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We inhabit a cosmos
of undiscovered dimensions
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and paradoxical realities.
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We live on one
level of perception,
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but there are others.
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Every once in a while,
a searcher happens upon
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the doorway to one
of these other levels.
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One of them discovered a
paradox about reality that
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proved to be so profound,
we have yet to understand
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how it could be possible.
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The universe,
or perhaps we should say,
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universes have
never been the same.
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Nature writes her most
intimate secrets in light.
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The light from our star that
powers all life on this world.
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The light that
plants eat to make sugar.
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The light that is the
yardstick of the universe,
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stitching diamonds into
the fabric of space and time.
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The imprisoned light
that defines black holes.
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The absence of light
that prevents us from knowing
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what dark matter
and dark energy are.
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"Seeing the light" usually
refers to a religious epiphany,
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but no one is more
light-obsessed than astronomers.
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And as soon as they
began studying light,
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it challenged even
the very best of them.
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Take Isaac Newton, for example.
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He was so desperate to understand
the nature of light and colors,
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he was willing to
stick needles in his eyes.
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No, I mean literally.
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Newton was only in his mid-20s,
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but he had already laid the foundations of a
new branch of mathematics called "calculus,"
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and he was conducting a series
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of experiments that led him to
conclude that color was an aspect of light.
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Newton wanted to find out
which of the things we see
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are properties of light and
which are caused by our nerves.
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Was color hiding
inside the light?
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Or was it in our eyes?
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With a burning desire to know,
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he took a needle
called a bodkin and
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Newton carefully
noted that if he conducted
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the experiment in a
room filled with light,
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even with his eyes shut,
some light would pass through
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his eyelids and he would see
a great, broad blue-ish circle.
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It may not sound like much of
a result considering the pain,
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but it was with simple
homemade experiments such
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as this one that Isaac Newton became
the first person to explain rainbows,
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and how white
light hides a whole
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palette of colors inside itself.
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Most people thought of
the events Newton studied as
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being just the way things were.
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The way an apple falls.
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The way a ray of light
shines through a window.
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Newton's greatness stemmed
from his questioning of the
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"why" and "how" of
ordinary things.
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Newton asked,
what was light made of?
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If you could break light apart
into its tiniest components,
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what would you see?
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Newton noticed that light
moved in straight lines.
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How else to explain
the edges of shadows?
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Or the straightness of
the inspiring rays of sunlight
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that poke through a cloud?
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Or the darkness that resulted
from a total solar eclipse?
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From these observations,
Newton reasoned that light
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must consist of a
stream of particles,
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or corpuscles as he called them,
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that a ray of light was like
a stream of bullets striking
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the retina of the eye.
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But there was one
man over in Holland,
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who vigorously disagreed with
Newton's particle theory of light.
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Christiaan Huygens shared
Isaac Newton's insatiable curiosity,
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and when it came
to changing the world,
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he was no slouch himself.
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Despite a lifelong
struggle with depression,
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he managed to get a lot done.
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While looking through a telescope
that he designed and built himself,
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he discovered
Saturn's moon, Titan.
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Huygens invented
the pendulum clock.
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He worked out the mathematical
formulas necessary to create
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a pendulum with an arc
that would accurately and
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consistently measure out
uniform increments of time.
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Huygens sketched a
prototype for a new machine
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that he thought
might have some promise.
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It was what he called
a "magic lantern."
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A few hundred years would
pass before it evolved into
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a working motion
picture projector.
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But back in the 17th century,
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Christiaan Huygens already
had an idea for a movie,
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possibly influenced
by his gloomy disposition.
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Huygens, like Newton,
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also invented his own
new branch of mathematics,
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a predictive theory of the
outcomes of games of chance,
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probability theory.
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A way to call heads or tails.
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And like Newton, Christiaan
Huygens had his own theory of light,
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but it was very different.
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He didn't think light
consisted of particles like
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bullets firing
along a single path.
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Huygens saw light as a wave,
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spreading out in all directions.
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It was already known in that time
that sound must travel as a wave.
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How?
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Because a voice could be heard
around a door when it was slightly ajar,
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so sound must travel around
the door as water would,
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like a wave.
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Huygens thought that light
moved the same way sound did,
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spreading out as waves.
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So, which genius was right?
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The answer to that question
of whether light was a particle
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or a wave would
prove to be complicated.
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Now enter Thomas Young.
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The man who exposed the
enigma at the heart of light
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and unraveled the fabric of the
cosmos that we thought we knew.
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Come with me to one of the greatest
mysteries in the history of science.
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It's a story about a man who
could do just about anything,
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and Thomas Young did.
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For 1500 years, no one had been
able to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics.
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By identifying six major sounds
that the hieroglyphics represented,
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he was able to
decrypt six of the symbols,
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which led to the complete
translation of the ancient
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Egyptian language by others.
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He was the first to chart the family
tree of the Indo-European languages.
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As a physician, he identified a
deformity in the shape of the eye,
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the defective vision
he named astigmatism.
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But it was Young's design
of an experiment that sent
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physics down the rabbit
hole we still live in.
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It looks simple, right?
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How could three sheets of cardboard
set such a catastrophe in motion?
