Transcription
String theory is out there. It exists.
We can play with it. The universe is a
symphony of strings. That's my equation.
I'm the creator of string field theory.
Personally, I do believe that there are
intelligent life forms in the universe.
Can we visit them? You need the plunk
energy to do this. When we look at UFO
sightings, about 5% of them make the
hair on your head stand up, but it's
possible to attain digital immortality.
The other kind of immortality is much
more difficult and that is organic
immortality that your physical being
lives forever. Let's say I turn off
quantum mechanics. Let's say boom, by
magic, I make quantum mechanics
disappear. What happens? I disappear.
Big bangs happen all the time. Even as
we are speaking, universes are being
created. And so the only way to escape
the ultimate death of the
universe might be to leave the universe.
Chapter number one, string theory. Is
string theory correct? I don't know.
However, it's the only game in town.
There's no other rival theory that has
matched the sophistication of string
theory. And string theory very simply is
a theory of music. Think of music. How
many notes are there in a violin string?
A, B flat, C sharp. Just like subatomic
particles. So this, for example, would
be an electron. This would be a proton,
a neutron, nutrinos. They're nothing but
different vibrations of a tiny string.
And so what are subatomic particles?
Subatomic particles are basically notes
created by a vibrating string. Well,
what is physics? Physics is the laws of
harmony of these vibrating strings. What
is
chemistry? Chemistry is the theory of
interacting strings which create
molecules and and matter. What is the
universe? The universe is a symphony of
strings. And then what is the mind of
God that Albert Einstein wrote about
eloquently for the last 30 years of his
life? What would be the mind of God? The
mind of God would be cosmic music
resonating through 11dimensional
hyperspace. That would be the mind of
God. Chapter number two, Grand
Unification Theory. Many scientists
believe that the ultimate goal of
physics is
unification. To unite the left hand and
the right hand of the universe, to unite
quantum mechanics with relativity to
create a relativistic theory of quantum
mechanics. That is the ultimate goal. So
far the only theory the only theory
which has survived all challenges is
string theory. Now that doesn't mean
it's correct because we can't test the
theory because the theory talks about
particles that have energies far beyond
anything that we can create on the
planet earth. In other words, we are too
primitive to test string theory. String
theory is out there. It exists. We can
play with it. But we can't test it
because it talks about universes beyond
our everyday comprehension. So some
people say, "Well, maybe I don't like
string theory. Give me an
alternative." And the truth is there is
none. There is no alternative to string
theory. Many people have tried. The
greatest minds of science, people like
Heisenberg and Wolf Gang Py and
Schroinger, they all tried. They all
tried to unite quantum mechanics and
relativity, but they failed. String
theory is the only survivor. One of the
goals of physics is to find a unifying
principle, a principle which will allow
us to explain so many things. And for me
it was a question when I realized that
string theory is a theory of
music. What paradigm of human behavior
allows us to explain so many things
about the world? Music. Music captures
emotions. It captures feelings. It can
create new worlds.
And it is the only paradigm that we have
of everyday life that allows us to have
a unified understanding of the world
around us. The world of emotions, the
world of feelings, all of it
encapsulated in vibrating strings. And
so it was the realization that vibrating
strings is a paradigm. In fact, the only
paradigm that is rich enough to explain
the entire universe. Some people say,
"Well, string theory is nice, but so
what? I mean, what's in it for me?
What's in it for numero uno? Why should
I care about string theory?" And the
answer is that everything around us is a
byproduct of string theory, including
life, including the richness of our
world around us. Think of
photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is what
makes life possible. How do we get
carbon
dioxide, sunlight, and create oxygen and
food from it? This is an amazing feat of
nature. And yet what makes it possible?
Quantum
mechanics. Because without quantum
mechanics, atoms fly apart. Think of a
solar system for example. You have
planets going around the sun. And let's
say we have two solar systems that
collide. What happens? Boom. They fly in
all directions. Because the theory of
gravity does not give you stability. A
theory of gravity cannot create stable
matter. Solar systems will collide and
have collided and will basically throw
planets apart. In other words, classical
physics is
unstable. Newtonian physics is
inherently unstable. You cannot create a
universe out of Newton's theory.
However, gravity, which is quantum
mechanical, can create waves. and waves
of stability. All of a sudden you get
molecules. All of a sudden you get
tremendous molecules like DNA composing
of thousands of atoms. In a Newtonian
universe it would all disintegrate.
Photosynthesis is impossible. Life is
impossible in a classical world. In a
classical world where particles go
around other particles, what do they do
when they bump into each other? They fly
apart. In other words, quantum mechanics
gives you stability. It gives you stable
atoms. Atoms which give you life. Atoms
which give our body. Let's say I turn
off quantum mechanics. Let's say boom by
magic I make quantum mechanics
disappear. What happens? I
disappear. I dissolve. In other words,
we are byproducts of quantum mechanics.
Without quantum mechanics, we would
dissolve. Quantum mechanics is what
holds atoms together. Newtonian
mechanics of Isaac Newton is not
sufficient to create stable
matter. Look at solar systems. If solar
systems collide, they fling
partic. So in other words, why do we
need quantum mechanics? To create stable
matter. Without quantum mechanics, you
dissolve. You dissolve in an ocean of
mist. You dissolve in a mist of
subatomic particles. Do you feel you are
the father of some parts of string
theory? When I first worked on string
theory in
1968, it was a random bunch of
equations, marvelous equations. But what
relationship was there between all these
equations? There has to be a language
that unifies all these equations. And in
physics, the language is called field
theory. So I said to myself, there's got
to be a field theory of strings that
unifies all these equations of string
theory. That's my equation. I'm the
creator of string field theory which is
a way to unify all the equations that
make what what is called string theory.
