Dirac Conversation: Edward Witten
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- Опубліковано 22 кві 2024
- Dirac Medallist Edward Witten, professor emeritus in the school of natural sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, is interviewed by ICTP Director Atish Dabholkar.
In this conversation they discuss the evolution of string theory over the years, as well as Witten’s contributions to the theory and his relationship with mathematics.
Edward Witten was awarded the Dirac Medal in 1985 - the year the award was launched - “for stimulating contributions to quantum field theory, particularly with regard to the implications of new kinds of anomalies”. He shared the award with Yakov Zeldovich (1914-1987).
The interview took place in June 2023, when Witten was at ICTP for the Huddle on Entanglement, Black Holes and Spacetime, during which he gave a public talk entitled “What every physicist should know about string theory”.
01:14 Connection between Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity
03:06 First superstring revolution
05:02 First successes of string theory
06:46 Evolution of string theory and the strings revolutions
09:34 Duality
10:28 1995 Strings Conference
18:32 The scientific value of string theory
21:58 Edward Witten’s connections with ICTP
22:48 What brought Edward Witten to physics
23:28 ICTP’s mission to make knowledge globally available
24:28 Science cooperation and ICTP’s role in the SESAME project
26:00 Edward Witten’s contributions to mathematics and the “unreasonable effectiveness of physics to mathematics”
29:58 The problem with understanding pure gauge theories
32:54 Michael Atiyah’s influence on Witten
44:50 The unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics on physics - Наука та технологія
most soothing voice in physics
Some People say Edward Witten uses this calm and soothing voice so he doesn't upset the Gods.
If you want to know how string theory may be right with experimental evidence check this out. thermodynamicfields.wordpress.com/2021/09/26/example-post-3/
ASMR
Witten is a priest, not a scientist.
Nah Sabine Hossenfelder has the most soothing voice, if you're in to strong German women telling you how it is.
Thank you for this conversation. Anytime Witten speaks I feel blessed to hear him. One of a kind.
Even though he’s completely wrong???
@@onceanoptimistnownot3868 ??? even though he isnt???
Witten is a priest, not a scientist. As evidenced by your comment.
@@danhoward7697 I guess you dont understand linguistics or undertones.
@@danhoward7697 What a profoundly stupid person you are.
I love that I see him here first instead of some famous podcast! Seems more authentic for some reason?
I understood almost nothing but still got at least some vague sense of what the problems are in theoretical physics. It is such a wonderful thing to have these sorts of conversations available for the general public.
Witten is an absolute legend. Great upload.
What has String Theory produced?
If you want to know how string theory may be right with experimental evidence check this out. thermodynamicfields.wordpress.com/2021/09/26/example-post-3/
A lot of Popperrazzis asking this question. 😉
@@HArryvajonas Well, I have experimental evidence, I hope somebody listens someday. It's curious what Witten said about thermodynamics, maybe someone told him. thermodynamicfields.wordpress.com/2021/09/26/example-post-3/
@@cademosley4886 Well, I have experimental evidence, I hope somebody listens someday. It's curious what Witten said about thermodynamics, maybe someone told him thermodynamicfields.wordpress.com/2021/09/26/example-post-3/
Thanks for the sub titles, this makes a difference in clarifying the speech.
This video made my day.
If you want to know how string theory may be right with experimental evidence check this out. thermodynamicfields.wordpress.com/2021/09/26/example-post-3/
Witten is a priest, not a scientist.
Much awaited inspiration. Thank you both from the bottom of my heart.❤👍
If you want to know how string theory may be right with experimental evidence check this out. thermodynamicfields.wordpress.com/2021/09/26/example-post-3/
Nice. This will be a ~1hr well spent. Thank you, Dr. Witten!
If you want to know how string theory may be right with experimental evidence check this out. thermodynamicfields.wordpress.com/2021/09/26/example-post-3/
Witten is a priest, not a scientist.
A waste of time because String Theory is an unprovable mathematical conjecture! String Theory is Witten’s fantasy hoax on the gullible & clueless public who read science fiction & believe it!
