1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:04,400 Speaker 1: I want you to start by picturing a completely ordinary scenario, 2 00:00:05,080 --> 00:00:09,080 something that perfectly obeys the rules of the reality you 3 00:00:09,119 --> 00:00:10,679 and I navigate every single day. 4 00:00:10,839 --> 00:00:12,080 Speaker 2: Okay, I'm picturing it right. 5 00:00:12,119 --> 00:00:14,800 Speaker 1: So you were standing on a basketball court. You take 6 00:00:14,839 --> 00:00:17,800 a breath, bend your knees, and you release the ball 7 00:00:18,039 --> 00:00:20,039 in this perfect arc toward the hoop. 8 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:24,600 Speaker 2: A classic macroscopic event, cause and effect exactly. 9 00:00:24,640 --> 00:00:27,440 Speaker 1: But right as the ball leaves your fingertips, you squeeze 10 00:00:27,480 --> 00:00:31,079 your eyes shut, you turn around, plug your ears, and 11 00:00:31,120 --> 00:00:31,920 you just walk away. 12 00:00:32,039 --> 00:00:34,520 Speaker 2: So you don't hear a swish, no swish. 13 00:00:34,359 --> 00:00:37,119 Speaker 1: You don't hear the loud, metallic clang of the rim either. 14 00:00:37,560 --> 00:00:40,000 You have absolutely no idea if that shot went in 15 00:00:40,439 --> 00:00:41,520 or if it missed. 16 00:00:41,399 --> 00:00:43,880 Speaker 2: Which means the state of the ball is unknown. 17 00:00:43,520 --> 00:00:46,759 Speaker 1: To you right now. Imagine an hour goes by, you 18 00:00:46,759 --> 00:00:48,880 were sitting in your living room, and you remember that 19 00:00:48,960 --> 00:00:50,640 your friend was standing on the sidelines. 20 00:00:50,679 --> 00:00:53,600 Speaker 2: Oh, and they were recording the entire sequence on their phone. 21 00:00:53,759 --> 00:00:57,000 Speaker 1: Yes, they send you the video file. Now Here is 22 00:00:57,079 --> 00:00:59,640 the question, and it's a weird one. What if the 23 00:00:59,679 --> 00:01:02,119 mere act of you deciding whether or not to press 24 00:01:02,159 --> 00:01:05,359 play on that video an hour later actually changes what 25 00:01:05,400 --> 00:01:06,760 the basketball did in the past. 26 00:01:07,120 --> 00:01:10,239 Speaker 2: That is wow. Yeah, that breaks the brain a. 27 00:01:10,239 --> 00:01:13,480 Speaker 1: Little bit, right, What if your choice in the present 28 00:01:14,079 --> 00:01:16,640 rewrites whether that ball went through the net or bounced 29 00:01:16,680 --> 00:01:18,200 off the rim sixty minutes ago. 30 00:01:18,519 --> 00:01:21,599 Speaker 2: Well, I mean in the macrostopic world, the classical world 31 00:01:21,640 --> 00:01:25,799 we experience every day, that scenario is obviously. 32 00:01:25,280 --> 00:01:26,719 Speaker 1: Absurd, totally absurd. 33 00:01:26,799 --> 00:01:30,159 Speaker 2: The ball either went in or it didn't. The physical 34 00:01:30,239 --> 00:01:34,280 history of that event is locked in stone, entirely independent 35 00:01:34,319 --> 00:01:37,079 of whether you or anyone else ever looks at the footage. 36 00:01:37,159 --> 00:01:40,239 Speaker 1: But that's the thing, right, The profoundly unsettling truth we 37 00:01:40,280 --> 00:01:43,040 are exploring today is that when we strip away that 38 00:01:43,120 --> 00:01:44,719 macroscopic illusion. 39 00:01:44,359 --> 00:01:46,680 Speaker 2: And look at the fundamental building blocks. 40 00:01:46,319 --> 00:01:50,000 Speaker 1: Of reality, Yeah, exactly, Photons, electrons, the very substrate of 41 00:01:50,040 --> 00:01:52,840 the universe. Yeah, the mechanics of existence do not seem 42 00:01:52,879 --> 00:01:54,000 to respect that logic at all. 43 00:01:54,040 --> 00:01:55,000 Speaker 2: They absolutely do not. 44 00:01:55,439 --> 00:01:57,959 Speaker 1: Welcome to thrilling Threads. I am so excited for this 45 00:01:58,040 --> 00:02:01,200 one today. Our mission is to take a massive stack 46 00:02:01,239 --> 00:02:05,200 of scientific literature, peer reviewed research papers, and deeply complex 47 00:02:05,239 --> 00:02:08,319 physical experiments and just lay them all out on the table. 48 00:02:08,439 --> 00:02:11,759 Speaker 2: We are going to examine the most foundation shaking paradoxes 49 00:02:11,759 --> 00:02:13,159 in modern physics, and. 50 00:02:13,120 --> 00:02:15,479 Speaker 1: I want to set the baseline right away. We are 51 00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:21,560 not doing the surface level pop science. Quantum realm is 52 00:02:21,599 --> 00:02:22,960 spooky routine. Right. 53 00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:25,439 Speaker 2: We assume you already know the basics. You know what 54 00:02:25,479 --> 00:02:27,360 an atom is, you know what a photon is. 55 00:02:27,680 --> 00:02:32,759 Speaker 1: What we're doing is dissecting, verified, repeatedly tested physical glitches 56 00:02:32,840 --> 00:02:37,439 that suggest our fundamental understanding of space, time and objective 57 00:02:37,479 --> 00:02:39,960 reality is just it's critically flawed. 58 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:42,120 Speaker 2: And to understand the weight of these glitches we have 59 00:02:42,199 --> 00:02:45,560 to look at how fiercely they disrupted the titans of physics. 60 00:02:45,599 --> 00:02:48,000 Speaker 1: The founders, yeah, the absolute legends. 61 00:02:47,719 --> 00:02:52,319 Speaker 2: Classical physics gave us a predictable universe, Newton's laws, Maxwell's equations. 62 00:02:52,599 --> 00:02:55,840 They painted a picture of a consistent, objective reality governed 63 00:02:55,879 --> 00:02:59,039 by strict cause and effect. You throw a ball, it lands, 64 00:02:59,240 --> 00:03:00,879 You flip a switch, the light turns on. 65 00:03:01,080 --> 00:03:03,840 Speaker 1: But when the pioneers of quantum mechanics began probing the 66 00:03:03,840 --> 00:03:08,560 atomic scale, that deterministic universe completely fractured. 67 00:03:08,120 --> 00:03:11,199 Speaker 2: It did They found a realm governed by wave functions 68 00:03:11,199 --> 00:03:15,319 and probabilities, where particles lack definite properties until measured, and 69 00:03:15,400 --> 00:03:18,560 where non locality totally defies the speed of light and. 70 00:03:18,479 --> 00:03:21,199 Speaker 1: Reading through the historical sources for this deep dive. What 71 00:03:21,280 --> 00:03:24,080 strikes me is how much the founders of quantum mechanics 72 00:03:24,240 --> 00:03:27,039 absolutely hated what they had discovered. 73 00:03:27,199 --> 00:03:29,759 Speaker 2: Oh, they were existentially disturbed by it. 74 00:03:29,879 --> 00:03:34,919 Speaker 1: Yeah. Richard Feinman famously stated nobody understands quantum mechanics, and. 75 00:03:34,960 --> 00:03:37,919 Speaker 2: Neils Bohr warned that those who are not shocked when 76 00:03:37,919 --> 00:03:41,719 they first come across quantum theory cannot possibly have understood it. 77 00:03:41,800 --> 00:03:43,639 Speaker 1: Right. If you're not freaking out, you're not paying attention. 78 00:03:44,360 --> 00:03:46,520 Roger Penrose went as far as saying the theory makes 79 00:03:46,560 --> 00:03:47,599 absolutely no sense. 80 00:03:48,039 --> 00:03:51,639 Speaker 2: Albert Einstein was deeply repulsed by the implications of a 81 00:03:51,680 --> 00:03:55,680 probabilistic universe. He actually warned that if it is correct, 82 00:03:55,960 --> 00:03:59,120 it signifies the end of physics as a science. 83 00:03:58,960 --> 00:04:01,080 Speaker 1: The end of physics. That's dramatic. 84 00:04:01,280 --> 00:04:04,599 Speaker 2: And Erwin Schrodinger, the man who mathematically formalized the wave 85 00:04:04,599 --> 00:04:08,400 function itself, the cat guy. The cat guy, Yes, he wrote, 86 00:04:08,439 --> 00:04:10,159 I do not like it, and I am sorry I 87 00:04:10,199 --> 00:04:11,479 ever had anything to do with it. 88 00:04:12,120 --> 00:04:14,879 Speaker 1: That is just wild to me. When the architects of 89 00:04:14,879 --> 00:04:18,360 a scientific framework expressed that level of dismay at their 90 00:04:18,360 --> 00:04:22,160 own creation, It signals a profound paradigm shift. 91 00:04:22,480 --> 00:04:26,879 Speaker 2: It means the math works, but the philosophical implications are terrifying. 92 00:04:27,160 --> 00:04:29,360 Speaker 1: So if you are listening to this and you start 93 00:04:29,399 --> 00:04:34,519 to feel your grip on reality slipping slightly, you're an 94 00:04:34,639 --> 00:04:35,439 excellent company. 95 00:04:35,600 --> 00:04:36,319 Speaker 2: Very good company. 96 00:04:36,480 --> 00:04:39,120 Speaker 1: Let's start be looking at an experiment that maps directly 97 00:04:39,160 --> 00:04:42,519 onto that basketball hypothetical I mentioned earlier, but ramps up 98 00:04:42,560 --> 00:04:47,560 the complexity. I'm talking about the delayed choice quantum eraser ah. 99 00:04:47,279 --> 00:04:49,680 Speaker 2: The evil twin of the double slid experiment. 100 00:04:49,920 --> 00:04:53,000 Speaker 1: Yes, now, assuming you are familiar with the standard double 101 00:04:53,040 --> 00:04:56,560 slid experiment, where an unobserved photon passes through two slits 102 00:04:56,600 --> 00:04:59,600 as a wave but collapses into a particle the moment 103 00:04:59,639 --> 00:05:01,680 we play a detector at the slits. 