So some people say well what is string
theory? It's an equation one inch long.
How do I know that? That's my equation.
Do you remember the time of this idea
that you invented this idea the moment
the time in the university or somewhere
you've been there?
I was teaching electromagnetism to
undergraduate students at the university
one day. The same experiment over and
over again with
electricity. But then I said to myself,
now wait a minute. The lines of force of
electricity is like
strings that there is a field theory of
electricity. Therefore, there should be
a field theory of strings. And so I said
to myself, the advantage of this is I
would have one equation, an equation no
more than one inch long that would give
all of string theory rather than
hundreds of disjointed equations and
rules of thumb. And so if that's my
contribution and that is to create a
unified theory of string theory, human
consciousness also could be born on the
quantum level. I don't know exactly how
the brain is put together. It's one of
the great mysteries of science. Some
people think that ordinary mechanics can
explain the brain using transistors and
circuits.
But maybe that's not rich enough. Maybe
quantum mechanics has a role to play. I
personally think that yes, quantum
mechanics probably does have a role to
play because of something called free
will. What is free will? Free will is
the ability for us to do creative things
on our own without somebody telling us,
without me being scripted ahead of time.
We have free will, but a robot does not.
A robot is mechanical, deterministic.
Once you turn it on, it just does what
it does, the same thing over and over
and over again. So, artificial
intelligence based on robots, okay, do
not have free will. We think we have
free will. Now, do I really have free
will? I don't know. I think I do. I
think I am responsible for my actions so
that free will does exist but I'm not
sure. So what is the missing ingredient?
Quantum mechanics. In other words, if my
brain is digital, I have no free will. I
am a robot. With quantum mechanics, I
have uncertainty and uncertainty makes
creativity, makes thinking,
consciousness possible. So in other
words, consciousness could be a
byproduct of quantum mechanics. Chapter
number three, quantum world versus
physical world. After 2,000 years of
investigating the nature of matter and
energy, we've come up with two great
formalisms. One is the theory of the
very big that is general relativity
which gives us the big bang and quazars
and all the wonders of the universe. The
theory of the very big then there's a
theory of the very small that is the
quantum theory. Now the problem is
mother nature has a left hand and a
right hand quantum mechanics and
relativity but these two theories are
incompatible. You put them together and
what happens? they explode and that is
the greatest problem in all of physics.
How to unify the theory of the very big
that is relativity with the theory of
the very small which is the quantum
theory. So at the present time the only
construct that we have coming from
mathematics that unites quantum
mechanics with relativity is string
theory. Very controversial. We don't
know whether it's correct or not because
we can't test the theory but so far is
the only game in town. You take a
classical theory, a theory of Einstein
and then you add quantum corrections to
it and the theory is finite. People have
tried to do this for decades and it
failed. Every time you take relativity
and try to add quantum mechanics to it,
the theory blows up. Now, Siraj Penrobes
would like to do the opposite. He would
like to uh gravitize quantum mechanics.
Now, I wish him well. I wish that he
becomes successful in this pursuit. But
we'll wait and see. The proof is in the
pudding. So far, the only theory which
allows you to unify these two great
branches is string theory. The greatest
challenge in all of physics is the
unification of the two great theories
quantum mechanics and relativity. The
only theory which can do this at the
present time is string theory. But
string theory has a challenge and that
is why do we have so many string
theories. It turns out that there's no
one solution of string theory similar to
Newton's laws of gravity. How many
solutions of Newton's laws of gravity
are there? Infinite number.
Cannonballs, rackets, tennis, swimming,
asteroids, suns, stars. They're all
solutions of Newton's theory. So, how
many solutions of Newton's theory are
there? An infinite number. Same thing
applies to string theory. String theory,
like Newton's theory, has an infinite
number of solutions. But the question is
which one is ours? That is the number
one question facing string theory. Of
all the strings that exist, they are
beautiful. They work. But which one
describes our universe? We don't know
because we don't know that much about
the big bang. Once we understand the
creation of the universe, then we can
test it against string theory. But right
now, we do not understand the big bang.
Chapter number four, Multiverse Theory.
I personally think, and this is just my
own feeling, that there is a multiverse
of universes. Think of a bubble. A
bubble can collide with other bubbles,
creating a bigger bubble. Or a bubble
can fision in half to create two smaller
bubbles. That's the big bang.
So in other words, the big bang is when
these bubbles bump into other bubbles or
collide. This is the multiverse theory.
The theory that there's not just one
universe, but an infinite collection of
these
universes. And that at the beginning of
time, one of these universes came out
and this bubble expanded to create our
universe. But there are other bubbles
out there, other bubbles that can also
expand in a multiverse of universes. And
that's why string theory has an infinite
number of solutions because these
solutions are different ways in which
you can have big bangs. So in other
words, big bangs happen all the time.
