Don Page - Physics of What Happens

What is an event in physics? What are its attributes? This question didn’t seem very interesting until quantum physics changed the world. Is an observer or an observation necessary? How does the bizarre quantum world of probabilities turn into our everyday normal world of determined events?



Don N. Page is a Canadian theoretical physicist at the University of Alberta, Canada.


Closer to Truth, hosted by Robert Lawrence Kuhn and directed by Peter Getzels, 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.

[binbots]

The arrow of time points forward in time because of the wave function collapse. Because causality has a speed limit every point in space sees itself as the closest to the present moment. When we look out into the universe, we see the past which is made of particles (GR). When we try to look at smaller and smaller sizes and distances, we are actually looking closer and closer to the present moment (QM). The wave property of particles appears when we start looking into the future of that particle. It is a probability wave because the future is probabilistic. Wave function collapse happens when we bring a particle into the present/past. GR is making measurements in the predictable past. QM is trying to make measurements of the probabilistic future.

[wattshumphrey]

Page is wonderful: he views consciousness as fundamental!

Well, here we are, after all...

That is the simplest, most basic, and inescapable point of departure.

[jonstewart]

Robert asks some bloody brilliant questions!

[jamesruscheinski]

would the conscious experience of subjective awareness be considered physical or non?

[longcastle]

_"God created the Universe so sentient beings could experience happiness..."_ Talk about an unexamined statement.

[donbarile]

all that said.... I was watching the camera work and editing. pretty slick 👍

[aminomar]

Future generations must work on connecting both levels (subatomic and cosmological levels) to have deeper understanding of space, time, gravity, mass, energy, …. etc
that is the only way to understand the relationship between light speed and mass, space, momentum, gravity, …. and the real purpose of other constants such as Planck’s constant thus better understanding of infinity, the real meaning of numbers, ….etc

[bitkurd]

There is time but not all of us live in the same timeline. I’m commenting in the future, I’m not here anymore. It’s only you that detects my frequencies as a youtube comment, in your timeline. Events don’t happen to us at the same rate or frequency, it depends on the observer and the observer is the observed. And the observed is timeless, time only exists for the observer.

[xenphoton]

All physical/material constructs of this realm of existence should be considered more in nature that of event rather than object.

[jamesruscheinski]

are quantum states consciously experienced, or just measurements of physical states consciously experienced?

[jamesruscheinski]

can there be conscious experience of non-physical things?

[rc]

margins are inflated, that's for certain :) formulation might require a revision, most likely...

[mar-z]

I love it which brains left brain or the right brain we have two brains brainpower lol

[jamesruscheinski]

is mathematics (abstraction) consciously experienced?

[gordonbrown]

Could the 'Quantum state', like our 2 dimensional computer screen, be a multi-dimensional 'screen' for all of existence?

[mikeoxsbigg]

Believes in the Forrest, believes the tree is on the ground. Questions it falling unless viewed.

[ronhudson]

Do concious beings, planets, stars and galaxies exist outside of our ability to percieve them? If we imagine that they are there and what they might be like, do they then actually exist?

[holgerjrgensen]

The Stuff-side of Life, the Physics, and the Thoughts, is all that happends.

[dayone]

As a Chinese i gotta say that our culture rarely form a question of the sort. like..the science of what??, lol I mean our tradition turn these awes confusions and discoveries into customs, literatures, norms or practices but never dig it to the bottom truth or serious science. It's really essential to dive deep into some of the simplest yet profound questions. I've been stick with this channel for years. Hey Kuhn btw the protagonist of your book passed away today, I missed him.

[kos-mos]

This has been disproven since it came out in the 70's.