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A green glass shade like this one
will only allow the green light through,
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so that only a single color,
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or frequency of light
will pass through the slits.
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Why was that important?
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Because he assumed that the
many overlapping colors would
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result in the same light
wave that Huygens imagined,
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called an interference pattern.
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He forced that single
color of light to travel through
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two separate slits to see
what kind of pattern the light
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would make on that
last piece of cardboard.
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If light was a particle,
you'd expect to see two distinct
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clumps of light
on the opposite wall,
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where the individual
particles of light ended up
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after they passed
through the slits.
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But that's not what happened.
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Instead, a
completely unexpected pattern.
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The one that two waves would
make when they overlapped,
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or interfered with each other.
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That's why they're called
an interference pattern.
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Young had demonstrated
that light was actually a wave.
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That Newton, the greatest genius in
the history of science was half wrong.
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That light was not a particle
as he confidently proclaimed.
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There's a reason that
arguments from authority
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hold little weight in science.
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Nature and nature
only settles the argument.
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And she has so many
tricks up her sleeve,
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only a fool would ever consider
our understanding of nature complete.
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Newton had missed
something fundamental.
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Surprising, but we haven't gotten
to the really disturbing part yet.
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Thomas Young left
a time bomb with a long fuse.
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One that took 100 years
to burn down before it exploded.
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It wasn't until the end of
the 19th century that science
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developed the necessary tools to
find an opening to a hidden universe,
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a realm of deeper mystery.
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You can hear the discoverer's
astonishment in his own account.
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Could anything, at first sight,
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seem more impractical than
a body which is so small that
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its mass is an insignificant fraction
of the mass of an atom of hydrogen?
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Which itself is so small that
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the crowd of these atoms equal
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in number to the population of
the whole world would be too small
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to have been detected by any
means then known to science.
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That voice, that
particular organization of
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sound waves frozen in
time nearly 100 years ago,
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belongs to J.J. Thomson.
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He's remembering his discovery of the
electron in his cathode ray experiment.
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He had heated up a metal
electrode until it spit out an electron.
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And another, and another.
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For the first time,
an elementary particle of
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the atom was made visible.
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Science was breaking into
nature's vault where she had
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kept her most
closely held secrets,
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and that's when
things got really crazy.
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If even the smallest
units of matter, atoms say,
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had even smaller components,
such as an electron,
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then could the same
thing be true of light?
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Scientists, in their never-ending
fascination with light,
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set out to devise
ways of isolating smaller
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and smaller units of it.
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It proved to be the passage
way through the looking glass.
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It was the crossing of a
threshold into a wonderland
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where the known rules
of physics do not apply.
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For the first time, they were able
to isolate the tiniest unit of light,
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a single photon.
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And to perform Young's double
slit experiment on a whole new level,
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tracing its precise path either
through the right slit or the left slit.
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We'll pull over to the side of the road
for the best possible view of which slit,
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the right or the left,
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the photon passes through
to get to the far wall.
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Left slit, right slit.
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Another right slit.
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Left slit.
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If we watched them all day long,
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the pattern would be random.
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About half would go
through either slit.
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Wait a second.
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Where are the waves?
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Where is Young's
interference pattern?
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This is where the weird begins.
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I cannot explain to you
what you're about to see.
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That's because no one
on earth understands it yet.
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If you can't live with that,
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then you're not gonna be
happy with what lies up ahead.
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On the smallest possible scale
that we've ever discovered,
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the quantum universe, the mere
act of observation changes reality.
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Okay, photons, keep on coming,
and this time we promise not to look.
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You're not gonna believe this,
but we can change the pattern
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on the far wall simply by
not watching which slit the
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photons pass through.
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I know it sounds crazy, but
in every trial ever conducted,
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the outcome depends on whether
or not the experiment was observed.
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So, the reason we didn't
get the interference pattern
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earlier wasn't because we chopped
up the light into single photons,
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it was because we
were observing which slit
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the photons passed through,
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but how can a photon
know if someone is watching?
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A photon doesn't have eyes.
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A photon doesn't have a brain.
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How could it know
it was being watched?
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You might reasonably conclude
that a single photon is such
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a tiny thing that it's very hard to
see without using complex technology.
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This machinery does
violence to the delicate photon.
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It changes it, but that
doesn't explain why photons
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behave like particles when we're
watching but waves when we're not.
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If light is
fundamentally a particle,
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then it should never
create a wave pattern,
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whether we're
observing it or not.
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And how can individual photons
know where to take their places,
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so that as a group they create
the interference patterns of waves?
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This is a maddening conundrum
at the heart of quantum physics.
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Isaac Newton and
Christiaan Huygens were both
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equally right and equally wrong.
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Light is both a wave
and a particle, and neither.
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Until we make an observation,
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the photon exists in
a state of uncertainty,
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governed by laws of probability.
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And when we do observe it,
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it becomes something
completely different.
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00:19:45,829 --> 00:19:49,900
We would be lost in the quantum
universe without Christiaan Huygens.
245
00:19:50,029 --> 00:19:52,960
His probability theory
provides, even now,
246
00:19:53,099 --> 00:19:57,930
the only key we have to grasping
the laws of quantum reality.