Even as we are speaking, universes are
being created. But there is no evidences
for multiverse stories. The weak part of
this whole theory is that it's all
simply a theory at the present time. We
want proof. We want concrete proof. And
that may come from something called dark
matter. You see, string theory is not
just a theory of electrons and protons
and neutrons. It's a theory of music
with higher notes. notes beyond the
electron, beyond the proton. And we
think that could be dark matter. Dark
matter makes up most of the matter of
the universe. We think that atoms make
up the universe. Right? Wrong. We
realize now that most of the universe is
dark. Most of the universe is not made
out of atoms. It's made out of a new
substance which we think is the next
octave of the string. How many octaves
does a string have? An infinite number.
So the number of universes, the number
of forms of matter could be infinite.
That could be dark matter. Dark matter
we investigate with our telescopes, our
instruments. This is not science
fiction. Most of the universe is made
out of dark matter. And string theory is
the only theory rich enough to explain
not just neutrons and protons but dark
matter as well. Some people say that
black holes look like a hole in space.
And if there's a hole in space then what
does it connect to? Well, the first
person to talk about this was Albert
Einstein. In
1935, Albert Einstein wrote the first
paper on a black hole being a gateway, a
gateway to another universe. So, think
of a funnel, a funnel that looks like
this that has a neck. And then Einstein
put two funnels together to create
another bubble. In other words, on the
other side of a black hole is another
black hole. Two black holes joined
together at the hip. a picture which was
introduced by Einstein himself. Today we
call them Einstein Rosen bridges or
bridges between universes. First of all,
some people say, "Isn't this science
fiction? A black hole being a gateway to
another universe." Well, of course,
we're dealing with science beyond what
is testable with our instruments today.
So, by definition, it's going to be
science fiction, but sometimes science
fiction becomes science fact. Now if
there are gateways to other universes,
then could this be a solution to the
ultimate death of the universe itself?
The universe is expanding. What is it
expanding into? How long will this
expansion take place? Some people think
that the expansion of the universe will
go on forever. Things will get colder
and colder with time and everything will
eventually freeze to death because
physics is not just a theory of the
beginning. It's also a theory of the
end. So for example, how will the earth
die? The earth will die about five
billion years from now when it is eaten
up by the sun. How will the sun die? The
sun will not die in fire. The sun will
die in ice. The sun will freeze over
billions of years from now. And then
what about the stars that we see
twinkling in the universe? They will
eventually exhaust their their nuclear
fire and they will also turn to ice. And
then the big question is will the
universe die in fire or will the
universe die in ice? I don't know the
answer to this. But if the multiverse
theory is correct, it means that our
universe will probably die in ice and we
will all freeze to death at some distant
point in the universe. And so the only
way to escape the ultimate death of the
universe might be to leave the
universe. To create an artificial
wormhole, a gateway to another universe,
a bubble, a
lifeboat to take intelligent life from a
dying old universe and to repopulate a
young rich universe where we can mess up
that universe as well. Have you ever
think about the simulation?
When people see the movie The Matrix,
people wonder, is it really just a movie
or maybe we are puppets? We are dancing
in a world where somebody is pulling the
strings and somebody hit the play button
and then the universe unfolds and then
you push the stop button and everything
stops. Is that a possibility?
Well, I think not because of the fact
that quantum mechanics gives us
different alternate alternate
universes and this multiverse theory
therefore is
untestable. You don't know for sure
whether or not quantum mechanics can
give you all these different kinds of
universes that are fictitious and they
were all scripted ahead of time. In
other words, it's an untestable theory.
So, I personally think that it probably
violates quantum mechanics. Also, it
violates the uncertainty
principle. The theory of the matrix is a
theory without quantum mechanics. is a
Newtonian type theory. So the universe
is not Newtonian. The universe is
quantum mechanical and therefore I think
that we do not live in a matrix. That
this conversation was not pre-ordained.
Chapter number six, UFO sightings. When
we look at UFO sightings, realize that
maybe 95% of them can be dismissed.
But about 5% of them make the hair on
your head stand up. About 5% of these
times we're dealing with sightings that
are done by multiple witnesses with
multiple
technologies. That's the gold standard.
The gold standard for looking for
intelligent life in the universe is not
looking just for flying saucers. No, you
want something more than that.
So what we have here is we have volumes
and volumes of
sightings but no tangible
proof. No one has been able to create to
find alien technology or to capture an
alien. This is something that does not
has not yet happened. And so some people
email me and say that they know the
aliens are here because they've been in
their flying saucers. They've been
kidnapped. They know that they're the
aliens are here. I tell them that the
next time they're kidnapped by an alien,
for God's sake, steal
something. I don't care whether it's an
alien chip, an alien hammer, an alien
transistor. Steal something because then
you will have tangible proof that you've
been in their flying saucer. So far, we
have no proof. We have not yet met the
gold standard. We do not have
reproducible evidence, multiple
sightings by multiple modes that give
you unquestioned access to a
civilization with an advanced
technology. At the present time, we do
not think that super liinal rocket ships
are
possible. Rocket ships that go faster
than the speed of light. However, warp
drive may be possible. And there are two
kinds of warp
drives. Let's say you want to walk
across a carpet.
One way to walk across a carpet is to
squeeze the
carpet so that you simply hop across.
Hop
across. So that is one way a shortcut
from point A to point B rather than
walking from point A to point B. The
other way is to get a scissors and to
create a hole, a hole, a shortcut that
allows you to go from A to B. The second
method is the wormhole method. That is
punching a hole in space and time. The
first is the Alabir drive. Alabir, an
acquaintance of mine, is a physicist who
found a new solution to Einstein's
equations.
