The Challenges of Quantum Physics — and Is Schrödinger's Cat Dead or Alive?
Tim Maudlin
This session was recorded and the presenter has consented to publication. The link to the recording will be posted here soon.
About the talk
The macroscopic world and the world of quantum mechanics are very different, and understanding those differences is challenging. Philosophers of Science have struggled over the interpretations of quantum mechanics for the past 100 years. There are serious controversies which extend to consciousness, cosmology, the use of models in science, and whether it is even useful to try to understand. We will discuss these and other topics to illustrate the brilliance and also the limitations of scientists and the role they play in today's technological world. For cat lovers, Tim will explain whether Schrödinger's cat is dead or alive and why (without political commentary).
Tim's name comes up frequently in relation to Philosophy of Science — from Rebecca Goldstein to Sean Carroll to Curt Jaimungal. Tim has given a lot of thought to subjects which go well beyond the scope of quantum physics. His views are relevant to how we think about the world, modes of thought, and education. Tim and I also discussed how non-experts should explore technical ideas — who do we believe and why? Some of the ideas we will discuss have challenged the greatest minds of the 20th and 21st centuries. No one knows the answers to these questions. The border between philosophy and science is not always clear.
About the speaker
Dr. Tim Maudlin is an internationally renowned physicist and philosopher of science at New York University, known for the clarity of his thought, above all in the foundations of physics. He holds undergraduate degrees in physics and philosophy from Yale and a Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh. His books include Quantum Non-Locality and Relativity, Truth and Paradox, The Metaphysics Within Physics, and two volumes of Philosophy of Physics; his New Foundations for Physical Geometry has received wide acclaim as a novel mathematical approach to space-time. A Guggenheim Fellow and member of the International Academy of the Philosophy of the Sciences, he taught at Rutgers for many years, has been a visiting lecturer at Harvard, and is founder and director of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics.
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