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PUBLIC LECTURE: Professor David Blair: EINSTEIN, BUDDHA AND MODERN COSMOLOGY: AWESOME KNOWLEDGE AND THE SEARCH FOR ENLIGHTENMENT.
My first comment being that David Blair is adorable and while his style is not that of the comfortable, professional speaker he is nontheless unbelievably lovable when he talks.
David covered a lot of ground and I have reason to believe he may publish a transcript of the talk on 'the website' possibly meaning UWA or possibly meaning the Gravity Discovery Center.
Things that struck me in no particular order...
One billion generations of genetically successful ancestors culminated in each and every one of us. That's hundred's and thousands of individuals not being sterile or impotent. We are miracles of complexity, our atoms once formed part of the expanding universe - a tiny part of you was interstellar gas and incomprehensible vastness.
They are building a truncated isodecahedron at the Gravity Discovery Center - must go look.
The famous 'buckyball' molecules are found in interstellar dust from supernovas and in candle soot.
The Roman Catholic Church officially forgave Galileo (1564 - 1642) in 1992.
Have a powerful urge to own a T-Shirt with the Maxwell equation on it.
Or possibly Einstein's "Matter tells space how to curve; space tells matter how to move"
Had the Hubble Ultra Deep Field photo explained in far more details than I've ever appreciated it before. Am inspired and awestruck. Also fabulous discussion of how light from distant galaxies curve around other galaxies as it makes its way towards us and what we can learn because of this.
Some interesting comparisons of things Hindu and Buddhist texts say about the nature of the universe that reflect current scientific thinking. The doctrine of interdependence or sunyata seems to have strong connections to theories of quantum entanglement and of course the buddhist notion of impermanence or annica is consistent with the current scientific view of the world.
"If in our small minds, for some convenience, divide this glass of wine, this universe, into parts - physics, biology, geology, astronomy, psychology, and so on - remember that nature does not know it!" - Richard Feynman
David talked a lot about wave particle duality and said it is best described using a) Mathematics and b) Poetry.
"It's absolutely weird and we don't understand it."
"The only reality is mind and observations, but observations are not of things. To see the Universe as it really is, we must abandon our tendency to conceptualize observations as things." - Richard Conn Henry
"The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion." - Albert Einstein
"What we mean by "right now" is a mysterious thing which we cannot define. "Now" is an idea or concept of our mind. It is not something that is really definable physically at the moment." - Richard P. Feynman.
Have a strong urge to learn more about quantum decoherence.
Amusing man asked a question after the lecture which boiled down to "I saw 'What the Bleep do we Know' and does this mean I can control things with my mind?" Ah the macro/micro dilemma.
My first comment being that David Blair is adorable and while his style is not that of the comfortable, professional speaker he is nontheless unbelievably lovable when he talks.
David covered a lot of ground and I have reason to believe he may publish a transcript of the talk on 'the website' possibly meaning UWA or possibly meaning the Gravity Discovery Center.
Things that struck me in no particular order...
One billion generations of genetically successful ancestors culminated in each and every one of us. That's hundred's and thousands of individuals not being sterile or impotent. We are miracles of complexity, our atoms once formed part of the expanding universe - a tiny part of you was interstellar gas and incomprehensible vastness.
They are building a truncated isodecahedron at the Gravity Discovery Center - must go look.
The famous 'buckyball' molecules are found in interstellar dust from supernovas and in candle soot.
The Roman Catholic Church officially forgave Galileo (1564 - 1642) in 1992.
Have a powerful urge to own a T-Shirt with the Maxwell equation on it.
Or possibly Einstein's "Matter tells space how to curve; space tells matter how to move"
Had the Hubble Ultra Deep Field photo explained in far more details than I've ever appreciated it before. Am inspired and awestruck. Also fabulous discussion of how light from distant galaxies curve around other galaxies as it makes its way towards us and what we can learn because of this.
Some interesting comparisons of things Hindu and Buddhist texts say about the nature of the universe that reflect current scientific thinking. The doctrine of interdependence or sunyata seems to have strong connections to theories of quantum entanglement and of course the buddhist notion of impermanence or annica is consistent with the current scientific view of the world.
"If in our small minds, for some convenience, divide this glass of wine, this universe, into parts - physics, biology, geology, astronomy, psychology, and so on - remember that nature does not know it!" - Richard Feynman
David talked a lot about wave particle duality and said it is best described using a) Mathematics and b) Poetry.
"It's absolutely weird and we don't understand it."
"The only reality is mind and observations, but observations are not of things. To see the Universe as it really is, we must abandon our tendency to conceptualize observations as things." - Richard Conn Henry
"The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion." - Albert Einstein
"What we mean by "right now" is a mysterious thing which we cannot define. "Now" is an idea or concept of our mind. It is not something that is really definable physically at the moment." - Richard P. Feynman.
Have a strong urge to learn more about quantum decoherence.
Amusing man asked a question after the lecture which boiled down to "I saw 'What the Bleep do we Know' and does this mean I can control things with my mind?" Ah the macro/micro dilemma.
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Re: *SULK*
That means it will not show up on friends lists.
Oh my.
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I have been re-reading Leon Lederman's book "The God Particle" in the bits where I haven't been sleeping this last week - while physics has always fascinated me in principle, I found the having to "do" things (exams and implementing equations particularly) slightly more onerous (read 'boring'!)... Having a dynamic, interesting guide talk through this stuff makes it totally fun, thought provoking and not at all like 'work'.
This sounds like it was a great talk and I love the quotes you've included. I may have to shamelessly borrow one or two as work email appendages... I think the point of last years quote has been successfully made :)
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