Book Signing: 6:15 pm in the Lensic Lobby
Lecture: 7:30 pm
One of the great intellectual achievements of the twentieth century was the theory of quantum mechanics, according to which observational results can only be predicted probabilistically rather than with certainty. Yet, after decades in which the theory has been successfully used on an everyday basis, most physicists would agree that we still don’t truly understand what it means. Sean Carroll will discuss the source of this puzzlement, and explain why an increasing number of physicists are led to an apparently astonishing conclusion: that the world we experience is constantly branching into different versions, representing the different possible outcomes of quantum measurements. This could have important consequences for quantum gravity and the emergence of spacetime. Sean Carroll is a research professor at CalTech, Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy at John’s Hopkins University, and Fractal Faculty at SFI. His research focuses on fundamental physics and cosmology, quantum gravity and spacetime, philosophy of science, and the evolution of entropy and complexity. He’s authored “Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime;” “The Big Picture;” “The Particle at the End of the Universe;” “From Eternity to Here;” and the textbook “Spacetime and Geometry.”
Sean will be signing copies of his most recent book, Something Deeply Hidden, in the Lensic Lobby prior to the lecture.
Reserve your free tickets to this event via the Lensic Performing Arts Center's box office. Please abide by the Lensic's COVID safety policies.
The 2022 Santa Fe Institute Community Lecture Series is generously underwritten by the McKinnon Family Foundation, with additional support from the Lensic Performing Arts Center and the Santa Fe Reporter.
This event is also supported by the James S. McDonnell Foundation Grant Number 220020491, Adaptation, Aging, and the Arrow of Time. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the James S. McDonnell Foundation.