An Evening with Sean Carroll: Quanta and Fields

[@BrianFedirko]

Sean Carrolll is a precious human being with the best intent and a giant in educated thought. He is one figure in our history I may place more trust in than most. Please think about what is said here long and hard, don't dismiss it. There's important truth here on many levels, and our future can gain from it's ponder. Gr8! Peace ☮💜Love

[@CurtOntheRadio]

I appreciate him as a (very good) example of a human being.

[@kevincleary627]

And to top it all off he loves cats.

[@MrFaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa]

bookstore with better audio than most podcasts lol :D

[@techteampxla2950]

Yes it was better then the Nobel prize videos 😂

[@garyhuntress6871]

Fantastic video for a Saturday morning. The best compliment I can give is that I watched the entire video at 1X speed.

[@SicilianDefence]

Ok, finally I got some clarification and understanding about Gauge Symmetry! Very useful talk, thank you for sharing.

[@williamjmccartan8879]

Always enjoy your presentations Sean, thank you for sharing your time and work, and thank you to the library for hosting this event, peace

[@techteampxla2950]

DrCarro how do you find the time , you’re amazing ! Thanks for this video all involved! I have been following him for the past 10 years and I had no idea why I was alive , what all this was, or anything! Now after long and hard studying multiple people like him, Lee Smolin, David Albert, Ian Xel Lungold, Tim Maud, too many to mention in the community. Im not lost anymore , and I’m not a genius they just help you figure it all out.

[@MoebiusPan]

Excellent talk, thank you!

[@paulc96]

Great Talk - as usual. For those who appreciate Prof. Carroll, it is well worth becoming a subscriber to the Mindscape podcast - as mentioned in the Introduction.

[@andrebaele8823]

Sean Carrol is good teacher. You understand it.

[@ValidatingUsername]

Working towards making sure all fundamentals are deeply understood for anyone who is even slightly interested in the field until they need to research at the cutting edge and the model breaks down slightly. Always an honour to listen to him speak.

[@bad.D]

On chapter seven of the first Biggest Ideas book (Riemannian geometry) and I have to say, has to be up there with classics like Wheeler's "A Journey into Gravity and Spacetime" and Hawking's "A Brief History of Time". Approachable, concise, yet definitely pulls no punches! I am looking forward to reading "Quanta and Fields", cheers Dr. Carroll!

[@lepidoptera9337]

It's cool that you are trying to inform yourself about science, but unfortunately for you nothing in real physics is anywhere close to what these books are suggesting.

[@bad.D]

@@lepidoptera9337 good thing Im not doing real physics! ill leave that to the pros

[@lepidoptera9337]

@@bad.D Do you also like to read books about how being an NFL quarterback works? ;-)

[@mehdibaghbadran3182]

Thanks for perfect explanation of the subject’s

[@HarryNicNicholas]

outstanding scientist. very good communicator. i'd love to see janna levin, sean, sabine hossenfelder, roger penrose, brian cox, alan guth all in the same room. and others!

[@lepidoptera9337]

Yes, all your physics superstars who are talking complete nonsense about physics. ;-)

[@Jgill99911]

he explains even complex things in such a way that i cant help but pay attention and love every second of it🥰😀☺

[@TroyRubert]

The same day I got my signed copy!

[@showmewhyiamwrong]

It occurs to me, as it probably has to many others, that a natural extension of QFT could imply that the wave function of the Universe may oscillate in an infinite number of possible ways which manifests to us as a distinctly detectable set of Fields, given our ability to detect through our unique Senses. I.e we discern a unique set of fields on the infinite spectrum of possible field possibilities in much the same way we can detect say the minuscule visible portion of the Electromagnetic Spectrum or the range of sounds our ears can detect, etc. If this is correct then the Uncertainty exhibited at the quantum level of investigation is not at all surprising but would be a perfectly natural expected result. We ask the Universe a specific question and it replies, in the only way it knows how, with the following answer…”It depends on what you mean but here is one possibility”. I have purchased Sean's book and have ordered the other 2 in the series so I can become better acquainted with the current state of where things stand.

[@lepidoptera9337]

The universe does not have a wave function. A wave function requires that we have an infinite number of repetitions of the same experiment. Where do you get the other copies of the universe from?

[@charleswood2182]

Interesting presentation as always. I want to note that when Sean gives description for a vibration that is a particle, he seems to me to explain by saying what a thing is like, qualitative description known to be incapable of parsing the paradox of dual aspects of light. A physics of measurement seems reliably well developed. But a physics of meaning isn't more now than speculation in philosophy.

[@lepidoptera9337]

A particle is not a vibration. There no particles in this universe. There are only quanta of energy. We told you that in high school but you weren't paying any attention. ;-)

[@charleswood2182]

@@lepidoptera9337 And I learned classical physical concepts, like vibration, used quantum description, or particle, are the closest we can get to a description of essence, closest we can get because of an epistemic limit. And the term energy is a fancy word for heat. You can only say what energy does and know nothing of its essence.

