Michio Kaku: The Mind of Einstein's God

00:00:00.000 | What do you think is the mind of Einstein's god?

00:00:06.360 | Do you think there's a why that we could untangle from this universe of strings?

00:00:14.300 | Why are we here?

00:00:15.300 | What is the meaning of it all?

00:00:17.320 | Well, Steven Weinberg, winner of the Nobel Prize, once said that the more we learn about

00:00:23.240 | the universe, the more we learn that it's pointless.

00:00:27.400 | Well, I don't know.

00:00:30.000 | I don't profess to understand the great secrets of the universe.

00:00:33.400 | However, let me say two things about what the giants of physics have said about this

00:00:38.680 | question.

00:00:40.280 | Einstein believed in two types of God.

00:00:44.020 | One was the God of the Bible, the personal God, the God that answers prayers, walks on

00:00:50.640 | waters, performs miracles, smites the Philistines.

00:00:54.680 | That's the personal God that he didn't believe in.

00:00:57.200 | He believed in the God of Spinoza, the God of order, simplicity, harmony, beauty.

00:01:04.480 | The universe could have been ugly.

00:01:07.240 | The universe could have been messy, random, but it's gorgeous.

00:01:11.760 | He relates that on a single sheet of paper.

00:01:14.400 | We can write down all the known laws of the universe.

00:01:17.520 | It's amazing.

00:01:18.520 | On one sheet of paper, Einstein's equation is one inch long.

00:01:22.480 | Lang theory is a lot longer, and so is the standard model, but you could put all these

00:01:27.480 | equations on one sheet of paper.

00:01:31.340 | It didn't have to be that way.

00:01:33.080 | It could have been messy.

00:01:34.720 | And so Einstein thought of himself as a young boy entering this huge library for the first

00:01:41.040 | time, being overwhelmed by the simplicity, elegance, and beauty of this library.

00:01:47.600 | But all he could do was read the first page of the first volume.

00:01:52.360 | Well, that library is the universe with all sorts of mysterious, magical things that we

00:01:57.780 | have yet to find.

00:01:59.920 | And then Galileo was asked about this.

00:02:02.320 | Galileo said that the purpose of science, the purpose of science is to determine how

00:02:10.000 | the heavens go.

00:02:12.120 | The purpose of religion is to determine how to go to heaven.

00:02:17.960 | So in other words, science is about natural law, and religion is about ethics, how to

00:02:25.200 | be a good person, how to go to heaven.

00:02:27.900 | As long as we keep these two things apart, we're in great shape.

00:02:32.440 | The problem occurs when people from the natural sciences begin to pontificate about ethics,

00:02:39.240 | and people from religion begin to pontificate about natural law.

00:02:43.640 | That's where we get into big trouble.

00:02:46.320 | - You think they're fundamentally distinct, morality and ethics, and our idea of what

00:02:52.280 | is right and what is wrong.

00:02:54.000 | That's something that's outside the reach of string theory and physics.

00:02:58.640 | - That's right.

00:02:59.640 | If you talk to a squirrel about what is right and what is wrong, there's no reference frame

00:03:06.920 | for a squirrel.

00:03:08.960 | And realize that aliens from outer space, if they ever come visit us, they'll try to

00:03:14.240 | talk to us like we talk to squirrels in the forest, but eventually we get bored talking

00:03:19.400 | to the squirrels because they don't talk back to us.

00:03:22.640 | Same thing with aliens from outer space.

00:03:24.480 | They come down to Earth, they'll be curious about us to a degree, but after a while, they

00:03:28.720 | just get bored because we have nothing to offer them.

00:03:32.440 | So our sense of right and wrong, what does that mean compared to a squirrel's sense of

00:03:38.480 | right and wrong?

00:03:41.040 | Now we of course do have an ethics that keeps civilizations in line, enriches our life,

00:03:48.760 | and makes civilization possible.

00:03:50.940 | And I think that's a good thing.

00:03:52.520 | But it's not mandated by a law of physics.

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