"Something from Nothing" (Discussion with Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss)

by leavingwt 23 Replies latest jw friends

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  leavingwt

  Taped live on Feb 4, 2012. (2 Hours)

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH9UvnrARf8

  Join critically-acclaimed author and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and world-renowned theoretical physicist and author Lawrence Krauss as they discuss biology, cosmology, religion, and a host of other topics.
  
  The authors will also discuss their new books. Dawkins recently published The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True, an exploration of the magic of discovery embodied in the practice of science. Written for all age groups, the book moves forward from historical examples of supernatural explanations of natural phenomena to focus on the actual science behind how the world works.
  
  Krauss's latest book, A Universe from Nothing: Why There is Something Rather than Nothing, explains the scientific advances that provide insight into how the universe formed. Krauss tackles the age-old assumption that something cannot arise from nothing by arguing that not only can something arise from nothing, but something will always arise from nothing.
  
  Founded in 2008, the ASU Origins Project is a university-wide transdisciplinary initiative aimed at facilitating cutting edge research and inquiry about origins questions, enhancing public science literacy, and improving science education. Since its inception, the Origins Project has brought the world's leading scientists, including Nobel Prize winners, to Tempe to explore origins questions. The Origins Project has hosted workshops and public events that have focused on questions as fundamental as the origin of the universe, how life began, the origins of human uniqueness, and the origins of morality.
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  leavingwt

  At about the 14-minute mark, "[One] billion is a tiny number."
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  bohm

  20 minutes in, monkey jokes. They are not exactly throwing hard balls at each other.
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  leavingwt

  They are not exactly throwing hard balls at each other.

  Well, I don't think that this is a debate. I haven't finished it, yet.
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  bohm

  Havent finished it either obviously, and ofcourse it would be an awfull setup for a debate :-). but I would have hoped for something like a panel discussion, especially dr. krauss book invite a lot of interesting questions. and then just at 28 minute in, Krauss ask dawkins about the most interesting developments in evolutionary biology
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  cofty

  Thanks marking for later.

  Pleasure to listen in on an intelligent conversation.

  Krauss gave a lecture on this topic at the Atheist convention last year, I think its on YouTube
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  bohm

  I take my previous comments back, it gets really interesting around half and hour in.
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  tec

  I am at 50 minutes, and I am enjoying so far. I wanted to post because I had a question (not that anyone needs to answer), about something that did not make senes.

  The physicist said that empty space has energy. Then he said that something (particles) can form out of the nothing that is empty space. But if empty space is not nothing because it possesses energy, then how can he say that it is nothing? Has any scientist observed empty space at a stage where it has nothing?

  That might get answered later, but that was my question.

  I wanted to say that I was impressed with what Richard Dawkins said at one point, when they were discussing just how different kinds of life might begin on other planets/universes. I loved how he could imagine things that he cannot imagine. (I think this was at the 30 minute mark, where Bohm also first noted that it got interesting.) He spoke about protein and DNA and such; and how it was one dimensional for us, could be two dimensional strands for other life... then understood from the physicst that it could also be three dimensional. I just wanted to comment on that. Being able to recognize that there are so many different possibilities than the ones that we can imagine... I love that.

  Okay, going back now...
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  bohm

  tec: I think dr. Krauss main point is that if "nothing" is not observed experimentally in empty space (and mind that this is an experimental fact), why should we a-priori think of "nothing" as the natural state?

  Then there are various hypothesis on how to get an universe from nothing (variants of quantum loop gravity), but that is slightly above my paygrade :-).
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  ziddina

  Marking...