We thought we had a handle on solutions
to Einstein's equations, but he found a
solution that allowed you to go faster
than the speed of light. Now, how's that
possible? By warping space and
time, and it is consistent with
Einstein's
theory. So, what's the catch? Why don't
we have warp drive by punching a hole
through space and time or by using the
alcoir
drive? And the answer is energy. You
need the plon energy to do this. And we
are far far from being able to harness
the plunk energy. Realize that with our
atom smashers, our atom smashers can
only get up to trillions of electron
volts. But the plank energy is 10 the 19
billion electron volts. That's one with
19 zeros after it. That is an energy
that is for a type three civilization.
Now a type three civilization may be
able to access this energy. You do the
math and you see that yes, they would
have the energy to to warp space and
time to perhaps even build a time
machine. Who knows? But it's not for us.
We are a type zero
civilization. We don't even rank on the
scale of
civilizations. The latest calculation
I've seen shows that we are perhaps
seven in terms of our technology. A type
one allows you to go across the across
the solar system. We are seven in terms
of our
technology. There was a statement made
just recently. Yeah.
uh by a person that has access to many
of these secret
files that not just us interacting with
flying saucers in the sky, but flying
saucers that have crashed and that
bodies that are being
examined. But then he was asked before
Congress for evidence, hard proof that
is alien technology, alien bodies. And
at that point, this person says, "I
don't have it. I talk to people who say
they've had it, but I have not
personally seen the evidence." And so my
personal point of view is let's keep an
open mind. May, maybe, maybe not. But
where's the beef? You want hard
evidence. It's not enough to simply say
that a type three civilization allows
you to conquer the the galaxy. It's not
enough. You want hard proof and we don't
have that
yet. That was a big disappointment.
Personally, I think there are aliens out
there. Personally, I do believe that
there are intelligent life forms in the
universe. That we're not the only game
in town. The question is, can we visit
them or have they visited us? That's the
question. And so that is no longer just
a question of I saw something in the
sky. Maybe you did, maybe you didn't.
You want to have proof. And if there was
something up there in the sky, then how
did they get here? You begin to realize
that a type one, even a type two
civilization would have difficulty
reaching the earth. So for them to reach
us, they would perhaps be type three. A
type three civilization would be about a
100,000 years more advanced than
civilization here on the earth. Growing
at an exponential rate, they would reach
the plank energy in on the order of a
100,000 years. At that point, we can
discuss therefore whether or not these
aliens actually exist. And then the next
question is, if they exist, how come
they don't visit us? Let's say you're
walking down a country road and you meet
a
deer and you try to talk to the deer.
The deer seems to be interested in you,
but eventually you get bored because the
deer doesn't talk back to you. It's just
a one-way conversation and the deer gets
eventually scared and and hops away. So,
I think that if we meet intelligent
beings from outer space, they may think
of us being rather boring. I mean, what
do we have to offer them? Gold,
silver, but realize that gold, silver
probably have no practical purpose in
their civilization.
So in other words, we have nothing to
offer them. And that's why I think that
if they ever do visit us, they would
consider us to be a curiosity. They
would study us. They would perhaps study
us, perhaps analyze us, but after a
while, they'd be rather bored because
there's nothing to be gained. I mean,
how often do you try to interact with
animals to learn the secrets of their
eating behavior, their secrets of their
mating behavior? I mean, do you spend a
lot of time studying
animals? We don't. So, why should they?
How many
dimensions we have? When I was a child,
I used to visit the Japanese tea garden
in San Francisco where there are fish
swimming in a shallow pond. And then I
imagined that there was a scientist fish
in that pond. The scientist fish would
say, "Ba humbug, there's no world beyond
the pond. The pond is the universe. We
are the only beings in the pond because
that's where life is possible. There's
nothing beyond the pond." And then I
said to myself, if I reached down and
grabbed the scientist fish, lifted the
scientist's fish into the third
dimension, what would he see? He would
see beings moving without
fins. A new law of physics, beings
moving and eating without the benefit of
water technology, a new law of
biology, and then I put the fish back in
the pond. What would the fish
say? The fish would say, "My god,
there's a whole universe, a universe
beyond the second dimension, a universe
in the third dimension with new laws of
physics, new laws of
biology." Well, today I think that we
are the fish are the fish. We spend all
our time not just in two dimensions but
in three
dimensions thinking that that's all
there is that you can move forward
backward left right up down but that's
all there is well today I think that we
are the fish because if string theory is
correct and who knows for sure if string
theory is correct there are 11
dimensions 11 dimensions in hyperspace
Well, so far uh string theory is stable
only in 10 and 11 dimensions. It's
unstable in 13, 14, 15 dimensions. So,
it is the only theory known to science
that selects out its own
dimensionality. Newton's laws can exist
in any dimension of space and time. You
can write Newton's laws in 15 dimensions
if you want. Okay? But we happen to live
in three. Why? We don't know. We just
know that the laws of physics that we've
devised so far are in three dimensions
because that's what we're familiar with.
