The Physicist Who Travels Across Disciplines, Space and Time
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- Опубліковано 6 чер 2024
- A playful polymath who is prone to leaping from string theory to Proust in mid-conversation, Vijay Balasubramanian of the University of Pennsylvania is a physicist, computer scientist and neuroscientist. He has made fundamental contributions to theories of black holes and quantum gravity by studying the information content of various systems, and he directs an entire second research group at Penn that details how the world’s physical features have sculpted the brain. In this video, Balasubramanian discusses his interdisciplinary work and the importance of education in the humanities. Read more at Quanta Magazine: www.quantamagazine.org/ponder...
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Quanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation www.simonsfoundation.org/ - Наука та технологія
Read more about Vijay Balasubramanian in a written interview by Charlie Wood on QuantaMagazine.org: www.quantamagazine.org/pondering-the-bits-that-build-space-time-and-brains-20220420/
You don't tell where he is from not the colleges that he attended.. no background information.. is it in the USA? If so where etc?
I'm grateful knowing people like this are in the sciences of today. Kudos.
We need the extreme eccentrics like Grigori Perelman, whose most daring adventure outside of his incredible brain works, is going to the super market alone to buy a bag of grocery to bring back to his mother's apartment in Moscow where he also lives... but we also need actual educators who do not only know deep science but also could communicate, with passion in a real life manner like this man...
If people insist science alone will "take care of everything" need to think back to the 1,000 plus years of Dark Ages that the European lived through, once Christians killed the last great mathematician and astronomer, Hypatia, in Alexandria, in early 400AD.... and started to burn all the books of knowledge that Christianity and Christians, by then the majority (since they converted Constantin in early 300AD), didn't like, didn't approve of...
Remember, the "Renaissance" was supposed to have started around the 1400s... but by the 1600s, Europeans were still torturing & burning witches" in public squares, to the chant and praises of throngs of mostly illiterate Europeans, with the few educated ones mostly being employed by the Church that was largely behind those torturing and murdering of secular thinkers, teachers, and writers in the first place...
Science, as the professor said here, is not a thing where out of darkness, some Long Ranger rode into and among the ignorant masses to plant some glowing flag of knowledge in which formerly ignorant masses all of a sudden see & understand reason, logic, and knowledge.
Science is a SOCIAL activity as much as it is a knowledge of how nature works...
I know right, but at the same time talentless fuckups like streamers exist made rich and famous by internet fools, reality is both amazing and disappointing
@@kiabtoomlauj6249 Anyway science and tech is the essence of human advancement
Bro this man is literally living my dream
Go gooo goooo go get it! Before you encounter the death, time issss limited!!!
How far are you in your studies? Already a good thesis for your PhD?
I postponed that dream and will go back to it once I am 55. Unfortunately, my human problems comes first.
same
This guy is masters in three different subjects, thats impression as hell. Truly a genius.
This was a great watch
A well versed scientist who does not neglect the role of culture and people, inspiring to see!
I'd never heard of this man before; thank you for putting the spotlight on him. I'm a student of Theoretical Physics myself and I've seen, time and time again, the value of knowledge in a variety of fields. I believe science needs both people who have a great *depth* of knowledge in a given field and people who have a great *breadth* of knowledge across fields. It's also nice to see a prominent scientist promoting the arts too.
I've always known I'm not alone, but it's nice to see so much more hard evidence here than I usually do. I highly recommend that anyone who agrees with this sentiment (or, for that matter, in particular for anyone who *doesn't* agree with it) to check out the work "Heretics" by little-known author G.K. Chesterton; in particular the opening and closing chapters, which complement each other wonderfully in driving home the point about this quiet menace which is so fundamentally underappreciated in our society. But actually the quote I'm really thinking of which hits on this point was from another work which I admit I haven't read in it's entirety, but I absolutely love the passage (not to imply any kind of belief about gender roles or anything of the like; I just believe that it's a great demonstration of the point about the necessity of generality):
"Babies need not to be taught a trade, but to be introduced to a world. To put the matter shortly, woman is generally shut up in a house with a human being at the time when he asks all the questions that there are, and some that there aren't. It would be odd if she retained any of the narrowness of a specialist. Now if anyone says that this duty of general enlightenment (even when freed from modern rules and hours, and exercised more spontaneously by a more protected person) is in itself too exacting and oppressive, I can understand the view. I can only answer that our race has thought it worth while to cast this burden on women in order to keep common-sense in the world. But when people begin to talk about this domestic duty as not merely difficult but trivial and dreary, I simply give up the question. For I cannot with the utmost energy of imagination conceive what they mean. When domesticity, for instance, is called drudgery, all the difficulty arises from a double meaning in the word. If drudgery only means dreadfully hard work, I admit the woman drudges in the home, as a man might drudge at the Cathedral of Amiens or drudge behind a gun at Trafalgar. But if it means that the hard work is more heavy because it is trifling, colorless and of small import to the soul, then as I say, I give it up; I do not know what the words mean. To be Queen Elizabeth within a definite area, deciding sales, banquets, labors and holidays; to be Whiteley within a certain area, providing toys, boots, sheets, cakes. and books, to be Aristotle within a certain area, teaching morals, manners, theology, and hygiene; I can understand how this might exhaust the mind, but I cannot imagine how it could narrow it. How can it be a large career to tell other people's children about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? No; a woman's function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute. I will pity Mrs. Jones for the hugeness of her task; I will never pity her for its smallness."
