Are there 10^272,000 Universes? - Numberphile

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  • Опубліковано 27 чер 2022
  • Featuring Tony Padilla. Check brilliant.org/numberphile for Brilliant and get 20% off their premium service (episode sponsor)
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  • Наука та технологія

КОМЕНТАРІ • 760

  • @numberphile
    @numberphile  Рік тому +72

    Check out more like this on our physics channel "Sixty Symbols" at: ua-cam.com/users/sixtysymbols
    Including some more multiverse videos: bit.ly/MultiverseVids
    Details for Tony's book...
    Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them: A Cosmic Quest from Zero to Infinity
    Amazon US - amzn.to/3JYQbws
    Amazon UK - amzn.to/3M3yvB8
    MacMillan US - us.macmillan.com/books/9780374600570/fantasticnumbersandwheretofindthem
    Penguin UK - www.penguin.co.uk/books/316/316964/fantastic-numbers-and-where-to-find-them/9780241445372.html

    • @smlanka4u
      @smlanka4u Рік тому

      The first universe could expand forever making island universes in between. Gravity (Gravitons) would bring all the matter back to the center as a rain of High Energy Plasma of elementary particles. Gravitons would turn back and return to the center of the universe and accelerate all the matter making them high-energy particles. And then, they would cool down and become compact objects again. Likely, the first expansion of matter happened during the Vivatta Asaṃkhyeya Kalpa. And then, galaxies formed during the Vivattai Kalpa. The universe would contract during the Sanvatta Kalpa. Planets keep destroying during the Sanvattai Kalpa. If we put the first expansion of matter to the end, then Mahā-Kalpa starts from Vivattai Kalpa. I developed a theory to explain the expansion of the first universe. And I could derive the fundamental forms of matter that we call elementary particles.

    • @peterburgess9735
      @peterburgess9735 Рік тому +1

      If gravity was weaker, you'd presumably need to tweak other parameters (like the strength of dark energy) to stop matter flying appart too quickly. Weaker gravity would presumably mean slower creation of stars and planets too, and lower chance of larger planets with decent atmospheres to create a safe environment, and different orbits around stars and all sorts. I can imagine some counter effects to the increase in tech progress that lower gravity could cultivate

    • @mlmimichaellucasmontereyin6765
      @mlmimichaellucasmontereyin6765 Рік тому

      @@things_leftunsaid Yes, of course they can do a video on the topic, but not on the "dimesionality" of non-existent spacetime. Dimensionality is a subsidiary principle of form & structure, the metalogical principles that enable our concept & perception of places as having "space" and/or existing in a place having "space" and duration. Time is a conceptual construct or a measure of our limited perception of change. What changes is the totality of the 'field' of being's energy (enabling the present moment of the cosmos). So, the topic & its untestable, unprovable subject & concepts are pure nonsense, not science, nor holistic ontology concerning the reality of being (the cosmos).

    • @mlmimichaellucasmontereyin6765
      @mlmimichaellucasmontereyin6765 Рік тому

      @Joe Duke Bravo! Hence, the name is appropriate (i.e., "uni-" = unitary). It's also the only one we can perceive, detect, study, test, and prove real. Everything else is totally unscientific BS & sci-fi fantasy or fictional.

  • @youtubersingingmoments4402
    @youtubersingingmoments4402 Рік тому +188

    They used a giant sheet of the ritualistic brown paper just to write down one number that was already in the title. I love it.

  • @Bradley_UA
    @Bradley_UA Рік тому +507

    I love how Brady doesn't pretend to understand it, but manages to ask really good questions on the spot.

    • @NoNameAtAll2
      @NoNameAtAll2 Рік тому +4

      ку, брудли
      как жизнь сс13 админа?

    • @DanielQRT
      @DanielQRT Рік тому +33

      asking good questions is a skill in itself

    • @Bradley_UA
      @Bradley_UA Рік тому +2

      @@NoNameAtAll2 ого! Ну жизнь так себе с учетом того что сервера у меня нет, а еще меня пытаются загрифонить в ИРЛ. Ну а так все пучком.

    • @vkvk3525
      @vkvk3525 Рік тому +13

      Brady's probably smarter than you think. You just fall for the persona he creates.

    • @andrewkepert923
      @andrewkepert923 Рік тому +10

      It’s Brady’s superpower.

  • @rashaseden7062
    @rashaseden7062 Рік тому +604

    I enjoy Brady's "man on the street" approach, asking questions we would ask, while giving a platform (and brown paper with a Sharpie) for the experts to explain their topic. Well done series, and appreciated.

    • @jack504
      @jack504 Рік тому +17

      It's almost as if he trained as a journalist 😂

    • @noeatnosleep
      @noeatnosleep Рік тому +10

      I absolutely agree. He more or less asked the questions I was about to be upset about, right when I wanted to ask them. 🔥

    • @ArawnOfAnnwn
      @ArawnOfAnnwn Рік тому +12

      @@jack504 He's better than most journalists. Most of the time they just ask useless rhetorical questions.

    • @geekjokes8458
      @geekjokes8458 Рік тому

      no wonder he won A MEDAL OF THE ORDER OF AUSTRALIA

    • @jamirimaj6880
      @jamirimaj6880 Рік тому +2

      @@jack504 Perfect description of him: a math journalist.

  • @AGENTX506
    @AGENTX506 Рік тому +141

    For anyone looking for some intuition about how you could 'hide' extra dimensions, imagine a flat 2D universe where you can move up/down and left/right. We could fold this plane into a vertical cylinder by connecting the left and right 'edges' together. Moving up/down would still move you as if you were in a flat 2D universe as normal, but moving left/right around the cylinder would quickly put you back where you started. If the radius of this cylinder was made arbitrarily small then moving left or right would effectively not change your position at all. Congrats, you've essentially turned a 2D universe into a 1D universe by hiding a dimension.

