The Biggest Questions of Cosmology: Pondering the Imponderables

Gotta say, in what little she spoke, Veronika Hubeny made one hell of a case for not taking too literally the claims of the description of reality in one particular formulation of physical theories vs another. I was completely convinced by her rather uncommon statement that even the classical 3D world is necessarily more "real" than what any other (mathematically equivalent) description might suggest.

Too many brilliant minds seem to forget, mathematics is merely a philosophical tool for logic and reasoning in the metaphysical realm and does not directly define the physical realm. All the models of the physical realm in physics are just that, models, a rendition of our current understanding of reality. Just as an artist starts off drawing gibberish to making better and better models of reality to having a good rendition of it. However, these models will always be our perception of reality and not necessarily reality itself.

It’s heartwarming how none of the participants are interrupting each other... such a relief from basically every other conversation happening in both business and public television.

For those of you out there who, like me, are binge watching these physics lectures and presentations - I have to say that this one, in particular, is much more tense and lively a debate than the other WSF panels. I fell asleep a quarter of the way through the first time (not uncommon as I watch before bed) because I was a little turned off by the abstract nature of the conversation but upon a second go-around, am pleasantly intrigued by this powerhouse line-up and their politely tense parsing of words - when so much seems to be on the line - i've grown a little tired of watching Brian Greene chew his own scenery and this is a nice antidote.

Fun stuff. Albert is great. Never heard anyone who could state something so well - even beautifully - while speaking in a style where the main word is the hated "uh".

The guy 2nd from our right looks like every crazy scientist in every movie I have ever seen.

"Time is not infinite; it will be infinite in the future, which we will never reach" Mind.blown.

This is like my dream dinner party guest list.

The mathematician guy almost lost his shit when the lady said 1 divided by 0

Alan Guth always makes me smile. What a champ!

so many phrases and principles in this discussion that flew right over my head. But still eyes glued. Possibly like a toddler watching a cartoon, not picking up on the plot and what will happen next, but just soaking it in.

Perfect timing, right when I'm heading to bed. Thanks .

The discussion led to a place that might as well have been on the other side of an event horizon. The moderator seemed much more intent on lobbing controversial questions in order to push buttons than keeping things on track

They took out the part when the host Jim Holt was called out by an audience member for talking over the only woman on stage. An audience member screamed out "let her talk please!"

We don't even understand what gravity is, or how it works. But yet we think we know that space comes from a singularity. It's like seeing a wave coming in to shore, and assuming that it's travelled, and looked the same, for ever.

This seems so nicely fast-paced compared to some other WSF physics panels I've seen. Real real cool.

Excellent. I thought it might be a bit of a rehash, but this turned into one of my favorite talks from WSF. Nice work!

the discussion of infinty can go on forever.

Alan guth with his back/forth symmetry quote seems to just make sense

Amazing how they seems to understand each other,,,