247
00:19:58,359 --> 00:20:00,829
Every particle is at
the mercy of random chance
248
00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:03,500
and shifting probabilities.
249
00:20:03,630 --> 00:20:07,329
Thinking about it is like
looking at an optical illusion,
250
00:20:07,460 --> 00:20:09,230
you can only grab
hold of it for moments at
251
00:20:09,359 --> 00:20:12,829
a time before it pops
back into something else.
252
00:20:18,559 --> 00:20:20,630
In the quantum universe,
there's an undiscovered
253
00:20:20,759 --> 00:20:24,400
frontier where the laws of
our world give way to the ones
254
00:20:24,529 --> 00:20:27,259
that apply on the
tiniest scale we know.
255
00:20:28,500 --> 00:20:31,460
They're divorced from
our everyday experience.
256
00:20:32,400 --> 00:20:36,299
How can you think about a world
that has different rules than ours?
257
00:20:36,430 --> 00:20:38,460
It's not easy.
258
00:20:38,599 --> 00:20:41,130
That's why I want to take you
to this place where it's not
259
00:20:41,259 --> 00:20:45,200
only possible to make
such a leap, it's mandatory.
260
00:20:46,099 --> 00:20:49,130
It's a world very
much like our own,
261
00:20:49,259 --> 00:20:51,759
except in one respect.
262
00:21:02,000 --> 00:21:06,359
It just happens to be
missing a spatial dimension,
263
00:21:06,500 --> 00:21:08,000
the third one.
264
00:21:12,359 --> 00:21:15,029
Ie
265
00:21:15,160 --> 00:21:17,500
We have to be able to
imagine another dimension.
266
00:21:18,299 --> 00:21:20,599
That's very hard to do.
267
00:21:20,730 --> 00:21:23,359
It's much easier to wrap
your mind around a world that's
268
00:21:23,500 --> 00:21:27,099
missing one of the three
dimensions that we take for granted.
269
00:21:27,230 --> 00:21:31,329
The beings of the world we're
about to enter have only two.
270
00:21:31,460 --> 00:21:35,930
This world was first imagined
by a man named Edwin Abbott.
271
00:21:36,059 --> 00:21:39,230
Everyone and everything here
and everyone they know
272
00:21:39,359 --> 00:21:42,099
and love is flat.
273
00:21:42,230 --> 00:21:44,359
Their houses are flat.
274
00:21:44,500 --> 00:21:48,230
Some are squares,
others are triangles.
275
00:21:48,359 --> 00:21:52,259
Some have more complex shapes,
say octagons.
276
00:21:52,400 --> 00:21:55,630
But all are completely flat.
277
00:21:55,759 --> 00:21:58,960
They scurry about on
foot or in little vehicles,
278
00:21:59,099 --> 00:22:01,200
in and out of
their flat buildings,
279
00:22:01,329 --> 00:22:03,460
busy with their flat lives.
280
00:22:03,599 --> 00:22:07,299
Everyone on this
world has width and length,
281
00:22:07,430 --> 00:22:10,500
but no height whatsoever.
282
00:22:10,630 --> 00:22:13,900
These Flatworlders know about
left-right and forward-back,
283
00:22:15,099 --> 00:22:18,930
but have no hint, not
an inkling, about up-down,
284
00:22:19,059 --> 00:22:21,660
except for one tiny group,
285
00:22:21,799 --> 00:22:25,359
the mathematicians,
who imagine something more.
286
00:22:27,700 --> 00:22:31,799
The mathematicians dream of
a world in three dimensions,
287
00:22:31,930 --> 00:22:35,799
but it's too hard for most of
the Flatworlders to think about.
288
00:22:35,930 --> 00:22:37,829
The mathematician says,
289
00:22:37,960 --> 00:22:40,460
"Listen, it's really very easy."
290
00:22:40,599 --> 00:22:42,059
We all know left-right.
291
00:22:42,200 --> 00:22:44,460
We all know forward-back.
292
00:22:44,599 --> 00:22:48,259
"So let's just imagine another dimension
at right-angles to the other two."
293
00:22:49,099 --> 00:22:50,900
But the Flatworlders say,
294
00:22:51,099 --> 00:22:52,500
"What are you talking about?"
295
00:22:52,630 --> 00:22:54,660
At right angles
to the other two?
296
00:22:54,799 --> 00:22:58,160
Everybody knows that there
can only be two dimensions.
297
00:22:58,299 --> 00:23:01,660
Go ahead, wise guy, show
us that third dimension.
298
00:23:01,799 --> 00:23:04,059
"Where is it?"
299
00:23:04,500 --> 00:23:06,829
So the mathematician
draws a picture.
300
00:23:14,160 --> 00:23:15,529
Poor teacher.
301
00:23:15,660 --> 00:23:18,960
Nobody listens
to mathematicians.
302
00:23:23,230 --> 00:23:27,660
Every creature on flatworld sees
its fellows as merely short lines,
303
00:23:28,829 --> 00:23:32,329
which are the nearest
sides of their oblong bodies.
304
00:23:32,859 --> 00:23:36,500
But the insides of a Flatworlder
are forever mysterious,
305
00:23:36,630 --> 00:23:40,460
unless exposed by some
terrible accident or autopsy.