    • @piyushpathak1186
      @piyushpathak1186 Рік тому +12

      Wow thanks for sharing

    • @invictor2761
      @invictor2761 Рік тому +14

      backrooms = escaping the cylinder.

    • @ikitclaw7146
      @ikitclaw7146 Рік тому +6

      Very well put, this is a really intuitive way to think about this subject.

    • @cyborgninjamonkey
      @cyborgninjamonkey Рік тому +3

      If you take the folded 2 →1 dimension and make it's length arbitrarily small, you get a 2D universe disguised as... wait, let's start with a 3D cube universe and make the height arbitrarily small before the folding transform, so it's a whole 3D universe; as for what's in it, no reason to assume the same kind of stuff as our universe, how about we put some kind of field with imaginary mass and the result is... another 3D universe with new forces and fields that is a non-interacting volumeless point particle.
      If the properties of this universe happen to satisfy the equations for some unsolved problem, well, it sure seems *convenient* that it's hiding and therefore it existence can't be disproven. Just the things that would need to be true for the equations you chose to explain some observed phenomenon, simply can't be helped that there's no way to try to falsify the hypothesis. Unfalsifiable, if you will.

    • @AGENTX506
      @AGENTX506 Рік тому +7

      @@cyborgninjamonkey I'll be sure to pass your skepticism along to the annual string theorist conference, where the world's leading physicists scour youtube comments for critique.
      Sarcasm aside, I'm not here to comment on what is or isn't - I'm just here to pass along an intuitive understanding of the discussion topic.

  • @morkmon
    @morkmon Рік тому +332

    Man questions like 3:00 is why brady is one of the best in the biz, it was what I was wondering too. Thanks for all the effort you all put into these videos, they are fantastic.

    • @cruxofthecookie
      @cruxofthecookie Рік тому +7

      And 4:32 as well.

    • @ryanjohnson4565
      @ryanjohnson4565 Рік тому +4

      I don’t know how he does it

    • @kindlin
      @kindlin Рік тому +2

      He's an intelligent interviewer, something relatively rare in today's age. UA-cam, of all things, is bringing that back, and it's always nice seeing someone ask probing questions that engage the interviewee that really lets their passion show.

    • @smlanka4u
      @smlanka4u Рік тому

      I made a verifiable theory to derive the forms of matter and the universe. It is a much better theory than string theory. I could verify that theory using Buddhist teachings about fundamental elements, etc. So, I'm sure that it is the correct theory.

    • @morkmon
      @morkmon Рік тому +2

      @@smlanka4u i dont think most physics papers accept that as a basis for theories

  • @DakotaFiles
    @DakotaFiles Рік тому +93

    I think this has been one of my favourite "impossible to understand 10 dimensional multiverse"-type video. Very approachable conversation despite the complexity behind what is being discussed!

  • @kdSU30
    @kdSU30 Рік тому +118

    Brody always asks very pointed questions! Amazing!

    • @pedror598
      @pedror598 Рік тому +6

      That's what so great about his channels. The questions are aways great

    • @_Insert_Username
      @_Insert_Username Рік тому

      I am pretty sure they are scripted

    • @kdSU30
      @kdSU30 Рік тому +8

      @@_Insert_Username I don’t think so.

    • @GrandPianoGamer
      @GrandPianoGamer Рік тому +5

      Who's "Brody"?

    • @haumea22
      @haumea22 Рік тому +1

      *Brady

  • @stevealikonis9467
    @stevealikonis9467 Рік тому +39

    I'm far from a math dude (I did take Math up until I was a sophomore in college but stopped) but videos like this is why this is one of my favorite channels. They really distill complex problems enough that I can mostly understand yet fully appreciate.

  • @adarshmohapatra5058
    @adarshmohapatra5058 Рік тому +6

    7:00 "computational power of an 'ultimate laptop' with a mass of one kilogram confined to a volume of one liter." The most computational physic-y thing I've heard

  • @heaslyben
    @heaslyben Рік тому +11

    There's something provocative, perhaps profound, about the large Numberphile paper with nothing on it besides "10^272,000".

  • @fritz46
    @fritz46 Рік тому +21

    String theory is the most complex way to say "We don't know."

  • @LemonArsonist
    @LemonArsonist Рік тому +81

    Saying String Theory is our best candidate for quantum gravity is such a contentious thing to say.
    A LOT of physicist would say string theory is highly unlikely to be true at this point.

  • @Rubbergnome
    @Rubbergnome Рік тому +142

    If I may make a comment, Calabi-Yau compactifications of 10d strings are not the only way to go. String theory can in principle work in other dimensions and/or other backgrounds, and braneworld models offer alternatives to compactification. It's a wild landscape out there... beware of the swampland ;) cheers!

    • @ganonscrub
      @ganonscrub Рік тому +3

      But do they factor in dark energy equations?

    • @sk8pkl
      @sk8pkl Рік тому +8

      I dont get the multiverse thing. If there are multiple "universes" dont they make a single "universe" all together? Can the word universe even be plurial? Are "dimensions" just a misconception of orders of magnitudes/ocatves within the wave stucture of the universe?