This mirrors a sentiment I’ve had since childhood. Growing up in China I learned that a lot of people in Chinese academia and universities specialize in one field but neglects anything unrelated, or “breadth” as you said. One classic example is that of the geologists, who know everything when it comes to geology but if asked something else like biology, they are comparable to college undergrads. I’ve not been getting a similar impression in America, hopefully it’s better but I’m sure one will need a wide range of knowledge to appreciate the nested layers of this world.
I love maths, I love physics, I love programming, I love science and especially how fundamental maths and physics are and related with other domains. This guy proves it. I had a university teacher that always said "in the absence of an expert, the physicist always has the first word"
Truly a renaissance man.
"I don't think science and technology teach us how to live; I think the liberal arts teach us how to live," says the polymath..
A truly inspiring human being; wish him all the best!
I have degrees in Physics and Computational Neuroscience, and I'm considering going back into education. It's awesome to see someone that's combined the two fields in academia
I just graduated Highschool this year and I also aspire to be a polymath. My interests are also Physics and Nueroscience. I have many other hobbies too. Do you have any tips or advice for becoming a polymath in science?
he seems like someone who could talk to anyone for hours without getting bored. also absolutely DRIPPED out in that sweater
I aspire to be a polymath, and hearing someone talk about how all these fields connect is so amazing
I doubt that I can afford college anymore, but god this makes me want to learn again
you dont really need to go to college to learn lol all you need is books, a pen and paper and a computer with an internet connection, you can learn like 90% of everything
@@mastershooter64 True, but I'd like to actually get to work on stuff with what I learned by getting a job with a degree from a university, rather than just go "huh, neat" and forget it all after a while because I never put them to use again.
Used to know so many origami crafts, but I don't remember how to create any of them again because I never really had the time anymore since getting a job.
@@ninja8tyu So it's just about the money for you?
I used to study math alot went to university and to be honest after a semester i never touched math anymore i hated everything about it. Really school can destroy interests i find self study was much more exciting.
@@whirledpeas3477 dunno how you got that, but no, not really?
if i could land a lucrative job, then yeah that'd be nice and help me, y'know, survive in this world, where currency is needed to purchase fundamental goods and utilities
but like, i'd want to actually use what i learned so it wouldn't be either forgotten nor wasted, and the resources i'd need to do that happen to be at high-level jobs
please grow up.
Thank you for articulating these thoughts about the liberal arts. It's good to know that others feel the same way. Modernity planted the seed of our cultural schizophrenia by dividing academics and students into left-brain, or STEM, and right-brain, or humanities, setting one against the other and declaring one supreme ruler. We were all meant to learn from each other.
Fortunately there is now a STEAM movement, the "A" being for Arts. Its not a complete response but it is a start.
If you don't have any brain, do humanities
I'm going to be doing my PhD soon, it's my mission to make him my advisor. Thanks quanta!
Go get it!! Never lose sight of such great minds
What a fantastic person, marrying all of those different disciplines. The Quanta episodes I've seen so far have been amazing and uplifting. This is the kind of content I love.
I think a robust teaching of language and it's variants, (phonetics, linguistics) literature being one, is needed for scientists too, so they can capture those abstract ideas and give them form and create new postulates wishing, ultimately, to breed and sustain a new theory. I was ravished to see you reading Chez Swann by Marcel Proust (he was a painter of times capturing images in a past without cameras). I read several of it parts in France with our french tutors. These tutors helped the Tulane students at La Sorbonne and L'Institute Des Sciences Politiques to strengthen our new french vocabulary and grammar while at Tulane's Junior Year abroad in Paris from 1981-1982. Good luck with your projects! Hoping I will achieve too a degree in Sciences soon. Cordially, Aidita Rivera Torres
This is so inspiring and grounded with fundamental truth. How awesome to be able to experience the synergies of multiple disciplines that mesh your career goals and fulfil your curiosity. I also remember spending time reading the How and Why books. Great series to spend time engrossed with new ideas ..
