The Fundamentals of Reality
The Infinite Monkey Cage
BBC
4.7 • 9.4K Ratings
🗓️ 8 February 2021
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Fundamentals of Reality
Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined by Nobel prize-winning physicist Frank Wilczek, cosmologist Janna Levin, and comedians Eric Idle and Sara Pascoe to look at what physics has revealed about the reality of our universe. From Einstein's equations more than 100 years ago through to the amazing discoveries we've made in the last few years about black holes and gravitational waves, the universe we think we see is not necessarily the true fundamental reality that physics has uncovered. What is real and what is not? All will be revealed.
Producer: Alexandra Feachem
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:04.7 | Hello, I'm Brian Cox. I'm Robyn Inz, and this is the Infinite Monkey Cage. |
| 0:08.7 | And today we are talking about reality. |
| 0:11.4 | There are those who say that life is an illusion, and that reality is but a figment of the imagination. |
| 0:18.2 | Is there such a thing as a real underlying reality, or does everyone's opinion have equal validity |
| 0:24.3 | as is clearly stated in Twitter's terms of service? |
| 0:27.2 | For instance, Brian might say, |
| 0:32.4 | E equals MC squared, and I might say, yeah, yeah, well that's just your opinion. |
| 0:36.8 | Well, it's you who might reply. |
| 0:40.0 | It's not an opinion. It's not an opinion. |
| 0:42.4 | The equation follows, if you accept the laws of physics should be expressible as |
| 0:45.2 | coordinate, independent and reference frame, independent relationships between |
| 0:48.6 | geometrical objects representing physical quantities or entities, |
| 0:51.6 | and that the appropriate geometrical arena is Minkowski space time, |
| 0:54.6 | and that the energy momentum for vector is one such geometrical object. |
| 0:58.2 | And I would then reply, fake physics. |
| 1:00.8 | I don't even believe the energy and matter actually exist. |
| 1:04.7 | I think they're merely something used by the Illuminati, another snake-headed scientists. |
| 1:10.8 | And then this would continue for 28 hours, until one of others was destroyed by a lack of logic. |
| 1:16.3 | Anyway, today to debate the nature of reality, we're joined by a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, |
| 1:20.7 | an expert on black holes, a globe-trotting comedian, and the lead reporter for Ruttland Weekend Television. |
| 1:28.8 | And they are. |
... |
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