306
00:23:42,099 --> 00:23:45,130
And then one day, we came along.
307
00:23:49,200 --> 00:23:53,359
Hello? How are you?
308
00:23:54,160 --> 00:23:57,829
Hi, I'm a visitor from
the third dimension.
309
00:23:58,230 --> 00:24:02,230
Hello? I feel
sorry for the little guy.
310
00:24:02,359 --> 00:24:06,359
To him, it appears that my greeting
is emanating from his own flat body,
311
00:24:07,700 --> 00:24:10,299
an alien voice from within.
312
00:24:10,430 --> 00:24:12,359
That's because
nothing can come from above.
313
00:24:12,500 --> 00:24:15,099
There is no above in this world.
314
00:24:15,230 --> 00:24:18,259
A three-dimensional
creature like me can only exist
315
00:24:18,400 --> 00:24:22,730
on Flatworld where my feet
touch the surface of the plane.
316
00:24:26,759 --> 00:24:28,700
Sorry, little guy.
317
00:24:28,829 --> 00:24:31,599
I know how weird
this must be for you.
318
00:24:31,730 --> 00:24:33,259
Don't worry.
319
00:24:33,400 --> 00:24:37,230
You'll have a perfectly safe
trip to the third dimension.
320
00:24:37,759 --> 00:24:39,730
Nothing's gonna harm you.
321
00:24:39,859 --> 00:24:42,859
But this is your chance
to see a whole new perspective
322
00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:45,900
on where you live.
323
00:24:46,029 --> 00:24:49,400
At first, our Flatworlder can make
no sense of what is happening.
324
00:24:49,529 --> 00:24:52,829
It's utterly outside the
realm of Flatworld experience.
325
00:24:53,660 --> 00:24:56,299
But eventually he realizes
that he's viewing Flatworld
326
00:24:56,430 --> 00:25:00,000
from a totally new
vantage point above.
327
00:25:00,359 --> 00:25:03,029
Now, he can see
into closed rooms.
328
00:25:03,160 --> 00:25:05,660
He can see into
his flat fellows.
329
00:25:05,799 --> 00:25:08,230
This unprecedented
three-dimensional view of
330
00:25:08,359 --> 00:25:12,059
his two-dimensional
universe is devastating.
331
00:25:12,799 --> 00:25:15,599
Traveling to another dimension
provides as an incidental benefit,
332
00:25:15,730 --> 00:25:18,000
a kind of X-ray vision.
333
00:25:18,130 --> 00:25:21,099
Just as the Flatworld
houses can have no roofs,
334
00:25:21,230 --> 00:25:23,599
their inhabitants
can have no sky,
335
00:25:23,730 --> 00:25:27,329
because that sky could only
exist in a third-dimension.
336
00:25:28,329 --> 00:25:30,529
Little guy's suffered enough.
337
00:25:30,660 --> 00:25:34,500
Better put him down.
338
00:25:34,859 --> 00:25:36,630
From the point of
view of its spouse,
339
00:25:36,759 --> 00:25:39,359
this Flatworlder has
distressingly disappeared,
340
00:25:39,500 --> 00:25:43,099
then unaccountably
materialized from out of nowhere.
341
00:26:08,329 --> 00:26:11,000
It's easier to imagine the
universe in fewer dimensions
342
00:26:11,130 --> 00:26:13,130
than our comfort zone of three.
343
00:26:13,259 --> 00:26:16,829
A zero-dimensional
universe is just a point.
344
00:26:16,960 --> 00:26:19,859
A dot with no dimension at all.
345
00:26:21,660 --> 00:26:25,660
Or a one-dimensional universe
where everyone is a line segment.
346
00:26:26,630 --> 00:26:31,460
Or the
two-dimensional Flatworld.
347
00:26:32,859 --> 00:26:35,660
Or 3D, where we all live.
348
00:26:39,859 --> 00:26:41,259
We can laugh at
the cluelessness of
349
00:26:41,400 --> 00:26:43,099
two-dimensional creatures.
350
00:26:43,799 --> 00:26:46,160
Unable to imagine a
three-dimensional world.
351
00:26:46,299 --> 00:26:50,529
But, when it comes to quantum
reality, that inability,
352
00:26:50,660 --> 00:26:54,099
resembles the problems we have.
353
00:26:54,230 --> 00:26:56,829
The best we can do for
now is to imagine this
354
00:26:56,960 --> 00:27:00,859
three-dimensional cube as
a four-dimensional hypercube.
355
00:27:03,400 --> 00:27:05,930
We're living in
our own Flatworld,
356
00:27:06,059 --> 00:27:08,430
just like the 19th Century
writer, Edwin Abbott,
357
00:27:08,559 --> 00:27:10,859
in his book
Flatland, was trying.
358
00:27:19,799 --> 00:27:21,930
It's the rarest of events,
359
00:27:22,059 --> 00:27:24,829
when a searcher happens
on a hole in the curtain
360
00:27:24,960 --> 00:27:28,160
that hides the matrix.
361
00:27:29,960 --> 00:27:33,099
It was not until Isaac Newton
that we began to understand
362
00:27:33,230 --> 00:27:36,160
the motions of the worlds.