    • @Rubbergnome
      @Rubbergnome Рік тому +9

      @@ganonscrub Dark energy is an open problem in string theory. There are hints that is impossible to realize it as a positive cosmological constant within compactifications (this is the "de Sitter conjecture"). On the other hand, braneworld models arising from certain metastable vacua do yield positive cosmological constant (finding a stringy construction of this scenario was the result of a paper of mine, actually :) ), but it is yet to be established whether the rest of the physics would be as we want (namely general relativity + stuff, which in compactifications works perfectly). Yet another option is to realize dark energy in compactifications but not as a positive cosmological constant, rather as some sort of quintessence.

    • @Rubbergnome
      @Rubbergnome Рік тому +3

      @@sk8pkl I would say that in this context "multiverse" refers to what is usually called a "landscape". That is, a set of possible realizations of the one physical universe. Different vacuum-like states of the same universe, if you will.

    • @mastershooter64
      @mastershooter64 Рік тому

      is it possible to find some fancy complex or hypercomplex manifolds into which we can compactify these extra dimensions and get a much smaller number than 10^272,000 perhaps something like 10^12 which is easier to search with a computer or something

  • @shufflecat3334
    @shufflecat3334 Рік тому +30

    Two people were walking through the park when they came upon a chess board laid out all by itself on a table.
    "It looks like someone was in the middle of a game"
    "Yeah... Huh, it's funny, out of all of the possible configurations the board could have been in when we found it, that it should be THIS one that we find"
    "Do you think there's other chess boards in this park?"
    "It's not impossible"
    "Do you think every possible combination of chess board is here?"
    "Hah! No, the shear number of-"
    "Do you think there's a chess board where Hitler is a penguin???"
    "Excuse me?"
    This is basically what the multiverse conversation sounds like.

    • @ps.2
      @ps.2 Рік тому +9

      Yes! Except that somehow there is absolutely no way to look around the park to see if there be, in fact, any other chessboards, and if so, what they look like. All you can do is talk about the possibilities.

    • @gcewing
      @gcewing Рік тому +9

      And then some physicists come up with Chess Theory, and get roundly criticised because there's no way to tell which of the vast number of possible chess games leads to the board configuration that was found.

    • @knxcholx
      @knxcholx Рік тому

      @@ps.2 sure. But then you could also spend that time trying to find out if it's possible, doing something else that actually will make a difference in the world

  • @jorgechavesfilho
    @jorgechavesfilho Рік тому +8

    "Speculative scientific ideas fail not just when they make incorrect predictions, but also when they turn out to be vacuous and incapable of predicting anything." (Peter Woit)

  • @BLClark-wf2yk
    @BLClark-wf2yk Рік тому +5

    I love this show so damn much. Please don’t ever stop making content

  • @widearchshark3981
    @widearchshark3981 Рік тому +6

    It did take Dr Strange a while to work out which one could defeat Thanos. So yeah, I'm comfortable with this number.

    • @variousthings6470
      @variousthings6470 Рік тому +2

      Compared to the number in this video, Dr Strange's 14,000,605 is essentially zero!

  • @prikarsartam
    @prikarsartam Рік тому +29

    properly getting to those key questions, really shows how intuitively strong Brady Haran is, also that says why he's such a great scientific documentarian.

  • @rickshermantal5002
    @rickshermantal5002 Рік тому +2

    omg these are my favourite Numberphile videos, those about big numbers with Tony. I love it!

  • @DesmodiumGames
    @DesmodiumGames Рік тому +1

    Brilliant video, great questions and visualisations and loads of enthusiasm from Tony who had me captivated from the start! So interesting!

  • @OhhCrapGuy
    @OhhCrapGuy Рік тому +29

    I think that we have to be careful when interpreting "number of solutions" to a model as "number of extant cases". If we model the speed of a car that is slowing down as "Speed = SqRt(-x)", where x = 0 is the time that the car stops, we can see the curve of the car coming to a stop. But of course positive values of X are valid solutions to the equation, they just result in a speed with an imaginary component. Does that mean that the car has an imaginary speed after it stops? Well, i mean if we use the plain english definition of "imaginary", sure, but that's a semantic game. The truth is that our model of the universe gives many *real* solutions to the equation when x is negative, and many nonsense solutions to the equation when x is positive. So it's possible that a string theory model could provide 10^1000^2 solutions, but not all of those solutions reflect anything in reality.
    And similarly, when you look at your model and then observe the car instantaneously, you will find only one solution to your equation ever actually matches reality. Which means even if every solution in string theory is viable and a sensible solution which reflects a possible structure to the universe, it doesn't mean that all of those solutions are actually reflected in reality. Maybe only 7 of those solutions actually exist in reality, maybe only 1, maybe all of them.

    • @invictor2761
      @invictor2761 Рік тому +1

      imaginary numbers exist as a concept, there is just application we can use them for in reality.

    • @saxy1player
      @saxy1player Рік тому

      You say "in reality". You cannot conceive any universe but your own so dismissing them on account of being imaginary is a mistake on account of being unable to even imagine a "different universe"

    • @OhhCrapGuy
      @OhhCrapGuy Рік тому +1

      @@saxy1player I literally said that perhaps all of them exist. I have no idea why you're criticizing a point I explicitly didn't make.

    • @OhhCrapGuy
      @OhhCrapGuy Рік тому +1

      @@invictor2761 The fact that imaginary numbers don't reflect reality in this particular case doesn't mean that I'm not keenly aware that imaginary numbers are actually part of real meaningful solutions in quantum mechanics.
      I specifically said that comparing "imaginary numbers" to the common meaning of "imaginary" is a semantic game. I'm not going to play that game with you.

  • @aditya95sriram
    @aditya95sriram Рік тому +31

    Here's some (hopefully constructive) criticism: Usually I really enjoy the more abstract videos but I felt this one was way too hand-wavy, and the explanation behind how one comes up with such a number remains as much a mystery after the video as it was at the start. I get that string theory is a super-complicated concept but then in terms of "math entertainment" I don't think I got anything out of this video.

