Mindscape Ask Me Anything, Sean Carroll | December 2021

Patreon: / seanmcarroll
Blog post with AMA questions and transcript: www.preposterousuniverse.com/...
Welcome to the December 2021 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who are also the ones asking the questions). I take the large number of questions asked by Patreons, whittle them down to a more manageable size - based primarily on whether I have anything interesting to say about them, not whether the questions themselves are good - and sometimes group them together if they are about a similar topic. Note that there will be no January AMA, for purposes of a holiday break. Enjoy!
Mindscape Podcast playlist: • Mindscape Podcast
Sean Carroll channel: / seancarroll
#podcast #ideas #science #philosophy #culture

[@FreethinkingSecularist]

I'm laughing so hard that one fellow used his priority question to make a joke about having another priority question. 🤣 Matt Hickman is a hero to use his one chance for answers about the universe to make everyone else's universe a bit more enjoyable. Thanks buddy! 😊

[@FreeIreland32CountyRepublic]

Just got my booster and feel like 🥵This is just the ticket to take my mind of it! Many thanks from sunny Eire 🇮🇪

[@ezsparky]

Awesome, I have been waiting for December's AMA video!

[@phycogsmithomniscience309]

that debate , between sean and allan was great and I am now exploring both people ,

[@akumar7366]

Hi Sean , a big thank you , I was unwell with Covid last Christmas , I came across your channel and started watching , its been a wonderful experience.

[@ianmarshall9144]

Dear Sean , i think the Victorian Academics / Theologians / Mountaineers might disagree , in my opinion it was an attempt to development body and mind , strengthening both while at odds with nature . It really puts you in your place in the universe when things arent going well and when you realise the thousands of years of change that created the rock jutting up from tectonic plates that were once sea beds its very humbling . Physics plays a part especially when you take a fall so does biology when your fingers tentatively grip the fossil of a ammonite also geology , Yorkshire grit will shred your skin when sliding down due to gravity and your failing muscles , saying all that i would trade every mountain or climb from my past to have been able to add something to the wealth of human knowledge , keep up the great work in pushing onward with the Enlightenment Project , love the podcasts , Knowledge is the hero !

[@Lance_Lough]

Wow. Great. Been waiting expectantly and here it is!

[@enterprisesoftwarearchitect]

The answer to Michael’s question- 347 km per second with respect to the Cosmic Background Radiation- that’s how much to subtract to even out the dipole anomaly. Also accelerated motion like spinning CAN be determined by centrifugal force measurement.

[@schmetterling4477]

Nobody ever said that acceleration is relative. Were you even listening in school? ;-)

[@KirkpatrickSounds]

Thanks for the excellent AMA as always

[@gerrycrabtree3274]

Don't give me the "it's not you it's me routine". I invented the it's not you it's me routine. Then Sean immediately although I think unintentionally follows with one of Hawking's most hilarious asides, involving black holes. The hairless quality of back holes was Hawking's punch line. Was the book, A brief history of time? Don't know I read that passage once a long time ago. In the middle of a science book the surprise comedy was hilariously effective.

[@Life_42]

I listen to your AMA at 1.75x speed and your episodes at 1.5x speed.

[@user-gj7vp6wk3e]

WHAT'S THE CLOSEST PLANET TO EARTH BEYOND PLUTO?

[@leroyhibbert4632]

If you can't see anything in real time then that means that light either in packets or in waves must carry information for your eyes to interpret,,,plz explain

[@tommygrandefors9691]

Lovely so lovely. I thought Sean didn’t do any December AMAs. Remember that from a previous AMA. So happy that he has changed his mind. Thank you very much for that Sean. Love this. 👍

[@kadourimdou43]

It’s January that there won’t be one, as he won’t take questions at the end of December.

[@jonwesick2844]

Little Donkey in Cambridge is a great restaurant. It's by the Central T station.

[@enterprisesoftwarearchitect]

@Jeremy Dittman - we’ll probably be augmenting knowledge/understanding with ‘memory modules’ in the future - idea found in many science fiction works.