363
00:27:36,299 --> 00:27:39,500
The variety of living
things always astonished us,
364
00:27:41,299 --> 00:27:44,700
but Charles Darwin discovered
how time and the environment
365
00:27:44,829 --> 00:27:47,700
sculpted these
forms, including us,
366
00:27:47,960 --> 00:27:52,359
from life's first living cell.
367
00:27:52,500 --> 00:27:55,359
We had no idea that the
quantum universe even existed
368
00:27:55,500 --> 00:27:58,500
until Albert Einstein
revealed it.
369
00:27:59,029 --> 00:28:04,000
The mysterious laws of this
paradoxical cosmos deeply disturbed him.
370
00:28:04,130 --> 00:28:07,930
And we have yet to
understand them ourselves.
371
00:28:09,160 --> 00:28:11,230
At its heart, was a
relationship that seemed
372
00:28:11,359 --> 00:28:14,529
to violate the speed of light.
373
00:28:14,660 --> 00:28:18,299
The backbone of modern
physics and reality itself.
374
00:28:21,829 --> 00:28:24,759
That blue photon, a
quantum packet of light,
375
00:28:24,900 --> 00:28:27,799
will divide into two.
376
00:28:27,930 --> 00:28:31,799
Splitting its energy and
emerging as a pair of red photons.
377
00:28:33,700 --> 00:28:37,700
These new red photons are married
in the most profound physical sense or,
378
00:28:38,700 --> 00:28:42,099
as quantum physicists
say, entangled.
379
00:28:43,700 --> 00:28:46,059
And no matter how far
they wander from each other,
380
00:28:46,200 --> 00:28:50,000
in space and in time, the
bond between them will endure.
381
00:28:52,500 --> 00:28:55,829
It's a little like Plato's Ancient
Greek explanation of love.
382
00:28:56,400 --> 00:28:59,829
A single being splits
into two and separates.
383
00:29:01,099 --> 00:29:02,829
For the rest of their existence,
384
00:29:02,960 --> 00:29:06,099
each remains the one and
only soul mate of the other.
385
00:29:06,559 --> 00:29:09,599
Exquisitely attuned to
the inner life of its partner.
386
00:29:10,359 --> 00:29:14,200
Even if they are separated from
each other by a whole universe.
387
00:29:15,599 --> 00:29:18,730
Observe the spin of one photon
and you will instantly know
388
00:29:18,859 --> 00:29:21,400
the spin of its
entangled partner.
389
00:29:21,529 --> 00:29:24,660
It's not something special
about these particular photons.
390
00:29:24,799 --> 00:29:27,829
As far as we know,
it's the rule.
391
00:29:29,099 --> 00:29:31,359
This kind of long distance
relationship has been going
392
00:29:31,500 --> 00:29:34,630
on for the whole
history of the universe.
393
00:29:39,160 --> 00:29:43,200
Two photons born in the early
universe nearly 14 billion years ago,
394
00:29:44,460 --> 00:29:47,329
separate and head
in opposite directions.
395
00:29:48,960 --> 00:29:52,130
They could end up tens of
billions of light-years apart and yet,
396
00:29:52,259 --> 00:29:56,200
over all that time
and across all that space,
397
00:29:56,329 --> 00:29:59,400
the bond between them endures.
398
00:30:00,359 --> 00:30:02,859
What is it about a photon
or an electron or any other
399
00:30:03,000 --> 00:30:05,599
elementary particle,
once entangled,
400
00:30:05,730 --> 00:30:08,900
that makes them capable
of such lasting fidelity?
401
00:30:09,559 --> 00:30:11,630
And to me, an
even stranger fact,
402
00:30:11,759 --> 00:30:14,900
is that all it takes to
sever that awesome commitment,
403
00:30:15,029 --> 00:30:17,500
is the simple
act of measurement.
404
00:30:17,630 --> 00:30:21,200
All I have to do is measure
the spin of one of them.
405
00:30:22,700 --> 00:30:26,130
How can it be that only
one seemingly innocuous act
406
00:30:26,259 --> 00:30:30,799
by a third party can forever sever
such a deep and enduring bond?
407
00:30:41,599 --> 00:30:42,660
There she is.
408
00:30:42,799 --> 00:30:45,230
Half of our cosmic couple.
409
00:30:45,730 --> 00:30:48,359
Somewhere, at this very moment,
410
00:30:48,500 --> 00:30:51,259
many billions of
light-years away from us,
411
00:30:51,400 --> 00:30:54,930
her soul mate is suddenly
feeling something different.
412
00:30:55,660 --> 00:30:57,930
The thrill is gone.
413
00:30:58,430 --> 00:31:01,160
The bond has been broken.
414
00:31:01,759 --> 00:31:04,559
They are no long
entangled with each other.
415
00:31:06,160 --> 00:31:09,799
Our simple act of observing
one of them has ruined
416
00:31:09,930 --> 00:31:13,430
a marriage that has lasted
since the beginning of time.
417
00:31:14,529 --> 00:31:16,460
But, how could that be?
418
00:31:16,599 --> 00:31:19,359
And that's not the only
crazy thing about this.
