Monday 25th July - 06:00 PM BST
IAI Live YouTube Special - Quantum Physics and the End of Reality
Can quantum physics explain consciousness?
This is a FREE event open to everyone. Join on IAI.tv or stream it live on YouTube. This July 25th at 6pm BST / 1pm ET.
We imagine physics is objective. But quantum physics found the act of human observation changes the outcome of experiment. Many scientists assume this central role of the observer is limited to just quantum physics. But is this an error?
As Heisenberg puts it, "what we observe is not nature in itself but nature exposed to our method of questioning." In all our studies of reality and nature then, the observer plays a role -- not just in quantum physics.
Should we recognise science can never access reality independent of the observer? Should we re-define science not as uncovering objective truth, but as uncovering the functions, limitations and structures of the mind of the observer themselves? And if we cannot remove the observer, might quantum physics help us to understand the observer? - as Roger Penrose suggests consciousness "reeks of something quantum mechanical."
6.00pm
Headline Debate - The Arena
Quantum Physics and the End of Reality
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Sabine Hossenfelder
"Theoretical physicists used to explain what was observed. Now they try to explain why they can't explain what was not observed."
Fearlessly critical of the scientific mainstream, Sabine Hossenfelder is a groundbreaking theoretical physicist who specialises in the foundations of science. She is a leading science communicator, a best-selling author, and a researcher. Her recent books include Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray, and the New York Times' Best Selling Existential Physics: A Scientist's Guide to Life's Biggest Questions.
Hossenfelder also has a popular YouTube channel, "Science without the gobbledygook," that has amassed over 80 million views. Her writing has featured in some of the world's top publications, including Scientific American, New Scientist, and Nautilus.
“A physicist who is utterly fearless, completely honest, and quite funny.” - Peter Woit, mathematical physicist
Brian Keating
Brian Keating is a groundbreaking American cosmologist who works on observations of the cosmic microwave background, leading the BICEP, POLARBEAR2 and Simons Array experiments.
Carlo Rovelli
Loop Quantum Gravity pioneer
Theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli is a pioneer of theories like Loop Quantum Gravity, White Holes, and the relational interpretation of quantum mechanics. His books include Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, which has been translated into 41 languages and sold over a million copies, as well as the bestselling Reality Is Not What It Seems (2015) and White Holes (2023). He was named one of the 100 most influential thinkers in the world by Foreign Policy magazine, and is Emeritus Professor at the Centre de Physique Théorique of Marseille, as well as holding positions at the Santa Fe Institute and the Perimeter Institute.
Eric Weinstein
Eric Weinstein is a mathematical physicist and the host of the podcast The Portal. He is the former Managing Director of Thiel Capital in San Francisco and was formerly a Co-Founder and Principal of the Natron Group in Manhattan as well as a Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford University in the Mathematical Institute. Since completing a PhD dissertation in the Mathematics Department at Harvard in 1992 he has held research positions in Mathematics, Physics, and Economics departments (at MIT, Hebrew University, and Harvard respectively). He delivered the Special Simonyi Lectures at Oxford University in 2013 putting forth a theory he termed “Geometric Unity” to unify the twin geometries (Riemannian and Ehresmannian) thought to ground the two most fundamental physical theories (General Relativity and the so-called Standard Model of particle theory respectively).