Sean Carroll: Thing

Sean Carroll is American theoretical cosmologist. Explore interesting quotes on thing.
Sean Carroll: 20   quotes 0   likes

“Inflation is a simple idea: imagine that the universe begins in a tiny patch of space dominated by the potential energy of some scalar field, a kind of super-dense dark energy. This causes that patch to expand at a terrifically accelerated rate, smoothing out the density and diluting away any unwanted relics. Eventually the scalar field decays into ordinary matter and radiation, reheating the universe into a conventional Big Bang state, after which things proceed as normal.”

Sean Carroll

[The Eternally Existing, Self-reproducing, Frequently Puzzling Inflationary Universe, Preposterous Universe blog, 21 October 2011, http://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2011/10/21/the-eternally-existing-self-reproducing-frequently-puzzling-inflationary-universe/]

Imagination , Idea , Universe

“The “reasons” and “causes” why things happen, in other words, aren’t fundamental; they are emergent. We need to dig in to the actual history of the universe to see why these concepts have emerged.”

Sean Carroll

Chap. 5 : Reasons Why
The Big Picture (2016)

Universe , History

“Metaphysical principles are tempting shortcuts but not reliable guides. There are good reasons why things often seem to happen for reasons—and also reasons why that’s not a bedrock principle.”

Sean Carroll

Chap. 5 : Reasons Why
The Big Picture (2016)

“What we’re seeing is a manifestation of the layered nature of our descriptions of reality. At the deepest level we currently know about, the basic notions are things like “spacetime,” “quantum fields,” “equations of motion,” and “interactions.””

Sean Carroll

No causes, whether material, formal, efficient, or final. But there are levels on top of that, where the vocabulary changes.

Chap. 3 : The World Moves by Itself
The Big Picture (2016)

Reality , Nature

“When exactly does an observation occur? ... What were the laws of physics doing before there was anyone measuring things? And what do you mean by a measurement, anyway? Does it have to be a consciousness human being? ... Can a rock or a virus or an earthworm do an observation?”

Sean Carroll

[The Many Worlds Theory, 24 October 2018, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXRLDatmbgA] (12:16 of 56:11)

Law