Michio Kaku: Is God a Mathematician? | Big Think

Is God a Mathematician?
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OVERVIEW
In this Big Think video, Dr. Michio Kaku explains why he believes in a universal intelligence and describes "God" as a mathematician and as “cosmic music.” “I have concluded that we are in a world made by rules created by an intelligence,” Kaku says. “To me it is clear that we exist in a plan which is governed by rules that were created, shaped by a universal intelligence and not by chance.” “The final solution resolution could be that god is a mathematician,” says Kaku. “The mind of god, we believe, is cosmic music. The music of strings resonating through 11-dimensional hyperspace.”
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MICHIO KAKU
Dr. Michio Kaku is the co-founder of string field theory, and is one of the most widely recognized scientists in the world today. He has written 4 New York Times Best Sellers, is the science correspondent for CBS This Morning and has hosted numerous science specials for BBC-TV, the Discovery/Science Channel. His radio show broadcasts to 100 radio stations every week. Dr. Kaku holds the Henry Semat Chair and Professorship in theoretical physics at the City College of New York (CUNY), where he has taught for over 25 years. He has also been a visiting professor at the Institute for Advanced Study as well as New York University (NYU).
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Michio Kaku: Some people ask the question of what good is math? What is the relationship between math and physics? Well, sometimes math leads. Sometimes physics leads. Sometimes they come together because, of course, there’s a use for the mathematics. For example, in the 1600s Isaac Newton asked a simple question: if an apple falls then does the moon also fall? That is perhaps one of the greatest questions ever asked by a member of Homo sapiens since the six million years since we parted ways with the apes. If an apple falls, does the moon also fall?

Isaac Newton said yes, the moon falls because of the Inverse Square Law. So does an apple. He had a unified theory of the heavens, but he didn't have the mathematics to solve the falling moon problem. So what did he do? He invented calculus. So calculus is a direct consequence of solving the falling moon problem. In fact, when you learn calculus for the first time, what is the first thing you do? The first thing you do with calculus is you calculate the motion of falling bodies, which is exactly how Newton calculated the falling moon, which opened up celestial mechanics.

So here is a situation where math and physics were almost conjoined like Siamese twins, born together for a very practical question, how do you calculate the motion of celestial bodies? Then here comes Einstein asking a different question and that is, what is the nature and origin of gravity? Einstein said that gravity is nothing but the byproduct of curved space. So why am I sitting in this chair? A normal person would say I'm sitting in this chair because gravity pulls me to the ground, but Einstein said no, no, no, there is no such thing as gravitational pull; the earth has curved the space over my head and around my body, so space is pushing me into my chair. So to summarize Einstein's theory, gravity does not pull; space pushes. But, you see, the pushing of the fabric of space and time requires differential calculus. That is the language of curved surfaces, differential calculus, which you learn in fourth year calculus.

So again, here is a situation where math and physics were very closely combined, but this time math came first. The theory of curved surfaces came first. Einstein took that theory of curved surfaces and then imported it into physics.

Now we have string theory. It turns out that 100 years ago math and physics parted ways. In fact, when Einstein proposed special relativity in 1905, that was also around the time of the birth of topology, the topology of hyper-dimensional objects, spheres in 10, 11, 12, 26, whatever dimension you want, so physics and mathematics parted ways. Math went into hyperspace and mathematicians said to themselves, aha, finally we have found an area of mathematics that has no physical application whatsoever. Mathematicians pride themselves on being useless. They love being useless. It's a badge of courage being useless, and they said the most useless thing of all is a theory of differential topology and higher dimensions.

Well, physics plotted along for many decades. We worked out atomic bombs.

[peterkhew]

So Tesla was right when he said, in order to understand the Universe, you must think in terms of energy, vibration, and frequency.

[ronnykazadi]

Every time this man talks, I have a smile on my face because of his mind blowing knowledge

[hassamabdulsaboor]

Only once he stopped at a word. He never miss, repeat or stops while uttering words. Such a genius.

[blackclover]

"They pride themselves for being useless"
3:23

Damn. That hit me 😂

[TheCDVigil]

So not only is God a mathematician, but also a musician. That's actually a really lovely image when you think about it.

[dv]

“The music of strings, resonating through 11 dimension space, that is the mind of God!” Wow !! Goosebumps all over !!

[carocuno]

God is like a game designer on an ultimate computer program.

[radithyajoenan]

“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” - Albert Einstein

[Aheadstix]

Prof. Kaku is like the Japanese Einstein.

[jonathanrobertson]

It's man's pleasure to try and understand the handy work of God.

[TheeFlashbackMan]

mathematics: AHA! FINALLY, finally i get rid of him!
physics later: missed me?

[himanshusehra]

You just made me love with physics and maths

[lengher]

God, science and math.  I'm afraid to read the comments below.

[AloeHahh]

As an aspiring musician I find the end of this video extremely inspiring

[expatinthephilippines]

I love his sense of humor - "Mathematicians love to be useless"

[dolebiscuit]

God is a musician, and all of existence is his greatest symphony. It really is beautiful.

You and I are just a note in a song. And yet without us, the song would not be the same.

[lubomobile]

"The mind of God, we believe, is cosmic music - the music of strings, resonating trough 11-dimentional hyperspace..."

[subayrocks]

This calculus the differential and intigral. Makes my college days so difficult. ECE grad here.

[soumiahm]

Amazing! This reminds me of the scientist Tom Campbell, you may want to visit his youtube channel. his MBT theory is about our universe being a virtual reality and that's why it seems so mathematical. His explanation to our existence blew my mind.

[bluejam]

"Mathematicians pride themselves on being useless. They love being useless." -Michio Kaku

/r/nocontext