This interview was conducted in 2023. Watch our other videos from Brian Cox’s 2023 interview: Brian Cox on how black holes could unlock the mysteries of our universe ► ruclips.net/video/pGsbEd6w7PI/video.html Brian Cox on quantum computing and black hole physics ► ruclips.net/video/laGXRs9Ce70/video.html Why haven’t we found aliens? A physicist shares the most popular theories ► ruclips.net/video/dTjgrG2UY30/video.html
1. How does space and time emerge from a deeper theory, if indeed space and time emerge from a deeper theory? Space and time are nothing but the perceptions of our own minds. 2. How likely is it that life begins on a planet that has the potential to support it? It is inevitable. 3. What is the transition from geochemistry to biochemistry? How does that happen? Both happen continuously, there is no such transition. 4. How likely is it that given microbes on a planet, those microbes will get together into complex multicellular things? It is inevitable. 5. How does something as complex as the human brain evolve in the universe? Like everything else. 6. How common are brains in the universe? Very. 7. How does this little blob of matter, which is just a pattern of atoms, give rise to the feeling of existence, the feeling of consciousness? Mind and matter coexist and give rise to each other. 8. Is it possible for a computer to be conscious, not only to pass the Turing test, but actually to be conscious? No. 9. Does the universe have a beginning in time, or is it eternal? It is cyclical. 10. What happened to start inflation off? When did inflation start? It is cyclical. 11. What is the origin of the laws of nature? Our mind. 12. Why is gravity so much weaker than all the other three forces of nature? Because when you compare different things on a scale they will automatically be differentiated by their relative position (i.e. small/weak, medium and large/strong). 13. Why does the Higgs field produce masses for top quarks, up quarks, and down quarks, but not photons? Photons do not interact with the Higgs field directly because they are massless and the Higgs field only interacts with massive particles. 14. Is there only one way the universe can be? Is there only one logical construct for a universe, and is it this one? There are countless ways and they all lead to the same way. 15. Are there other possible universes? Do other possible universes exist? Yes, yes. 16. Is it possible that you can have universes which do not support life? Nobody can have those since there's nobody there. 17. How rare are universes that have laws of nature that can support living things? There are lots.
@saralamuni- Why type out an essay asking questions that you apply your own incorrect answers to? It’s quite alright to simply say “we don’t know yet”, which is an intellectually honest answer.
@Valhalla-ZoSo I didn’t type the questions I fed the video transcript to an AI and asked it to list all the unanswered questions from the video, then I used transcendent wisdom to provide the correct and straightforward answers that are well known and accepted by the wise throughout the cosmos. You’re welcome!
@saralamuni- What’s your academic background? So, you’re not competent enough to ask your own questions then. Most of your questions don’t have ‘straightforward answers’ and Quantum Mechanics is not straightforward to understand either. The answer to most of the questions is simply we do not know, but you alone know… which you don’t. What empirical evidence do you have to suggest that there are multiple universes? What empirical evidence do you have to suggest that the expansion of the universe is cyclical? Where is your work published? Has it been peer reviewed by other scientific professionals in their relevant fields?
I'm a huge Neil fan but he definitely has a problem with interrupting. You can see him actively working on it though, he has such a stank face when he's biting his tongue 😂
Every time I listen to Brian Cox, I'm blown away. Not only by the incredible physicist he is, but also by the human being he proves to be. His enthusiasm, his curiosity, how kind and humble he seems. People might see that as a weakness, but it's actually a superpower. Perhaps wisdom comes first from humility. If that's the case, I wish more people were like Brian.
Correct, as noted in our description and the pinned comment, this interview was conducted in 2023. Our full interview with Brian conducted in 2025 is available here: ruclips.net/video/kO41iURud9c/video.html
I find it so incredible & quite moving, that someone who is obviously intelligent and who has studied so hard remains so humble and human. Also someone who still has an almost childlike desire to seek the truth...like a burning fire within. Brian Cox is a legend.
Dr Tyson once said something like "we're all born scientists, but we get it educated out of us." So to me, that childlike desire to seek the truth is why he can be such an incredible scientist.
It is more impressive that he was a semi famous pop star in the UK, too. He was the keyboard player for D:Ream. Given how full of themselves pop stars are generally, I'm glad Professor Cox became a physicist.
@ludwigvonn9889i know. Videos like this are basically beating dead horses. Absolutely ZERO new information for anyone who's even remotely interested in this stuff.
Brian Cox is my absolute favorite science communicator. He translates the very complex language of physics and quantum physics into easy to understand explanations. And this was without a doubt the best interview I've ever seen with him. His casual approach is comforting, and his sincerity is legitimate. I would love to be a fly on the wall and hear some of his and his colleagues conversations that go deeper, perhaps even more exotic. I probably wouldnt understand a damn thing but man, let me tell you, I would be fighting hard to get there. My greatest regret in life is that Im just smart enough to grasp the question, but not smart enough to understand many of the answers. But Brian helps me get closer, and I love him for that.
It is not clear why good science communicators are so rare. Having grown up listening to Carl Sagan, I have a deep appreciation for people who can be both an expert in a scientific field, and share complex scientific concepts and phenomena in a clear, accessible manner. Thank you, Brian Cox, for being such a person. You make the world a better place.
