Uploaded December 2022 | Updated September 2026, 10 hours ago
What exactly are time and space? What are the implications of them not being as they seem? What is the relational interpretation of Quantum Mechanics? What are the implications of its leading to no universal laws of nature?
In this Episode we have the non-linearity of space and time to get our heads around. In Episode #28 with physicist Paul Davies we talked about the implications of Einstein’s work in general, and in this episode we delve deeper into the implications of relativity, particularly of time, but also of space and extension. A subject that our guest has worked on extensively.
Carlo Rovelli is a theoretical physicist who works mainly in quantum gravity research, heading up the Quantum Gravity Group at the Centre de physique Theorique in Aix-Marseille in France. He is also passionate about the philosophy and history of science, so a perfect guest for this show.
Rovelli has written many popular science books, including the bestseller ‘The order of Time’ which we’ll be focussing on today. We’re also going to discuss today the release the his new book ‘Helgoland’, which champions his favourite Relational Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. Being such a philosophical scientist I’m also going to ask him about Intuition, Buddhist philosophy and psychedelics.
What we discuss:
00:00 Intro
08:05 Time is local not universal
12:32 ‘Block time’ is a bad analogy
13:20 The apparent ‘flow’ of time from the past to the future
18:00 Entropy’s relationship to time
21:15 Is time an illusion?
26:00 Matter and its extension is also relative
27:00 Space is curved
28:00 Back holes are full of space
30:35 Our most obvious intuitions may not be correct
31:00 Quantum Mechanics: Nature is radically and violently different from our intuition
36:00 Probability Matrices and margins of uncertainty
38:00 The wave particle duality and probability distributions
39:00 Why the relational interpretation is the best
46:00 Science is how you think about reality, not just maths
53:00 Our obsession with final truth is illusory, a silly dream
57:00 Buddha’s Dependent Origination + Nagarjuna’s emptiness
01:02:00 Intuition and altered states of consciousness
01:06:00 Psychedelics, insights and jumps of imagination
01:17:00 A scientific theory of meaning
01:26:00 An intro to Loop Quantum Gravity theory
References:
‘Helgoland: The Strange and Beautiful Story of Quantum Physics’ , Carlo Rovelli
https://g.co/kgs/qgsAbN
‘The Order of Time’ , Carlo Rovelli
https://g.co/kgs/M6v4hW
‘The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way: Nagarjuna’s Mulamadhyamakakarika’ , Nagarjuna
https://g.co/kgs/u4Xfxy
Empedocles - Greek philosopher
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empedocles
‘7 Brief Lessons in Physics’ , Carlo Rovelli
https://g.co/kgs/Sq6kzw
‘Reality is not what it seems’ , Carlo Rovelli
https://g.co/kgs/5UsqQh
What exactly are time and space? What are the implications of them not being as they seem? What is the relational interpretation of Quantum Mechanics? What are the implications of its leading to no universal laws of nature?
In this Episode we have the non-linearity of space and time to get our heads around. In Episode #28 with physicist Paul Davies we talked about the implications of Einstein’s work in general, and in this episode we delve deeper into the implications of relativity, particularly of time, but also of space and extension. A subject that our guest has worked on extensively.
Carlo Rovelli is a theoretical physicist who works mainly in quantum gravity research, heading up the Quantum Gravity Group at the Centre de physique Theorique in Aix-Marseille in France. He is also passionate about the philosophy and history of science, so a perfect guest for this show.
Rovelli has written many popular science books, including the bestseller ‘The order of Time’ which we’ll be focussing on today. We’re also going to discuss today the release the his new book ‘Helgoland’, which champions his favourite Relational Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. Being such a philosophical scientist I’m also going to ask him about Intuition, Buddhist philosophy and psychedelics.
What we discuss:
00:00 Intro
08:05 Time is local not universal
12:32 ‘Block time’ is a bad analogy
13:20 The apparent ‘flow’ of time from the past to the future
18:00 Entropy’s relationship to time
21:15 Is time an illusion?
26:00 Matter and its extension is also relative
27:00 Space is curved
28:00 Back holes are full of space
30:35 Our most obvious intuitions may not be correct
31:00 Quantum Mechanics: Nature is radically and violently different from our intuition
36:00 Probability Matrices and margins of uncertainty
38:00 The wave particle duality and probability distributions
39:00 Why the relational interpretation is the best
46:00 Science is how you think about reality, not just maths
53:00 Our obsession with final truth is illusory, a silly dream
57:00 Buddha’s Dependent Origination + Nagarjuna’s emptiness
01:02:00 Intuition and altered states of consciousness
01:06:00 Psychedelics, insights and jumps of imagination
01:17:00 A scientific theory of meaning
01:26:00 An intro to Loop Quantum Gravity theory
References:
‘Helgoland: The Strange and Beautiful Story of Quantum Physics’ , Carlo Rovelli
https://g.co/kgs/qgsAbN
‘The Order of Time’ , Carlo Rovelli
https://g.co/kgs/M6v4hW
‘The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way: Nagarjuna’s Mulamadhyamakakarika’ , Nagarjuna
https://g.co/kgs/u4Xfxy
Empedocles - Greek philosopher
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empedocles
‘7 Brief Lessons in Physics’ , Carlo Rovelli
https://g.co/kgs/Sq6kzw
‘Reality is not what it seems’ , Carlo Rovelli
https://g.co/kgs/5UsqQh