104 00:05:01,680 --> 00:05:05,199 Speaker 2: The delayed choice setup takes that premise and completely breaks 105 00:05:05,240 --> 00:05:06,000 the arrow of time. 106 00:05:06,120 --> 00:05:09,399 Speaker 1: It really does. Let's look specifically at the famous nineteen 107 00:05:09,480 --> 00:05:11,720 ninety nine experiment by Kim and his colleagues. 108 00:05:11,839 --> 00:05:15,519 Speaker 2: The Kim experiment is a masterclass in quantum ambiguity. 109 00:05:15,560 --> 00:05:16,399 Speaker 1: Break it down for us. 110 00:05:16,439 --> 00:05:19,199 Speaker 2: Okay, So instead of just firing a single photon at 111 00:05:19,240 --> 00:05:22,480 a double slit, they fire a laser into a specialized 112 00:05:22,519 --> 00:05:26,000 crystal A barium or eight crystal mebi oh, right, right, 113 00:05:26,040 --> 00:05:31,040 And this crystal undergoes a process called spontaneous parametric down conversion, which. 114 00:05:30,920 --> 00:05:35,399 Speaker 1: Sounds incredibly complicated, but it's basically splitting a photon exactly. 115 00:05:35,560 --> 00:05:38,600 Speaker 2: It takes one high energy photon and splits it into 116 00:05:38,639 --> 00:05:42,000 two lower energy, perfectly entangled photons. 117 00:05:42,040 --> 00:05:44,079 Speaker 1: And we call one the signal photon and the other 118 00:05:44,160 --> 00:05:45,160 the idler photon. 119 00:05:45,279 --> 00:05:48,759 Speaker 2: Yes, And because they are entangled, whatever state one is 120 00:05:48,800 --> 00:05:52,920 in the other instantly correlates to regardless of distance, they 121 00:05:52,920 --> 00:05:54,079 are mathematically linked. 122 00:05:54,399 --> 00:05:56,600 Speaker 1: Right, So we have a pair of twins. The signal 123 00:05:56,600 --> 00:05:59,879 photon is sent straight toward a primary detector screen. It hit, 124 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:03,279 it's the screen, its position is recorded, and its journey 125 00:06:03,319 --> 00:06:04,040 is completely over. 126 00:06:04,199 --> 00:06:04,959 Speaker 2: It hits a wall. 127 00:06:05,040 --> 00:06:07,639 Speaker 1: Basically, yeah, it's the equivalent of the basketball already landing. 128 00:06:07,839 --> 00:06:09,279 The event has happened precisely. 129 00:06:09,319 --> 00:06:11,800 Speaker 2: But the idler photon, the twin, is sent on a 130 00:06:11,920 --> 00:06:16,720 much longer, more complex optical maze composed of prisms, beam splitters, 131 00:06:16,720 --> 00:06:17,680 and multiple. 132 00:06:17,279 --> 00:06:20,600 Speaker 1: Detectors, and because its path is physically longer, it aris 133 00:06:20,680 --> 00:06:23,160 at its detectors after the signal photon has already hit 134 00:06:23,199 --> 00:06:24,800 the primary screen and been recorded. 135 00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:28,360 Speaker 2: The timing is the crucial part here. This optical maze 136 00:06:28,360 --> 00:06:31,399 is designed to do one of two things. It either 137 00:06:31,720 --> 00:06:36,759 firmly detects which slit the photon pair originated from, meaning. 138 00:06:36,560 --> 00:06:38,879 Speaker 1: It gets the witch kyth information right. 139 00:06:39,040 --> 00:06:42,720 Speaker 2: Or it uses beam splitters to scramble and completely erase 140 00:06:42,839 --> 00:06:44,000 that witch path information. 141 00:06:44,360 --> 00:06:47,120 Speaker 1: And the decision of whether the idler photon hits a 142 00:06:47,120 --> 00:06:50,639 detector that reveals the path or a detector that erases 143 00:06:50,680 --> 00:06:54,480 the path happens purely by chance at these beam splitters. 144 00:06:54,040 --> 00:06:55,439 Speaker 2: A fifty to fifty coin toss. 145 00:06:55,480 --> 00:06:58,680 Speaker 1: But the reality breaking detail is the timing. The idler 146 00:06:58,680 --> 00:07:03,319 photon hits these eras detectors nanoseconds after the signal photon 147 00:07:03,399 --> 00:07:05,040 is already registered on the main screen. 148 00:07:05,199 --> 00:07:07,279 Speaker 2: The signal photon's history is already written. 149 00:07:07,360 --> 00:07:10,680 Speaker 1: So if the idler photon's path information is preserved, what 150 00:07:10,759 --> 00:07:13,000 do we see when we look at the signal photons data. 151 00:07:13,160 --> 00:07:15,480 Speaker 2: If the idler's path information is preserved and you look 152 00:07:15,519 --> 00:07:19,920 at the subset of signal photons corresponding to those specific idlers, 153 00:07:20,480 --> 00:07:21,720 you see a clumped. 154 00:07:21,480 --> 00:07:23,800 Speaker 1: Pattern, a clumped pattern, two distinct bands. 155 00:07:23,879 --> 00:07:26,920 Speaker 2: Yes, the signal photons acted like classical particles. They just 156 00:07:26,920 --> 00:07:28,480 went straight through like tiny bullets. 157 00:07:28,759 --> 00:07:32,560 Speaker 1: But if the idler's path information is completely erased by 158 00:07:32,600 --> 00:07:35,800 the beam splitters and you look at that corresponding subset 159 00:07:35,839 --> 00:07:37,040 of signal photons, you. 160 00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:39,040 Speaker 2: See a perfect wave interference. 161 00:07:38,600 --> 00:07:42,639 Speaker 1: Pattern, which implies that the signal photon sitting there on 162 00:07:42,680 --> 00:07:46,519 the primary screen somehow knew what was going to happen 163 00:07:46,560 --> 00:07:48,199 to its entangled twin in the future. 164 00:07:48,399 --> 00:07:50,160 Speaker 2: It behaves as if it had foresight. 165 00:07:50,439 --> 00:07:53,519 Speaker 1: It's as if the idler photon hitting the eraser detector 166 00:07:53,759 --> 00:07:58,199 retroactively reached back in time and told the signal photon, hey, 167 00:07:58,720 --> 00:08:00,720 our path data is going to be out, so you 168 00:08:00,800 --> 00:08:01,879 better land as a wave. 169 00:08:02,199 --> 00:08:04,639 Speaker 2: That is the inescapable feeling you get from the data. 170 00:08:04,680 --> 00:08:08,040 Speaker 1: I know physicists bristle at the phrase retroactive. So how 171 00:08:08,079 --> 00:08:11,040 do we actually interpret this without violating causality? Are we 172 00:08:11,120 --> 00:08:12,360 actually altering the past? 173 00:08:12,680 --> 00:08:15,800 Speaker 2: It is essential to delineate the physics from the philosophy here. 174 00:08:16,160 --> 00:08:18,279 The experiment does not allow you to send a message 175 00:08:18,319 --> 00:08:18,959 into the past. 176 00:08:19,120 --> 00:08:21,399 Speaker 1: Why not if the effect precedes the cause. 177 00:08:21,560 --> 00:08:24,360 Speaker 2: Because you cannot see the interference pattern on the primary 178 00:08:24,399 --> 00:08:26,800 screen in real time, the primary screen just looks like 179 00:08:26,800 --> 00:08:31,279 a massive random scatter of photons it's just noise, Oh right. 180 00:08:31,800 --> 00:08:35,360 Speaker 1: You only extract the interference pattern through a process called coincidence, 181 00:08:35,399 --> 00:08:37,039 counting exactly. 182 00:08:36,879 --> 00:08:39,399 Speaker 2: You are matching the time stamps of the signal photons 183 00:08:39,519 --> 00:08:42,519 with the timestamps of the idler photons. After the fact, 184 00:08:42,679 --> 00:08:44,960 it is a filtering of data, so you. 185 00:08:44,840 --> 00:08:46,879 Speaker 1: Have to wait for the idler photon to finish its 186 00:08:46,960 --> 00:08:49,759 journey before you can decode what the signal photon did. 187 00:08:49,879 --> 00:08:53,360 Speaker 2: Yes, no, faster than light or backward in time. Communication 188 00:08:53,639 --> 00:08:55,759 is practically possible for us to exploit. 189 00:08:56,240 --> 00:08:58,519 Speaker 1: You can't send next week's lottery numbers back to. 190 00:08:58,480 --> 00:09:03,919 Speaker 2: Yourself, sadly no. However, the ontological question remains entirely open 191 00:09:04,600 --> 00:09:07,440 even if it's just statistical filtering. The state of the 192 00:09:07,480 --> 00:09:11,279 signal photon is indisputably mathematically dependent on a measurement that 193 00:09:11,320 --> 00:09:11,840 occurs in. 194 00:09:11,799 --> 00:09:15,759 Speaker 1: Its future, which naturally forces us to question how physicists 195 00:09:15,840 --> 00:09:18,919 model time at the fundamental level. If the photon state 196 00:09:19,000 --> 00:09:21,840 is determined by a choice made after it lands, are 197 00:09:21,840 --> 00:09:24,360 there actually equations where time flows backward. 198 00:09:24,679 --> 00:09:28,080 Speaker 2: That brings us to time symmetry and the concept of retrocausality. 199 00:09:28,240 --> 00:09:29,000 Speaker 1: Let's get into it. 200 00:09:29,120 --> 00:09:31,720 Speaker 2: To grasp retro causality, we have to strip away our 201 00:09:31,720 --> 00:09:37,360 biological perception of time. Human experience is dictated by thermodynamics. 202 00:09:36,480 --> 00:09:40,759 Speaker 1: And entropy the arrow of time. Things get messier, not 203 00:09:40,960 --> 00:09:42,080 cleaner exactly. 204 00:09:42,279 --> 00:09:46,320 Speaker 2: A shattered glass does not spontaneously reassemble. We move strictly 205 00:09:46,519 --> 00:09:47,639 from past to future. 206 00:09:47,720 --> 00:09:50,879 Speaker 1: Brushing your teeth happens after you wake up, not before right. 