[@LinGLong780]

Every episode I hear a question from a Jeff B. ...... Bezos ? 😄

[@davedawson9851]

Mass, charge, spin et cetera? I thought from my reading to understand that a black hole contains information only about mass, charge and spin. Are there circumstances in which this not the case then? You will know from my question that I am not a physicist! Dave

[@CopperKettle]

Thank you

[@mikewhite8143]

Merry Xmas

[@retirementestimator9396]

When discussing dark matter and black holes, it sounds as though dark matter would pass through the black hole. Since dark matter affects and is affected by gravity like visible matter, I don’t get why dark matter wouldn’t get absorbed in a black hole like visible matter? Based on what you are saying I get why dark matter wouldn’t form heavenly bodies, but many might conclude black holes would be the extreme case of gravity that even dark matter couldn’t escape. Is there a formula for gravitational strength and dark matter velocity that predicts when dark matter would escape/keep going by vs get trapped in the gravitational pull?

[@chemquests]

He didn’t imply that dark matter aren’t captured by black holes. He was describing how they lack the “stickiness” to get one started, which is why dark matter is distributed thinly throughout the universe. You’d need enough gravitational force to get it localized.

[@retirementestimator9396]

@@chemquests And thus the last question in my comment. For the non physicist it seems like the existence of dark matter could be proven by showing that a planet or star (whatever the amount of mass needs to be to capture dark matter) exerts more gravity than what the visible matter accounts for.

[@iziskin123]

@@retirementestimator9396 That's how we currently measure the mass of dark matter, except it's on the galactic scale instead of individual planets or stars. The stars at the edge of spiral galaxies are orbiting so fast that the would fly away from their respective galaxies if the galaxy only contained the mass due to the matter we can detect (stars and dust). Thus there must be more matter than we can detect electromagnetically; or GR is wrong, but then you're on the hook to find another theory that is as successful as GR which is super difficult.

[@retirementestimator9396]

​@@iziskin123 Another competing theory to dark matter is Relativistic MOND. Since it is hard to prove dark matter exists at the galaxy level, if one could theorize what it takes to capture dark matter in the gravity well of a star or planet then maybe dark matter would be easier to prove at that level.

[@lovefeelsbest]

Thanks for sharing teech

[@DaKoopaKing]

Don't knock Subway sandwiches. Their Italian B.M.T. is fucking amazing

[@travisfitzwater8093]

How will space ships ever hope to know how fast they are traveling once they are in to uncharted areas of the Universe?

[@tedwalford7615]

No one will see this, but I'm here, so this is where I'll say it. There was a question asked, just sitting here on Earth, what is my speed? And the answer was given that we haven't "a speed," because we'd have to say relative to what, and that could be anything. And I get that. But then follows this: If I begin to travel from where I was, how do I--or how does the physics of the universe--know if or when I'm approaching that universal speed limit, light speed? In other words, that light-speed limit is relative to what? And if there's nothing to measure from, then how can there be a limit?

[@schmetterling4477]

That speed limit is the same, no matter who you are and how fast you are traveling relative to something else. ;-)

[@hamburgerlord9552]

Hey Sean..

[@bariizlam638]

Professor Sean Carrol thanks for the take on the elon musk/bernie sanders saga! I truly appreciate your work and all the knowledge you share with us! Thank you

[@alexandruconstantin1897]

Jkknwm

[@williambenson8641]

Around 1:25…. Villify not villainize.

[@doctorsloth213]

I love it when Sean talks about their cats.

[@justinmaseda6253]

I just don’t get why they make black holes so complicated… Why do people think it’s anything more then a ball? … just like every other “thing” with a large enough mass to produce gravity. There’s no hole. everything that Falls into it is right there. So why do they call it a, “hole”? Should be called a, “black whole”. … as in… all of it. …Like… “ it’s all right there; the whole thing “

[@charliesteiner2334]

Good food in Boston: El Pelon tacos.

[@iruleandyoudont9]

oof Sean didn't know what metaethics was at the end there lol

[@minirock000]

Because it isn't real.

[@hamburgerlord9552]

"Comment"

[@madderhat5852]

How dare you , Sir.

[@enterprisesoftwarearchitect]

People are judged guilty or “not guilty”, not “innocent”, interestingly.

