the quantum theory is only controversial
when you talk to philosophers
theologians and the average person to a
physicist it's accurate to one part in
10 billions we can take an atom shine a
laser beam at it and I can predict the
properties to one part in 10 billion the
consequences are the internet GPS laser
beams computers fiber optics a broadband
internet all of that is a consequence of
the quantum theory now you think that a
theory that powerful would be logical
compelling and intuitive wrong it is the
most bizarre theory ever proposed in the
history of science
Einstein couldn't get his head around it
it reduces everything to probability so
that there's a probability the electrons
can vanish reappear someplace else
electrons could be two places at the
same time and exist in multiple states
at the same time now that's stupid I
mean how can you possibly exist two
places at the same time how can you be
in multiple states simultaneously well
get used to it
that's just the way the atomic world is
so why don't I vanished and reappeared
someplace else like on the mark on Mars
or the moon there is a probability that
I'll do that in fact we give our PhD
students at our College a question
calculate their probability that you
will vanish and wind up on the planet
Mars give me a number it turns out you
have to wait longer than the lifetime of
the universe for that to happen but it's
a calculable number this is insane
this is absolutely counterintuitive but
the problem is it's right that's how our
world is constructed our world is
stranger than you realize at the atomic
level now we don't see it because we
average out all these bizarre quantum
effects for large objects we consist of
a lot of atoms but at the atomic level
electrons exist a multiple space all the
time and you know what that's called
that's called the laser beam quantum
consciousness which is perhaps the most
busy
our form of consciousness in all of
science according to the quantum theory
in order for something to exist somebody
has to look at it somebody has to make
an observation in principle it could
exist in all possible states when you
look at it it then assumes one state
therefore the observer in some sense
determines existence but observation
requires consciousness conscious people
make the observation so the greatest
paradox in all of science is the cat
problem
the shortage account problem if I have a
cat in a box and I don't open the box
the cat could be either dead or alive so
how do we physicists describe a cat that
you cannot observe well we add the dead
cat to the live cat we add the two waves
together so the cat is neither dead nor
alive until you open the box now
Einstein thought this is stupid
I mean how can you be neither dead nor
alive at the same time well what can I
say
Einstein was wrong electrons to be
spin-up or spin-down
electrons could be here or there at the
same time so this is the greatest
paradox in all of science how do you
resolve the fact that you could have
dead cats and live cats simultaneously
exists in another state before you make
the observation and if you if you ever
find the solution to this puzzle tell me
first
well let's take a look at the timeline
nASA has published it now we're going
back to the moon next year think about
that after a 50 here gap next year
December 2019 we're gonna send an
unmanned Orion space capsule right
around the moon four years after that
2023 we're back to the moon with
astronauts now it takes three days to go
to the moment three days to come back
you could do it in one week I firmly
believe that our grandkids will
honeymoon on the moon
three days instead of simply waxing
eloquent about the moon at night honey
why not visit the moon it's gonna be
that cheap and that close to us and then
by 2030 the first settlements will go to
Mars and so 2030s about the earliest we
can conceive of to go to Mars and I
think the first settlers are going to be
pretty hearty people they're gonna be
pilots they're gonna be Daredevils
you're going to be pretty pretty rugged
to withstand the journey to Mars and to
begin to create a settlement now let's
go into outer space everybody loves a
starship some people say that flying
saucer is hot flying saucers are
impossible because the distances between
two stars is too great for any UFO yet
NASA is already looking into the
possibility of building a starship I
know this because I had to review some
proposals for NASA so let's look at some
of them one is to build a sail like a
sailboat in outer space
you put a laser beam on the moon you
shoot a laser beam to the sale the sail
is pushed by laser beam pressure and you
can reach near 50% the speed of light
this way this is one of the serious
contenders to build the first starship
another possibility is nanobots
microscopic little things that are then
sent to moons now if you saw the movie
2001 you realize that arthur c clarke
who just passed away was a visionary he
realized that if you are an advanced
civilization you're not going to send
Captain Kirk on a starship
gonna send a robot this is a robot the
robot lands on the earth and creates a
copy of itself millions of copies of
itself and they shoot out land on other
planets of their moons and they make a
copy of themselves more factories
starting with one robot you get a
thousand starting with a thousand robots
you get a thousand thousand then a
thousand thousand thousand and pretty
soon you have a sphere a sphere of