@@danhoward7697time will tell the truth.
Very useful discussion on important aspects of the theoretical physics of the last half century from a 'giant' of the field. Moderator deserves praise.
If you want to know how string theory may be right with experimental evidence check this out. thermodynamicfields.wordpress.com/2021/09/26/example-post-3/
As a former student of string theory and supersymmetry, this is wonderful. I understand the criticism from the likes of Woit, Penrose and Weinstein, but the explanation that they (Witten) are building a tool is a useful analogy. I don't think people outside of physics can really understand just how much harder these things are than other realms of inquiry. Mathematics for instance, I love math, I've done some, it is comparitive far easier because it can be done in isolation without the need to be interwoven into some vastly complicated tapestry of ideas. Physics is like a symphony, there is so much more to do at once. Anyway, I am grateful for Witten's work, I just wish he would acknowledge the answer to the question at the end rests with the Creator. It is God's design for us to delight in His creation, the riddles left for us in physics are to my mind the most interesting of all.
I remember 15 years ago, I made a silly “discovery” that the values of n so that S^n has trivial tangent bundles are exactly the same as the dimensions of the universe (1 time, 3 spatial, 7 curled) predicted by string theory. I sent an email to Dr Witten. To my surprise, he replied to me and showed me his opinion!
I, also observed this about a year ago. What was Witten's reply like?
I lost my email account together with the email from him. I remember he said it’s a coincidence(not exactly his words). 😄
Ma boy bagged a whitey 🎉
Id revisit your theory witten is entropy incarnate
First of all:
‘Dimensions are curled’ : you have a lot of explaining to do if this is associated whatsoever with vector analytical curl.
Also there’s a great gap in Type here.
That is indeed an impressive equivalence if it’s actually correct!
If the world’s structure doesn’t have any curled dimensions - because ‘curl’ doesn’t mean intrinsic - then this would imply that
Whatever n is: perhaps the dimension if the intrinsic space that has supposedly trivial tangent bundle, which has which unit?
Then that makes me wonder what 3 dimensional tangent bundle is existing as to model the intrinsic reality that itself could be time,
Or in a different sense of intrinsic, a feature of magnetism itself, where ‘curled’ here could, again, mean truly seriously diverging things for reality.
So that’s a good generational point for the concept of ‘curl’
Nor do I think your mathematical equivalences aren’t riddled with confusion as to the question of units (quanta - not to be confused with the field of research called ‘quantum mechanics’)
I always enjoy hearing Prof. Witten talk about Maths and Physics: the present conversation, BTW was (by far) the best I ever watched on the Internet, thanks to Director Dabholkar who asked high quality questions. And I'm always happy to see so many people interested in Physics (or in Science, in general...).
IMO Witten owes the public more screen time
Public? He doesn’t owe anybody anything. If he spares some time to public shows, that would be his utmost generosity. Scientists of his calibre are demonized in the popular culture, really. It is better for him not to descend to the level of apes.
Thank you for sharing. From Argentina...! Thanks a lot.!!
Witten is a priest, not a scientist.
I love hearing Witten speak. I hope we can unlock a new part of the mystery… the connection between gravity and QFTs so compellingly considered by Maldacena in his 1997 work. What will we discover next?
I like Edward and his calmness. His motivation towards discovering truth is admirable and there is no doubt that he and others are making significant steps along the road to discovery. I would caution anyone's expectation that this will ultimately lead to any exposure of the universes greatest secrets. Hubris is the problem. The greater can understand the smaller but the smaller can never fully understand the greater.
A fitting line at the end there, as Dirac once said "God is a mathematician of a very high order and he used advanced mathematics in constructing the universe."
When renowned famous physicists consider you the main man, you know you’ve got it going on! Einstein of our time!
You can tell witten is very much enjoying the interview, I dont know the other person, but seems like they share a very strong bond. I was laughing with them even though i mostly did not understand what they were taking about.😂
He was his student.