[@travisfitzwater8093]

Dear fellow Sean Carroll fans, now I am no expert at anything but I still say silly things. Nevertheless: for the love of science and National Security, please call your Congressperson an say, "Please allocate the 1.4 billion out of the next 6.3 trillion dollar budget (fy 2024) for America to put a Laser Interferometer in Space with 20 picometers of sensitivity before 2027. The ESA might fly one by 2030 with maybe 10 picometers sensitivity and China is flyyone in 2030 with greater sensitivity. The moon is swell and all but if we drop the ball here: it will be our generation's Sputnik Moment and most people won't even know it!!!!?!!??!!!!!! Look into it. Please and Thank you.

[@martinds4895]

Sean, you're wrong. You're definitely a top five physicist, and the number one communicator.

[@gtziavelis]

if most galaxies will eventually move beyond our cosmic horizon of observability and become unobservable, how is it that today we can still observe the very first galaxies that formed after recombination? it seems that some of those galaxies would have already moved beyond our cosmic horizon.

[@schmetterling4477]

We can observe SOME of the first galaxies. Their numbers will get less and less in time. The CMB you are observing today is, of course, not the same CMB that you were observing yesterday. It came from a different volume.

[@gtziavelis]

@@schmetterling4477 I'll get to thinking on this. thank you

[@schmetterling4477]

@@gtziavelis Yes, it's unfortunately not as trivial as some of the graphics suggest. Mathematicians have proven that it would take at least a six dimensional Euclidian space to "draw a map" of a flat four dimensional Minkowski spacetime. You can probably see where I am going here: humans can't really visualize all the properties of spacetime at once. We can only find intuitive explanations that cover fractions of reality one piece at a time. To build a working intuition is therefor hard and takes a lot of effort. Good luck!

[@travisfitzwater8093]

If you think Twitter is a Hell Site then you aren't using it correctly.

[@tatotato85]

[@schmetterling4477]

Somebody should have asked him why he is talking so much nonsense. ;-)

[@hamburgerlord9552]

Parents ruin kids life's.

[@theknowledge.6869]

Kids ruin parents lives ~ ~ So it’s a draw.

[@Vlasko60]

Elon Musk is likely a genius in certain areas and I support many of his endeavors, but he should also pay his fair share of taxes. I worry about Elon fan-boys being as devoted to him personally as MAGAs are to Trump. That means that anything Elon says, they believe to be the ultimate truth and you cannot convince them otherwise, no matter what he says or does. They only seem skeptical of anyone who seems to be a threat to him. Musk has them in his pocket and he knows it. What they don't know or care about is that one person having too much power is very dangerous. Like MAGAs, they act like rabid sports fans who only care about winning and not what is really going on. If Elon were around when I was a young person, I would have been a total fan-boy. I still hope he succeeds in anything and everything that actually helps the planet and the beings on it, but pay your taxes Elon and go down in history without tax avoidance listed next to all of your successes.

[@Considerers]

You want him to pay taxes? Wow, you must really hate rich people

[@Vlasko60]

@@Considerers Oh yeah, I am a ruiner of all good things : )

[@Considerers]

@@halexvr You do realize that you just played into the stereotype and assumed that we were hating on musk personally, right?

[@themeach011]

Let's not forget that this year Elon will pay more taxes than any other American has ever paid in a year before. Also he could have sold his shares in a way to minimize taxes but he did not, so he ended up paying more than he could have otherwise. I don't want to be called a fan boy. I'm just stating facts. It's a tricky thing taxing the rich, obviously they have the best tools to avoid taxes but you also can't just take away all their money or there is no motivation to succeed. The other side of it is that these billionaires don't just sit on this money in a bank account. It is invested into companies that employ millions of people, and develop new tech and ideas. I see both sides of the argument. All I know is our world would look a lot different if you removed all the billion dollar companies off the planet. Better or worse, who knows. There are arguments to be made that the private sector actually gets a better return on investment than the government, and it may be smarter to leave that money in the economy and let them use it for R and D etc.

[@Considerers]

@@themeach011 You are probably responding to the main comment, but personally i would say that i'm with ya, on average Elon is actually doing good. No hate here. Most rich people arent doing so good though, so lets keep our expectations high!

[@Startraxxion]

Time has no charge. 🕰 but it flows...

[@Startraxxion]

Interferometers are just clocks for nerds🤓

[@Startraxxion]

What causes gravity?? Mass. And what causes Mass? Matter, immersed in 3D space absorbs time... 🕰

[@Startraxxion]

Matter, accelerated though space/time increases Mass 🌐

[@avr8844]

No.