It is seldom for atheists to openly express humility and honesty about the science they worship. To be fair Martin Rees had always seemed to be more humble and nice. Maybe it is his British gentlemen upbringing. Beyond Rees I’ve notice in general there have been more open skepticism about the state of how knowledge of science. Maybe it has always been around but as a layperson I don’t hear a lot of it in the popular media. I have always been skeptical of string theory, multiverse, and quantum mechanics. But now there are serious scientists who are openly challenging these theories. String theory is mostly dead if not completely dead. Multiverse unknowable. Quantum mechanics, we still haven’t really move beyond Schrodinger and the just shut-up can calculate phase. But scientists are finally saying is there really that all that there is. Is there no better understanding of quantum wavefunctions, and entanglement?
Here is an interesting and refreshing video with Martin Rees speaking on these topics openly.
OUTLINE:
0:00 – Introduction
0:52 – Understanding the universe
9:22 – Human limitations and AI
18:18 – Dark matter
25:38 – Vast universe
33:19 – Alien life
47:12 – Space exploration
1:11:35 – Future technology
1:22:57 – Newton and Einstein
1:26:59 – Black holes
1:40:40 – Cosmological threats
2:07:44 – Advice for young people
2:10:14 – Mortality