207 00:09:51,240 --> 00:09:54,799 Speaker 2: But the fundamental equations of quantum mechanics, like the time 208 00:09:54,840 --> 00:09:59,600 dependent Schrodinger equation, do not have an inherent arrow of time. 209 00:10:00,080 --> 00:10:02,000 Speaker 1: Ath doesn't care which way the clock is ticking. 210 00:10:02,120 --> 00:10:05,320 Speaker 2: It really doesn't. If you replace the variable for time 211 00:10:05,600 --> 00:10:09,600 T with negative time negative t, the math functions flawlessly. 212 00:10:09,799 --> 00:10:12,519 The microscopic world is time symmetric, so. 213 00:10:12,399 --> 00:10:14,639 Speaker 1: The math allows for it. But how does that apply 214 00:10:14,759 --> 00:10:17,320 to the quantum erature. Is there a formal theory that 215 00:10:17,519 --> 00:10:19,039 utilizes this backward flow. 216 00:10:19,279 --> 00:10:22,440 Speaker 2: Yes, the most prominent is the two state vector formalism, 217 00:10:22,519 --> 00:10:24,840 pioneered by physicist Yakir Aharnoff. 218 00:10:25,080 --> 00:10:27,720 Speaker 1: I was reading about a Heroonov's work. It's fascinating it is. 219 00:10:27,840 --> 00:10:31,000 Speaker 2: In standard quantum mechanics, we describe a system using a 220 00:10:31,039 --> 00:10:34,960 single wave function that evolves forward from a past boundary condition. 221 00:10:35,120 --> 00:10:37,919 Speaker 1: It's pushed by the past like a billiard ball getting 222 00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:38,840 hit by a hue. 223 00:10:38,879 --> 00:10:42,320 Speaker 2: A Heroonov's formalism argues that to fully describe a quantum 224 00:10:42,399 --> 00:10:45,600 system you actually need two wave functions. Two of them 225 00:10:45,759 --> 00:10:48,799 one evolves forward from the initial preparation of the state, 226 00:10:49,080 --> 00:10:51,960 and a second wave function evolves backward in time from 227 00:10:52,000 --> 00:10:53,480 the final measurement of the state. 228 00:10:54,200 --> 00:10:57,480 Speaker 1: That is heavy. It means a particle's current behavior isn't 229 00:10:57,519 --> 00:10:59,480 just a result to where it came from. It is 230 00:10:59,480 --> 00:11:02,720 an act negotiation between where it came from and where 231 00:11:02,720 --> 00:11:03,720 it is going to end up. 232 00:11:03,759 --> 00:11:06,039 Speaker 2: An act of negotiation is a great way to phrase it. 233 00:11:06,240 --> 00:11:09,919 Speaker 1: The future boundary condition is exerting a gravitational pull, so 234 00:11:10,039 --> 00:11:13,320 to speak, on the present. It's like writing chapter one 235 00:11:13,360 --> 00:11:15,879 of a book only after chapter ten is already finished. 236 00:11:16,000 --> 00:11:17,960 Speaker 2: Yes, the ending dictates the beginning. 237 00:11:18,279 --> 00:11:21,360 Speaker 1: But if the future is already established enough to send 238 00:11:21,360 --> 00:11:25,200 a wave function backward to shape my present, what does 239 00:11:25,200 --> 00:11:27,120 that do to our concept of free will? 240 00:11:27,440 --> 00:11:29,200 Speaker 2: It puts it in serious jeopardy. 241 00:11:29,600 --> 00:11:32,320 Speaker 1: If I am making a measurement but the result of 242 00:11:32,320 --> 00:11:35,360 that measurement was already factored into the particle's past, am 243 00:11:35,399 --> 00:11:36,679 I actually making a choice? 244 00:11:36,759 --> 00:11:40,080 Speaker 2: That is the philosophical friction at the heart of retrocausality. 245 00:11:40,480 --> 00:11:44,039 It strongly implies a framework known as the block universe. 246 00:11:43,720 --> 00:11:46,879 Speaker 1: The bloc universe. I love this concept, but it terrifies me. 247 00:11:47,039 --> 00:11:50,879 Speaker 2: In a block universe model grounded in Einstein's general relativity, 248 00:11:51,279 --> 00:11:54,559 spacetime is a four dimensional, unchanging structure, a. 249 00:11:54,559 --> 00:11:57,679 Speaker 1: Giant block of everything that ever was and will be. 250 00:11:57,960 --> 00:12:01,080 Speaker 2: Yes, the past, present, and fear future do not happen 251 00:12:01,120 --> 00:12:05,080 in sequence. They simply exist simultaneously. The year nineteen hundred, 252 00:12:05,399 --> 00:12:08,519 the current moment, and the year three thousand are all 253 00:12:08,559 --> 00:12:12,000 equally real, just located at different coordinates within the block. 254 00:12:12,120 --> 00:12:14,480 Speaker 1: Like a DVD, the whole movie is on the disc 255 00:12:14,519 --> 00:12:17,240 at once. You're just watching one frame at a time. 256 00:12:17,360 --> 00:12:19,120 Speaker 2: Perfect analogy, but that. 257 00:12:19,039 --> 00:12:22,799 Speaker 1: Completely defies human experience. If the future is already written 258 00:12:22,879 --> 00:12:26,200 in this block, what is the evolutionary or physical point 259 00:12:26,279 --> 00:12:29,320 of human consciousness? Even feeling like it's making choices. 260 00:12:29,440 --> 00:12:30,759 Speaker 2: It's a localized illusion. 261 00:12:30,879 --> 00:12:33,720 Speaker 1: It makes consciousness feel like a needle on a record player, 262 00:12:34,159 --> 00:12:36,480 just tracing a groove that has already been pressed into 263 00:12:36,480 --> 00:12:36,919 the vinyl. 264 00:12:37,039 --> 00:12:39,759 Speaker 2: In a strict block universe, the sensation of the flow 265 00:12:39,759 --> 00:12:42,840 of time is indeed an illusion generated by our localized 266 00:12:42,879 --> 00:12:44,000 neurological processing. 267 00:12:44,159 --> 00:12:46,399 Speaker 1: We just process reality frame by frame. 268 00:12:46,480 --> 00:12:51,879 Speaker 2: Exactly if all moments exist simultaneously, then retrocausality isn't actually 269 00:12:52,039 --> 00:12:55,399 changing the past. It is simply a recognition that a 270 00:12:55,480 --> 00:12:58,759 coordinate in the future is mathematically correlated with a coordinate 271 00:12:58,799 --> 00:13:02,440 in the past. The future measurement and the past photon 272 00:13:02,519 --> 00:13:05,320 behavior are locked together in the geometry of the block. 273 00:13:05,720 --> 00:13:09,480 Speaker 1: But as unsettling as a deterministic timeline is, the quantum 274 00:13:09,480 --> 00:13:12,480 glitches get far more disruptive when we look at the 275 00:13:12,559 --> 00:13:14,639 natural of objective reality itself. 276 00:13:14,799 --> 00:13:19,320 Speaker 2: Right, because the block universe implies one solid objective structure 277 00:13:19,519 --> 00:13:21,200 that we are all living inside. 278 00:13:21,279 --> 00:13:25,120 Speaker 1: But the Wigner's Friend paradox absolutely shatters the idea of 279 00:13:25,159 --> 00:13:26,879 a singular objective reality. 280 00:13:26,960 --> 00:13:28,679 Speaker 2: It does it fundamentally breaks it. 281 00:13:28,720 --> 00:13:31,440 Speaker 1: This originated as a thought experiment by Eugene Wigner in 282 00:13:31,519 --> 00:13:34,600 nineteen sixty one, but it recently leaped out of theoretical 283 00:13:34,600 --> 00:13:35,720 philosophy into a. 284 00:13:35,720 --> 00:13:39,879 Speaker 2: Physical lab Let's outline Wagner's original premise. First, sure, imagine 285 00:13:39,879 --> 00:13:43,759 Wigner has a friend inside a perfectly sealed, perfectly isolated laboratory. 286 00:13:44,200 --> 00:13:46,679 The friend performs a measurement on a quantum system. Let's 287 00:13:46,679 --> 00:13:49,519 say a particle in a superposition of spin up and spin. 288 00:13:49,320 --> 00:13:51,480 Speaker 1: Down, a classic quantum coin flip right. 289 00:13:51,919 --> 00:13:55,360 Speaker 2: The friend measures the particle, the wave function collapses, and 290 00:13:55,399 --> 00:13:56,960 the friend records spin up. 291 00:13:57,159 --> 00:14:00,559 Speaker 1: So for the friend inside the lab, a definitely reality 292 00:14:00,600 --> 00:14:03,320 has been established. The coin landed on heads. 293 00:14:03,559 --> 00:14:07,159 Speaker 2: But Wigner is standing in the hallway outside the sealed lab. 294 00:14:07,240 --> 00:14:10,000 He hasn't looked inside, and no information is leaked out. 295 00:14:10,159 --> 00:14:12,799 Speaker 1: The doors locked, there are no windows. 296 00:14:12,440 --> 00:14:15,919 Speaker 2: Exactly according to the strict rules of quantum mechanics. Because 297 00:14:15,960 --> 00:14:18,600 the lab is a closed system, Wigner must describe the 298 00:14:18,759 --> 00:14:22,840 entire laboratory, the particle, the measuring equipment, and his friend 299 00:14:23,159 --> 00:14:28,919 as one massive, entangled quantum system that remains in a superposition. 300 00:14:29,120 --> 00:14:31,960 Speaker 1: To Wigner, his friend is in a superposition of having 301 00:14:31,960 --> 00:14:34,960 measured spin up and having measured spin down. The friend 302 00:14:35,120 --> 00:14:37,039 is basically Schroderger's cat. 303 00:14:37,200 --> 00:14:39,919 Speaker 2: Yes, to Wigner, the reality hasn't collapsed yet. 304 00:14:39,799 --> 00:14:42,200 Speaker 1: So we have two observers applying the exact same laws 305 00:14:42,200 --> 00:14:44,840 of physics to the exact same event. The friend experience 306 00:14:44,879 --> 00:14:49,360 is a singular collapsed reality. Wigner mathematically models a fluid 307 00:14:49,480 --> 00:14:51,919 uncollapsed superposition. 308 00:14:51,240 --> 00:14:52,320 Speaker 2: And neither of them is wrong. 