419
00:31:19,500 --> 00:31:23,200
How could one photon,
a cosmos away from its partner,
420
00:31:23,329 --> 00:31:27,029
send a break-up message
across the universe and have
421
00:31:27,160 --> 00:31:30,730
the other photon
receive it instantaneously?
422
00:31:31,599 --> 00:31:34,329
Faster than the speed
of light could possibly carry
423
00:31:34,460 --> 00:31:37,259
such a message between them.
424
00:31:41,630 --> 00:31:46,099
These are two of the greatest
unanswered questions in science.
425
00:31:46,230 --> 00:31:49,359
So, don't worry
if they bother you.
426
00:31:49,500 --> 00:31:53,160
These questions haunted a mind as great
as Einstein's for the rest of his life.
427
00:31:55,700 --> 00:31:59,559
There's nothing more intriguing
to a scientist than a paradox.
428
00:32:00,259 --> 00:32:02,700
If light, the
fastest thing there can be,
429
00:32:02,829 --> 00:32:05,900
has a cosmic speed limit,
then it would be impossible
430
00:32:06,029 --> 00:32:10,759
for one photon to communicate with
another instantly across such vastness.
431
00:32:12,359 --> 00:32:15,829
Einstein found it almost unbearable
to live in this kind of universe.
432
00:32:16,400 --> 00:32:19,829
Where what he called, "spooky"
action at a distance was possible.
433
00:32:31,200 --> 00:32:34,200
Remember those particles
in the double slit experiment?
434
00:32:34,329 --> 00:32:37,200
Taking either the
left or the right slit?
435
00:32:37,329 --> 00:32:41,230
Those choices amounted to
nothing more than random chance,
436
00:32:41,359 --> 00:32:44,930
but even random chance
must follow certain rules.
437
00:32:45,059 --> 00:32:47,799
That's the basis for
Huygens's probability theory and
438
00:32:47,930 --> 00:32:51,730
for calculating the odds in
flipping a coin or throwing dice.
439
00:32:53,329 --> 00:32:55,660
When Einstein applied
probability theory to the
440
00:32:55,799 --> 00:32:59,500
problem of entangled protons,
he was deeply disturbed.
441
00:33:00,630 --> 00:33:04,329
If these photons could brazenly
violate the speed of light,
442
00:33:04,460 --> 00:33:07,500
then the universe and
all of creation was nothing
443
00:33:07,630 --> 00:33:11,500
more than a casino where the
laws of nature can be broken.
444
00:33:13,059 --> 00:33:16,099
Einstein dealt with his
discomfort by clinging to the
445
00:33:16,230 --> 00:33:20,059
idea that the dice was somehow
loaded in a way we didn't yet understand.
446
00:33:21,900 --> 00:33:24,700
We had passed this way before.
447
00:33:24,829 --> 00:33:29,160
More than 100,000 years ago,
our ancestors domesticated fire.
448
00:33:30,730 --> 00:33:32,730
They didn't know what fire was,
449
00:33:32,859 --> 00:33:36,460
but they used it anyway
to build a civilization.
450
00:33:36,599 --> 00:33:39,700
And so it was
with quantum physics.
451
00:33:39,829 --> 00:33:42,329
We didn't need to understand
it to exploit its countless
452
00:33:42,460 --> 00:33:45,730
practical applications,
scientific and technological.
453
00:33:47,400 --> 00:33:51,660
Much as our ancestors used fire
without understanding how it worked,
454
00:33:51,799 --> 00:33:54,329
we lived with this
mystery for decades.
455
00:33:56,200 --> 00:34:00,029
We have entered a territory
beyond the reach of classical physics.
456
00:34:00,160 --> 00:34:02,930
Where the elementary particles
that make up everything,
457
00:34:03,059 --> 00:34:06,930
including us, respond to events
they can't possibly know about.
458
00:34:09,329 --> 00:34:12,829
In the outlaw casino
of the quantum universe,
459
00:34:12,960 --> 00:34:16,599
there is no objective reality.
460
00:34:20,659 --> 00:34:23,659
And that's where
we're headed next.
461
00:34:31,329 --> 00:34:34,159
We are made of atoms.
462
00:34:34,300 --> 00:34:37,829
The bizarre quantum
universe is inside us,
463
00:34:37,960 --> 00:34:40,460
tugged on by undiscovered moons.
464
00:34:40,599 --> 00:34:44,429
Performing its impossible magic
on every level of life and experience.
465
00:34:46,329 --> 00:34:48,460
What is this?
466
00:34:48,599 --> 00:34:52,059
A smattering of
stars or something else?
467
00:34:52,400 --> 00:34:55,960
We are sending an image
made of light to your eyes.
468
00:34:56,099 --> 00:34:59,130
It's arriving at your
retina at this very moment.
469
00:34:59,260 --> 00:35:02,360
The cells in your retina
are changing chemically right
470
00:35:02,500 --> 00:35:06,360
now because we are stimulating
some of them with photons.
471
00:35:06,500 --> 00:35:10,300
Your retina stores these
changes for a fraction of a second.
472
00:35:10,429 --> 00:35:14,030
Now, it's erasing them in readiness
for the next barrage of photons.
473
00:35:15,500 --> 00:35:18,300
Your retina doesn't
detect all of them, it can't.