    • @tim40gabby25
      @tim40gabby25 Рік тому +3

      I happened to see this video in a noisy environment. The hand waving remained conspicuous. I didn't gain too much, though the thickness of long plank limitations apply.

  • @KatzRool
    @KatzRool Рік тому +32

    Sometimes you've got to wonder who the audience of the string theory videos is. It's at an odd balance between almost too complicated to explain to normal people and almost too simple a video to mean anything to those who know something. Difficult stuff.

    • @blinkcatmeowmeow8484
      @blinkcatmeowmeow8484 Рік тому +3

      But I guess its only for people who love science I guess

    • @Arikayx13
      @Arikayx13 Рік тому +8

      Same, it often gives an air of mysticism to it without ever even seeing the math that literally is the theory.

    • @TimothyReeves
      @TimothyReeves Рік тому +2

      It’s for me. I’m not normal, but I don’t know anything.

  • @davedee6745
    @davedee6745 Рік тому +5

    "There's a compact manifold that wraps up six extra dimensions"
    Like wow, man. That sounds so funky and groovy.

    • @SuviTuuliAllan
      @SuviTuuliAllan Рік тому

      roflmao

    • @fyradur
      @fyradur Рік тому +2

      A manifold is a space "with no sharp edges". So a sphere is a manifold, but a cone or a pyramid is not.
      Compact means it is not infinitely big and all edges are included. If I say "all numbers bigger than 0 and less than 5" then there's no right edge right? 4.9 is not one because 4.99 is closer, but then again 4.999 is closer etc... 5 doesn't work because it isn't less than 5. We need to include the edges 0 and 5 for it to become compact.
      If you tried to put a bunch of pencils 90 degrees all to each other, you would find out that 3 is the maximum. We say that reality has 3 dimensions. If you tried to draw lines on a paper where each line is 90 degrees to each other you would find out 2 is the maximum, we say the paper has 2 dimensions.

    • @methatis3013
      @methatis3013 Рік тому

      @@fyradur what would it mean for a dimensiom to be a manifold though? How would you illustrate that?

    • @fyradur
      @fyradur Рік тому

      @@methatis3013 For a manifold to have a certain dimension, means that if you cut out any piece of your manifold and straighten it out then it becomes a space with that many dimensions.
      So let's take a sphere, if you cut out a piece and straighten it out then it becomes like a flat paper, which has 2 dimensions. Thus a sphere has 2 dimensions.
      Let's say you have a circle. If you cut out a segment and straighten it out then it looks like a straight line, which has 1 dimension.

    • @methatis3013
      @methatis3013 Рік тому

      @@fyradur ah, ok, thanks. Now it's a bit clearer. But what would it mean in the context of string theory? Does it mean that each elemental particle has a multidimensional manifold around it? Does it mean that out entire universe has a couple of multidemnsional manifolds that curl all around it? Im having a hard time understanding in what way do these manifolds "interact" with our space (I know they don't necessarily interact in the real sense of the word. I meant just as an infinite amount of planes is incapsulated in our 3d space, does it mean that we are incapsulated in higher dimension space?)

  • @MarekKowalczyk
    @MarekKowalczyk Рік тому +21

    Entertaining as it Is, this is no longer science but just mathematical mindsturbation.

  • @nikosje
    @nikosje Рік тому +1

    what a great interview. Full of information. Well done to both interviewer and interviewee

  • @peterromero284
    @peterromero284 Рік тому +4

    When theories predict crazy things that either cannot be tested or disagree with observations, the solution isn’t to discard the theory. It’s to layer even crazier theories on top of it.

    • @josecorchete3732
      @josecorchete3732 Рік тому

      String Theory has proven mathematically a lot of things that we see in the universe, and that other theories failed to explain, or predicted impossible when we could see that were happening. Currently is the best model of the universe that we have.

    • @peterromero284
      @peterromero284 Рік тому

      @@josecorchete3732 what are some predictions it has made that have been shown to match observations?

    • @josecorchete3732
      @josecorchete3732 Рік тому +1

      @@peterromero284 Black holes, dark matter detection, quantum computing.

    • @zackpi7874
      @zackpi7874 Рік тому +1

      @@josecorchete3732 I’m sorry but none of those have anything to do with string theory

  • @overtactsofkindness
    @overtactsofkindness Рік тому +22

    If I understood correctly, wouldn't this be the number of *types* of universes? So, more than one universe with the same type, or configuration, could exist at once?

    • @kurtu5
      @kurtu5 Рік тому +4

      Pretty sure this is what it's saying. So in our we still have the same physical constants, but then you have the extended family of possible multiverses having the same constants. Ones from our comos's inflation period, ones that might exist if the cosmos is infinite and therefore there are infinite hubblespheres.. and etc.

    • @juanausensi499
      @juanausensi499 Рік тому +1

      That's how I understand it.

  • @taakotuesday
    @taakotuesday Рік тому

    god I would just love a crash course exclusively over this subject. it's so complex that even in an amazingly explained video like this one, you're just scratching the surface of the mathematics and the theory behind it

  • @HermanVonPetri
    @HermanVonPetri Рік тому +15

    I very much wish that the label "string theory" had not been applied to what is really the _search_ for a string theory.
    Scientifically, the term theory is meant to be reserved for frameworks that have survived rigorous empirical testing and are now considered foundational explanations of reality in fact.
    Calling it "string theory" makes it difficult to defend the theory of evolution, and the big bang to laymen who relate the term "theory" to unproven guesses.