309 00:14:52,559 --> 00:14:56,960 Speaker 1: For decades, physicists dismiss this as purely philosophical. I mean, 310 00:14:57,000 --> 00:14:59,200 you can't put a human in a superposition, so it 311 00:14:59,200 --> 00:15:00,480 didn't matter use as a. 312 00:15:00,440 --> 00:15:02,320 Speaker 2: Fund debate for physicists at parties. 313 00:15:02,440 --> 00:15:05,679 Speaker 1: But in tweent an and nineteen, Masimiliano Preti and his 314 00:15:05,759 --> 00:15:09,279 team at Harriet Watt University published a study in Nature 315 00:15:09,320 --> 00:15:13,519 Communications that physically realized this setup, and they. 316 00:15:13,360 --> 00:15:17,600 Speaker 2: Did it by translating the human observers into complex quantum setups. 317 00:15:17,799 --> 00:15:20,320 Speaker 1: How do you replace a human with a quantum setup? 318 00:15:20,480 --> 00:15:25,799 Speaker 2: They used six entangled photons and highly sophisticated interferometers. Two 319 00:15:25,840 --> 00:15:28,000 photons acted as the quantum system being. 320 00:15:27,960 --> 00:15:29,600 Speaker 1: Measured the coin flip right. 321 00:15:30,120 --> 00:15:33,519 Speaker 2: Two other photons acted as the friends taking the measurement 322 00:15:33,679 --> 00:15:35,759 inside their respective labs, and. 323 00:15:35,720 --> 00:15:38,120 Speaker 1: The labs were actually localized optical circuits. 324 00:15:38,399 --> 00:15:41,840 Speaker 2: Yes, And the final two photons acted as the wigners 325 00:15:41,960 --> 00:15:45,159 outside the labs, who could either measure the friends' records 326 00:15:45,360 --> 00:15:47,759 or measure the entire lab as a superposition. 327 00:15:48,039 --> 00:15:51,000 Speaker 1: And what blows my mind is the methodology here. How 328 00:15:51,000 --> 00:15:54,240 do you measure a measurement without destroying the superposition? 329 00:15:54,480 --> 00:15:57,240 Speaker 2: That's the tricky part the wing your photons performed an 330 00:15:57,279 --> 00:15:58,919 interference experiment. 331 00:15:58,519 --> 00:16:01,039 Speaker 1: On the friend photons. Okay, Wait, explain that if. 332 00:16:00,960 --> 00:16:04,279 Speaker 2: The friend photons had collapsed into a definite state, the 333 00:16:04,320 --> 00:16:08,480 interference pattern would vanish, but the Prietti experiment showed the 334 00:16:08,519 --> 00:16:09,720 interference pattern. 335 00:16:09,440 --> 00:16:13,480 Speaker 1: Remained, So the Wigners definitively proved the friends were still 336 00:16:13,480 --> 00:16:14,360 in a superposition. 337 00:16:14,480 --> 00:16:19,639 Speaker 2: Precisely, the experiment yielded a profound violation of bell inequalities. 338 00:16:20,039 --> 00:16:23,879 It definitively proved that the friend photons recorded a definite 339 00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:28,159 collapse state, while the Wigner photons simultaneously recorded the system 340 00:16:28,240 --> 00:16:32,559 as an uncollapsed superposition. Both measurements were physically correct, Both 341 00:16:32,679 --> 00:16:33,720 data sets were valid. 342 00:16:33,799 --> 00:16:36,279 Speaker 1: Wait, so if you and I both measure a fundamentally 343 00:16:36,279 --> 00:16:38,759 different state that the exact same event, who is right. 344 00:16:38,759 --> 00:16:39,360 Speaker 2: You both are? 345 00:16:39,840 --> 00:16:42,679 Speaker 1: Does the universe actually have room for both of our 346 00:16:42,720 --> 00:16:45,600 measurements to be true at the same time or is 347 00:16:45,679 --> 00:16:46,919 reality just fracturing? 348 00:16:47,399 --> 00:16:50,279 Speaker 2: The inescapable conclusion of the twenty nineteen study is that 349 00:16:50,399 --> 00:16:53,879 objective reality, the idea of a single god's eye view 350 00:16:53,919 --> 00:16:55,960 of the universe that is true for everyone, does not 351 00:16:56,039 --> 00:16:57,320 exist at the quantum level. 352 00:16:57,399 --> 00:16:58,320 Speaker 1: It just doesn't exist. 353 00:16:58,639 --> 00:17:03,399 Speaker 2: Reality is observer. The properties of the universe are fundamentally. 354 00:17:02,720 --> 00:17:06,200 Speaker 1: Relational, relational meaning it only exists relative to me. 355 00:17:06,680 --> 00:17:10,519 Speaker 2: Yes, what you measure is true for your specific frame 356 00:17:10,559 --> 00:17:13,279 of reference, and what I measure is true for mine, 357 00:17:13,319 --> 00:17:15,119 even if they completely contradict each other. 358 00:17:15,200 --> 00:17:20,000 Speaker 1: Imagine sitting next to someone experiencing a fundamentally different physical universe. 359 00:17:20,640 --> 00:17:23,799 It makes reality feel terrifyingly fragile. 360 00:17:24,039 --> 00:17:26,640 Speaker 2: It isolates us in our own subjective bubbles. 361 00:17:26,720 --> 00:17:33,440 Speaker 1: If objective reality is an illusion, are we just isolated? Well? Paradoxically, 362 00:17:33,720 --> 00:17:37,799 while Wigner's friend isolates us, Our next concept binds the 363 00:17:37,880 --> 00:17:41,400 universe together in a way that defied Einstein's deepest beliefs. 364 00:17:41,440 --> 00:17:43,359 Speaker 2: Oh, we are getting into nonlocality. 365 00:17:43,519 --> 00:17:45,640 Speaker 1: Let's dig into quantum pseudotelepathy. 366 00:17:45,720 --> 00:17:49,519 Speaker 2: To demonstrate this, physicists often use cooperative logic puzzles that 367 00:17:49,559 --> 00:17:50,839 are mathematically. 368 00:17:50,400 --> 00:17:53,119 Speaker 1: Rigged games that you cannot win using classical logic. 369 00:17:53,319 --> 00:17:56,359 Speaker 2: Exactly, Let's look at the Merman Perez magic square game. 370 00:17:56,640 --> 00:17:57,559 Speaker 1: Walk us through the rules. 371 00:17:57,680 --> 00:17:59,920 Speaker 2: Imagine a three x three grid. You and I are 372 00:18:00,039 --> 00:18:03,160 separated into different rooms, unable to communicate. You are assigned 373 00:18:03,200 --> 00:18:05,640 a random row and I am assigned a random column. 374 00:18:05,720 --> 00:18:07,720 Speaker 1: Okay, so I get row two, you get column three. 375 00:18:07,759 --> 00:18:09,920 Speaker 2: We each have to fill our signed three boxes with 376 00:18:09,960 --> 00:18:11,839 either a positive one or a negative one. 377 00:18:12,079 --> 00:18:15,400 Speaker 1: And the rules for winning are strict. I've played around 378 00:18:15,400 --> 00:18:18,519 with the math on this. The product of your row 379 00:18:18,799 --> 00:18:22,279 must equal positive one, right, the product of my column 380 00:18:22,400 --> 00:18:26,359 must equal negative one. And crucially, where your row and 381 00:18:26,559 --> 00:18:29,519 my column intersect, we must have written down the exact 382 00:18:29,559 --> 00:18:30,200 same number. 383 00:18:30,400 --> 00:18:34,279 Speaker 2: Yes, and if we rely on classical physics and classical probability, 384 00:18:34,640 --> 00:18:38,440 even if we memorize a massive strategic playbook beforehand, we 385 00:18:38,519 --> 00:18:40,480 cannot win this game every time. 386 00:18:40,599 --> 00:18:42,039 Speaker 1: We can't cheat our way out of it. 387 00:18:42,240 --> 00:18:45,319 Speaker 2: The mathematical upper limit for winning classically is eight out 388 00:18:45,319 --> 00:18:48,640 of nine times. Eventually, the constraints of the grid force 389 00:18:48,640 --> 00:18:50,240 a contradiction and we lose. 390 00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:54,319 Speaker 1: But if we utilize the entanglement lookehole, we can break 391 00:18:54,319 --> 00:18:55,200 that classical limit. 392 00:18:55,359 --> 00:18:57,319 Speaker 2: We can basically perform magic. 393 00:18:57,079 --> 00:18:59,160 Speaker 1: Instead of just a playbook. You and I share two 394 00:18:59,200 --> 00:19:00,599 pairs of entangled particles. 395 00:19:00,759 --> 00:19:02,000 Speaker 2: We are still in separate rooms. 396 00:19:02,079 --> 00:19:04,480 Speaker 1: We still cannot communicate, no phones, no talking. 397 00:19:04,799 --> 00:19:07,480 Speaker 2: But before we write down our numbers, we perform specific 398 00:19:07,559 --> 00:19:10,839 quantum measurements on our respective particles based on which row 399 00:19:10,960 --> 00:19:12,640 or column we were assigned. 400 00:19:12,440 --> 00:19:15,720 Speaker 1: And because the particles are entangled, the act of you 401 00:19:15,839 --> 00:19:19,440 measuring your particles instantly correlates with the state of my particles, 402 00:19:19,880 --> 00:19:22,400 regardless of the physical distance between us. 403 00:19:22,640 --> 00:19:27,200 Speaker 2: The quantum states coordinate our answers. By following the strategy 404 00:19:27,240 --> 00:19:30,160 dictated by the particle measurements, we will win the magic 405 00:19:30,240 --> 00:19:33,000 square game nine out of nine times. 406 00:19:32,839 --> 00:19:35,440 Speaker 1: A perfect one hundred percent win rate. 407 00:19:35,559 --> 00:19:38,599 Speaker 2: To any outside observer, it looks like we are telepathically 408 00:19:38,680 --> 00:19:40,200 communicating our moves. 409 00:19:40,160 --> 00:19:44,440 Speaker 1: But we aren't sending radio signals and we aren't transmitting data. 410 00:19:44,720 --> 00:19:49,200 This brings us to Einstein's nightmare spooky action at a distance. 411 00:19:49,279 --> 00:19:52,920 Speaker 2: Einstein hated this. He believed in locality that an object 412 00:19:52,960 --> 00:19:56,039 can only be influenced by its immediate physical surroundings. 