He was his student and they both worked on a paper together as well recently.
When renowned famous physicists consider you as the genius and main man, you know you’ve got it going on! Einstein of our time!
May god bless Mr. Witten with many more years full of health, prosperity and scientific achievements.
Curious question: Is Professor Whitten a believer, and if so, what religion does he follow? 😊
@@khaldalshmry560 I wouldn’t know or care to be honest.
Professor Atish, that's a beautiful T shirt 👕🧠🔥🔥
Oh Edward Witten! What are your thoughts on spacetime being doomed as fundamental? What are your insights about consciousness? What are your wildest speculations of reality no one knows about?
Probably the only person I would have been starstrucked of.
Thank you both for this Great interview.
Greetings from Norway.
Witten is a priest, not a scientist.
@@danhoward7697 I know. Did I say anything else?
Excellent conversation and inspirational to listen to Professor Witten.
I would love a talk between Witten and Jim Simons on Mathermathics
Being a leading figure in those early years of string theory must have been one of the most exhilarating experiences a human mind can have. 100x better than fame, fortune etc
He’s a brilliant theorist and mathematician, of the highest order on things technical in string theory. Probably the preeminent physicist of our time. His unification of seemingly competing branches of string theory into M theory theory or Super String theory is his crowning achievement. And it stunned the physics community. And still does. However, on the sobering side, string theory has effectively run “out of gas” in explaining the world and unifying QFT and relativity. String theory some say was a grand but ultimately fruitless detour to the final knowledge of grand unification. Most here know the critiques of string theory by Penrose, Weinstein and others. Funny though that we live in a world where QFT and relativity co-exist; so there must be an ultimate solution to how they live and function together. As Einstein said, there must be “something deeply hidden.”
Witten's 4D knot theory of dynamic space time in physics is self interact graviton g*m^2=137.036*e+=(k*e^2/e-)*g*m^2 which's by graviton g*m^2 oscillating between quantum black hole at Planck scale l=g*m/c^2=(h*g/2pi*c^3)^0.5 which deduce ch=2pi*g*m^2=8pi*g*(m*c^2/2)^2/c^4 : solution of GR field equation, proton scale pl=g(p)*(4pi*pm/3)/c^2, Atom scale A^2=g(p)*pi*me/128.4980143*c^2 generate strong force g(p)=g*m^2/pm^2=g*(pl/4.1888*l)^2=1.13*10^28, EM force between proton[pm=1.672621868*10^-27 kg], electron[me=9.10938*10^-31 kg] in Atom[A=5.29177282*10^-11 meter] by k*e^2=g(p)*pm^2/137.036=ch/(2pi*137.036)[e+]=me*(c/137.036)^2*A[e-]=4pi*g(p)*pm*me*137.036/128.51991 which can reproduce Dirac's quantum field deduce 0.001161409725=1/(2pi*137.036) : anomalous electron magnetic moment of (g-2)/2 factor from potential energy of positron e+=ch/(2pi*137.036)=k*e^2 which can turn into quantum gravity 2pi*k*e^2*137.036=ch=(2*A1*137.036*pm*c^2)*(4pi*A*137.036)=En*L produce photon r=En=ch/L=chR=me*(c/137.036)^2/2=13.6*e[1.602*10^-19], deduce weak force unite g(p) with k*e^2 by pm/me=1836.1527=4pi*137.036^2/128.51991=1/(4*A1*137.036^3)=(pi/(128.4980143*A*137.036))^0.5, deduce (me/pm)^2/137.036=2pi*0.001161409725*(me/pm)^2=128.4980143*A/3.1415926=2.16*10^-9=0.00116592026 - 0.00116591810 = (0.001165920+((61-41)+(57-25))*10^-9/2) - (0.00116584719+6845*10^-7+154*10^-8+92*10^-9) : discrepancy of muon magnetic moment of (g-2)/2 factor between experiment data, theoretical prediction from Fermilab at 8/10/23, 85.73% ratio between muon[105 mev=(3*137.036/2)*0.511], electron[0.511 mev=me*c^2=g*m^2*137.036/A] decay from strong force by 14.27=A/(3*137.036*(A-A1))=128.51991/(3*137.036*(128.51991-128.49801421207))=128.49801421207/3^2 where A1=a8(128.4980143/128.51991)=5.2908712*10^-11 meter : vibration of 3 two dimensional Schwinger-Dyson quantum field ch=2pi*l*m*c^2=2pi*pl*pm*c^2/4.1888=2pi*A*me*c^2/137.036 by ADS/CFT duality from 3 quantum black hole l, pl, A^2 which can compose q unique extra 6 dimensional Calabi-Yau manifold fits our universe cause Einstein's Brownian motion we can observe, deduce 2^(1/6)*ch=125 Gev : Higgs boson from super symmetry 1/137.036=e^2/(2*ch*p)=k*e^2/g*m^2 unite QM with GR, ch=111.44 Gev[1.602*10^-19/c^2], p=8.85418782*10^-12, u=4pi*10^-7 : permittivity, permeability of free space ch=2pi*g*(137.036*up*e-/l)*(137.036*up*e+/l) which's quantize Maxwell equation for EM wave.
