Thomas Murphy: "Physics and Planetary Ambitions"
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
Nate Hagens
4.8 • 555 Ratings
🗓️ 11 May 2022
⏱️ 69 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode, we meet with Professor of Physics at UCSD and the Associate Director of CASS, the Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, Tom Murphy.
Murphy shows us how continued growth and energy use is an impossibility if continued at our current trajectory. How does physics constrain our planetary ambitions? Murphy helps us do the math.
To help us align with a post-growth trajectory, Murphy offers suggestions for how humans can begin to treat nature as well as we treat ourselves — and why we must care about the future in order to create a brighter one.
About Thomas Murphy
Thomas Murphy is a Professor in the Physics Department at UCSD, the Associate Director of CASS, the Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, and is the author of Energy and Human Ambitions on a Finite Planet.
From 2003–2020, Murphy led the APOLLO project as an ultra-precise test of General Relativity using the technique of lunar laser ranging. Professor Murphy's interests are transitioning to quantitative assessment of the challenges associated with long-term human success on a finite planet.
For Show Notes and Transcript visit: https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/18-tom-murphy
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to The Great Simplification with Nate Higgins. |
| 0:06.0 | That's me. |
| 0:07.8 | On this show, we try to explore and simplify what's happening with energy, the economy, |
| 0:14.3 | the environment, and our society. |
| 0:17.6 | Together with scientists, experts, and leaders, this show is about understanding the bird's-eye view of how everything fits together, where we go from here and what we can do about it as a society and as individuals. |
| 0:32.6 | Today's guest is my friend Tom Murphy, a professor of astrophysics at UC San Diego, |
| 0:39.8 | but perhaps better known for his longtime blog, Do the Math. |
| 0:44.9 | Today we do the math on how continued growth in energy use is an impossibility, which |
| 0:50.5 | at today's pace would result in more energy use than the entire galaxy in a short |
| 0:56.0 | few thousand years. |
| 0:57.8 | And other topics relating to the path ahead for humans living on a finite planet. |
| 1:03.3 | Please tune in for Professor Tom Murphy. Welcome to this podcast. Let's get started. I have a lot of questions for you. I've been a long time follower of your writing on Do the Math, and of course, we've |
| 1:28.4 | been friends. |
| 1:29.4 | So could you personally just say, what is your current job and for how long have you |
| 1:35.9 | been doing that? |
| 1:36.9 | I am currently a physics professor at UC San Diego. |
| 1:40.3 | I've been in that job for coming on 19 years. |
| 1:43.3 | Okay. |
| 1:48.7 | And during that time, what has been your main area of research? |
| 1:55.3 | So it's been astrophysics of various flavors, started out as colliding galaxies, and then moved into a project that's occupied the last 20 years in my life on measuring the distance |
| 2:00.0 | to the moon to millimeter precision |
| 2:01.7 | as a test of Einstein's general activity. |
... |
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