    • @mikedoe1737
      @mikedoe1737 Рік тому +1

      So, basically, it's a hypothesis.

    • @HermanVonPetri
      @HermanVonPetri Рік тому +1

      @@mikedoe1737 It's many different and incompatible hypotheses. We don't even know if it's even possible to test most of them.

    • @adamqazsedc
      @adamqazsedc Рік тому +1

      What makes a hypothesis in science is that we can test them. String Theory isn't testable to begin with

    • @nmarbletoe8210
      @nmarbletoe8210 Рік тому

      @@adamqazsedc He says string theory predicts negative vacuum energy. Since the vacuum is everywhere... why can't we test it's energy?

  • @wolfpak128
    @wolfpak128 Рік тому +2

    Only one number written on the Brown Paper. Brilliant 👏

  • @raopsepol
    @raopsepol Рік тому +3

    Kudos to Numberphile team to keep the Numberphile alive. I guess the new content is so scarce that this is probably the first time the number was elaborated without any work done on the brown paper; Or maybe the 10-dimension is too complicated for a brown paper.

    • @lyrimetacurl0
      @lyrimetacurl0 6 місяців тому

      It's an infinite subject so unlimited content. Could always make anew video about a number or an update on it. They haven't even done one on my favourite number (4900, the cannonball number).

  • @djayjp
    @djayjp Рік тому +4

    Funny, I remember a paper published around the same time that was claiming that many of the 10^500 universes originally posited were actually contradictory and physically impossible, so the actual number of actually possible universes was much smaller.

  • @Mutual_Information
    @Mutual_Information Рік тому +62

    A wonder if this number could ever be big enough that string theorists would start doubting string theory.

    • @luckyw4ss4bi
      @luckyw4ss4bi Рік тому +34

      Mathematicians are rarely dissuaded by extremely large numbers :)

    • @GaryDunion
      @GaryDunion Рік тому +21

      I would think if anything, it would cast more doubt on string theory if the number was too small!

    • @hughcaldwell1034
      @hughcaldwell1034 Рік тому +6

      @@luckyw4ss4bi I think you hit the nail on the head. String theorists are mathematicians who wish they were physicists. Lord knows why - maths is lots more fun.

    • @TimothyReeves
      @TimothyReeves Рік тому +4

      If 10^272,000 doesn’t do it, then no, I don’t think so.

    • @TheWerelf
      @TheWerelf Рік тому +3

      field theories have infinite number of possible vacua, so maybe we should throw away all field theories lol

  • @dizont
    @dizont Рік тому +2

    I love videos with Tony Padilla!

  • @stevemonkey6666
    @stevemonkey6666 Рік тому +8

    Prof. Padilla is always interesting.

  • @zzstoner
    @zzstoner Рік тому +4

    Remember to always terminate your String theories with a \0.

  • @TimothyReeves
    @TimothyReeves Рік тому

    5:05 “…you can imagine it quite easily…well, not easily, no one knows how to do it.” LOL.

  • @maxtonuponry
    @maxtonuponry Рік тому +13

    It really felt like the universe nodded at him by moving the paper after he said it had positive vacuum energy at 4:19

  • @simesaid
    @simesaid Рік тому +1

    "Not only is the universe stranger than you think, it's stranger than you *can* think!"
    - Werner Heisenberg

  • @gtziavelis
    @gtziavelis Рік тому +6

    10^500, then 10^272000 -- may as well work all the way up to infinity.

    • @orang1921
      @orang1921 Рік тому

      no bc even though there's a large number of differences in position and time across dimensions it's limited - except if the properties of a universe (strength of gravity, etc) are also available to be changed bc you can go to infinitesimal changes with that

    • @Richard-ox6zk
      @Richard-ox6zk Рік тому +1

      That's what you get with scientific theories with no proof.

  • @sakkikoyumikishi
    @sakkikoyumikishi Рік тому +27

    I think it's really interesting that we try to use our own experiences as a frame of reference for potential developments in universes entirely different from our own. Maybe that is also the actual answer to the Fermi paradox: we *have* encountered intelligent alien life. We just didn't recognise it as life because our own frame of reference failed to give us the perspective necessary to realise we are dealing with something alive.

    • @jacobohnstad4432
      @jacobohnstad4432 Рік тому +3

      Yup that's already one of the solutions. Life can exist in unrecognizable ways.

    • @M4rtingale
      @M4rtingale Рік тому +3

      Bigger question is: how did you comment on this video 6 hours before it was published.

    • @dudealllava1208
      @dudealllava1208 Рік тому +2

      @@M4rtingale Only thing i could think of is them bein a member but u cant become a member on this channel...

    • @dudealllava1208
      @dudealllava1208 Рік тому

      @@M4rtingale so idk

    • @dudealllava1208
      @dudealllava1208 Рік тому

      @@M4rtingale maybe they are a patreon member and got it released while it was unlisted

  • @boernsi2000
    @boernsi2000 Рік тому +4

    He must be very careful. If he bends over a little bit more, he might fold up to some dimensions by himself... Thanks for the upload. I dont understand it, but I get the idea. Thats enough for my universe.

  • @youcantata
    @youcantata Рік тому +5

    The huge number is just possibilities of combination, not actual existing universe number. There are huge possibilities in even short gene DNA strings. But actual DNA combinations of existing and long extinct life forms are just tiny, tiny minuscular fraction of such possibilities. Same goes to the Universe. There may be trillions or trillion trillions of universes. Our universe is just very lucky one that can harbor viable galaxy and life. Of course there may be other lucky universes other than ours.