No particular reason for that. It's just
that it's convenient to write equations
in three dimensions. But string theory
forces us to believe that the big bang
was a bang that took place in 11
dimensions. It was not just an ordinary
three-dimensional bang. It was a
11dimensional bang. And that our
universe is a bubble. one bubble that
came out of this bang that happened to
be in three dimensions. Chapter number
eight, vision of the future. Let's say
that one day you allowed to meet your
ancestor. Your ancestor who lived a few
hundred years from now and you were to
talk to your ancestor about airplanes,
about rockets, about computers, what
would your ancestor think? Your ancestor
would think you're crazy. What images
from the ether? What journeying to the
moon? What computers that can calculate
a million times faster than the human
brain? What are you talking about? So,
our ancestors would think that we live
in a world of science fiction. We live
in a world of trains and rockets and and
atomic bombs that our ancestors would
think is impossible. So if we were to
visit one of our children, our great
great great grandchildren a few hundred
years from now, what would we think of
them? You see, our answers would think
of us being wizards. Wizards that can
create images out of nowhere. Image
wizards that can communicate around the
world
instantaneously. That's what our
ancestor would think of us.
that we are wizards, what would we think
of our children's children's
children? We would think of them as
being
gods. And so, in other words, the world
of the future is a world similar to
mythology, a world of the gods.
So our great great great grandkids, they
will live in a world where we can
control life, where we can control
matter and energy, things that are
impossible today, but is the play thing
of God's uncontrolled reality. That's
our future. That could be it. That we
would be able to control reality,
control life, control matter. We would
think of that today as the world of
magicians and and voodoo artists. But
that could be the world of our great
great great grandkids. How this ordinary
day could look like a day when what time
period? In 20150. The question that is
often asked is okay if you're a
scientist then predict the future. Tell
me what the future is going to look
like. Well, first of all, I don't know
what the future's going to look like.
But what I can say is I think that we
can make educated guesses. Educated
guesses because we know the trajectory
of physics and chemistry. You see, our
ancestors lived in a world of magic, a
world of witchcraft. There were no
rules. There was no equations, no
principles to guide them. Today, we have
the principles. We have the equations.
We have the framework that doesn't mean
we can accurately predict the future but
we can make intelligent guesses. So for
example computers we would know that
computers will be quantum
mechanical and as a consequence they
would be millions of times more powerful
than what we have today. And therefore
artificial intelligence could become a
of a reality. In which case we may exist
in a world where artificial intelligence
is the norm. The digital world is
deterministic. The digital world is
Newtonian. But a quantum
computer exists in a world of quantum
mechanics. It exists in a world of
infinite states. And these already
exist. We have quantum
computers. They're not ready for prime
time yet. But the ones that we've built
so far are millions of times more
powerful than any digital computer
today. The problem is they can only work
on one problem at a time. They're not
allpurpose like a digital computer
today. Can add, subtract, do many things
simultaneously. A quantum computer can
only do one quantum mechanical operation
at a given time. But they are in
principle millions of times more
powerful than any digital computer. And
many people think that could be the
future. The future is when we have
quantum computers that are millions of
times more powerful than anything on
your desktop today. I think a 100 years
from now, our descendants will live like
the Greek gods of the ancient times.
They will be able to manipulate matter,
manipulate energy, manipulate life
itself in a way that we would consider
to be magic. We would be able to
manipulate our genome. Today, we can
manipulate our genome one gene at a
time. In the future, we'll be able to
manipulate our genome perhaps as an
entire quantity, not just one gene at a
time, and able therefore to alter the
course of life itself. So in other
words, instead of using this technology
to heal, to be able to cure diseases, we
may be able to alter
ourselves, to create ourselves, to
populate the universe. In other words,
we may ultimately change the destiny of
the human race itself. For example, if
we colonize
Mars, realize that Mars has a different
gravitational field, different
atmosphere, different
temperature. Instead of trying to
readapt Mars, why not readapt ourselves
to remodify ourselves so that we can
survive in these environments around the
universe? And so instead of looking at
planets with hostile environments, why
not alter ourselves so that we can
survive in these? This is science
fiction, but it's possible. One of the
great frontiers is the human brain.
Throughout history, the human brain was
basically a black box. And just
recently, we're beginning to understand
that there are mechanical analoges to
the thinking process.
And eventually we'll realize that the
brain is in part quantum mechanical and
this is where quantum computers come in.
Quantum computers already exist and they
in some sense compute somewhat similar
to what the human brain would compute if
it's quantum mechanical. And so we're
talking about a new era where we can
change
ourselves. Now this means that the
question of
immortality is on the table. There are
two kinds of
immortality. One is digital immortality
and one is organic
immortality. Digital immortality is when
you create a clone of yourself that is
mechanical that has basically many of
your memories, thought patterns and
looks like you. And the first generation
of these digital immortals has already
existed.
What we do is we create a a image of
yourself that moves and talks and you
talk to this image and this image is
accessed as a tape recorder that has
interviewed you and got your entire
biography. This was done with William
Shatner of Star Trek fame for several
days. He was interviewed about his life,
his ideas, his thoughts, his history and
it was put into an image of him that
will live forever. So this is digital
immortality. Something which is
attainable today in fact rather
primitive today. But it's possible to
attain digital immortality so that you
can have a conversation with your great
great great great great grandkids about
life in the 21st century. Digital
immortality is when you can keep your
secrets to yourself because what you do
is you speak in front of a tape recorder
that creates an image of you talking in
real time and people asking you
questions and you answering them. So
digital immortality is something that is
attainable today and it would make your
thoughts visible forever and you would
be able to have a conversation with your
great great great great great great
grandkids. Okay. But if you have secrets
you can keep your secrets to yourself.
