Name: After billions of years of monotony, the universe is waking up
Uploaded: 2019-10-14T14:59:44Z
Duration: 15 min
Description: Theoretical physicist David Deutsch delivers a mind-bending meditation on the "great monotony" -- the idea that nothing novel has appeared in the universe for billions of years -- and shows how humanity's capacity to create explanatory knowledge could be the thing that bucks this trend. "Humans are not playthings of cosmic forces," he says. "We are users of cosmic forces."

Theoretical physicist David Deutsch delivers a mind-bending meditation on the "great monotony" -- the idea that nothing novel has appeared in the universe for billions of years -- and shows how humanity's capacity to create explanatory knowledge could be the thing that bucks this trend. "Humans are not playthings of cosmic forces," he says. "We are users of cosmic forces."

After billions of years of monotony, the universe is waking up

For billions of years, the universe has produced almost no fundamentally new phenomena, creating what can be called the great monotony. Earth is a rare exception, where life and especially explanatory knowledge have sparked true novelty. While ancient worldviews saw suffering and stasis as inevitable, human creativity now shapes the environment and even redirects asteroids. Humanity’s ability to generate new ideas stands as the ultimate force capable of transforming the cosmos.

Human Ingenuity Can End the Universe’s Age of Monotony

*The Beginning of Infinity*

David Deutsch on the infinite reach of knowledge

science

physics

evolution

Planets

space

universe

future

TED Stage Talk

David Deutsch: After billions of years of monotony, the universe is waking up