  • @Omnifarious0
    @Omnifarious0 Рік тому +10

    I think string theory is largely pointless. A hypothesis that can't make testable predictions, or that is so amorphous it can predict anything, isn't a hypothesis at all.
    The math might be interesting for its own sake.

    • @adamqazsedc
      @adamqazsedc Рік тому

      Just like prof Moriarty said on Sixty Symbols, "Just because it's beautiful and elegant doesn't mean it's right". And to this very day, String Theory can only provide 'hypothesis', with no actual experimental evidence or testable predictions whatsoever.

    • @nmarbletoe8210
      @nmarbletoe8210 Рік тому

      didn't he say that all solutions had a negative energy? seems testable

  • @paolovallejo5500
    @paolovallejo5500 Рік тому +2

    I loved that whole idea about universes with weaker gravity could harbour more advanced intelligence. What a psychedelic episode.

  • @NateJRauba
    @NateJRauba Рік тому +2

    I feel like watching this is what watching any normal video would seem like if you were high out of your mind

  • @CypressPunk34
    @CypressPunk34 Рік тому +1

    I enjoy how String Theory is both one of the best bets as to how the universe works and also we don't really know that much about how its supposed to work.

  • @stanbridgescientific3969
    @stanbridgescientific3969 Рік тому +7

    Thanks for this very interesting video. An impossible number of weird universes sounds really cool, however, as Richard Feynman said: "it doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiments, it is WRONG!". For example, results from the Large Hadron Collider have not showed evidence of several claims of string theory, like extra dimensions or supersymmetry.There are also many weird, unprovable hypotheses and concpets like negative energy... it makes the equations work somehow but no one really knows what they are. See Tony's expression at 4:35 when he's asked if string theory is wrong. This theory is so complex that no one can really say it is correct.

  • @EstevaoFloripa
    @EstevaoFloripa Рік тому +1

    thank you very much! made my day!

  • @louislouie5037
    @louislouie5037 Рік тому +1

    Our existence could be a simulation in one of those super long lived universes with mass computing power. An experiment about which “abnormal” universal arrangements could produce sentient life. *takes another hit* a friggin mini-verse, like Rick and Morty.

  • @thepuzzlemaker2159
    @thepuzzlemaker2159 Рік тому +1

    I love that string theory gives you an excuse to have cool psychedelic graphics like at 2:40

  • @GaryDunion
    @GaryDunion Рік тому +13

    Are universes always completely insulated from each other, in other words is it always impossible for information to pass from one universe to another? And if so, what does it mean in practice to say that another universe, or whatever number of other universes, "exists"?

    • @Richard-ox6zk
      @Richard-ox6zk Рік тому

      I can give you any answer you want to hear because for nothing in your question is ANY proof.

    • @GaryDunion
      @GaryDunion Рік тому +6

      @@Richard-ox6zk I'm very sorry, I don't understand what you mean by "because for nothing in your question is any proof."

    • @pkarsy
      @pkarsy Рік тому

      I agree it means nothing ! The question of the "existence" of something than cannot be tested with any experiment is not a scientific question.(As Wolfram Pauli said, the question is "not even wrong") Actually a significant number of physicists are unhappy with the last decades trend of "fairy tail physics". And of course the possibility that the string theory describes our universe is practically zero (not a single experiment supports it and the SUSY in witch it is based is dying) let alone the other 10^272,000-1 universes

    • @Wilsbourne
      @Wilsbourne Рік тому +1

      @@GaryDunion Yeah I have no idea what that guy was talking about. What he said wasn't even English lol

    • @abhishekdahal7384
      @abhishekdahal7384 Рік тому

      These kinds of small pockets of conversations, comments within comments are more intresting and funny than the pocket dimensions and dimensions within dimensions he was trying to explain.

  • @Aladin__Aladin
    @Aladin__Aladin Рік тому +1

    I really love the questions you ask, man! This makes the video way more informative and interesting.

  • @ColinBroderickMaths
    @ColinBroderickMaths Рік тому +21

    I studied my MSc at Nottingham and if I remember correctly, Tony did say that he very much thinks string theory is on the right track. Of course the particular details are all subject to change. I'm sure even the people who came up with this number would not put any real stock in it. As Tony said, it's active research.
    So I think his gut feeling is that string theory is right (in fact I think he even said it was "obviously" right!), notwithstanding the details. But it was a few years ago that he told me this so maybe he has changed his outlook.

    • @avantesma1
      @avantesma1 Рік тому +2

      I think Tony was more ansewring the question as framed by this particular problem of number of possible universes.
      For String Theory as a whole, he has an entire video (awesome video, BTW) on Sixty Symbols explaining why it's solid and why he strongly believes in it.

    • @stephenaustin3026
      @stephenaustin3026 Рік тому +1

      I'd very much like him to state explicitly what possible developments - mathematical, theoretical or experimental - could lead him to change his mind about this approach to HEP. That shouldn't be a difficult question for a scientist to answer.

    • @landsgevaer
      @landsgevaer Рік тому +3

      And for a completely opposite view, Sabine Hossenfelder abhors string theory for the almost religious sense of "it must be true because it would be so beautiful" and so far utter lack of testability.
      Oh well, nothing wrong with high-D mathematical recreations with uncertain spin-off, but let's please not call it mainstream physics yet.

    • @Alex_Deam
      @Alex_Deam Рік тому

      Maybe he was hoping the LHC would find evidence of supersymmetry?

    • @stanbridgescientific3969
      @stanbridgescientific3969 Рік тому +1

      I did my PhD in Physics at Cambridge (not in string theory), and as much as I respect all scientists who do great science, string theory has many many issues ... unfortunately. And it seems that the problems with string theory are only becoming bigger and bigger as we discover more.

