korrents

Sean Carroll

@sean-carroll · 20 positions · 0 changes of mind

Theoretical physicist, Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University, host of the Mindscape podcast and author of Something Deeply Hidden and The Biggest Ideas in the Universe.

Everything they publish, on ppll ↗

Sean Carroll did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

  1. Our reading

    The story that Einstein could not keep up with quantum mechanics is almost exactly backwards: his philosophical objections were correct and should have been taken far more seriously.

    Their wordsI think that that story about the latter part is completely wrong, almost 180 degrees wrong. I think that Einstein understood quantum mechanics as well as anyone, at least up through the 1930s. I think that his philosophical objections to it are correct. He should actually have been taken much more seriously about that.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 0:04:37 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Sean Carroll: General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Black Holes & Aliens | Lex Fridman Podcast #428youtube.com 1st of 20 in this recording

    physics

    Interesting

  3. Our reading

    The simplest explanation for why we have never noticed an alien civilization is that there are none out there.

    Their wordsBut I think your intuition is right that it would’ve been easy for there to be lots of civilizations then we would’ve noticed them already and we haven’t. Absolutely the simplest explanation for why we haven’t is that they’re not there.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 0:23:46 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Sean Carroll: General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Black Holes & Aliens | Lex Fridman Podcast #428youtube.com 2nd of 20 in this recording

    Interesting

  5. Our reading

    A great filter is a weak explanation for the silence, because it would have to work every single time — one civilization with self-replicating probes could fill the galaxy.

    Their wordsThat is absolutely possible. I’m actually putting less credence on that one just because you need to happen every single time. If even one, I mean, this goes back to John von Neumann pointed out that you don’t need to send the aliens around the galaxy. You can build self-reproducing probes and send them around the galaxy.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 0:26:10 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Sean Carroll: General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Black Holes & Aliens | Lex Fridman Podcast #428youtube.com 3rd of 20 in this recording

    Interesting

  7. Our reading

    Listening for alien radio is the wrong search: a probe that sits and waits beats a signal that passes you by, so an artifact in our solar system is likelier than a message.

    Their wordsThis is the 2001 monolith hypothesis. I would be less surprised to find a quiescent alien artifact in our solar system than I would to catch a radio signal from an intelligent civilization.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 0:27:55 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Sean Carroll: General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Black Holes & Aliens | Lex Fridman Podcast #428youtube.com 4th of 20 in this recording

    solar

    Interesting

  9. Our reading

    The singularity of a black hole is not a place at its centre but a moment in your future: falling in, you run out of time rather than out of room.

    Their wordsRemember space and time are parts of one unified space-time, the location of the singularity in the black hole is not the middle of space, but our future. It is a moment of time. It is like a big crunch.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 0:39:51 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Sean Carroll: General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Black Holes & Aliens | Lex Fridman Podcast #428youtube.com 5th of 20 in this recording

    Interesting

  11. Our reading

    Physicists did not invent dark matter and dark energy to rescue their theories — they would much rather the answer were something cooler, and the data will not allow it.

    Their wordsI tear my hair out when people who are not physicists accuse physicists, like you say, of losing the plot because they need dark matter and dark energy. I don’t want dark matter and dark energy; I want something much cooler than that. I’ve tried. But you got to listen to the equations and to the data.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 1:09:33 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Sean Carroll: General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Black Holes & Aliens | Lex Fridman Podcast #428youtube.com 6th of 20 in this recording

    energy

    Interesting

  13. Our reading

    The Copenhagen interpretation taught to physics students is a God-awful mess; many-worlds is beautiful because it needs fewer ingredients and one equation.

    Their wordsIf you think about how we teach quantum mechanics to our students, the Copenhagen interpretation, it’s a God-awful mess. No one’s going to accuse that of being very beautiful. I’m a fan of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, and that is very beautiful in the sense that fewer ingredients, just one equation, and it could cover everything in the world.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 1:11:52 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Sean Carroll: General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Black Holes & Aliens | Lex Fridman Podcast #428youtube.com 7th of 20 in this recording

    physics

    Interesting

  15. Our reading

    Declining many-worlds because it extrapolates past what we can observe is methodologically respectable and still a failure of nerve.

    Their wordsAnd if you just wanted to be methodologically conservative and say, “That’s a step too far; I don’t want to buy it,” I’m sympathetic to that. I think that you’re just wimping out, I think that you should have more courage, but I get the impulse.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 1:22:55 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Sean Carroll: General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Black Holes & Aliens | Lex Fridman Podcast #428youtube.com 8th of 20 in this recording

    Interesting

  17. Our reading

    Assuming you are a typical observer in the universe is not humility but a hilariously presumptuous claim that typical observers are like you.

    Their wordsBut then you draw some conclusions from this, and what you end up realizing is you’ve been hilariously presumptuous because by saying, “I’m a typical observer in the universe,” you’re saying, “Typical observers in the universe are like me,” and that is completely unjustified by anything.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 1:30:37 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Sean Carroll: General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Black Holes & Aliens | Lex Fridman Podcast #428youtube.com 9th of 20 in this recording

    Interesting

  19. Our reading

    "Why is there something rather than nothing?" cannot have the kind of answer why-questions usually get, because the universe is not embedded in anything bigger — it can just be.