robots expanding near the speed of light
colonizing all the moons colonizing all
the planets that is the basis of the
movie 2001 the movie 2001 is the most
realistic the most realistic encounter
with extra-terrestrial civilizations if
we ever meet an alien probably it'll be
a robot a self-replicating robot
leftover from a passing civilization
this is my favorite the ramjet fusion
engine it looks like an ice cream cone
it scoops hydrogen in the forward
direction and burns it for fuel this
starship could last forever forever
because hydrogen is everywhere this is
my favorite proposal for a starship look
how did the cosmos begin and how will it
end well we think the universe began
with a cosmic explosion 13.7 billion
years ago we know that number two within
1% accuracy and why how do we know that
well we know the rate at which the
universe is expanding stars for example
yellow light from stars is stretched
because they're moving away from us and
they turn reddish as a consequence
that's called the Doppler shift when a
car moves toward you for example the
frequency is high when a car moves away
from you the frequency is stretched or
lowered it sounds like this
now you've heard that all your life but
what is that that's a Doppler effect it
also works for light beams when yellow
light comes toward you is bluish when
yellow light moves away from you it's
reddish the redder it is the faster it
moves so it's trivial to calculate
the expansion of the universe you simply
look at the night sky and see how much
the light is redshifted then you run the
video tape backwards we have this
enormous quote video tape on computer of
the expanding universe so we run it
backwards you've all seen explosions run
backwards on television and then you get
back to the point where the universe was
a small little dot that's how we know
the universe began with a fiery
explosion and we can also pick up the
afterglow of the Big Bang when you get a
radio and you turn it between stations
you get that static that's static
believe it or not a few percent of that
static comes from the Big Bang itself
you were actually listening to Genesis
on your radio your television set when
you have snow on your TV set a few
percent of that snow comes from the
creation of the universe more percent
comes from planet Jupiter you plant a
Jupiter also caused a static on the
earth which is more than the Big Bang
but we physicists have measured that
microwave background radiation
we now have baby pictures baby pictures
of the infant universe and you know what
it's an explosion we have baby pictures
of the explosion itself and sure enough
it is a gigantic explosion just like
everyone thought and we've actually not
taken pictures of it in the microwave
region the big question is how will the
universe end there are two ways it could
end in fire or ice if it ends in ice the
universe keeps on expanding against
colder and colder and colder or the
universe could expand stop and then come
back and get hotter and hotter and
hotter in the Big Crunch
either way the laws of physics say we're
doomed either we're gonna die in fire or
die in ice but there's one way out of
this death the question is the laws of
physics are they a death warrant for all
intelligent life most physicists would
say yes that inherent within physics is
a death warrant for all intelligent life
in the universe because either the
universe dies in ice as it expands or
dies and fire as it contracts
I think there's a loophole the loophole
is that billions and trillions of years
from now we'll be so advanced that as
the universe dies we will leave the
universe we will leave our bubble have a
lifeboat and then go to another
neighboring bubble and start all over
again so in other words this theory of
everything may ultimately be the theory
of salvation for intelligent life in the
universe
now that's speculation but in parallel
worlds I even give you the blueprint the
design how much energy it would take to
build a machine which would take us to a
neighboring universe what is the
greatest destroyer of scientists known
to science the greatest destroyer of
scientists is junior high school you see
we're all born scientists we're born
wondering where did I come from why does
the Sun Shine why do the stars twinkle
we're born that way
until we hit junior high school and then
it is Christ out of us all those long we
have to memorize useless facts figures
that don't amount to anything all of a
sudden were called nerds by our friends
all of a sudden it's hard to get a date
all of a sudden the hormones are kicking
in so it's difficult and then in high
school you have this pyramid this
pyramid where you have the beautiful
people on top the jocks and the
cheerleaders I have nothing against them
but there is a pyramid in high school
immortalized by Hollywood movies but
Hollywood never tells you that as soon
as you graduate from high school that
pyramid turns upside down they never
tell you that
look at Bill Gates look at Steve Jobs
look at mr. Zuckerberg these are
billionaires leaders in innovation
technology they were at the bottom of
the pyramid when they were in high
school if the question is Fukushima how
long are we gonna experience the agony
of three simultaneous meltdowns in
northern Japan we have the answer 40
years according to the utility TEPCO
Tokyo Electric it'll take about 40 years
to begin the process of dismantling the
reactor and the accident is not over at
all
a small earthquake and it'll send the
