Leonard Susskind - Why is Quantum Gravity Key?

Quantum theory explains the microworld. General relativity, discovered by Einstein, explains gravity and the structure of the universe. The problem is that the two are not friends; they do not get along, they are not compatible. But they must. That's the task of quantum gravity.



Leonard Susskind is the Felix Bloch Professor of Theoretical Physics at Stanford University, and Director of the Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics. He received a BS in physics from City College of New York and a PhD from Cornell University.


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.

[thebatman]

Ahh an interviewer who knows this is a conversation and not a list of questions.

[rbmedd]

I am grateful that these rich minds exist in a culture where it seems to me that many are more interested in the latest celebrity's foibles or daily, horrible event. Thank-you for pushing further the beauty of human creativity and curiosity!

[robotick]

those dramatic zoom ins to the interviewer made me think he was gonna break out shouting a theory of his own, at any moment.

[quahntasy]

*its really hard to find interviewers whose questions are on point.*

*And Leonard susskind is the perfect explainer of 21st century*

[paulwharton]

God he's wonderful - I could listen to him forever !
Many the way from London.

[bitorgy]

"we accidentally found a way to get funding for the next 50 years."

[QuantumPeter]

When did John Malkovich become an expert in Physics?

[alizzem]

I simply admire the Professor and also the hole on his t-shirt :D ♥ True physicist indeed.

[grandlotus]

Thank you, Dr. Susskind for using ordinary words to blow my mind!

[mobiustrip]

The subject under discussion here is way beyond my pay grade, but Susskind obviously has a brain the size of a planet.

[KarlKarsnark]

String Theory is and has been a dead end street for quite some time. The truth is we're really no farther along in QM than we were 100 years ago. This is due in no small part to the fact that pursuing such topics is actively discouraged in academia in favor of more profitable/"glamorous" fields.

Physics is dying and unless it gets a major jolt in the arm, we're all doomed.

[emmanuelpil]

For me Susskind is as exceptional as Feynman. That's probably why they got along so well.

[bennacera]

I never met susskind but as student of physics I have feeling like he is my grandfather 😍😍

[bobcarnegie]

What an amazing, modest man who has contributed so much to our world

[onebylandtwoifbysearunifby]

Susskind is one of my favorite minds. His clarity of explanation is possible *only* by a deep thoughtful understanding.

[mattd]

He is saying that nobody will be more shocked than string theorists if string theory ever leads to something useful.

[ClaudeEnckels]

World has no begining and no end.
Big-bang is a collision.
The real world is a world of abstractions.
Abstractions ->can create matter.

[theartificialsociety]

There is nothing there there. String theory is an effort to play games until it works but it never worked.

[ardi]

Think about how little amount of views subjects like these have relative to other brain dead rambles.

[CleverMonkeyor]

"The question is not how the phenomenon must be turned, twisted, narrowed, crippled so as to be explicable, at all costs, upon principles that we have once and for all resolved not to go beyond. The question is: "To what point must we enlarge our thought so that it shall be in proportion to the phenomenon.""

Schelling, Philosophie der Mythologie.