  • @doublezeroun
    @doublezeroun Рік тому

    you're such a nice and fun channel, thx guies

  • @stevejay8106
    @stevejay8106 Рік тому +2

    Can there be negative gravity in these different universes?

  • @key_coffee
    @key_coffee Рік тому

    The brown paper itself leapt with excitement / surprise at that suggestion at 04:25

  • @ZTenski
    @ZTenski Рік тому +11

    The problem with string theory is that it's mentally pleasing, but fails to make any predictions about anything that can be tested with the scientific method... so it's more of a faith thing than a science thing, at least with current understanding. The only thing even remotely testable is supersymmetry, which is predicted by many models.

    • @adamqazsedc
      @adamqazsedc Рік тому

      All hail experimental evidence!

    • @IceMetalPunk
      @IceMetalPunk Рік тому +5

      I wouldn't call it a "faith thing" so much as a "math thing". It's a mathematical model more than a scientific framework, but that requires at least logical consistency and peer review, making it more rigorous than just faith.

    • @mastershooter64
      @mastershooter64 Рік тому +2

      It makes several predictions, all of which can be tested with the scientific method, but the only problem is that it's far far ahead of it's time, we just don't have the technology yet to test these predictions. (well I personally think that we might have a chance at testing these predictions in the next few decades if we built a really advanced wakefield accelerator that's a 1000 km long lol we have that technology but it's in the early experimental stages also I don't think anyone will be willing to spend that much money on it)

  • @xenialafleur
    @xenialafleur Рік тому +6

    I'm not sure about any of this. Dark matter and dark energy sound too much like the aether. We can't see it, we can't directly detect it (only detect it's affects), but our current theories don't work without it.

    • @handreieiacasa
      @handreieiacasa Рік тому +3

      Dark matter is actually less unknown than dark energy

    • @Arikayx13
      @Arikayx13 Рік тому +4

      Our current theories very much work without it, and that’s why it’s so mysterious! It’s that our current observations that don’t match our current theories that has produced theories on dark matter and dark energy.

  • @kickassgreek
    @kickassgreek Рік тому

    always a great video

  • @laur-unstagenameactuallyca1587

    this is such a beautiful video

  • @dthomason1630
    @dthomason1630 Рік тому +2

    I guess that the string theorists will never give up on string theory even though the only thing they can do is wave their arms and tell us that they are not going into "that". Bring on the unicorns. The most truthful statement made was "We just don't know".

  • @YoutubeHandlesSuckBalls
    @YoutubeHandlesSuckBalls Рік тому +2

    "We've come up with a theory on the true reality of our universe"
    "Cool, can it describe our universe?"
    "Well, we've not been able to do that just yet. But I'm sure we will! Any... minute... now...""

  • @ThePCguy17
    @ThePCguy17 Рік тому +1

    What I don't understand is why extra dimensions are assumed to be 'compressed' or something similar. As I understand it, it's perfectly possible for there to be extra spatial dimensions that aren't compressed at all. We can't interact with them because we're only 3 dimensional and moving exclusively one direction through time, just like a 2D flatlander can't interact with the third dimension. They can still impact our daily life, but we might not recognize them as such right away depending on what that interaction looks like. Why are we so convinced that extra dimensions are hidden and completely undetectable?

  • @overestimatedforesight
    @overestimatedforesight Рік тому +1

    Maybe I've misunderstood badly but the interviewee's tangent on Moore's law appears to be "because I pushed Moore's law past where it applies we can conclude civilizations is cyclical and other species live in low gravity universes"

  • @grayaj23
    @grayaj23 Рік тому +4

    Is it unavoidable that only one of the dimension can be "time"? What would multiple time dimensions imply?

    • @jackhand4073
      @jackhand4073 Рік тому +1

      That was my question!

    • @jackhand4073
      @jackhand4073 Рік тому

      Can the other dimensions be temporal? Or is it always 1 time X spacial?

    • @FleshWizard69420
      @FleshWizard69420 Рік тому

      Multiple timelines existing simultaneously and able to interact, I think.

  • @xenockz
    @xenockz Рік тому +3

    String theory may be our best candidate for quantum gravity, but as I've heard from a professor/someone who's been doing research in the field for 20+ years, it also fails horribly at working with it, and there are many more convincing ways quantum gravity may work.

  • @stevenverhaegen8729
    @stevenverhaegen8729 Рік тому +1

    Love that two-dimensional sheet of brown paper curling around the edge of the desk...😱 Quite a metaphore... 🤭

  • @kamana6435
    @kamana6435 Рік тому +1

    In some distant multiverse some sentient creature has what we would recognise as a VR device and is able to simulate all of the these possible universes and experience them. For us it’s theoretical for them it’s entertainment.

  • @franziscoschmidt
    @franziscoschmidt Рік тому +3

    Well that was a well used brown paper…

  • @MrRandomcommentguy
    @MrRandomcommentguy Рік тому +1

    2:10 The Everything Bagel!

  • @cesarmoreno987y
    @cesarmoreno987y Рік тому

    Great video

  • @mylonoceda
    @mylonoceda Рік тому +1

    Now that's the real Multiverse of Madness

  • @____spacecadet____
    @____spacecadet____ Рік тому

    I'll say it right now - I love this feller's videos on big numbers

    • @numberphile
      @numberphile  Рік тому +1

      You should buy his new book!!! Link in description. ;)

  • @sphakamisozondi
    @sphakamisozondi Рік тому +1

    Brady's questioning skills are underrated.