413 00:19:56,079 --> 00:19:57,519 Speaker 1: You have to touch something to move it. 414 00:19:57,759 --> 00:20:00,680 Speaker 2: Right, He argued that entanglement must be an illusion, that 415 00:20:00,720 --> 00:20:03,319 the particles must carry some hidden variables, like a. 416 00:20:03,359 --> 00:20:06,559 Speaker 1: Secret preprogrammed code they agreed upon before they were separated. 417 00:20:06,640 --> 00:20:09,559 Speaker 2: Yes, Einstein thought quantum mechanics was just incomplete and we 418 00:20:09,559 --> 00:20:11,880 were missing the hidden instruction manual. 419 00:20:12,039 --> 00:20:14,119 Speaker 1: But Einstein was wrong about this, wasn't. 420 00:20:13,960 --> 00:20:17,640 Speaker 2: He His intuition was brilliant, but John Stuart Bell formulated 421 00:20:17,680 --> 00:20:21,279 a mathematical theorem in the nineteen sixties, Bell's theorem that 422 00:20:21,359 --> 00:20:23,960 provided a way to test hidden variables, and. 423 00:20:23,920 --> 00:20:26,720 Speaker 1: Over the last few decades, culminating in the twenty twenty 424 00:20:26,720 --> 00:20:31,279 two Nobel Prize in Physics, experiments have definitively proven that 425 00:20:31,400 --> 00:20:33,240 hidden variables do not exist. 426 00:20:33,440 --> 00:20:37,119 Speaker 2: The correlation between entangled particles is truly non local. 427 00:20:37,519 --> 00:20:40,519 Speaker 1: Non Locality is such a sterile academic word for a 428 00:20:40,559 --> 00:20:43,200 concept that completely breaks the concept of distance. 429 00:20:43,319 --> 00:20:43,960 Speaker 2: It really does. 430 00:20:44,640 --> 00:20:48,319 Speaker 1: If two particles can perfectly coordinate their states across a laboratory, 431 00:20:48,799 --> 00:20:53,799 or theoretically, across the entire diameter of the observable universe instantaneously, 432 00:20:54,240 --> 00:20:55,400 then what even is space? 433 00:20:55,640 --> 00:20:57,160 Speaker 2: Space becomes highly suspect. 434 00:20:57,319 --> 00:21:00,599 Speaker 1: Is the physical distance between objects just a macroscop illusion. 435 00:21:00,920 --> 00:21:02,880 If distance is an illusion, what does that mean for 436 00:21:02,960 --> 00:21:03,599 human connection? 437 00:21:03,880 --> 00:21:06,200 Speaker 2: It forces us to view the universe not as a 438 00:21:06,319 --> 00:21:10,039 vast container filled with isolated objects separated by empty space, 439 00:21:10,559 --> 00:21:13,079 but as a deeply interconnected quantum web. 440 00:21:13,279 --> 00:21:14,720 Speaker 1: Everything is touching everything else. 441 00:21:14,759 --> 00:21:19,279 Speaker 2: Mathematically speaking, space and distance might be emergent properties, things 442 00:21:19,279 --> 00:21:22,240 that only appear real when we zoom out, but at 443 00:21:22,279 --> 00:21:26,759 the foundational level, the universe is a singular, insecable entity. 444 00:21:27,039 --> 00:21:30,240 Speaker 1: Speaking of things we assume are inseparable, let's talk about 445 00:21:30,240 --> 00:21:32,119 the ontology of objects themselves. 446 00:21:32,279 --> 00:21:33,599 Speaker 2: What makes a thing a thing? 447 00:21:33,960 --> 00:21:37,559 Speaker 1: Right? Classical physics tells us that an object and its 448 00:21:37,559 --> 00:21:42,759 physical properties are a package deal. An apple has mass, shape, 449 00:21:42,799 --> 00:21:43,359 and color. 450 00:21:43,519 --> 00:21:46,319 Speaker 2: You can't separate the redness from the apple exactly. 451 00:21:46,400 --> 00:21:48,519 Speaker 1: You can't strip the color red off an apple and 452 00:21:48,599 --> 00:21:50,680 leave the red floating in the hallway while the apple 453 00:21:50,720 --> 00:21:51,519 sits in the kitchen. 454 00:21:51,559 --> 00:21:53,039 Speaker 2: That would be absurd, But. 455 00:21:53,039 --> 00:21:56,359 Speaker 1: The quantum realm disagrees. Let's look as a quantum cheshure 456 00:21:56,440 --> 00:21:57,240 cat experiment. 457 00:21:57,720 --> 00:22:00,680 Speaker 2: The nomenclature, of course, is pulled from Lewis Carrol, where 458 00:22:00,680 --> 00:22:04,759 the cheshire cat vanishes, leaving only its abstract grin behind. 459 00:22:04,880 --> 00:22:06,279 Speaker 1: A perfect name for this experiment. 460 00:22:06,519 --> 00:22:11,480 Speaker 2: In twenty fourteen, researchers at the Institute Laleingemin successfully separated 461 00:22:11,519 --> 00:22:14,279 a physical particle from one of its fundamental properties. 462 00:22:14,359 --> 00:22:15,799 Speaker 1: They separated the grin from the cap. 463 00:22:15,960 --> 00:22:20,319 Speaker 2: They used neutrons, which possess mass, spatial location, and a 464 00:22:20,400 --> 00:22:21,839 quantum property called spin. 465 00:22:22,400 --> 00:22:25,519 Speaker 1: Spin is a form of intrinsic angular momentum. Right. 466 00:22:25,680 --> 00:22:28,799 Speaker 2: Roughly speaking, yes, it's an innate property of the particle, 467 00:22:29,319 --> 00:22:32,519 and the setup requires a silicon crystal interferometer. 468 00:22:32,799 --> 00:22:35,799 Speaker 1: They fire a neutron in and the interferometer acts as 469 00:22:35,839 --> 00:22:36,839 a quantum. 470 00:22:36,400 --> 00:22:39,319 Speaker 2: Fork in the road, placing the neutron into a spatial 471 00:22:39,359 --> 00:22:43,680 superposition where it travels down two separate paths simultaneously, an 472 00:22:43,799 --> 00:22:45,359 upper path and a lower path. 473 00:22:45,640 --> 00:22:48,279 Speaker 1: The brilliance of the experiment relies on a concept called 474 00:22:48,279 --> 00:22:50,799 weak measurement combined with post selection. 475 00:22:51,599 --> 00:22:55,000 Speaker 2: We have to define weak measurement here. A standard strong 476 00:22:55,200 --> 00:22:59,440 quantum measurement violently collapses a wave function into a single state. 477 00:22:59,799 --> 00:23:01,720 Speaker 1: Look at it and it locks into place. 478 00:23:02,160 --> 00:23:05,400 Speaker 2: But a weak measurement only interacts with the system very gently. 479 00:23:05,799 --> 00:23:10,000 It extracts a tiny, statistically noisy amount of information without 480 00:23:10,079 --> 00:23:11,880 fully destroying the superposition. 481 00:23:12,079 --> 00:23:14,240 Speaker 1: It's like peaking through your fingers exactly. 482 00:23:14,519 --> 00:23:17,039 Speaker 2: And the post selection part is crucial. They don't look 483 00:23:17,079 --> 00:23:18,279 at every neutron. 484 00:23:18,039 --> 00:23:19,119 Speaker 1: Right, They threw out a lot of data. 485 00:23:19,160 --> 00:23:22,079 Speaker 2: They only analyze the weak measurement data from the neutrons 486 00:23:22,079 --> 00:23:25,839 that ultimately end up in a very specific, predefined final 487 00:23:25,880 --> 00:23:27,599 state at the end of the interferometer. 488 00:23:28,079 --> 00:23:30,839 Speaker 1: So when they perform these weak measurements on the pre 489 00:23:31,279 --> 00:23:36,599 selected and posts selected ensemble of neutrons. The mathematical results 490 00:23:36,640 --> 00:23:37,400 are staggering. 491 00:23:37,480 --> 00:23:40,559 Speaker 2: They are the weak value of the particle spatial location. 492 00:23:40,720 --> 00:23:44,240 Its physical mass is found localized entirely in the upper 493 00:23:44,279 --> 00:23:47,039 path of the interferometer. The mass is up top, but 494 00:23:47,119 --> 00:23:50,440 the weak value of the particle spin its magnetic moment 495 00:23:50,559 --> 00:23:53,079 is found localized entirely in the lower path. 496 00:23:53,240 --> 00:23:56,079 Speaker 1: The physical object went one way and its property went 497 00:23:56,119 --> 00:23:56,440 the other. 498 00:23:56,599 --> 00:23:58,799 Speaker 2: The cat took the high road and the grin took 499 00:23:58,799 --> 00:23:59,480 the low road. 500 00:24:00,119 --> 00:24:03,200 Speaker 1: To really dig into the implications of this, it forces 501 00:24:03,279 --> 00:24:06,559 us to ask what actually is an object. 502 00:24:06,640 --> 00:24:08,359 Speaker 2: It's a deep philosophical question. 503 00:24:08,480 --> 00:24:12,119 Speaker 1: We are deeply conditioned by our evolutionary biology to view 504 00:24:12,200 --> 00:24:15,440 matter as solid foundational. 505 00:24:14,759 --> 00:24:18,000 Speaker 2: Blocks things you can stub your toe on, right, But 506 00:24:18,079 --> 00:24:21,799 the chesher cat experiment supports what philosophers call bundle theory. 507 00:24:22,119 --> 00:24:25,119 Bundle theory suggests that a particle isn't a solid nucleus 508 00:24:25,119 --> 00:24:27,640 that holds properties like a basket holding apples. 509 00:24:27,880 --> 00:24:31,319 Speaker 1: A particle is literally just a bundle of abstract mathematical 510 00:24:31,359 --> 00:24:35,519 properties mass, charge, spin. They usually travel together, so we 511 00:24:35,599 --> 00:24:36,880 call that bundle an object. 512 00:24:37,200 --> 00:24:40,799 Speaker 2: But under precise quantum manipulation, you can unbind the bundle. 513 00:24:41,039 --> 00:24:44,240 Speaker 1: You can untie the knot. It reveals that our macroscopic 514 00:24:44,319 --> 00:24:47,039 concept of an object is an oversimplification. 515 00:24:47,440 --> 00:24:50,680 Speaker 2: At the bedrock of reality, there are no solid things, 516 00:24:51,039 --> 00:24:54,119 only collections of observable properties interacting in space. 