Great conversation and location
A probability experiment that can give a value that string theory tells can prove and improve our understanding of nature at microscopic level and connect to the macroscopic level.
I wish Ed would do more interviews, this is such a treat.
Every word has a meaning. Every word may not mean the same to the other people in conversation.
Everything in the world is connected. This would mean even the landscape on the planet has logical and scientific reasons.
Thank you for this video
What do the Twistors of Roger Penrose and the Hopf Fibrations of Eric Weinstein and the "Belt Trick" of Paul Dirac have in common?
In Spinors it takes two complete turns to get down the "rabbit hole" (Alpha Funnel 3D--->4D) to produce one twist cycle (1 Quantum unit).
Can both Matter and Energy be described as "Quanta" of Spatial Curvature? (A string is revealed to be a twisted cord when viewed up close.) Mass= 1/Length, with each twist cycle of the 4D Hypertube proportional to Planck’s Constant.
In this model Alpha equals the compactification ratio within the twistor cone, which is approximately 1/137.
1= Hypertubule diameter at 4D interface
137= Cone’s larger end diameter at 3D interface where the photons are absorbed or emitted.
The 4D twisted Hypertubule gets longer or shorter as twisting or untwisting occurs. (720 degrees per twist cycle.)
If quarks have not been isolated and gluons have not been isolated, how do we know they are not parts of the same thing? The tentacles of an octopus and the body of an octopus are parts of the same creature.
Is there an alternative interpretation of "Asymptotic Freedom"? What if Quarks are actually made up of twisted tubes which become physically entangled with two other twisted tubes to produce a proton? Instead of the Strong Force being mediated by the constant exchange of gluons, it would be mediated by the physical entanglement of these twisted tubes. When only two twisted tubules are entangled, a meson is produced which is unstable and rapidly unwinds (decays) into something else. A proton would be analogous to three twisted rubber bands becoming entangled and the "Quarks" would be the places where the tubes are tangled together. The behavior would be the same as rubber balls (representing the Quarks) connected with twisted rubber bands being separated from each other or placed closer together producing the exact same phenomenon as "Asymptotic Freedom" in protons and neutrons. The force would become greater as the balls are separated, but the force would become less if the balls were placed closer together. Therefore, the gluon is a synthetic particle (zero mass, zero charge) invented to explain the Strong Force. The "Color Force" is a consequence of the XYZ orientation entanglement of the twisted tubules. The two twisted tubule entanglement of Mesons is not stable and unwinds. It takes the entanglement of three twisted tubules to produce the stable proton.
Kindly write a paper and send it to a Journal if you think you have something interesting to say. Stop wasting your time writing long youtube comments out of context. You welcome
@@youtubesucks1885 Based on the six thumbs up above, at least six people disagree with you. Apparently, it was not a waste of time for them. If you have a specific constructive criticism of what is in the article, I will be glad to look at it.