Thanks Quanta Magazine. I really enjoy the quality content you bring
What an amazing human ! Thanks for bringing his thoughts infront of the world
That was a pure delight. Ty
2:59
Lots of love and respect from Bengal, professor.. ❤️🌌✨
One might want to make a prediction that the future of science is multidisciplinary discovery.
Wow, thanks for posting this. He is so right about the devaluation of the humanities in our world.
A truly remarkable person! Hope to meet him someday...
What a beautiful person. Thank you!
Does anyone know the title of his paper on Occam’s razor and the geometry of mathematical models as explanations?
This was such an inspirational video.. thanks a lot ❤️… it made my day and had an impact on me..
What an incredible man
I remember to have been fascinated as a child by the exact same book!
Interesting interview! He definitely has quite the "toolkit" as he described his knowledge base.
Excellent discussion and interesting person, thanks~
Its alwayz a pleasure to see that french authors are still read and liked
I'm in Physics and AI too 🤩😍 It's incredible to work on such amazing fields
Thank you Quanta for bring inspiring minds and share your thoughts.
Knowledge certainly does NOT have to be CUT that way!
Not only a polymath but his drip is unmatched
Lovely and inspiring!
Oh my god, I've been pursuing general research on the side. I had no idea there was a title of "Theorist". Currently re-visiting a paper I wrote on black holes to consider new ideas regarding quantum particle physics, I'm wondering if the light that is ejected from black leave any traces of the "collapse" that neutrino's suffer within the singularity.
Do the ejected neutrino's contain hidden elements that can teach us more about gravity.
Gravity seems like a fun area to pursue right now, the standard model may be shifted to account for dark matter in the near future.
He makes studying actually seem fun.
This man is incredible 💞
We have space-time where the fourth dimension time is Integrated in the normal three dimensions.
Is it possible to integrate time with a force? Gravity-time so time becomes a force and isn’t always linear with the same set intervals by definition? (The future time is not exact predictable as time)
We talk about time travel which is not possible physically only in the mind. Gravity is not always constant so gravity-time is not constant.
Gravity is a variable force (in space there are ‘lines’ to travel on between planets) with gravity-time, time becomes a force. if gravity-time can be calculated than there is a most likely future that can be calculated.
At the moment the most likely future is just a guess in the mind.
Can this type of calculation be used for other most likely future problems?
You can tell he has read the 'Prinviples of Neural Science' by Eric Kandel et al,specifically the chapter on sensation.
Inspiring
amazing human
Amazing!!!
What a wonderful guy! Unapologetic polymaths are rare. When he mentioned the How and Why Wonder Books and one flashed on screen, I gasped! I have not seen one of those or thought about them for decades; but immediately recognized them as formative in my early science education, in a memory of depth and redolence normally reserved (as he mentioned) for smells and tastes. Someone should bring them back to print; I've have a kid now!
Definitely a big interest of mine. Especially as I’m starting to see parallels across all fields.
Polymaths are living the life. Will like to see his masters thesis.
ok I have a new idol now! Thanks Quanta!!
Easily one of the most inteligent people alive today, suprised we don't hear more about him
inspiring! I agree that science alone is not enough, we need other areas such as liberal arts and other non-science fields.
Was anyone else left incredibly curious about his fountain pen & ink collection? :) He has a great taste.
that was inspiring...
Nice!
yup u are right if knowledge is rigid you might not find waht your looking for and im of the mind to know this is true.
I find myself agreeing, 100%, with everything he says
A life I aspire to live.
Well, he's humble
This is the tipe of scientist I aspire to be.
Genius!
We know certain emergent systems happen. The properties of each molecule on the periodic table have difference. The combination of compounds of these atoms also has difference. And are explored in the different sciences. We are exploring the fundamental parts that make up those atoms. With the question of why and how.
We have explored field theories trying to understand how they function with the fundamental bits of atoms that come into being and form those atoms.
4D spacetime, an Einsteinian theory. To multiple dimension concepts such as string theory, E8 geometry theory, loop gravity, and others just as justified to explore.
The large hadron collider is one tool for experimental evidence.
But since we know about the Plank lengths and time, we can hit an experimental wall. Seeking some quantized version of gravity.
Trying to find the best path to experimental evidence which seems to elude us. Dark matter and energy.
So, we come to understand that thinking, pen and paper, whiteboards, and mathematics do help very much in this endeavor.
Thinking out of the box like de Sitter space, or something outside of our universe acting on it.
I sometimes I think that Ernst Mach is still right. You need three things for physics, table, chair, and beer!
Need more computer scientist, AI, roboticist, mech eng multidisciplinists
Before you had "scientists", you had people like him. Interdisciplinary masters!
we have to stick to one type of field or another.
True polymath !