517 00:24:54,519 --> 00:24:58,240 Speaker 1: It makes the physical world feel incredibly ephemeral. But if 518 00:24:58,240 --> 00:25:01,079 you think stripping a property from a partticle is unsettling, 519 00:25:01,640 --> 00:25:04,839 we are about to transition to an interpretation that strips 520 00:25:04,839 --> 00:25:08,240 away the limits of human mortality, but at a horrifying cost, 521 00:25:08,359 --> 00:25:11,799 a deeply horrifying cost. What let's unpack the concept of 522 00:25:11,880 --> 00:25:14,039 quantum suicide and quantum immortality. 523 00:25:14,160 --> 00:25:16,640 Speaker 2: We are moving into dark territory here, and I. 524 00:25:16,559 --> 00:25:19,000 Speaker 1: Want to be very clear here. We are moving from 525 00:25:19,119 --> 00:25:24,279 rigorously tested laboratory physics into highly speculative theoretical interpretation. 526 00:25:24,519 --> 00:25:27,400 Speaker 2: But it is an interpretation derived strictly from the math. 527 00:25:27,680 --> 00:25:30,440 Speaker 1: To understand this, we must look at the many worlds interpretation, 528 00:25:31,039 --> 00:25:33,880 originally proposed by Hugh Everett in nineteen fifty seven. 529 00:25:34,400 --> 00:25:37,680 Speaker 2: As we've discussed, standard quantum mechanics struggles with the collapse 530 00:25:37,680 --> 00:25:38,480 of the wave function. 531 00:25:38,759 --> 00:25:41,519 Speaker 1: Why does a superposition pick one reality when we look 532 00:25:41,559 --> 00:25:41,839 at it? 533 00:25:42,160 --> 00:25:46,920 Speaker 2: Everett proposed a radical solution. The wave function never collapses. 534 00:25:47,039 --> 00:25:47,960 Speaker 1: It just keeps going. 535 00:25:48,119 --> 00:25:52,160 Speaker 2: The math of the Schrodinger equation just continues to evolve unitarily. 536 00:25:52,920 --> 00:25:56,960 When a quantum event has multiple possible outcomes, the universe 537 00:25:57,000 --> 00:25:57,839 simply branches. 538 00:25:58,119 --> 00:26:03,279 Speaker 1: All outcomes physically occur just in mutually unobservable orthogonal realities. 539 00:26:03,359 --> 00:26:06,160 Speaker 2: So if a radioactive atom has a fifty percent chance 540 00:26:06,200 --> 00:26:09,119 of decaying and a fifty percent chance of remaining stable, 541 00:26:09,480 --> 00:26:10,200 it does both. 542 00:26:10,359 --> 00:26:13,559 Speaker 1: In one branch of reality, it decays. In another branch, 543 00:26:13,640 --> 00:26:16,160 it remains stable. The universe splits now. 544 00:26:16,279 --> 00:26:19,559 Speaker 2: Max Tegmark and other physicists have explored a thought experiment 545 00:26:19,599 --> 00:26:21,880 that ties this directly to human consciousness. 546 00:26:22,440 --> 00:26:26,480 Speaker 1: Imagine a setup often called the quantum gun. A weapon 547 00:26:26,519 --> 00:26:29,440 is triggered by a quantum event, like the spin measurement 548 00:26:29,480 --> 00:26:30,079 of a particle. 549 00:26:30,319 --> 00:26:33,000 Speaker 2: If its spin up, the gun fires. If it's spin down, 550 00:26:33,039 --> 00:26:34,240 it clicks and does nothing. 551 00:26:34,319 --> 00:26:37,079 Speaker 1: The thought experiment places a conscious observer in a chair 552 00:26:37,480 --> 00:26:39,720 with a quantum gun aimed directly at their head. They 553 00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:40,359 pull the trigger. 554 00:26:40,400 --> 00:26:43,920 Speaker 2: According to the many world's interpretation, the universe immediately splits. 555 00:26:44,079 --> 00:26:48,440 Speaker 1: In one reality, the gun fires and the observers instantly killed. 556 00:26:48,400 --> 00:26:51,440 Speaker 2: And in the branching reality, the gun just clicks and 557 00:26:51,480 --> 00:26:52,559 the observer is fine. 558 00:26:52,839 --> 00:26:55,079 Speaker 1: If you or I are standing outside the room watching this, 559 00:26:55,759 --> 00:26:59,279 we see a standard probability distribution. If the subject pulls 560 00:26:59,279 --> 00:27:02,319 the trigger ten times, there's a ninety nine point nine 561 00:27:02,319 --> 00:27:03,920 percent chance we watch them die. 562 00:27:04,119 --> 00:27:08,000 Speaker 2: But the paradox hinges entirely on the anthropic principle and 563 00:27:08,079 --> 00:27:11,559 the subjective first person perspective of the observer in the chair. 564 00:27:11,839 --> 00:27:15,200 Speaker 1: From the first person perspective, what happens to consciousness When 565 00:27:15,200 --> 00:27:16,720 the universe splits. 566 00:27:16,519 --> 00:27:19,559 Speaker 2: In the branch where the gunfires. The observer's brain is 567 00:27:19,599 --> 00:27:23,240 instantly destroyed. Their consciousness ceases to exist. 568 00:27:23,440 --> 00:27:26,759 Speaker 1: You cannot experience being dead. There is no observer left 569 00:27:26,759 --> 00:27:27,279 to observe. 570 00:27:27,599 --> 00:27:30,640 Speaker 2: Therefore, the only branch of reality that the observer's consciousness 571 00:27:30,680 --> 00:27:34,759 can possibly perceive is the branch where the gun clicks. 572 00:27:34,720 --> 00:27:36,880 Speaker 1: Which means, from the subject's point of view, they pull 573 00:27:36,960 --> 00:27:41,240 the trigger ten, fifty, one hundred times, and every single 574 00:27:41,279 --> 00:27:43,160 time the gun just clicks. 575 00:27:42,960 --> 00:27:46,039 Speaker 2: They survive a statistically impossible sequence of events. 576 00:27:46,319 --> 00:27:50,000 Speaker 1: Their subjective consciousness is essentially forced to navigate the exact 577 00:27:50,039 --> 00:27:53,319 path through the multiverse where they remain alive. This is 578 00:27:53,400 --> 00:27:54,440 quantum immortality. 579 00:27:54,759 --> 00:27:57,720 Speaker 2: It is vital to note the differences between this and 580 00:27:57,839 --> 00:27:59,519 classical probability right. 581 00:27:59,559 --> 00:28:01,880 Speaker 1: You cannot to achieve this with a standard game of 582 00:28:01,960 --> 00:28:02,720 Russian roulette. 583 00:28:02,799 --> 00:28:06,640 Speaker 2: Because the physics of a classic revolver are macroscopic and deterministic. 584 00:28:06,799 --> 00:28:10,799 They do not cause a universal quantum split. It's just mechanics. 585 00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:15,000 Speaker 1: And the immortality described here is purely subjective to the 586 00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:18,720 rest of the multiverse. The subject leaves behind countless timelines 587 00:28:19,039 --> 00:28:21,559 filled with their own corpses in greeving families. 588 00:28:21,640 --> 00:28:25,079 Speaker 2: It's an intensely selfish form of immortality. 589 00:28:24,480 --> 00:28:27,240 Speaker 1: And even for the survivor, it is a chilling prospect. 590 00:28:27,799 --> 00:28:31,559 The thought experiment dictates that your consciousness must survive, but 591 00:28:31,599 --> 00:28:33,519 it doesn't guarantee you survive unharmed. 592 00:28:33,680 --> 00:28:34,440 Speaker 2: Oh that's true. 593 00:28:34,519 --> 00:28:37,480 Speaker 1: You could survive a quantum triggered explosion but be left 594 00:28:37,559 --> 00:28:41,839 completely paralyzed, blind, and isolated. As long as a flicker 595 00:28:41,880 --> 00:28:45,559 of biological consciousness remains to observe the universe, you are 596 00:28:45,640 --> 00:28:47,039 trapped in that timeline. 597 00:28:47,119 --> 00:28:50,400 Speaker 2: It transforms the many World's theory from an elegant mathematical 598 00:28:50,400 --> 00:28:52,720 solution into an existential prison. 599 00:28:53,240 --> 00:28:56,599 Speaker 1: It makes us confront how aggressively our subjective awareness might 600 00:28:56,640 --> 00:28:58,839 be tied to the physical unfolding of reality. 601 00:28:59,119 --> 00:29:03,200 Speaker 2: It highlights a persistant tension in physics. We continually try 602 00:29:03,200 --> 00:29:05,759 to remove the observer from the equations to find an 603 00:29:05,759 --> 00:29:06,759 objective universe. 604 00:29:07,119 --> 00:29:09,960 Speaker 1: We want the universe to exist without us looking at it. 605 00:29:10,160 --> 00:29:14,000 Speaker 2: Yet theories like Many Worlds and Wigner's Friend keep violently 606 00:29:14,079 --> 00:29:16,960 dragging the observer back into the center of the frame. 607 00:29:17,440 --> 00:29:20,440 Speaker 1: And this friction isn't just limited to quantum scales. It 608 00:29:20,480 --> 00:29:24,119 scales up to the most massive destructive objects in the cosmos. 609 00:29:24,759 --> 00:29:29,519 Let's examine the ultimate cosmic clash, the black hole information paradox. 610 00:29:29,799 --> 00:29:32,599 Speaker 2: This is where the two supreme blueprints of the universe 611 00:29:32,640 --> 00:29:33,160 go to war. 612 00:29:33,440 --> 00:29:36,720 Speaker 1: On one side, we have Albert Einstein's general relativity. It 613 00:29:36,799 --> 00:29:38,400 is the physics of the macrocosm. 614 00:29:38,680 --> 00:29:41,559 Speaker 2: It describes gravity not as a force pulling things together, 615 00:29:41,640 --> 00:29:44,440 but as the warping of the smooth, continuous fabric of 616 00:29:44,440 --> 00:29:47,240 space time planets rolling on a trampoline. 617 00:29:47,400 --> 00:29:50,359 Speaker 1: On either side, we have quantum mechanics, the physics of 618 00:29:50,400 --> 00:29:54,880 the microcosm, which relies on discrete probabilistic states and the 619 00:29:54,920 --> 00:29:57,240 absolute unbreakable rule of unitarity. 