He writes clearly and with an essential dose of humility, an element glaringly missing in some treatments of the subject. Sean Carroll, of the California Institute of Technology, has written numerous books for lay audiences on these and other subjects from a physicist’s perspective.

Today, physicists work largely in the realm of quantum mechanics, but the principles remain the same: to determine ever-deeper constituents of space, time, and matter. As far back as the 1800’s, John Dalton used the notion of atoms to explain certain features of elemental reaction. In fact, such has been the case for at least the last century, perhaps much longer, depending on one’s viewpoint.

The same holds true for physicists at the forefront of modern science. The video then is “really” just a series of dots in a certain configuration. The thinking goes that these more fundamental constituents are what really exists, while the rest simply emerges from these materials.Ī computer or television monitor produces images made up of dots that combine to form a picture we see on the screen. Thinkers before Plato tried to determine the fundamental components of our world, and the urge to build upon this understanding with greater and greater specificity has continued to this day, creating a sort of physical refinery within the natural sciences.Īt least since physics laid claim to the atom, scientists have been searching for ever more underlying substances and/or principles at work.

The issue at hand concerns the nature of the world itself - world qua everything that exists, the universe and everything in it, the cosmos. Some physicists find it possible (and desirable) to explain this emergent narrative to a wide, non-specialist audience, a formidable task without employing the underlying numbers and equations. Psychology emerges from biology, which in turn emanates from chemistry, which itself functions as physics writ large. Physics necessarily conducts rather reductive science.

Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime

Sean carroll quantum mechanics book