474
00:35:19,260 --> 00:35:22,659
It picks up on only a small percentage
of photons that come your way.
475
00:35:23,829 --> 00:35:26,800
It's impossible to predict
which particular cell in your
476
00:35:26,929 --> 00:35:29,900
retina will catch a photon.
477
00:35:30,030 --> 00:35:32,630
Even when it comes to
something as vital as our vision,
478
00:35:32,760 --> 00:35:36,730
all we have is
our probabilities.
479
00:35:38,599 --> 00:35:41,630
Now, we're shooting
many more photons at you.
480
00:35:41,760 --> 00:35:43,699
More like, half a million.
481
00:35:43,829 --> 00:35:45,460
What are you looking at?
482
00:35:45,599 --> 00:35:48,730
The surface of some
planet orbiting another star?
483
00:35:48,860 --> 00:35:52,329
We need still more of
those photons to know for sure.
484
00:35:52,460 --> 00:35:55,059
Say, a couple
of million or more.
485
00:35:55,199 --> 00:35:58,159
Only when we send all
of those photons your way,
486
00:35:58,300 --> 00:36:00,230
tens of millions of them,
487
00:36:00,360 --> 00:36:03,460
does reality
begin to take shape.
488
00:36:03,599 --> 00:36:08,329
Over time, probabilities become
likelihoods and eventually,
489
00:36:08,460 --> 00:36:12,159
likelihoods become certainties.
490
00:36:12,300 --> 00:36:15,659
But is there really any
such thing as certainty.
491
00:36:15,800 --> 00:36:18,329
If everything,
even our own vision,
492
00:36:18,460 --> 00:36:20,699
is governed by probabilities,
493
00:36:20,829 --> 00:36:24,059
can there be any
absolute reality?
494
00:36:26,400 --> 00:36:29,800
Is there any hope of
rescuing our classical idea
495
00:36:29,929 --> 00:36:33,429
of reality in the
quantum universe?
496
00:36:34,159 --> 00:36:36,199
Scientists have come up
with one way to preserve our
497
00:36:36,230 --> 00:36:38,860
traditional understanding
of cause and effect called
498
00:36:39,000 --> 00:36:41,460
"The Many Worlds Hypothesis."
499
00:36:42,429 --> 00:36:45,829
That's a misnomer because it
can't be tested scientifically,
500
00:36:45,960 --> 00:36:48,130
but it goes like this.
501
00:36:48,260 --> 00:36:52,099
Every probability that
can happen does happen in
502
00:36:52,230 --> 00:36:56,530
some parallel cosmos
that is foreclosed to us.
503
00:36:56,659 --> 00:36:59,429
An infinite number of
ever branching realities.
504
00:36:59,559 --> 00:37:03,659
Unfolding at every
possible juncture.
505
00:37:04,360 --> 00:37:07,960
Every probability that
can happen does happen
506
00:37:08,099 --> 00:37:11,130
in some parallel cosmos...
507
00:37:13,030 --> 00:37:14,860
♪ Oh, we need the funk ♪
508
00:37:15,000 --> 00:37:16,599
♪ Gotta have that funk ♪
509
00:37:16,730 --> 00:37:18,900
♪ Oh, we want the funk ♪
510
00:37:19,030 --> 00:37:22,800
Or is probability
just an illusion itself?
511
00:37:22,929 --> 00:37:25,699
A phantom of our ignorance?
512
00:37:25,829 --> 00:37:29,300
It is, if we live in a
universe where every single
513
00:37:29,429 --> 00:37:34,530
event was already foreordained
at the beginning of time.
514
00:37:34,659 --> 00:37:37,860
What is called,
superdeterminism.
515
00:37:53,300 --> 00:37:55,699
In a superdeterministic
universe,
516
00:37:55,829 --> 00:38:00,000
the catastrophic failure
of treaties, a sneeze.
517
00:38:00,130 --> 00:38:02,929
The asteroid that
wiped out the dinosaurs,
518
00:38:03,059 --> 00:38:07,099
one particular bee pollinating
one particular flower.
519
00:38:07,230 --> 00:38:11,260
You listening to me right now,
all of these events were set
520
00:38:11,400 --> 00:38:15,260
in lockstep motion at the
moment the universe began.
521
00:38:15,699 --> 00:38:19,500
When it was all no
larger than a marble.
522
00:38:24,760 --> 00:38:27,900
Superdeterminism has
an additional virtue.
523
00:38:28,030 --> 00:38:31,460
It can explain
mystery of entanglement.
524
00:38:31,599 --> 00:38:36,130
The ability of entangled particles to
communicate across the vastness,
525
00:38:36,260 --> 00:38:40,099
apparently violating
the speed limit of light.
526
00:38:40,230 --> 00:38:42,599
In a superdeterministic cosmos,
527
00:38:42,730 --> 00:38:46,500
entangled partners
separated by whole galaxies,
528
00:38:46,630 --> 00:38:50,059
don't need to hear from
each other to change their spin.
529
00:38:50,199 --> 00:38:54,929
They were always destined
to do so at that precise moment.
530
00:38:55,860 --> 00:38:58,000
And so were their partners.