620 00:29:57,480 --> 00:29:59,799 Speaker 2: Unitarity is a foundational pillar of quantum ma. 621 00:29:59,799 --> 00:30:01,759 Speaker 1: Caare explain unitarity force. 622 00:30:01,920 --> 00:30:04,039 Speaker 2: It states that the evolution of a quantum state is 623 00:30:04,079 --> 00:30:05,200 perfectly reversible. 624 00:30:05,279 --> 00:30:05,880 Speaker 1: Reversible. 625 00:30:05,960 --> 00:30:08,640 Speaker 2: Yes, if you know the exact quantum state of a 626 00:30:08,680 --> 00:30:12,319 system today, you can calculate exactly what it will be tomorrow, 627 00:30:12,440 --> 00:30:14,920 and you can calculate exactly what it was yesterday. 628 00:30:15,000 --> 00:30:16,519 Speaker 1: So information is conserved. 629 00:30:16,680 --> 00:30:20,720 Speaker 2: This means information, the precise arrangement of particles and their 630 00:30:20,799 --> 00:30:23,559 quantum states, can never be fundamentally destroyed. 631 00:30:23,799 --> 00:30:26,480 Speaker 1: You could burn a book, but theoretically, if you tracked 632 00:30:26,559 --> 00:30:31,359 every photon, atom, and molecule of ash, you could reconstruct. 633 00:30:30,799 --> 00:30:35,079 Speaker 2: The text exactly. The information is conserved, just scrambled. 634 00:30:35,519 --> 00:30:39,559 Speaker 1: General relativity and quantum mechanics usually ignore each other. Relativity 635 00:30:39,599 --> 00:30:44,119 handles galaxies, quantum mechanics handles atoms, but a black hole 636 00:30:44,519 --> 00:30:47,400 forces them into the same violently compressed space. 637 00:30:47,640 --> 00:30:51,440 Speaker 2: When a massive star collapses into a singularity, gravity becomes 638 00:30:51,440 --> 00:30:54,039 so immense that it creates an event horizon. 639 00:30:53,759 --> 00:30:56,799 Speaker 1: A boundary where the escape velocity exceeds the speed of light. 640 00:30:57,079 --> 00:30:59,839 Speaker 2: General relativity states that anything crossing the event horizon is 641 00:30:59,839 --> 00:31:02,759 cut off from the observable universe forever it's. 642 00:31:02,599 --> 00:31:05,640 Speaker 1: Gone, and for a long time, physicists accepted that black 643 00:31:05,640 --> 00:31:09,079 holes were just cosmic trash cans but in nineteen seventy four, 644 00:31:09,440 --> 00:31:13,119 Stephen Hawking introduced quantum mechanics to the event horizon. 645 00:31:12,880 --> 00:31:17,960 Speaker 2: And he discovered Hawking radiation, which changed everything. Quantum field 646 00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:21,759 theory tells us that empty space is not actually empty. 647 00:31:22,160 --> 00:31:26,319 Pairs of virtual particles and antiparticles constantly pop into existence 648 00:31:26,359 --> 00:31:27,319 and annihilate each. 649 00:31:27,160 --> 00:31:29,240 Speaker 1: Other, boiling soup of particles. 650 00:31:29,359 --> 00:31:31,839 Speaker 2: Hawking realized that if this happens right on the edge 651 00:31:31,880 --> 00:31:35,039 of the event horizon, one particle might fall in while 652 00:31:35,119 --> 00:31:36,559 the other escapes as radiation. 653 00:31:36,880 --> 00:31:40,400 Speaker 1: Because the black hole is emitting these escaping particles, it 654 00:31:40,480 --> 00:31:44,720 is slowly losing mass. It's glowing very faintly. 655 00:31:44,880 --> 00:31:49,039 Speaker 2: Over an incomprehensible amount of time trillions of years, the 656 00:31:49,079 --> 00:31:52,319 black hole will completely evaporate into nothingness. 657 00:31:51,799 --> 00:31:53,200 Speaker 1: Which triggers the paradox. 658 00:31:53,279 --> 00:31:57,279 Speaker 2: According to Hawking's original calculations, this radiation is purely thermal. 659 00:31:57,319 --> 00:31:58,880 It is completely random. 660 00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:02,920 Speaker 1: Meaning it contains absolutely zero information about the matter that 661 00:32:02,960 --> 00:32:03,920 fell into the black hole. 662 00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:05,680 Speaker 2: Let me make sure the gravity of this is clear. 663 00:32:05,880 --> 00:32:08,480 If you throw a diamond into a black hole, okay, 664 00:32:08,480 --> 00:32:10,559 a diamond, and you throw a block of coal into a. 665 00:32:10,480 --> 00:32:12,519 Speaker 1: Black hole and wait for it to evaporate. 666 00:32:12,200 --> 00:32:14,640 Speaker 2: The radiation that comes out at the end is identical. 667 00:32:15,240 --> 00:32:18,240 The universe has entirely forgotten the difference between the diamond 668 00:32:18,319 --> 00:32:18,799 and the coal. 669 00:32:19,240 --> 00:32:22,880 Speaker 1: The information is utterly destroyed. It's not just scrambled, it's deleted. 670 00:32:23,200 --> 00:32:27,720 Speaker 2: And if information is destroyed, unitarity is violated. The mathematical 671 00:32:27,759 --> 00:32:31,440 foundation of quantum mechanics collapses. You can no longer predict 672 00:32:31,440 --> 00:32:33,039 the future or trace the past. 673 00:32:33,240 --> 00:32:36,680 Speaker 1: We are faced with a catastrophic logical contradiction. 674 00:32:37,279 --> 00:32:40,839 Speaker 2: General relativity insists the information fell in and the black 675 00:32:40,839 --> 00:32:44,839 hole evaporated. Quantum mechanics insists the information cannot. 676 00:32:44,480 --> 00:32:46,160 Speaker 1: Be destroyed, so how do we fix it? 677 00:32:46,480 --> 00:32:50,559 Speaker 2: To solve this, theoretical physicists like Leonard Suskind and Gerard 678 00:32:50,559 --> 00:32:53,000 Hoofed proposed the holographic principle. 679 00:32:53,119 --> 00:32:54,759 Speaker 1: The holographic principle. 680 00:32:54,400 --> 00:32:57,359 Speaker 2: They suggested that the information of the infalling matter isn't 681 00:32:57,400 --> 00:33:01,839 actually swallowed. Instead, it's quanti data is smeared and encoded 682 00:33:01,880 --> 00:33:04,319 on the two dimensional surface of the event horizon. 683 00:33:04,640 --> 00:33:07,839 Speaker 1: So the event horizon acts like a massive cosmic hard drive, 684 00:33:08,319 --> 00:33:11,279 storing a two D hologram of everything that falls in. 685 00:33:11,599 --> 00:33:15,359 Speaker 2: Yes, and as the black hole evaporates, this information is 686 00:33:15,440 --> 00:33:20,359 subtly imprinted onto the escaping hawking radiation, saving quantum mechanics. 687 00:33:20,519 --> 00:33:22,119 The information escapes. 688 00:33:21,799 --> 00:33:25,000 Speaker 1: But saving quantum mechanics creates a massive problem for Einstein. 689 00:33:25,079 --> 00:33:27,920 Speaker 2: Right, yes, it does. In twenty twelve, a group of 690 00:33:27,920 --> 00:33:33,119 physicists known as AMPS analyze this holographic solution and found 691 00:33:33,160 --> 00:33:34,640 a new paradox. 692 00:33:34,359 --> 00:33:35,759 Speaker 1: The firewall paradox. 693 00:33:35,839 --> 00:33:38,880 Speaker 2: If the information is preserved on the horizon and entangled 694 00:33:38,880 --> 00:33:42,480 with the outgoing radiation, the mathematics suggests it would create 695 00:33:42,559 --> 00:33:47,240 an incredibly intense wall of high energy particles just inside 696 00:33:47,240 --> 00:33:51,720 the event horizon, a literal firewall, a firewall of incinerating energy. 697 00:33:51,799 --> 00:33:55,039 Speaker 1: But a firewall completely violates a core tenet of general 698 00:33:55,039 --> 00:33:57,400 relativity called the equivalence principle. 699 00:33:57,559 --> 00:33:59,920 Speaker 2: Einstein said that if you are floating in empty space 700 00:34:00,240 --> 00:34:03,359 or free falling toward a massive object, you shouldn't feel 701 00:34:03,400 --> 00:34:04,079 any difference. 702 00:34:04,400 --> 00:34:06,720 Speaker 1: A person falling past the event horizon of a massive 703 00:34:06,720 --> 00:34:09,719 black hole shouldn't even notice when they cross the boundary. 704 00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:12,639 Hitting a wall of energy breaks Einstein's rules completely. 705 00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:16,000 Speaker 2: It is a zero sum game of physics. If you 706 00:34:16,079 --> 00:34:19,239 want to preserve quantum information, you have to break the 707 00:34:19,280 --> 00:34:23,119 smooth space time of general relativity with a firewall, and. 708 00:34:23,119 --> 00:34:25,079 Speaker 1: If you want to keep the space time smooth, you 709 00:34:25,159 --> 00:34:28,159 have to let the information be destroyed and break quantum mechanics. 710 00:34:28,639 --> 00:34:31,599 Speaker 2: The black hole information paradox is the ultimate proof that 711 00:34:31,679 --> 00:34:34,920 our understanding of the universe is fundamentally incomplete. 712 00:34:35,119 --> 00:34:38,480 Speaker 1: We have two incredibly accurate maps of reality, and when 713 00:34:38,480 --> 00:34:40,480 you overlap them, they catch fire. 714 00:34:40,679 --> 00:34:44,360 Speaker 2: And that friction, that inability to reconcile the observer with 715 00:34:44,480 --> 00:34:47,880 the math brings us to the core glitch underlying almost 716 00:34:47,920 --> 00:34:51,760 everything we've discussed today, the big one, the measurement problem. 