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Into the Impossible With Brian Keating

Julian Barbour: The Janus Point and the Arrow of Time (#180)

Into the Impossible With Brian Keating

Brian Keating

Science, Physics, Natural Sciences

4.71.1K Ratings

🗓️ 9 September 2021

⏱️ 106 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Julian Barbour is the author of the highly regarded The Discovery of Dynamics and the bestseller The End of Time and now, The Janus Point. He received his PhD in physics from the University of Cologne in 1968. He is a past visiting professor of physics at the University of Oxford and lives on the edge of the scenic Cotswolds, UK. A major new work of physics, The Janus Point will transform our understanding of the nature of existence. In a universe filled by chaos and disorder, Julian Barbour makes the radical argument that the growth of order drives the passage of time — and shapes the destiny of the universe. Time is among the universe's greatest mysteries. Why, when most laws of physics allow for it to flow forward and backward, does it only go forward? Physicists have long appealed to the second law of thermodynamics, held to predict the increase of disorder in the universe, to explain this. In The Janus Point, physicist Julian Barbour argues that the second law has been misapplied and that the growth of order determines how we experience time. In his view, the big bang becomes the "Janus point," a moment of minimal order from which time could flow, and order increase, in two directions. Julian Barbour on "The Janus Point: A New Theory of Time" | Videos: https://youtube.com/watch?v=FMD8B7VRX0w&feature=share https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E0NmHQ0WLc 00:00:00 Intro 00:02:57 The story of the book cover. 00:04:33 What does time mean to you? 00:05:36 The influence of Ernst Mach. 00:09:11 About the "Royal" Zero. 00:28:30 Entaxy, thermodynamics and statistcal mechanics. 00:35:57 The cyclic universe. 00:41:28 The theoretical virtues of the Janus Point. 00:55:05 Is there a necessity for a theory of quantum gravity? 01:07:00 What is the failure of the "singularity" theory of cosmogenesis? 01:09:00 The essence of the Janus Point theory. 01:17:58 The Borde-Guth-Vilenkin Theorem 01:21:25 How do you reconcile the Janus Point Paradigm with current observations? 01:38:00 What would you put on a timeless monolith? 01:43:00 What is now possible that you once thought was not as a younger man? LinkedIn Jobs is the best platform for finding the right candidate to join your business this fall. It’s the largest marketplace for job seekers in the world, and it has great search features so that you can find candidates with any hard or soft skills that you need. And now, you can post a job for free. Just visit linkedin.com/impossible to post a job for free. Audible is hands-down my favorite platform for consuming podcasts, fiction and nonfiction books! With an Audible membership, you can download titles and listen offline, anytime, anywhere. The Audible app is free and can be installed on all smartphones and tablets. You can listen across devices without losing your spot. Audible members don’t have to worry about using their credits right away. Start your free 30-day trial today: Audible.com/impossible or text “impossible” to 500-500 📺 Watch my most popular videos:📺 A New Contender is Here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6A6myur--c Frank Wilczek https://youtu.be/3z8RqKMQHe0?sub_confirmation=1 Weinstein and Wolfram https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI0AZ4Y4Ip4?sub_confirmation=1 Sheldon Glashow: https://youtu.be/a0_iaWgxQtA?sub_confirmation=1 Michael Saylor The Physics of Bitcoin https://youtu.be/CaN_CDKqXOg?sub_confirmation=1 Sir Roger Penrose, Nobel Prize winner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMuqyAvX7Wo?sub_confirmation=1 🏄‍♂️ Find me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating 🔔 Subscribe for more great content https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 ✍️Detailed Blog posts here: https://briankeating.com/blog.php 🎙️Listen on audio only platforms: https://briankeating.com/podcast.php A production of http://imagination.ucsd.edu/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

The Janus point is a startling new glimpse into an alternative theory of not only the origin of the universe

0:08.1

but of the origin of the arrow of time itself

0:12.3

suggesting that one of the greatest mysteries in all of physics

0:15.2

could be solved with a revolutionary new proposal from Julian Barber

0:19.5

who's today's guest on Into the Impossible. Come along and experience this journey in what

0:25.5

Lee Mullen called a rare combination of humanity and a perspective coming from a

0:30.8

lifetime of the study of history and philosophy of cosmology

0:33.4

Julian Barber writes a book that is both a work of literature and a masterpiece of

0:38.6

scientific thought. Come along on this journey into the impossible with me and author Julian Barbore.

0:45.2

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

0:50.4

Get started. Hello everybody. magic.

0:53.0

Hello everybody and welcome to a very special episode of the Into the Impossible

0:58.8

podcast featuring renowned physicist Julian Barbore who is reaching us all the way from the United Kingdom

1:06.4

and this is Entropy Month and Time Month on the Into the Impossible podcast we had on

1:17.2

Jeremy England, who is not English, but he was on to speak about his book, Every Life is on Fire. We have Carla Ravelli who's written many books on time and we'll have Craig

1:25.5

calendars wonderful book who wrote a graphic novel about time but today we're

1:30.5

talking about a very provocative and new theory of time and the origin

1:35.6

of our wonderful universe with a real legend. This is this is such a treat for

1:40.0

me. Julian Barbour is joining us. How are you doing today sir? Oh very well thank you and

1:46.1

for a change we've got lovely weather here it's it's been a very mixed year weather wise but it's

1:52.2

very pleasant today I even even took the snooze for an hour in the garden.

1:55.8

Oh, that's lovely. Yeah, we are experiencing what is known as June gloom, even though it's July, we should be frying in July.

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