[@lepidoptera9337]

@@charleswood2182 What you were told in school is that the electromagnetic field exchanges quanta of energy (aka photons) with metals in the photoelectric effect. That was the most correct description of QUANTUM mechanics that you were ever given. Quanta are not particles and they are not vibrations. They are not small wavelets, either. They are simply small amounts of energy, momentum, angular momentum and charge that get exchanged between quantum fields and external systems that we usually call "source" and "detector". Energy, momentum, angular momentum and charge are system properties. They were never anything else and they are still nothing else. Do you remember the 18th and 19th century concept called "phlogiston"? That was the false idea that heat is a "Stoff", a substance that flows from hot to cold bodies. There is no such thing as a phlogiston. Heat is atomic and molecular kinetic energy. In the exact same way quanta are JUST ENERGY. They are not corporal carriers of energy but they are small amount of energy. So, yes, if you want to talk about epistemology, ALL experimental evidence shows that quanta are energy. They are not "particles". Nobody has ever seen particles. That concept is just another stupid idea of people who are not paying close attention to the evidence, just like the phlogiston, the aether and countless other "materializations" of phenomena... like when the god Zeus was believed to be causing thunder and lightning. People are like that... they always imagine supernatural stuff where there is none. ;-)

[@MrClarence1126]

I like Carroll's books, but I prefer audio books; not sure if I should get this one that way.

[@billbaggins1688]

sean has narrated it. so it will be available for you soon.

[@MrClarence1126]

Maybe it's the microphone, but I'm amazed that I don't hear any laughter from the audience. I find Carroll funny.

[@MidtownScholarBookstore]

It was a great crowd! Our mics just tend to not pick up much of the noise in the room.

[@paperrobe111]

Interesting. WAY over my head

[@MidtownScholarBookstore]

This video editor's, too! But isn't he a great speaker?

[@MBSilva]

@@MidtownScholarBookstore He has been helping me fall asleep for years now. And I mean it in a good way, I like to fall asleep while reflecting on the ideas he explains

[@robertmolldius8643]

​@@MBSilva He helps me fall asleep every single night! 😄 And just like you say, in a good way! Sean Carroll is very knowledgeable and good at teaching and he is really passionate about spreading knowledge! 🙂👍

[@techteampxla2950]

It takes time sometimes people understand things differently for better and worse, don’t ever give up and continue learning,

[@John-pp2jr]

22:40 120deg not 180deg?

[@billbaggins1688]

180 degrees would turn it ulside down. Sean is rotating it so that one of the sides become the base. 60 degrees in the corner, so a further 120 degrees of rotation required to do that. :)

[@bobjohnson1097]

​@billbaggins1688 He obviously misspoke. It's 120.

[@ryoung1111]

22:39 That’s 120 degrees, not 180.

[@zastrzyk]

if u think 3d it might be 180 ;)

[@billbaggins1688]

He says 120, which is correct.

[@bobjohnson1097]

​@@billbaggins1688He says it incorrectly first,

[@rangerrick5660]

Really wish the mic was closer to his mouth

[@MaryJones-d7e]

Clark Donna Perez Michael Williams Gary

[@HicksYvette-l8e]

Miller Larry Wilson Shirley Johnson George

[@CurtOntheRadio]

I really like popular science though I usually want more detail, more of the real stuff (I hate analogy!) I also really like Sean in particular. However, these last two 'biggest ideas' works leave me flummoxed and bamboozled. I guess I'm not up to it (no shame there, I feel) and it's back to the lame analogy-level stuff for me. :D

[@bryandraughn9830]

I know exactly how you feel. I read Frank wilczeck's book "longing for the harmonies" and I just couldn't get it. But, I read it a few more times and sometimes I would read a page or paragraph several times because It was so interesting and I am delighted to tell you that lightbulbs started clicking on! I wasn't even sure how I was beginning to grasp these concepts but it was just happening. I waited a couple of years and Read the entire book again and it was smooth sailing and well worth the effort. Analogies can be distracting but to dismiss them all as a rule is not a great idea. They are often a good place to stand so you can peer a bit further to land on the next idea. Don't believe that you have this limitation. You are smarter than you think. I promise.

[@CurtOntheRadio]

@@bryandraughn9830 Well, it's kind of you for the encouragement. And concepts are mostly fine, I'm happy to deal with that. But all such concepts are an attempt at transforming mathematics into words and thoughts and absent the actual math I feel it's all just analogy. And those are always imperfect - one would use the math otherwise? And I just don't/can't follow the maths. The fault is mine, not Sean's. You're right in a sense though: as a youth I found relativity mind-boggling but having spent 30+ years with it (at the level of words, not maths) I no longer find it surprising or strange. I suppose folks like Sean just never experienced life without his relationship to numbers and equations. So when he says 'you can do it' I'm sure he believes it. I'm more pessimistic. :D

[@lepidoptera9337]

If you feel that Sean is pulling your leg it's because he is actually pulling your leg. Really hard, too. ;-)

[@virkotto8651]

😀

[@johnnytass2111]

Look up Chronon Field Theory.

[@billbaggins1688]

why?