@@SpotterVideo 6 thumbs up from random people. Well, that is what I call a scientific debate. Rly putting your ideas to a test
@@youtubesucks1885 We would like to see your solution to the problem.
@@SpotterVideo If I had a solution to the confinement problem in non-abelian gauge theory in four-dimensions, I would publish it and not write it in the UA-cam comment section. I mean you are better than these minions of Woit Hossenfelder and Weinstein. Try to put you ideas into math who knows what will happen
Nice interview !!!
yall at 30:00 til the end of the video i didnt hear anything but random english words that sounded familiar. im not even kidding i didnt understand or follow a single topic that was spoken about and im not even high.
Dimensions of space can be individually studied and in relation to other dimensions. Can we relate the higher dimensions like study any two dimensions like x and y or x and z or y and z?.
“String Theory has been very successful “ has it??
Indeed only a fool would deny that.
Newton's theory has been very successful. Even though it has been completely replaced by other theories.
It still describes most of our observations in everyday life.
Most enjoyable, thank you++
David Olive was my supervisor for a while, while Salam asked me to learn Chern Simons. They both had a very high opinion of Witten. I didn’t realise Witten had travelled to London to explicity speak to Olive around 2 decades before he rehighlghted Olive's work on duality and that he, Witten, had been skeptical previously. That was about 5 years after I had left physics, so I wasn't even aware when Witten started marketing duality. One other comment intrigues me. Witten says that Sidney Coleman showed him several serious papers that were almost entirely unknown. This says something about how some important work is left unadressed, unrecognised and wasted.
Very interesting, informative and worthwhile video.
Can someone tell me how long a string is and what the string is made of ? Thank you .
Depends on the shoe size.
Just a theory.
How many balls of string does it take to reach the moon? Just one but a very big one.
Planck-length scale. They are not made of constituent parts, as they are fundamental. Any current theory of physics you accept also does not go below some fundamental posited unit, and so the base unit can never be described as being “made of something.” Since it makes up matter, some will say it to be “made of energy,” but matter is not exactly the same concept as energy, and even if it were exact equivalence that is more of a semantic trick than a sensible statement. Though, even the idea that anything we can conceive of must be “made of” something is just macro level colloquial intuition.
@@pookz3067 Thank you… very good explanation.
@@pookz3067 Well, not too quick. You said: "...even the idea that anything we can conceive of must be “made of” something is just macro level colloquial intuition." Which is a contradiction. As one can also say that the every idea that there are some ultimate fundamental units in existence is an anthropocentric concept to begin with. More importantly. Let's assume that we have two distinct fundamental units that are supposedly simple and without parts; now the question is, what makes the first unit different than the second one? There should be some attributes in place that makes them different in one way or another, logic 101, otherwise the whole argument would collapse. Now, if one responds to that by saying that they're all identical as they're fundamentally speaking ultimately simple units, then why not calling them just one single unit being shared in infinite time and space continuum? And if one comes up and say that they're different units, but their difference has nothing to do with them being composed of constituent parts, then the question arises that, what are those differences?
Yet another question is, that WHERE exactly the boundaries, or borders for one units begins, and where it ends? And what's the nature of the in-between spaces between such so-called simple units? To even make it more absurd, we can bring the notion of time into this, and ask if all such units engage with one another, and if so, are they dynamic within time? And is that time a continuous or discrete in nature? ...
I also couldn’t stop chuckling when I realized the BPS spectrum could be physical . Now if I only knew what it all means .
BPS (Bogomolny-Prasad-Sommerfeld) states satisfy certain energy bounds, which are derived from the topolology of the vacuum manifold of the theory. An example in ordinary field theory are instantons.
@@youtubesucks1885 Thank you… Even though I listened to the whole conversation I only understood perhaps 20%…. And those were mainly the filler words .
Can mathematic analysis be improved to mathematical design by evolving the terms used and this helped to touch higher dimensions?