So your secrets will die with you. The
other kind of immortality is much more
difficult and that is organic
immortality that your physical being
lives forever. And there have been
several proposals for this. One proposal
is to basically digitize the brain
itself. You take a brain of a mosquito
or a fly and you can clone it and you
can create a copy of it and dissect it.
This has been done already. The world's
record for for uh dissecting the brain
of an insect is 100,000. A 100,000
neurons will allow you to dissect neuron
for neuron the brain of an insect. Our
brain has a 100 billion neurons, not
just a 100,000 neurons. But it's only a
matter of time before we can digitize
the human brain itself.
Not just a 100,000 neurons, but a 100
billion neurons. That's one way to do
it. Another way to do it is to place
yourself on a
stretcher and sitting next to you is a
robot. Mhm. When the brain is then
exposed neuron for neuron, another
duplicate is created inside the robot.
And then these neurons are then hooked
up to each other one by one. Now of
course this is possible but not
practical with today's technology. We
cannot manipulate neuron for neuron the
architecture of the human brain. But
that's a technical problem. So we're
talking about putting the putting the
brain into a computer or a computer into
a brain and so the two become the same.
Basically, this is all possible and it's
been looked at. Of course, it would take
centuries for us to be able to do this
process, but it's possible. We can now
connect the human brain to a laptop
computer and have the laptop computer
execute many, many patterns that are
considered to be humanlike. This has
been done because there have been so
many GIS wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq
that the United States military has made
it a priority to have these heroes of
warfare
uh be able to control a computer so they
can walk, they can talk, they can they
can perform many human functions even
though they are functionally paralyzed.
And so this is this is progress today
that using computers is possible to
interface the human brain with the
laptop computer which in turn can
control your movements. This was done
for the Olympics. The Olympics that took
place in S. Paulo, Brazil a few years
ago was initiated by a man who was
totally paralyzed. Here was a man
totally paralyzed. He was put into a
skeleton, a digital skeleton that was
connected to his brain. Therefore, he
was able to stand up and walk. He was
totally paralyzed. But by thinking, he
was able to control the
exoskeleton which would allow him to
walk. And he initiated the World Cup
soccer games in S. Paulo, Brazil, even
though he was totally paralyzed. Now,
that's today. In the future, we could
become supermen or superw women. Well,
right now, we're at the early stages of
this. Uh, all we can do is take
paralyzed people and give them back the
gift of movement. That's today. In the
future, we may be able to give them
super movements. That is the ability to
create to move things that only a robot
could create. In other words, these
people would be superhuman.
And one possibility is that these
superhumans would then colonize Mars and
begin to colonize the universe because
they are superhuman in their physique.
Upgraded version of us. That's right.
Now this is possible I think within a
100 years or so. Now let's take it to a
thousand
years. How could we then explore the
universe a thousand years from now?
I think it's possible that at that point
we'll be able to digitize ourselves, put
our thinking process into
software, put the software into a rocket
and shoot the rocket throughout the
universe.
Once the rocket lands on the moon, it
then hooks up to an
exoskeleton and thereby allowing you to
control an
exoskeleton on the moon. You can also
shoot these exoskeletons throughout the
universe and therefore be able to
explore the universe mentally by
shooting your consciousness throughout
the universe. Now this of course is not
possible for a few hundred years living
forever.
U your biological body may have a finite
lifespan unless of course we can figure
out organic immortality in which case we
can replace organs as they wear out. So
organs as they wear out may be replaced
to give you organic
immortality. And this organic
immortality may allow you to control a
robot that could then be shot throughout
the
universe. And you could then begin to
colonize the
universe perhaps near near the speed of
light.
All of this is well within the laws of
physics, beyond our capabilities today,
but I think possible. Do you believe
that we can ever create a consciousness
machine? It depends on how you define
consciousness. There's no unified theory
of consciousness at the present time.
However, I do think it's possible to
create an object that can size up its
position, understand its location,
understand its position in the universe,
and initiate conversations with you. Is
that consciousness? I don't know.
There's no definition of consciousness
that is universally accepted. Get a
dictionary, look up the word
consciousness, and you realize that
there's no uniform agreement as to what
it is. But I think in the future, it may
be possible to create a machine that is
aware, aware of itself, aware of its
surroundings, aware of who is out there
and communicate, ask questions, interact
with other beings. I think that is
possible. You predict that in future we
can create a second civilization. third
civilization. What is the second
civilization?
Well, physicists have looked at outer
space for guidance as to what alien
technologies and civilizations may be
like. One theory ranks them in terms of
type one, type two, type three. Yeah. A
type one civilization is a civilization
that harnesses all planetary energy.
Anything planetary they control. They
mine all the light that comes from the
sun. They control earthquakes,
volcanoes, anything on the planet earth
they control. That is type one. Type two
exhaust the power of a planet and they
exhaust now the power of the sun. They
just don't get a suntan. They control
the sun. The entire output of the sun is
used in their machines. This is a type
two civilization. And we see this in
science fiction, Star Trek, the
Federation of Planets would be a type
two civilization. Then there's type
three. A type three is galactic. They
roam the galactic space
lanes. They're able to play with black
holes. And that would be Star Wars. Star
Wars is a galactic
civilization. That would be type three.