Now I'm just wondering what is complexity? Is it just a human construct or is their a mathematical truth to complexity that is as important as the fundamental equations of physics in understanding the universe.
He is very lucky to be smart enough to be able to live the life that he lives. I tried and failed to become a physicist. Having just finished a master's in occupational therapy, I will be a glorified caretaker trying to rehabilitate old people instead of a person exploring the fundamental nature of reality. I miss physics, but the competition beat me out.
He is the real life superhero scientist!
Wou, he is very interesting. Somebody know if he wrote a book or anything?
Swan’s Way by Marcel Proust is an enduring read. 📚📖🍰☕️
And to think that not that many years ago, scientists from different fields weren't even willing to work together
I hated mathematics in school and mathematics hated me. Where was this gentleman in my un-inspired paltry academic life? 😔
Such a naïve and child-like man. The things he finds so inspiring in the humanities are the very same, widely experienced, reasons that people pursue and major in humanities. He's like a child who thinks he discovered cheese.
He has certainly grown up in India. Proof.- dipping biscuits in tea
"If you ain't got Elegance.."?
To be conscious and aware is to be connected to every aspect of existence, in some state of metastability. Fun to imagine Sciencing.
Make him more famous OMG
I love this video but the audio clipping makes it nearly unwatchable :/ that crackle drives me wild
That cardigan tho 🔥🔥🔥
i bet he'd be amazing to strike up a conversation with
Cool guy.
I want to become a quantum physicist and what to solve the problem of observer effect which baffled the scientists for hundred year
A man with multiple vision.
Science argues for outside perspective.
❤️
I think like him I want to become a scientists
0:05 Do you have any ideas, experiences with or examples of the individuality and persistence of singular, subdivided consciousness?
Would the need for religion, superstition and the oppression of societies through weaponized fear become obsolete if the majority came to know their "god " was nothing more than a fertilized egg from within a higher vibrational plane of existence and "they" were in fact just extensions of that unborn source coming to know "its" self through the refinement and eventual subsumption of innumerable awarenesses?
That last one was rhetorical.
i feel the same way about art&culture and science but i am not a scientist
👍
I think the lesson he gives is the slap on the face of the rat race going around. Triumph of science as they say with humble character towards literature. Great person.
I feel not as empty.
I wonder if the correct term is polymath ? Would he not be a polyscientist ?
Oh please
Whoa. I just learned something about the word 'liberal arts'. I had never connected that word with libraries, or books.
"Specialization has bred feelings of isolation, futility, and confusion in individuals. It has also resulted in the individual's leaving responsibility for thinking and social action to others. Specialization breeds biases that ultimately aggregate as international and ideological discord, which in turn leads to war."
Bamm!
Who said it?
Really Excellent! May be purist, though a musically minded one at that. Nice accoustic Guitar 🎻! (Thats a violin, all though does indeed sort of look "accoustic Guitar-ish"!!)) LoL hehaha!¡!¡!
Hello
A scientist who embraces the liberal arts - maybe there's hope for humanity, and may he have a very large family and long genetic line. ;)
That's the most well known bit of Remembrance. Did he read all 7 volumes? Strong whiff of pseud with this one.
Guess what: a liberal arts education is helpful in living a happy and well-adjusted life.
do you have to study liberal arts in a college ? doubt it. its easily self taught. while STEM needs an experienced hand to guide you through most of it. reading books does not cut it
Aisan representation done right.
Chances are you may never read this; but, life is full of chance. My concept of space/time evolved around a thought about "what would a highly advanced civilization confronted with a cataclysmic event leave behind to tell us everything about the cosmos. And the answer seemed obvious to me. Yin/Yang; but the full concept is that Contained within Yin and Yang is the traditionally Black and white circle within what appears to be a sine wave separating the whole into two parts, and so on. (It's a fractal) The wave function is fundamental. Yet, it seems via entanglement all things are connected. I see the ability to move through space/time without violating Einstein Laws, moving faster than light, will involve modifying intrinsic frequencies (parametric of the system, the whole). However, fundamentally, the harmonics of a zero point is the sum of all radiating wavefunctions that meet at that point; this defines it's location in space/time. If we can modify that frequency (via self contained field generator); we will by the nature of this fundamental concept of information exist at another location. Very small amplitudes of the frequency of things far away my be insignificant. And, many local frequencies may cancel out. However, shifting from one location to another will require knowing which frequencies need to be shifted; and by how much, to actually make small slips through space/time (modify or modulate the information, and it's location changes). This is the simple version of a much larger then space here allows concept. So, let's call if food for thought; but my fear is that the space here; and time, constrain me from expanding on this no more than to simply tantalize.
The fuck is any of that supposed to mean? No serious physicist would take that new-age gobbledygook seriously.
I don't mean to boast but I also travel through space and time myself