How many of Witten's works give predictions for measurable quantities, and how many of his predictions have been confirmed experimentally?
Witten is a priest, not a scientist.
@@danhoward7697 I hope that's a criticism.
Insane that Witten hasn’t been on Lex F yet.
Bros on another level
I hope atleast dwarkesh or curt jaimungal interview him in long-form so his knowledge is shared.
Lex will ask him about things and people Ed doesnt want to adress
No one outside the scientific community would have a clue what he's talking about.
Both are Jewish so it's only a matter of time
This is awesome.
If you want to know how string theory may be right with experimental evidence check this out. thermodynamicfields.wordpress.com/2021/09/26/example-post-3/
At the end. Witten say it's as if the universe was created by a mathematician. How interesting. A virtuoso in music might say it was might have been by a musician. The list goes on. But in any case, Witten is truly a virtuoso in his field.
He does have a very distinctive speech pattern. I wonder how much this is determined by how his mind works or if it's just a superficial habit. Fascinating man though, also comes over as absolute gent as well.
Finally he is back on a new interview on yt…
He seems very comfortable & having a good time.
Thanks for the upload
Can dimensions be skewed?
KNOWING The phase waves of light All OF, will help string theory advance but also charges of the AFOREMENTIONED need to be known as well as CMB interactions on the AFOREMENTIONED are different depending on an areas temp , complex things dimensions ???
Are dimensions infinitely long? Is a circle or ellipse also a dimension?
If there is anything problematic about String Theoretical Vibration analysis of apparent circumstances, it is in the congruence of functional interpretation that goes back and forth from students to teacher in the usual cycles of teaching-learning coincidental correspondences, cause-effect.., which is why learning by doing apprenticeship is slightly different in practice to absorbing conventional studies and word recognition.
Because Semantic symbology analysis is "across all observation" that begins with childhood memory transfers, that are much more visceral than industrial scale educational programs are suited to.
To catch up with the leaders of knowledge requires an overhaul of teaching language and experience in "artistic" symbology, which is to say, restore some sort of feedback mechanism equivalent to the apprenticeship style of eyes and ears study of actions that make the words, sights and sounds in reciprocation-recirculation recognition of amplitude-frequency temporal superposition wave-packaging.
He is getting the recognition he deserves. It's time people start knowing who this guy is as he is in the same league as Einstein, Newton and Dirac.
The GOAT
Where's his Nobel Prize????
This was entertaining, I did not understand the vast majority of it but it gave me the strong feeling that there is a great deal I can still learn (after I learn a bunch of prerequisites for it first), I am young and while I'm not the smartest it brings me joy that people are studying plausible mathematical structures that may underlie how the universe works and how to explain it precisely and consistently. Even if string theory does not turn out to be the most fruitful approach (which it very well may) I would be surprised if some of the related mathematical dualities that may have roots in more physically grounded correspondences do not turn out to be useful. Thank you for the video.
A theoretical physicist wins a field medal.... There is nothing more than this to say about his legacy...
To the people who are arguing down there is a quote by Hilbert
“Physics is becoming too difficult for the physicist ”
I know you meant it as a compliment but this can be interpreted differently too lol
Except he's a sheep that has pushed string for his whole life which is basically a deadens, he singlehandedly hijacked modem physics and is responsible for ruining thousands of careers so it you ask anyone who knows will tell you he has done absolutely nothing
Where are all the great findings regarding string theory?
Indeed bro ❤
@@EsdrasOlivaresPcmasterracetalking a lot of shit for someone that knows nothing about what they’re talking about
I love the shirt Atish is wearing 😅
Edward witten is just amazing beautiful mind
Dr. Witten's eloquence and articulation often evoke the same sense of awe that comes from reading Nietzsche, his words seamlessly blending science with poetry. As he ages, especially following the recent passing of Dr. Daniel Dennett (whose work had a profound impact on my questioning of the religious indoctrination I experienced in my youth), I can't help but wonder how much longer Witten will continue to shape the intellectual landscape. I hope that before his time ends, we might witness the emergence of a digital intelligence that possesses his remarkable grasp of mathematics and physics. The thoughts he would have on such a creation would be both insightful and deeply thought-provoking.
