If our local, observable universe is embedded in a larger structure, a multiverse, then there’s other places in this larger structure that have denizens in them that call their local environs the universe. And conditions in those other places could be very different. Or they could be pretty similar to what we have here. Sean M. Carroll Read Quote
We tend to talk about the world in a myriad of ways – a microscopic world of elementary particles, a biological world of organisms and evolution, a social world of morality and meaning. But it’s all the same underlying world. That’s the underlying theme of ‘The Big Picture.’ Sean M. Carroll Read Quote
Someday, when the ultimate laws of physics are in our grasp, we may discover that the notion of time isn’t actually essential. Time might instead emerge to play an important role in the macroscopic world of our experience, even if it is nowhere to be found in the final Theory of Everything. Sean M. Carroll Read Quote
If time travel were possible, you still wouldn’t be able to change the past – it’s already happened! Sean M. Carroll Read Quote
The weird thing about the arrow of time is that it’s not to be found in the underlying laws of physics. It’s not there. So it’s a feature of the universe we see, but not a feature of the laws of the individual particles. So the arrow of time is built on top of whatever local laws of physics apply. Sean M. Carroll Read Quote
We ought to teach kids more about the Big Bang and entropy and particles. Every high school graduate should know that everything in the universe is made of a handful of particles. That’s not a hard thing to know. But that’s not what’s emphasized. Sean M. Carroll Read Quote
Among advocates for life after death, nobody even tries to sit down and do the hard work of explaining how the basic physics of atoms and electrons would have to be altered in order for this to be true. If we tried, the fundamental absurdity of the task would quickly become evident. Sean M. Carroll Read Quote
Naturalism is a counterpart to theism. Theism says there’s the physical world and God. Naturalism says there’s only the natural world. There are no spirits, no deities, or anything else. Sean M. Carroll Read Quote
I don’t want to give advice to people about their religious beliefs, but I do think that it’s not smart to bet against the power of science to figure out the natural world. It used to be, a thousand years ago, that if you wanted to explain why the moon moved through the sky, you needed to invoke God. Sean M. Carroll Read Quote