717 00:34:51,840 --> 00:34:54,719 Speaker 1: The measurement problem is the dark heart of quantum mechanics, 718 00:34:55,440 --> 00:35:00,400 as we discussed the Schroding. Your equation is completely deterministic. 719 00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:04,159 Speaker 2: Decribes a wave function evolving smoothly over time. A particle 720 00:35:04,280 --> 00:35:08,599 existing in a superposition of multiple states is mathematically pristine. 721 00:35:08,199 --> 00:35:11,159 Speaker 1: But the math tells us nothing about the collapse. The 722 00:35:11,239 --> 00:35:14,360 equations do not contain a single variable that explains why 723 00:35:14,360 --> 00:35:17,679 the superposition suddenly snaps into a single, concrete reality the 724 00:35:17,719 --> 00:35:18,599 moment we look at it. 725 00:35:18,880 --> 00:35:21,599 Speaker 2: The math tells us the how. It allows us to 726 00:35:21,639 --> 00:35:26,480 engineer semiconductors, lasers, and quantum computers with breathtaking precision, but. 727 00:35:26,519 --> 00:35:30,599 Speaker 1: It is entirely silent on the why. What physical mechanism 728 00:35:30,639 --> 00:35:33,719 dictates the transition from probability to reality? 729 00:35:33,840 --> 00:35:36,400 Speaker 2: What even defines a measurement? Is it a human eyeball, 730 00:35:37,079 --> 00:35:38,760 a camera, a rock. 731 00:35:38,960 --> 00:35:41,880 Speaker 1: Because the mathematics are silent, physicists has spent the last 732 00:35:41,880 --> 00:35:46,079 century generating interpretations to explain the collapse. We have touched 733 00:35:46,079 --> 00:35:46,960 on several already. 734 00:35:47,239 --> 00:35:52,199 Speaker 2: The Copenhagen interpretation, championed by Boren Heisenberg, takes a pragmatic stance. 735 00:35:52,599 --> 00:35:56,599 Speaker 1: Observation triggers the collapse, but the mechanism is irrelevant. The 736 00:35:56,639 --> 00:36:00,599 math is just a tool to predict outcomes description of 737 00:36:00,679 --> 00:36:02,199 underlying reality. 738 00:36:01,800 --> 00:36:03,559 Speaker 2: Which is a shut up and calculate approach. 739 00:36:03,639 --> 00:36:06,840 Speaker 1: It works for engineering, but it's philosophically unsatisfying. You want 740 00:36:06,840 --> 00:36:07,800 to know what's actually happening. 741 00:36:07,920 --> 00:36:12,199 Speaker 2: Then we have decoherence, pioneered by Woshik Zurich. This argues 742 00:36:12,239 --> 00:36:14,960 that a system doesn't need a conscious observer, so no 743 00:36:15,119 --> 00:36:19,079 eyeballs required. The wave function collapses because the delicate quantum 744 00:36:19,119 --> 00:36:22,199 system interacts with the messy macroscopic. 745 00:36:21,599 --> 00:36:25,679 Speaker 1: Environment a stray photon bouncing off an atom, or interaction 746 00:36:25,760 --> 00:36:27,360 with air molecules exactly. 747 00:36:27,599 --> 00:36:31,239 Speaker 2: It causes the quantum states to rapidly leak into the environment, 748 00:36:31,639 --> 00:36:33,320 forcing the system to behave. 749 00:36:33,039 --> 00:36:37,960 Speaker 1: Classically decoherence explains why we don't see macroscopic superpositions, why 750 00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:39,480 basketballs don't act. 751 00:36:39,280 --> 00:36:42,639 Speaker 2: Like waves, but many physicists argue it only explains the 752 00:36:42,679 --> 00:36:46,119 appearance of collapse. It still doesn't explain why a single 753 00:36:46,159 --> 00:36:48,440 specific outcome is realized over the others. 754 00:36:48,760 --> 00:36:50,920 Speaker 1: Why spin up instead of spin down right? 755 00:36:51,159 --> 00:36:55,400 Speaker 2: Which brings us to objective collapse theories like the GRW 756 00:36:55,519 --> 00:36:59,679 theory or Roger Penrose's gravitationally induced collapse. 757 00:36:59,480 --> 00:37:03,440 Speaker 1: The theories proposed that superpositions are inherently physically unstable. 758 00:37:04,000 --> 00:37:07,840 Speaker 2: Just as a radioactive isotope decays spontaneously over time, a 759 00:37:07,880 --> 00:37:11,239 superposition of a certain mass or complexity will automatically and 760 00:37:11,320 --> 00:37:13,280 randomly collapse into a single state. 761 00:37:13,159 --> 00:37:16,280 Speaker 1: Completely independent of any observer or environment. It just pops 762 00:37:16,280 --> 00:37:17,480 into reality on its own. 763 00:37:17,599 --> 00:37:21,039 Speaker 2: And finally, we have the von Norman Wigner interpretation, which 764 00:37:21,039 --> 00:37:23,199 brings us back to the most radical. 765 00:37:22,760 --> 00:37:24,920 Speaker 1: Idea consciousness causes collapse. 766 00:37:25,159 --> 00:37:28,199 Speaker 2: This suggests that the physical universe remains in a state 767 00:37:28,280 --> 00:37:32,039 of suspended probability until it interacts with a non physical 768 00:37:32,159 --> 00:37:32,920 conscious mind. 769 00:37:33,559 --> 00:37:37,599 Speaker 1: The act of subjective perception is the definitive catalyst that 770 00:37:37,719 --> 00:37:41,880 forces the universe to materialize. That is a wild thought. 771 00:37:42,039 --> 00:37:47,400 Speaker 2: If we look holistically at the delayed choice eraser, Wigner's friend, pseudotelepathy, 772 00:37:47,599 --> 00:37:50,880 and the black hole paradox, a clear narrative emerges. 773 00:37:51,000 --> 00:37:52,719 Speaker 1: These are not experimental errors. 774 00:37:52,800 --> 00:37:55,360 Speaker 2: No, they are not. In the history of physics, paradoxes 775 00:37:55,400 --> 00:37:57,280 are always the precursors to revolution. 776 00:37:57,760 --> 00:38:01,280 Speaker 1: Newton's classical mechanics couldn't explain the anomalous orbit of. 777 00:38:01,280 --> 00:38:06,480 Speaker 2: Mercury, and that paradox necessitated Einstein's general relativity. The ultraviolet 778 00:38:06,519 --> 00:38:09,920 catastrophe in thermodynamics necessitated quantum mechanics. 779 00:38:10,239 --> 00:38:12,800 Speaker 1: So the fact that quantum mechanics is currently breaking at 780 00:38:12,800 --> 00:38:15,840 the seams that our math requires the future to influence 781 00:38:15,880 --> 00:38:19,679 the past, or objects to separate from their properties. 782 00:38:19,239 --> 00:38:21,639 Speaker 2: Means we are standing on the precipice of an entirely 783 00:38:21,760 --> 00:38:23,880 new framework of physics. 784 00:38:23,400 --> 00:38:25,760 Speaker 1: A theory of quantum gravity or perhaps the structure we 785 00:38:25,760 --> 00:38:28,559 don't even have the vocabulary for yet. A framework where 786 00:38:28,599 --> 00:38:31,760 space time is not fundamental but emergent. 787 00:38:31,800 --> 00:38:33,719 Speaker 2: Where objective reality is fluid. 788 00:38:34,119 --> 00:38:37,400 Speaker 1: We are decoding a universe that is far more malleable, 789 00:38:37,719 --> 00:38:42,599 deeply interconnected and fiercely strange that our biological senses can comprehend. 790 00:38:42,760 --> 00:38:46,119 Speaker 2: The classical comfort of a clockwork universe is gone. We 791 00:38:46,239 --> 00:38:50,280 are participating in a reality that is fundamentally relational, waiting 792 00:38:50,320 --> 00:38:52,920 to be written by the act of observation. 793 00:38:52,599 --> 00:38:55,119 Speaker 1: And that brings us directly to you, the listener. We 794 00:38:55,199 --> 00:38:59,239 have unpacked a massive, reality altering stack of physics today, 795 00:38:59,639 --> 00:39:04,199 from articles communicating instantly across space, to the terrifying subjective 796 00:39:04,199 --> 00:39:08,079 immortality of the quantum gun, to black holes tearing apart 797 00:39:08,119 --> 00:39:09,199 the laws of conservation. 798 00:39:09,480 --> 00:39:11,280 Speaker 2: It is a lot to process. 799 00:39:10,920 --> 00:39:14,039 Speaker 1: After navigating all of this, What do you think? This 800 00:39:14,159 --> 00:39:15,800 is the core question I want you to wrestle with. 801 00:39:16,000 --> 00:39:19,239 Are we living in a rigid, deterministic block universe where 802 00:39:19,280 --> 00:39:22,400 time is an illusion and every choice is already etched 803 00:39:22,440 --> 00:39:24,079 into a four dimensional crystal? 804 00:39:24,480 --> 00:39:27,400 Speaker 2: Or do you believe that human consciousness plays an active, 805 00:39:27,480 --> 00:39:31,440 fundamental role in writing reality into existence every single time 806 00:39:31,480 --> 00:39:32,880 we measure the world around us. 807 00:39:33,119 --> 00:39:35,480 Speaker 1: I want you to ponder this deeply, and then I 808 00:39:35,519 --> 00:39:37,639 want you to leave a comment below. What is your 809 00:39:37,679 --> 00:39:40,920 stand which universe do you think we are actually inhabiting? 810 00:39:41,280 --> 00:39:43,480 Speaker 2: The perspectives you bring to this might just be as 811 00:39:43,519 --> 00:39:45,840 illuminating as the paradoxes themselves. 812 00:39:46,639 --> 00:39:48,840 Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining us on this incredibly 813 00:39:48,880 --> 00:39:52,480 deep exploration. Today, we will keep analyzing the glitching threads 814 00:39:52,480 --> 00:39:55,199 of reality and bringing the physics right back here to you. 815 00:39:55,559 --> 00:39:59,440 Keep questioning everything, stay intensely curious, and we will see 816 00:39:59,480 --> 00:40:01,119 you next time on thrilling threads.