531
00:38:58,130 --> 00:38:59,659
And so was the intruder,
532
00:38:59,800 --> 00:39:02,960
who severed their bond
by observing one of them.
533
00:39:07,929 --> 00:39:09,199
Think of it.
534
00:39:09,329 --> 00:39:13,730
All these events
and trillions of others,
535
00:39:15,500 --> 00:39:20,329
inscribed in the potential of
the first moment of the universe.
536
00:39:20,460 --> 00:39:22,900
Since everything in the
universe is made of those
537
00:39:23,030 --> 00:39:25,829
same elementary particles,
including us,
538
00:39:25,960 --> 00:39:30,000
we are subject to the
same laws as those that rule
539
00:39:30,130 --> 00:39:31,800
the quantum universe.
540
00:39:31,929 --> 00:39:36,329
And so it is,
for what will happen next.
541
00:39:36,760 --> 00:39:40,300
And what will happen after that.
542
00:39:45,829 --> 00:39:48,530
The good news is
superdeterminism gives us
543
00:39:48,659 --> 00:39:51,630
a solution to the
mystery of entanglement,
544
00:39:51,760 --> 00:39:53,059
the bad news is,
545
00:39:53,199 --> 00:39:55,860
it seems to rob
us of all agency.
546
00:39:56,000 --> 00:39:57,960
Are we just going
through the motions,
547
00:39:58,099 --> 00:40:00,130
acting out a script that
was written for us nearly
548
00:40:00,260 --> 00:40:02,630
14 billion years ago?
549
00:40:02,760 --> 00:40:04,000
All the while,
550
00:40:04,130 --> 00:40:06,699
telling ourselves how
clever we were in that argument.
551
00:40:06,829 --> 00:40:09,760
How selfish, how brave.
552
00:40:10,300 --> 00:40:13,199
If you could only change that
one little thing about yourself.
553
00:40:15,030 --> 00:40:18,130
In a universe
devoid of free will,
554
00:40:18,260 --> 00:40:21,760
are we nothing more
than deterministic robots?
555
00:40:41,760 --> 00:40:45,900
We have found a way to hitch
a ride on the uncertainties.
556
00:40:46,030 --> 00:40:50,159
To forge technologies that
would otherwise be unattainable.
557
00:40:50,500 --> 00:40:52,800
We have built a quantum clock.
558
00:40:52,929 --> 00:40:55,059
One that you never have to wind.
559
00:40:55,199 --> 00:41:00,699
It will only lose a single second
in the next 15 billion years.
560
00:41:08,900 --> 00:41:12,559
A three-dimensional lattice
of laser light keeps isolated
561
00:41:12,699 --> 00:41:14,559
atoms of the element strontium,
562
00:41:14,699 --> 00:41:17,760
suspended in space.
563
00:41:18,230 --> 00:41:20,829
For all we know, we
may be near collections
564
00:41:20,960 --> 00:41:24,460
of preprogrammed particles
in a deterministic universe.
565
00:41:26,130 --> 00:41:30,059
But I say, let's
not live like we are.
566
00:41:30,199 --> 00:41:33,400
Besides, we have no way
of knowing if that's true.
567
00:41:35,260 --> 00:41:37,460
And to think that,
in some sense,
568
00:41:37,599 --> 00:41:40,630
our freedom to explore
the quantum realm begins
569
00:41:40,760 --> 00:41:43,659
with Thomas Young.
570
00:41:44,329 --> 00:41:46,929
Remember, it was Young
who also found the key to
571
00:41:47,059 --> 00:41:50,329
decrypting the lost language
of the ancient Egyptians.
572
00:41:56,599 --> 00:42:00,199
With quantum encryption,
we are creating codes that
573
00:42:00,329 --> 00:42:03,860
vanish the moment someone
tries to hack into them.
574
00:42:04,000 --> 00:42:07,329
The key to the code, can
be sent via entangled photons.
575
00:42:08,630 --> 00:42:11,630
The observer effect is
our insurance policy that no
576
00:42:11,760 --> 00:42:14,860
spy can decipher the
message without causing the
577
00:42:15,000 --> 00:42:17,630
entanglement to break apart.
578
00:42:18,099 --> 00:42:20,559
Rendering the
message unintelligible.
579
00:42:23,800 --> 00:42:26,530
We still don't know how a
photon can be both a particle
580
00:42:26,659 --> 00:42:29,730
and a wave at the same time.
581
00:42:30,630 --> 00:42:33,000
What I love about science,
is that it demands of us,
582
00:42:33,130 --> 00:42:36,000
a tolerance for ambiguity.
583
00:42:36,130 --> 00:42:40,099
It requires us to live with
humility regarding our ignorance,
584
00:42:40,230 --> 00:42:43,099
withholding judgement
until the evidence comes in.
585
00:42:44,599 --> 00:42:47,760
That needn't prevent us
from using the little we do know
586
00:42:47,900 --> 00:42:51,530
to search for and decrypt
new languages of reality.
587
00:42:55,630 --> 00:42:59,199
In this vast cosmos,
we are all Flatworlders.
588
00:43:02,659 --> 00:43:07,760
Science is the struggle
to imagine and find above.
589
00:43:51,360 --> 00:43:53,130
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