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What If Physics IS NOT Describing Reality?

2022-06-01 Education
1.4m
38.0k
3.8k
PBS Space Time
PBS Space Time
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PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to:http://to.pbs.org/DonateSPACE Get your t-shirt at the Space Time Merch Store: https://www.pbsspacetime.com/shop Neils Bohr said, “It is wrong to think that the task of physics is to find out how Nature is. Physics concerns what we can say about Nature.” Well it turns out that if we pay attention to this subtle difference, some of the most mysterious aspects of nature make a lot more sense. Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord! https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime Sign up for the mailing list to get episode notifications and hear special announcements! https://mailchi.mp/1a6eb8f2717d/spacetime Search the Entire Space Time Library Here: https://search.pbsspacetime.com/ Hosted by Matt O'Dowd Written by Matt O'Dowd Post Production by Leonardo Scholzer, Yago Ballarini, Pedro Osinski, Adriano Leal & Stephanie Faria GFX Visualizations: Ajay Manuel Directed by Andrew Kornhaber Associate Producer: Bahar Gholipour Executive Producers: Eric Brown & Andrew Kornhaber Executives in Charge (PBS): Adam Dylewski, Maribel Lopez Director of Programming (PBS): Gabrielle Ewing Spacetime is produced by Kornhaber Brown for PBS Digital Studios. This program is produced by Kornhaber Brown, which is solely responsible for its content. © 2022 PBS. All rights reserved. End Credits Music by J.R.S. Schattenberg: https://www.youtube.com/user/MultiDroideka Special Thanks to Our Patreon Supporters Big Bang Supporters Adam Hillier Bryce Fort Peter Barrett David Neumann Charlie Leo Koguan Ahmad Jodeh Alexander Tamas Morgan Hough Amy Juan Benet Vinnie Falco Fabrice Eap Mark Rosenthal David Nicklas Quasar Supporters Marty Sweetman Alex Kern Ethan Cohen Stephen Wilcox Christina Oegren Mark Heising Hank S Hypernova Supporters william bryan Gregory Forfa Kirk Honour Mark Evans drollere Joe Moreira Marc Armstrong Scott Gorlick Paul Stehr-Green Russell Pope Ben Delo Scott Gray Антон Кочков John R. Slavik Mathew Donal Botkin John Pollock Edmund Fokschaner Joseph Salomone chuck zegar Jordan Young Daniel Muzquiz Gamma Ray Burst Harsh Khandhadia Walter Thomas Tarler bsgbryan Sean McCaul Carsten Quinlan Susan Albee Frank Walker Matt Q WhizBangery Avi Yashchin MHL SHS Kory Kirk Terje Vold Anatoliy Nagornyy comboy Brett Baker Jonathan Conerly Andre Stechert Ross Bohner Paul Wood Kent Durham jim bartosh Nubble Scott R Calkins The Mad Mechanic Juan David Gil Wiedman Ellis Hall John H. Austin, Jr. Diana S Ben Campbell Faraz Khan Almog Cohen Alex Edwards Ádám Kettinger MD3 Endre Pech Daniel Jennings Cameron Sampson Geoffrey Clarion Darren Duncan Russ Creech Jeremy Reed Eric Webster David Johnston Web Browser Michael Barton Christopher Barron James Ramsey Mr T Andrew Mann Isaac Suttell Devon Rosenthal Oliver Flanagan Bleys Goodson Robert Walter Bruce B Simon Oliphant Mirik Gogri Mark Delagasse Mark Daniel Cohen Nickolas Andrew Freeman Shane Calimlim Tybie Fitzhugh Robert Ilardi Eric Kiebler Craig Stonaha Martin Skans The Art of Sin Graydon Goss Frederic Simon Tonyface John Robinson A G David Neal Kevin Lee justahat John Funai Tristan Bradley Jenkins Kyle Hofer Daniel Stříbrný Luaan Cody Thomas Dougherty King Zeckendorff Scott Gossett Dan Warren Patrick Sutton John Griffith Daniel Lyons DFaulk Kevin Warne

Top Comments (10)

@LittleSoterios 2022-06-01

Heisenberg also wrote "what we observe is not nature in itself but nature exposed to our method of questioning".

3.4k 155 replies
@tekrunner987 2022-06-06

As a programmer, this was the most intuitively understandable episode in 7 years of PBS Spacetime.

882 32 replies
@tensevo 2022-06-05

This is the kind of physics I understand. It makes sense that physics is a model of our perception of the world, and not the world itself. The map is not the territory.

808 48 replies
@WnetsrohT 2022-06-02

Can't help but quote Douglas Adams: "There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.”

532 74 replies
@anywallsocket 2022-06-01

This is exactly what the philosophy of science is actually very important: those who study epistemology to any degree are already familiar with our limits, yet those only familiar with science perpetually conflate the map for the territory and are surprised when it’s information that constitutes our models for reality — even suggesting the universe is a simulation, because they literally forget we are doing the simulating, and the information is the only thing we CAN understand. Truth is so close to our noses we forget to notice, let alone discuss its nuance.

506 98 replies
@sameddington9072 2022-06-02

This is one of the most lucid, lens-expanding descriptions of this that I've ever seen. Thanks for this, Dr. O'Dowd!

385 6 replies
@pauldacus4590 2022-06-04

Thank you for this! I have been requesting for an information theory based video for years. To me, it feels like this is where the next great leap in physics will come from...

27
@moldyyleftovers 2022-06-09

I love PBS Space Time so much - it is one of the few channels that I have to re-watch portions of the video more than once, and watch the whole video a couple times over with some time in between to digest all the information

25
@caty863 2022-06-25

_"What we model is not the reality but our experience of reality."_ that's very deep!

11
@2Sor2Fig 2022-06-01

Alrighty. This one was amazing. They usually are, but this was my favorite of 2022 so far.

6

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