108. Brian Greene — Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe

The Michael Shermer Show

Michael Shermer

Dialogue, Science, Reason, Michaelshermer, Natural Sciences, Skeptic

4.4 • 921 Ratings

🗓️ 17 March 2020

⏱️ 74 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Until the End of Time is Brian Greene’s breathtaking new exploration of the cosmos and our quest to find meaning in the face of this vast expanse. Greene takes us on a journey from the big bang to the end of time, exploring how lasting structures formed, how life and mind emerged, and how we grapple with our existence through narrative, myth, religion, creative expression, science, the quest for truth, and a deep longing for the eternal. From particles to planets, consciousness to creativity, matter to meaning—Brian Greene allows us all to grasp and appreciate our fleeting but utterly exquisite moment in the cosmos.

Dr. Greene is a professor of physics and mathematics and director of Columbia University’s Center for Theoretical Physics and is renowned for his groundbreaking discoveries in superstring theory. He is the author of The Elegant Universe, The Fabric of the Cosmos, and The Hidden Reality, and he has hosted two Peabody and Emmy Award winning NOVA miniseries based on his books. With producer Tracy Day, Greene cofounded the World Science Festival. He lives in New York. Greene and Shermer also discuss:

God and religion
why there is something rather than nothing
What was there before the Big Bang, and what caused it to bang?
Are mathematics and the laws of nature human constructs or in nature?
how the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics is the First Law of Life
How does consciousness arise from physical particles?
panpsychism
the Fermi Paradox (where is everybody?)
the evolutionary origins of storytelling and myth making
free will and determinism
finding meaning in a meaningless universe
Greene’s encounter with J.Z. Knight and her 35,000 year old spirit warrior Ramtha
Terror Management Theory and the fear of death
Are moral values human constructs and thus relative, or is there a secular/scientific basis for right and wrong?

Listen to Science Salon via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play Music, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, and TuneIn.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	before I introduce today's guest.
0:02.0	I want to tell you about the offer from our sponsor,
0:04.1	The Great Courses, this month,
0:05.8	is a free month of access to the Great Courses Plus
0:09.8	app.
0:10.5	So it looks like this, you have your phone or whatever device you're using you touch on the app like that boom and the courses pop up
0:17.6	There's a whole variety of them really hundreds that you can access so let's say you're interested in taking this one the
0:23.6	black death which is what I'm currently listening to and the 24 different
0:28.8	lectures pop up now if you're already in the course the lecture will just pick up wherever it is you last left off which is a nice feature or if you just want to skip around like say you want to skip from lecture 2 to lecture 13 medieval theories about the black death you just touch on that
0:44.1	boom and a little summary of the lecture pops up yeah so you can read about whether you
0:48.8	want to listen to it or not and then when you're ready listen to it you just hit
0:52.3	play and you're off and running.
0:54.0	Now if you don't want to do that and you decide you want to change courses in the middle, you can just do that.
0:58.0	Here's a course I already took, understanding the dark side of human nature. This is 24 lectures by Daniel
1:04.8	Briar. Anyway you get the idea. So the offer this month is a free month of
1:09.7	access to the Great Courses Plus and to do that go to the Great
1:15.6	courses Plus.com slash salon. That's the Great Courses Plus
1:20.8	dot com slash salon. Thanks for listening. I guess today is Brian Green.
1:26.6	His new book is until the end of time, mind, matter, and our search for meaning in an
1:32.4	evolving universe.
1:34.0	Pretty much everything.
1:36.0	Those of you that have been abducted by aliens have been on Mars who don't know who Brian Green is.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Michael Shermer, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Michael Shermer and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.