not decay.