  • @Frosty-oj6hw
    @Frosty-oj6hw Рік тому +3

    The Moore's law part is a bad take. It was never really a law but an observation about our current technology. But it has been well known in our own tech development that Moore's law is running out, because we're reaching the physical limits of the materials we use. Transistors can only get so small before we can't make them any smaller due to the size and behaviour of atoms at those scales. And we're actually very close to that point right now, each time the transistor size shrinks it becomes harder to research and more expensive, and the jumps in size become less, we're currently using around 7nm nodes, and soon 5nm, and there's an expected pathway likely to 3nm in future and possible a bit less. But it's not seen as likely we'll ever pass that, computing will need a fundamental shift in technology to continue to give us more performance.

    • @juanausensi499
      @juanausensi499 Рік тому

      I also suspect that Moore's law is not a law about technology or physics, but an economic one. In the vein of 'how quickly should i deliver innovations to the market to maximize my profits?'

    • @Frosty-oj6hw
      @Frosty-oj6hw Рік тому

      ​@@juanausensi499 Yeah that's true, and actually the economic factor is baked into Moore's law, which is not something well known. It's not just transistors per area on an IC, but it's also controlled specifically for $ amount to produce that component. So as it becomes more expensive to produce those ICs, even if you can keep shrinking them, if the cost skyrockets, Moore's law is still failing.

  • @xogmaster
    @xogmaster Рік тому +3

    I woke up 20 minutes ago after having a dream about a civilization a few hundred stars away was testing a new technology they developed and cut a star in half while trying to harness the power of it... this caused a gravitational domino effect on all the stars leading up to our very own and threw all of our planets out of sync in our orbit and it was absolute chaos on the streets and news. We were all going to die :/. Then I woke up and saw this video :D So fun!

    • @Taquilou
      @Taquilou Рік тому +1

      You do great dreams

    • @dr.blockcraft6633
      @dr.blockcraft6633 Рік тому +1

      That sounds earily Very similiar To a Video game I played, The outer Wilds.
      have You played It before?

  • @cidercreekranch
    @cidercreekranch Рік тому +2

    10^272,000... Now that's a proportionality constant!

  • @rillloudmother
    @rillloudmother Рік тому +10

    I've been watching numberphile for over a decade now, still so enjoyable!

  • @PC_Simo
    @PC_Simo Рік тому +1

    As someone, who’s come to accept that time is just motion or change; an illusion, of sorts; and that there is not really any separate entity of ”time”; it always irks me, when I hear people referring to time as a dimension 😓.

  • @arnabsngpt95
    @arnabsngpt95 Рік тому +1

    thanks a googol!
    great insights as ever.

  • @NLGeebee
    @NLGeebee Рік тому +3

    @7:00 He has a point there… If you want to calculate the answer to life, the universe and everything, you will need to build a computer the size of planet Earth…

  • @jeffrybassett7374
    @jeffrybassett7374 6 місяців тому

    String theory is perhaps the biggest blind alley that physics has ever stumbled into. A theory that predicts everything actually predicts nothing.

  • @gullukumar4497
    @gullukumar4497 Рік тому

    Dust on Tony's computer made me clear my phone screen many times lol, thanks bro for great video

  • @hiteshsagtani9823
    @hiteshsagtani9823 Рік тому

    fascinating !!

  • @acaryadasa
    @acaryadasa 28 днів тому

    "String theory is our best candidate for a quantum theory of gravity."
    Hahahahahahaha

  • @waynedarronwalls6468
    @waynedarronwalls6468 Рік тому

    10 to the power 272,000 is a number so abstract, so unimaginable, so far from what any human could ever begin to comprehend, it may as well in an infininitely far away galaxy. Yes, there are numbers out there that would dwarf that, but the mere fact it vastly dwarfs a Googol is just mind-blowing..

    • @richardgomes3171
      @richardgomes3171 Рік тому

      It's mind blowing to think that this number is like multiplying 1 billion by itself for more than 30,000 times.

  • @SuperYoonHo
    @SuperYoonHo Рік тому

    thanks!

  • @harpintn
    @harpintn Рік тому +3

    Reality: we have no way of knowing or of even detecting another universe.

  • @ulob
    @ulob Рік тому

    That "yeah" at 2:58 leaked out from another dimension

  • @jbird4478
    @jbird4478 Рік тому +2

    "You can imagine a universe with 5 dimensions."
    Hardly.

    • @ps.2
      @ps.2 Рік тому

      And speaking of _way,_ by the way, there _is_ such a thing as a tesseract.

  • @Smokin438
    @Smokin438 Рік тому

    Man if this existed when I was in elementary school. This is truly wonderful.

  • @bruinflight1
    @bruinflight1 Рік тому +1

    love those science fiction numbers!

  • @apocalypticbean
    @apocalypticbean Рік тому

    this video is a great example among many of why brady is an excellent journalist

  • @Pidxr
    @Pidxr Рік тому

    I passed out halfway through this last evening, and this may be why. Do you ever hear ideas that knock you out when you are already tired?

  • @robertwest5746
    @robertwest5746 Рік тому

    Indeed, in one universe there IS a flying spaghetti monster. In fact, ours looks just like one, but you can’t tell.

  • @aklcraigc
    @aklcraigc Рік тому +2

    "This doesn't make you think string theory is wrong" - from the mouths of babes. At what point do we step back a think "this is nonsense"?

  • @M.strange42
    @M.strange42 Рік тому

    The circumference of a circle is r-√(2r^2)/2 +√(2r^2) - (r+1) /2
    If r is even then= r/2
    If r is odd then = (r+1) /2