accident starting all over again you
realize that the reactor is so
radioactive workers cannot even get in
for more than just a few minutes at a
time they've sent in robots robots are
not smart enough to work in high
radiation fields total failure in fact
the Pentagon the u.s. Pentagon has made
it a priority to create robots that can
turn a screw robots that can use a
hammer robots that can use a saw we
don't have those robots yet and so the
next thing they want to do is to insert
cameras cameras into the water to see
where the melting is it's so bad we
don't even have a picture but we don't
even have a picture of the melted core
we know it's 100% melted and the water
the radioactive water builds up swimming
pools when you visit Fukushima you see
all these swimming pools of radioactive
water the agony is unending and so just
remember that it will take 40 years to
clean up that nuclear accident so Japan
after World War two
I made a Faustian bargain Faust was the
legendary figure who sold his soul to
the devil for unlimited power Japan said
we were going to clear because we have
no oil or coal but there's a price
there is a price you have to pay and
that is you sell your soul to the devil
Stephen Hawking has said that yes time
travel is possible but not practical in
other words don't expect an inventor to
create a time machine in their basement
today we're talking about the energy of
a star the energy of a black hole but in
principle if you could master that
energy then you might be able to bend
time into a pretzel the mathematic says
so even Albert Einstein realized in 1949
his own equations allow you to go
backwards in time if the universe
rotated for example a very simple kind
of universe a rotating universe and you
go with the flow you go around the
universe as it rotates you can come back
into the past
so simply walking around a circle you
come back not where you left but you
come back yesterday
so even Einstein realized oh my god his
own equations allow for time travel so
in his memoirs of course Einstein had to
adjust a question his time travel
possible
and he said aha I have found a loophole
and that is the universe expands it
doesn't rotate so it means that if the
universe rotated time travel would
become commonplace so thank goodness the
universe expands I must disagree with my
esteem let me say that science is the
engine of prosperity from steam power to
electricity to the laser to the
transistor to the computer that's not
true it's all about image decorate can I
have mice you had your say let me have
my say yes however the information
revolution has a weakness and the
weakness is precisely the educational
system the United States has the worst
educational system known to science our
graduates compete regularly at the level
of third world countries how come the
scientific establishment of the United
States doesn't collapse if we're
producing a generation of dummies if the
stupid index of America keeps rising
every year just watch network television
a real
the shows right how come the scientific
establishment of the United States
doesn't collapse let me tell you
something some of you may not know this
America has a secret weapon that secret
weapon is the h-1b without the h-1b the
scientific establishment of this country
what collapse
forget about Google forget about Silicon
Valley there would be no Silicon Valley
without without the h-1b and you know
what the h-1b is it's the genius visa
okay you realize that in the United
States 50% of all PhD candidates are
foreign-born and my system one of the
biggest in the United States 100% of the
PhD candidates are foreign-born the
United States is the magnet sucking up
all the brains of the world but now the
brains are going back they're going back
to China they're going back to India and
people say oh my god there's a Silicon
Valley in India now oh my god there's a
Silicon Valley in China duh where did it
come from they came from the United
States so don't tell me the science
isn't the engine of prosperity you
remove the h-1b visa and you collapsed
the economy in Wall Street Journal
editorial i'ts against a congressman who
wanted to ban the h-1b saying they'll
take jobs away from the american people
the Wall Street Journal said look there
are no Americans who can take these jobs
these are at the highest level of high
technology they don't take away jobs for
Americans they create entire industries
so that's why we have an Achilles heel
and that's the educational system again
sociology ie jurors are not necessarily
going to be the ones determining the
future Silicon Valley the IRA physicists
the engineers I need more of them not
less when I was a child I had a role
model and I idolized Albert Einstein and
my favorite Einstein story is this
when Einstein was an old man he was
tired of giving the same talk over and
over
so one day his chauffeur came up to him
and the chauffeur said professor I'm
really a part-time actor I've heard your
speech so many times I've memorized it
so why don't we switch places I will
plant a moustache
I will put on a wig I will be the great
Einstein and you can take a rest and be
my chauffeur well Einstein loved the
joke so they switched places
this went along famously until one day a
mathematician in the back asked a very
difficult question and Einstein thought
all the game is up but then the
chauffeur said that question is so
Elementary that even my chauffeur here
can answer it for you