Then the next question is if they visit
us, are they type one? Are they type
two? Are they type
three? Well, type one civilization can
basically just colonize a few planets in
their nearby sector of the solar system.
So, flying saucers probably do not come
from a type one civilization. A type two
civilization then there then therefore
begins to uh understand the nature of
stars. However, even stars do not allow
you to approach the light speed that we
need to go across the universe. A type
three however may allow you to access
the plunk energy is the ultimate energy
of the universe. The plunk energy is the
energy at which space itself becomes
unstable. You put enough energy into the
plank. You put the plunk energy into an
oven and you then begin to find that
within the oven bubbles form. Anomalies
in spaceime form and these bubbles for
the most part simply pop in existence
and pop back into existence. This is
called a space-time foam uh invented by
Stephven Hawking. The space-time foam is
when you heat up a microwave oven, let's
say, to enormous temperatures to the
point that space becomes
unstable. And then if you exceed the
plank
energy, universes may start to come
about. In other words, this could be the
origin of the big bang. The big bang
itself was a bubble that reached the
plunk energy and then began to grow and
grow and give you the big bang of today.
That would be probably the province of a
type three civilization which may then
use it as a gateway across the universe.
Well, one problem with civilizations is
that they may have a tendency to
self-destruct.
There are basically four ways in which a
type one civilization can
self-destruct. You have nuclear weapons,
you have germ
warfare, you have global
warming, and you have artificial
intelligence. So there are four ways in
which you could have planetary
destruction of a type one civilization.
You recognize AI as a destruction power.
It has the power of of all of humanity's
technology and used in the wrong way,
these technologies could be
self-destructive. So there are four ways
in which civilization can self-destruct
using its own technology. I tend to be
optimistic in the sense that the
smallest unit of history is the decade.
Now when you look at history year by
year is very depressing. Disasters form,
governments fall. So I think that if you
look at history decade by decade, it is
rather depressing. But when you look at
history century by century, then you
begin to realize, oh my god, think of
the progress. It's better and better and
better. I mean, just 200 years ago, we
had the industrial revolution. We were
dealing with steam power. We were
dealing with uh the beginning of the
industrial revolution for the first time
in world history using machines instead
of your hands to create things. And that
was just 200 years ago. And so I think
that when you look at history through
the lens of science and the lens of
centuries, you realize that history has
a direction. This history is going
toward democratization.
History is going toward the dispersal of
technology that can relieve us relieve
us of backbreaking work and um of course
the development is uneven but the
direction is clear. Technology has given
us the ability to communicate to share
knowledge and that is what the internet
has done. The internet has democratized
world society to the point that people
that normally would be forgotten in a in
a village and die without a name at all.
These people can now communicate. They
can learn. They can communicate with
people around the world because they
realize that their government does not
have to be that way. if their government
is repressive on the internet they can
see that there are governments that are
not repressive and so they want to
change and so in other words I think
progress has a direction so I would
disagree with some people who say that
science has no direction that science
can be used to destroy the world or
science can be used to liberate but it
has no direction I tend to disagree I
tend to think that science does have a
direction and the direction is toward
democratization toward sharing of the
fruits of this
technology which did not happen in the
past. Now that doesn't mean there won't
be ups and downs. That doesn't mean
there won't be wars, skirmishes and
problems. But when you look at history
decade by decade, century by century,
you realize that there is a direction to
history. Chapter number 11. time
machine. Time is like a river. It flows
in one direction and it seems to be
irreversible. However, along comes
Einstein who says, "No, time is a river
that has
whirlpools. It can maybe fork into two
rivers." So, in other words, the river
of time is d is dynamic. It's not just
one river moving in one direction.
But then the next question is if the
river of time can be altered, can you go
backwards in time? Well, Stephen Hawking
looked at that question and said that he
thought that with
wormholes you could go forwards in time
but not necessarily backwards in time
using wormholes as gateways to another
era in time. What was his argument? His
argument was
that if you go backwards in time, then
eventually you go forwards in time and
then you go backwards in time and you
form a loop. The loop allows you to
accumulate energy until it explodes. And
so your time machine blows up. That was
Stephen Hawkings argument against time
travel. But there's a
loophole a loophole in that in that
theory and that is if you make one
pass not so that you make infinite
number of passes accumulating energy so
the machine blows up but you just make
one pass then perhaps you don't have
this problem of exploding universes and
then you can go backwards in time. This
of course is still science fiction but
the mathematics seems to indicate that
if you make a one pass in backwards in
time then you can do it if you have
enough energy how much energy the plank
energy 10 to the 19 billion electron
volts that's one with 19 zeros after it
that is the energy perhaps of a time
machine the plon energy uh to finalize
our conversation I would like to a
little bit talk about you. How do you
perceive yourself? When I was 8 years
old, something happened which changed my
life. All the newspapers said that a
great man had just
died and they put a picture of his desk
on the evening
news and they said that this great
scientist could not finish this book.
So I said to myself, why couldn't he
finish this book? If he was such a great
man, then why couldn't he finish this
book that was sitting right there on his
desk? Why couldn't he ask his mother?
Why couldn't he simply look up the
answer? What was so hard? Well, I was
fascinated by this man. Over the years,
I went to the library and I found out
this man had a name. His name was Albert
Einstein. And that book, that book that
he could not finish was to be the theory
of
everything, an equation perhaps no more
than one inch long that would allow him
to quote read the mind of God. These are
his own words. So I said to myself,
that's for me. I want to be part of this
great journey to read that book to
understand the theory of everything.
