“The universe clicks along in perfect accord with the laws of physics forever.”

What if the universe is a machine, and every moment in our past, present, and future is already encoded in the positions of its particles?

Physicist Sean Carroll explores the unsettling implications of classical mechanics, from Newton’s laws to Laplace’s thought experiment, showing how determinism challenges the very idea of free will.

0:00 Is reality a clockwork machine?
0:57 The determinism of classical mechanics
2:03 The spherical cow and simplified models
2:58 The universe as an equation
6:53 When the clockwork universe meets the human mind

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About Sean Carroll:

Dr. Sean Carroll is Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy — in effect, a joint appointment between physics and philosophy — at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and fractal faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. Most of his career has been spent doing research on cosmology, field theory, and gravitation, looking at topics such as dark matter and dark energy, modified gravity, topological defects, extra dimensions, and violations of fundamental symmetries. These days, his focus has shifted to more foundational questions, both in quantum mechanics (origin of probability, emergence of space and time) and statistical mechanics (entropy and the arrow of time, emergence and causation, dynamics of complexity), bringing a more philosophical dimension to his work.

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