Do Cause and Effect Really Exist? (Big Picture Ep. 2/5)
Thanks to Google Making and Science for supporting this series, and to Sean Carroll for collaborating on it! His book can be found here: http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/316646/the-big-pictu...
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The idea that certain things, events or people can “cause” other things to happen playsa huge role in human life.We constantly desire to know “why” things happen, in science, love, sports, philosophy,and so on.But because the underlying laws of physics don’t care about the direction of time,cause and effect don’t have the same meaning at a fundamental level.It’s not that anything goes.The basic constituents of the universe -- the particles and forces of modern physics -- behavein predictable ways according to the laws of nature.In principle, you can just as easily know their past paths as their future ones.The current momentum and position of a particle determine its movement forward in the nextsecond, but they also determine how it was moving in t...
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The idea that certain things, events or people can “cause” other things to happen playsa huge role in human life.We constantly desire to know “why” things happen, in science, love, sports, philosophy,and so on.But because the underlying laws of physics don’t care about the direction of time,cause and effect don’t have the same meaning at a fundamental level.It’s not that anything goes.The basic constituents of the universe -- the particles and forces of modern physics -- behavein predictable ways according to the laws of nature.In principle, you can just as easily know their past paths as their future ones.The current momentum and position of a particle determine its movement forward in the nextsecond, but they also determine how it was moving in t...
