WSF CONNECT Q&A with David Albert

Philosopher and physicist David Albert from Columbia University joined us live in our studio to ponder the imponderables and answer your questions about cosmology, physics, the limits of science and many other mind-blowing topics. Find out more about David: https://www.worldsciencefestival.com/...

Is our universe unique or one of many? What happened before the Big Bang? Why is there something rather than nothing? Is infinitely real? Some argue that if these deep questions can’t be answered empirically, they’re not relevant to science. Are they right? Watch the full program Pondering the Imponderables here:    • The Biggest Questions of Cosmology: Ponder...  

Here are the questions you asked and David answered:

Why is it so hard to test the theories we have on the beginning of the Universe? Don't you think scientists should find out how to make predictions that can be tested now?

Would it be correct to say that whatever “physics” brought the universe into existence also brought life into existence? If so, would not the question be “why physics”?

How do extra dimension play a role in understanding the Universe and what are the progresses to conduct the experiments to detect it?

Explain how order results from chaos in thid world,pleaseee

Is it scientifically fair for quantum mechanics to claim that the all actions in the universe are fundamentally random just because our methods, experiments, questions and logic framework may be obsolete?

​What lies at the heart of the probabilistic nature of the wave function? What ultimately drives an outcome over another one?

-What do you think about string theory? do you believe in it?

Do you give any weight to simulation theory?

What is the philosophical view of the non existing center of the universe? If the universe expanded from a point why isn’t there a center?

How is energy conserved in cosmological expansion?

Do you believe we have free will?

From a very interesting discussion between you and Sean Carroll I understood you had some thoughts about the notion of probability in the many-worlds interpretation. Can you elaborate?

What suggestions he has for a physics undergraduate like me on what to explore more thoroughly...

Are space-time fundamental entities??? or emergent entities from something more fundamental? your views please

Why should it ever occur to us that somehow "nothing" existing should be more likely than "something"?

What's beyond the walls of the universe? Nothing? There is no such thing as nothing. Perhaps the universe is infinite but beyond the edge is what?

Do you think that it is necessary to strive for a complete theory which is mathematically consistent with our notion of past, present and future?

What do you think about the hard problem of consciousness? Is consciousness computable? can consciousness be derived in physics?

What made you decide to go from theoretical physics to working on the philosophical foundations of physics?


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