Finally back from Scotland, where I gave a series of five talks for the Gifford Lectures in Glasgow. The final four, at least, were recorded, and should go up on the web at some point, but I’m not sure when.
Meanwhile, I had a very fun collaboration with Henry Reich, the wizard behind the Minute Physics videos. Henry and I have known each other for a while, and I previously joined forces with him to talk about dark energy and the arrow of time.
This time, we made a series of five videos (sponsored by Google and Audible.com) based on sections of The Big Picture. In particular, we focused on the thread connecting the arrow of time and entropy to such everyday notions of cause and effect and the appearance of complex structures, ending with the origin of life and how low-entropy energy from the Sun powers the biosphere here on Earth. Henry and I wrote the scripts together, based on the book; I read the narration, and of course he did the art.
Enjoy!
- Why Doesn’t Time Flow Backwards?
- Do Cause and Effect Really Exist?
- Where Does Complexity Come From?
- How Entropy Powers the Earth
- What Is the Purpose of Life?
The Gifford Lectures videos are available now on the University of Glasgow youtube channel! Except the first lecture, it has not been recorded for some technical reason…
Sean, and all: Periodic email notifications have drawn me back to the Blogsite. I watched the initial video #3, “Where does Complexity come from?” I hope you will excuse the observation, but all that was done was describe -that- complex systems seem to occur along the ‘march to general entropy increase’, there was no mention of any -mechanism- put forth detailing “how” complexity occurs naturally and observably and spontaneously in so many different tiers of organization in our universe. Prigogine identified one simple phenomena of organization instantiation; was awarded a Nobel prize; then everyone else dropped the ball and moved the ‘explanation’ gap no further. Do you, Sean, or does anyone here, have any ideas to “explain and detail the -mechanism(s)- of complexity (neg-entropically organized) systems formation~arising?? James Rose – integrity@prodigy.net. TAGLINE: Torbjörn seems to be addressing the problem in some ways, but I’m not sure what systems you are (physics~biologically) looking at. For example, have you considered the Krebs cycle as an ‘indicator system’? Or the adenosine triphosphate energy-capture system? Each of these metabolic systems provide clues about underlying negentropy~complexity formation. JR