''the emergence of a digital intelligence'' is typical of the non-sense b-s of these 'experts'. In 40 years, string theory has not produced a single verifiable prediction in the real world of physics. Theoretical physics has suffered terribly as a result of the monopoly of resources by string theory culture and fanatics. Common-sense and truthfulness must return to physics.
I just learned with this comment that Daniel Dennett passed away :(, he was influential in my atheism
Very distinguished physicist? Understatement of all space-time.
This is an anomalistic covering of ‘compact’ in the classifications of Ed Wittens
He talks about a black hole being a quantum sphere which is something they arrived at for information preservation reasons? but could you ask him if the propagation speed of gravity means that the mass/gravity also has to be a quantum sphere or the propagation couldn't escape? and if so does that tell us a lot about how quantum gravity is or does it hide in nasty infinities in the math.
👍🤟 Continue looking...
Really you should put ad on this !????
Now it may be asked why these hidden variables should have so long remained undetected.
~Bohm
Well, obviously the extra dimensions have to be different somehow because otherwise we would notice them.
~Green
If you ask a physicist what is his idea of yellow light, he will tell you that it is transversal electromagnetic waves of wavelength in the neighborhood of 590 millimicrons. If you ask him: But where does yellow comes in? he will say: In my picture not at all, but these kinds of vibrations, when they hit the retina of a healthy eye, give the person whose eye it is the sensation of yellow.
~Schrödinger
What we see depends on light entering the eye. Furthermore we do not even perceive what enters the eye. The things transmitted are waves or - as Newton thought - minute particles, and the things seen are colors. Locke met this difficulty by a theory of primary and secondary qualities. Namely, there are some attributes of the matter which we do perceive. These are the primary qualities, and there are other things which we perceive, such as colors, which are not attributes of matter, but are perceived by us as if they were such attributes. These are the secondary qualities of matter.
Why should we perceive secondary qualities? It seems an unfortunate arrangement that we should perceive a lot of things that are not there. Yet this is what the theory of secondary qualities in fact comes to.
~Whitehead
Correct. It is all about the gradient of the interface.
Thus the colors with their various qualities and intensities fulfill the axioms of vector geometry if addition is interpreted as mixing; consequently, projective geometry applies to the color qualities.
~Weyl
The principle of duality in projective geometry states that we can interchange point and line in a theorem about figures lying in one plane and obtain a meaningful statement. Moreover, the new or dual statement will itself be a theorem - that is, it can be proven. On the basis of what has been presented here we cannot see why this must always be the case for the dual statement. However, it is possible to show by one proof that every rephrasing of a theorem of projective geometry in accordance with the principle of duality must be a theorem.
~Kline
The joke at 14:50 is so sweet. It shows me that great physicists are funny people.
Are there practical applications/implications of his works? Any examples are welcome
Yes in condensed matter physics and GR it is of practical use, which is astonishing considering the gap between theoretical physics and the current ability of experimental physics.
Descartes is watching
If you want to know how string theory may be right with experimental evidence check this out. thermodynamicfields.wordpress.com/2021/09/26/example-post-3/
But Newton's theory also beautifully explains things although it is not essentially accurate.
Calculus, probability and statistics and big data will change the way physical formulas will be derived in microscopic level and macroscopic level.
I watched most of this and I don't really have a clue what hes saying.
The duality may be like perception of few blind men who thought the ear of an elephant as a fan, the stomach as wall the tail as a rope, etc and etc.
17:18 these guys really crack me up !
Hahah! Might as well be two chipmunks giggling over a stash of nuts, but they are the two brightest minds of our generation and I have no idea what the joke is about!