Well, today I can read that book and I
can see all the places where he got
stuck, all the places where he got lost
in in a thicket of mathematics. We can
read that book of Einstein and realize
that yes, he was on to many ideas, but
he didn't have the one paradigm. He
didn't have the one image that would
push the whole theory into into reality.
And we think that image, that paradigm,
we think is a violin string. And that
each violin note is a particle. And
that's why there's so many particles.
Why wouldn't ma nature flood us with all
these particles with Greek names? And
it's because they're nothing but
different notes on the same string. It's
just the same string vibrating in
different
modes. And so I said to myself, when I'm
when I grow up, I want to begin to work
on this project. So when I was in high
school, I decided to build an atom
smasher, a 2.3 million electron volt
betron particle accelerator in my mom's
garage. So, I got 22 miles of copper
wire, 6 kilowatts of
energy, 600 lb of transformer steel, and
I built a Betatron accelerator in my
mom's
garage. Every time I turned it on, I
blew out all the circuit breakers in the
house. The whole house would be plunged
in darkness. And my poor mom, she would
say, "Why couldn't I have a son who
plays
basketball? Why can't he play football?
And for God's sake, why can't you find a
nice Japanese girlfriend? Why does he
have to build these machines in the
garage? Well, these machines won the
attention of a physicist, Edward Teller.
He's the father of the hydrogen bomb.
And that was when I made contact with
other physicists. These are the
physicists who built the atomic bomb and
they built the hydrogen bomb. And then I
began to realize the power that this
technology is not something that you
simply look at over coffee. This is the
engine of the universe. This is what
makes the universe move. It is the
engine of the universe itself. Realize
that people have a thirst. A thirst to
understand who am I? Where do I fit in
this larger sche scheme of things? What
is it all about? And we're flooded with
all these images from Hollywood and all
these images from the movies, but they
never ask the question, what does it
mean? Where did it come
from? Why? Why is the world the way it
is? And that's where I think that when
presented well to the average person,
they'll say, "Ah, that's the reason.
That's why the the world is the way they
are." But unfortunately, our media is
driven by profit and you make a lot more
money talking about talking about uh the
latest movie star rather than talking
about Einstein or or the nature of the
universe
itself. But it's a way that we as
professors now can reach our students at
the university level because at the
universities we don't have the
distraction of competing with Hollywood
movies. And so at at that level then we
can begin to engage people because they
are curious you know they do wonder what
is it all about. Are you fighting with
fake news about yourself? Well you have
to realize that in a free press people
can say
nonsense and all sorts of things and you
just have to live with it. That's one of
the prices of being in the the public
domain. If you are a private person, you
can sue other people for
slander. You can sue them. But if you
are part of the public discourse, it is
very difficult to sue people because it
was your fault. You
voluntarily you voluntarily exposed
yourself to all sorts of different kinds
of uh reputations. So it is much harder
to sue people uh once you become part of
the public domain.
You just have to grin and bear it. In
other words, well, I would hope that
what I talk about when I talk about
science is understood because we're
talking about being able to understand
and control and create a better world.
That is there's a point to all this and
that we want to change society. Who
inspired you uh the most today?
Well, I have my heroes and these hero
well these heroes are within string
theory and these are the people that
have pioneered the mathematics of string
theory. People like Ed Whitten at at
Princeton for example, people that have
really created whole new worlds of
mathematics. So even mathematicians have
been fascinated by string theory because
string theory has forced mathematicians
to explore new forms of mathematics. And
so I think that it's interesting that a
revolution in one field string theory
and physics affects another field pure
mathematics and gives hope that one day
we'll have a unified theory of
mathematics. that in the same way that
string theory is unifying most of
physics, it'll spin off and unify most
of mathematics as well. Which part of
your career was the most difficult?
Well, one of the most difficult things
of being a physicist is you have to have
what is called butt power. You have to
be able to sit on your butt without
distractions and just go through pages
and pages of calculations, sometimes
several hundred pages just to get one
formula that works. And that's
gratifying because after spending hours
and days and weeks going through a pile
of equations, it all works. And then you
realize there's something there that
this is not just garbage. There's
something there that all of these
equations cancel out
exactly. And that's when you say to
yourself, "Aha, there is a rhyme or
reason to nature. Nature is not
malicious." Einstein would say that
nature is not malicious. She is subtle
but not malicious. So after plowing
through hundreds of pages of calculation
you realize oh my god it all works. Why
you agree for this interview guys from
Poland far away from United States?
When I was a child reading about
Einstein being fascinated by all these
new concepts. I would go to the library
to try to find out more about the fourth
dimension, to try to find out more about
intelligent life in the universe. And I
found
nothing.
Zero. Just nothing except maybe a few
comic books, but nothing about the
science of what's out there, about the
universe, about intelligent life.
Nothing. And I said to myself, when I
grow up and I become a physicist, I want
to make sure that of course I'm at the
cutting edge of research, but also I
hope to convey the excitement that I
felt as a child to the next generation
of children. And so when children email
me and write to me, they say that this
is more fascinating than a comic book.
This is real. This is reality.
And then I say to myself, maybe I've
done something that I've touched people
and I've made them realize there's a
universe out there, not a universe of
comic books or or Hollywood movies, but
the real thing and that they too can be
part of this great search for the theory
of Everything.