    Their wordsI think that specifically the question why is there something rather than nothing? does not have the kind of answer that we would ordinarily attribute to why questions because typical why questions are embedded in the universe. And when we answer them, we take advantage of the features of the universe that we know and love. But the universe itself, as far as we know, is not embedded in anything bigger or stronger, and therefore it can just be.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 1:32:17 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Sean Carroll: General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Black Holes & Aliens | Lex Fridman Podcast #428youtube.com 10th of 20 in this recording

    Interesting

  21. Our reading

    There is no philosophical knockout objection to the simulation hypothesis, and also no reason whatsoever to take it seriously.

    Their wordsI don’t think that there’s any philosophical knockout objection to the simulation hypothesis. I also think that there’s absolutely no reason to take it seriously.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 1:33:30 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Sean Carroll: General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Black Holes & Aliens | Lex Fridman Podcast #428youtube.com 11th of 20 in this recording

    Interesting

  23. Our reading

    Judging an AI by how close it is to a human is the mistake: appreciating what it can actually do is both more accurate and better protection against its dangers.

    Their wordsAnd rather than trying to ask, how close is it to being a human-like intelligent, we should appreciate it for what its capabilities are, and that will both be more accurate and help us put it to work and protect us from the dangers better rather than always anthropomorphizing it.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 1:36:00 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Sean Carroll: General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Black Holes & Aliens | Lex Fridman Podcast #428youtube.com 12th of 20 in this recording

    Interesting

  25. Our reading

    A language model's apparent mind is mostly our own bias: it predicts text, and leverages our evolved habit of attributing intentionality to anything that acts human.

    Their wordsWhat a large language model is trying to do is to predict text. That’s what it does. And it is leveraging the fact that we human beings for very good evolutionary biology reasons, attribute intentionality and intelligence and agency to things that act like human beings.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 1:37:02 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Sean Carroll: General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Black Holes & Aliens | Lex Fridman Podcast #428youtube.com 13th of 20 in this recording

    LLMs

    Interesting

  27. Our reading

    The largest contribution physics can make to AI is energy efficiency: computers waste heat hilariously worse than brains do, and nobody has seriously tried to fix it.

    Their wordsI think this is one of the biggest things that physics can help with, and it’s an obvious kind of low-hanging fruit situation where the heat generation, the inefficiency, the waste of existing high-level computers is nowhere near the efficiency of our brains. It’s hilariously worse, and we haven’t tried to optimize that hard on that frontier.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 1:46:02 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Sean Carroll: General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Black Holes & Aliens | Lex Fridman Podcast #428youtube.com 14th of 20 in this recording

    energyphysics

    Interesting

  29. Our reading

    Life is not fighting the second law of thermodynamics; it surfs increasing entropy and depends on it to hold itself together.

    Their wordsSometimes people think that complexity or life or whatever is fighting against the second law of thermodynamics, fighting against the increase of entropy. That is precisely the wrong way to think about it. We are surfers riding the wave of increasing entropy. We rely on increasing entropy to survive.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 1:54:46 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Sean Carroll: General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Black Holes & Aliens | Lex Fridman Podcast #428youtube.com 15th of 20 in this recording

    Interesting

  31. Our reading

    Consciousness and free will are not illusions: being emergent and non-fundamental is exactly as real as a table is.

    Their wordsThat’s different than something being emergent or non-fundamental, but also real. This table is real, even though I know it’s made of atoms, that doesn’t remove the realness from the table. I think that consciousness and free will and things like that are just as real in tables and chairs.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 2:06:15 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Sean Carroll: General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Black Holes & Aliens | Lex Fridman Podcast #428youtube.com 16th of 20 in this recording

    Interesting

  33. Our reading

    Science can tell you how to reach your goals but never which goals are right — and it will help just as happily if your goals are horrible.

    Their wordsBut there’s an instrumentalist view here, you have to first decide what your goals are and then science can help you achieve those goals. If your goals are horrible, science has no problem helping you achieve them, science is happy to help out.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 2:16:16 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Sean Carroll: General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Black Holes & Aliens | Lex Fridman Podcast #428youtube.com 17th of 20 in this recording

    Interesting

  35. Our reading

    When somebody accuses you of being arrogant about an idea, almost all they ever mean is that they disagree with you.

    Their wordsYeah, it is interesting because, when people react against you by saying you are being arrogant about this, 99.999% of the time, all they mean is I disagree. That’s all they really mean, right?
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 2:27:40 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Sean Carroll: General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Black Holes & Aliens | Lex Fridman Podcast #428youtube.com 18th of 20 in this recording

    JavaScript

    Interesting

  37. Our reading

    Einstein's equation is much smarter than Einstein was: it knew about black holes, gravitational waves and the Big Bang while he did not.

    Their wordsAnd the punchline is the equation is much smarter than Albert Einstein because Albert Einstein did not know about the Big Bang, he didn’t know about gravitational waves, he didn’t know about black holes but his equation did.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 2:30:30 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Sean Carroll: General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Black Holes & Aliens | Lex Fridman Podcast #428youtube.com 19th of 20 in this recording

    Interesting

  39. Our reading

    The Nobel Prize is probably a net good for the world and a net negative for science, because it makes scientists want to win a Nobel Prize.

    Their wordsI think that Nobel Prize has enormous problems. I think it’s probably a net good for the world because it brings attention to good science. I think it’s probably a net negative for science because it makes people want to win the Nobel Prize.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 2:33:17 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Sean Carroll: General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Black Holes & Aliens | Lex Fridman Podcast #428youtube.com 20th of 20 in this recording

    Interesting