We are all allowed to have dreams, aren't we? Even a very far and difficult one. Hopefully, with dualities/correspondence (and the hard work of great minds such as Prof Witten), we will not only be able to unify all physics but also all math in a single unified "theory"
@user-mc8wi2lg2m yeah. Maybe so, unfortunately
the goat
I feel incredibly honoured that I was offered the wonderful opportunity of being part of the effort to give the final form to this historic video. (Just to introduce myself, I am a string theory postdoc at ICTP and I frequently collaborate with Professor Dabholkar.)
Dr Witten’s voice has a magical touch. When he speaks, the stars in the nearby galaxies dance tango
This is pure poetry.
Wonderful survey! Thank you both. But imo the biggest elephant in the room that all Physicists refuse to address is Reductionism. Not the castrated modern definition of "big things are made of smaller things," but the old Greek one (that of Plato's cave): How much of ontological reality can we understand via its categories (aka features, or attributes), that can be represented in named ink squiggles? What of the parts that cannot be so categorized? Because if there are no categories, there's no math, and without math, there's also no Physics. And quite clearly, Quantum Physics shows that in some regions of the universe (below the Planck length, e.g.) categories do not exist. Or rather, they both exist and don't exist, or maybe even neither... i.e., the elephant question is, how can we understand the parts of the universe where categories are absent? E.g.: The proton can be shown to be both bigger and smaller than its components, depending on how we measure it. Or are the categories "smaller than" and "bigger than" absent in these regions? How then to handle them? That is one manifestation of the problem, but there are of course many others. Iow, Physics must address Greek Reductionism honestly, before Physics can truly advance. To put it simply, Dubois Reymond's book may have been right, not David Hilbert's cri de coeur in that 1900 Math Congress in Paris.
One has to do real work, or do math. Physics should be real, described in math. I don't know what Sir Witten does?
This is nerd shit to surpass the nerds themselves, nerd² Amazing though. Respect
17:18 -- HAHAHAHAH good one! 😂😂😂
Cool i love this guy
What more does he have to do to be called a mathematician too?!😢❤
Any thing that happens in real life happens twice. Once it is visualised and then becomes reality.
Short sleeves...nice
Unintentional asmr
So relatable.
Ask him about UAP's
This.
String theory is a distraction
I really wish Ed Witten would do a podcast. In addition to physics, I bet it would be super interesting to hear his thoughts on a lot of other academic / non-academic subjects too.
A True Lgened 👍
I love how they lol on stuff that in 100 years. I would never even come close to understanding.
A wild Ed Witten appears.
How pity is that one of the greatest minds in human history lost his scientific life to such an unfruitful topic like the string theory. Can you imagine what huge advance in the REAL parts of physics we missed :(
Yep, but insights we gained from ST have been useful in next development of the physics such as ads/ cft conjecture.
Nature does not care about your feelings. He is a hero because he did persue a theory which we will not be able to test for a long time. Until now it just revolutionized parts of math and condensed matter physics and gives explanations to the why and how of everything
I think the late 20th century will be seen as a bit of a bizarre era in physics due to string theory. As Witten notes, the signs are that it’s on the right track, but it seems like it’s the surface of a far deeper and more advanced physics that we just don’t have the tools (intellectually or experimentally) to fully knit together yet, and may not for a significant amount of time. Like something that will fall out of vogue soon and be essentially forgotten, before being rediscovered and fleshed out in 200 years time.
Witten has been unique in making his contributions to mathematics and physics which is virtually impossible to do given the specialization of the fields at this point in history, and will be remembered for this, and isn’t a bad epitaph.
He also has a great attitude to teaching and not shutting himself away in his office only working on his own stuff.
It’s all planned. Unification of gravity and its tangential practical applications (use cases ) has the potential to disrupt many things.
For the few skeptics: You are not even wrong😮 Fermat may not have found the proof of his last conjecture, yet it stemmed a huge development in mathematics, let alone his legacy. Professor Witten is one of those living legends whose impact has been and will be resonating with Humanity for the next millennia. Amazing that we can listen to him and watch these videos of such a great mind.