It is rare because it's a combination of factors that are rarely all present. Someone has to be interested in talking about the subject, be a good orator/story teller and both master said subject and be creative enough to be able to create and adapt analogies that will accurately translate the essence of an extremely complex and in depth subject to format that is digestible by the everyday person. I have a tremendous amount of respect for educated science communicators and what they do.
Glad that you also mention Carl Sagan:) I also very much appreciate your [@mhansl] formulation: "I have a deep appreciation for people who can be both an expert in a scientific field, and share complex scientific concepts and phenomena in a clear, accessible manner."
That's the single dumbass arrogant claims out there "knowledge" and "wisdom" doesn't matter if you ain't got experience let alone to use that experience to then form creativity by analyzing how random combinations of events in your life have effected you internally for example, so you can assign patterns to your field of work; "Scientific prowess" doesn't matter much if you don't know what you have found out and what to do with it, because "what to do with it" is experience while "what you have found" is a form of awareness that comes later without assumptions based on "could" "maybe" "perhaps" that's why knowledge comes last; we as humans experience life not knowing life. Experience first then awareness then thinking then forming knowledge. By the way wisdom comes with third person awareness which means outward observations about two preceptives for example observing two people throughout the years (your parents) to get to a place encompassing all of the processes I talked about within its width of awareness about behavior patterns (right and wrong) inside the life time you have lived in a spherical form (a black hole analogy) 💙
Incredible. I watched this whole video, and shed a tear at the end when Brian was asking questions he wanted answers to, specifically when he was talking about our brain and why it gives us the ability to be conscious and experience life. Really puts it into perspective and makes you realize how much of a miracle it really is to be alive and conscious, and how we shouldn’t waste the opportunity.
Pondering whether a sufficiently advanced machine with true artificial intelligence would actually perceive the world the same way we do in our conscious state keeps me up at night on the regular... lol. An answer to that question really would change the world.
I love that they went to the trouble of putting him in front of a white screen, then repeatedly zoom out showing him sitting in front of the white screen 😂
The thing i will never understand: How is human interest in these types of questions so little, relatively speaking. If we supported people and projects that research this stuff more we probably would be way further in comprehending the >universe
No we are never going to sus out black holes. Because you can never know if a theory is correct or not. Another chicken 🐔 and egg 🥚 argument. How did the supermassive black hole get to the centre of each galaxy ? You need suns to collapse first somehow merge in vast quantities. But suns can’t form a galaxy without a supermassive black hole to begin with. Plus there’s nowhere near enough time for all this to have happened if we are to believe universe timelines.
Hell yes!!! NOW we’re talking!! I couldn’t possibly be more EXCITED to watch anything as I am to watch an astrophysicist talk about physics and cosmology RIGHT NOW!! I seriously would’ve PAID good money to watch this, and somehow here it is available for FREE! Yeah, yeah, yeah… I’m a nerd, I know… back off 😭😂
Highly complicated crop circles made in minutes using technology humans don't have yet... the Fermi Paradox is no longer a paradox. At least for aliens who are graffiti artists. Graffiti artists, human or alien, just GOTTA do their graffiti art compulsion thingy. Birds gotta swim and fish gotta fly and artists just gotta be arteest-y. And... it only takes two or three minutes of examining the plant stalks to determine if the graffiti was done by hoaxers or are the real deal. So aliens exist... Big. Whoop. The real question is what sort of shenanigans are they up to? "To Serve Man... it's... it's... a cookbook!" If you're willing to exist as prey, then there will be predators willing to take advantage of that fact.
What Prof Cox says at 1:10:10 about the Great Silence is hugely profound. The very reasonable notion that we could be the only sentient civilisation in the observable universe should be a guiding principle for us all. Each of us is phenomenally special. We collectively bear a massive responsibility to preserve humanity and the planet that supports us.
Lol, definitely not...When Europeans found out you can create unlimited energy, they put it in bombs to kill one another....Humans are not even close to what greatness the Universe has to offer...
The easy solution would be to just listen. It's not like they're putting up graphs and stuff that you need to look at. What's the point of looking at his face?
Most of Prof. Cox's discussion flew far above my head (my ability to understand), yet I'm unable to turn away. I enjoy listening to the speculation, always informed by the scientific method.
I believe it was Echo Chamberlain that said it is important to read and watch things you do not understand. It forces you to have to reach for the concept. I used to listen to audiobooks like this or legal podcasts when I worked overnight. My retention looked like melted Swiss cheese though it was good to pick something new up.
Where are you from? I think most of his jokes are quite typical British self-deprecating in style, might not be obvious to non-brits, so that'd be my assumption :P
Im 41 years young. Ive been fascinated by the stars since I was around 9 years old or so. I adore the cosmos beyond words. This is easily one of the best and informative videos I've ever had the pleasure to consume. Bravo
Just love this dude and how clearly he can craft explanations to the most mind-blowing concepts in physics. Thank you, Big Think, for making content that continues to educate and inspire wonder. You guys are awesome.
I so love that you explain that we're not meant to understand at certain points, because just as I start to think I'm getting lost in the narrative, you bring me back.
Well, there are a number of things that the big bang and a black hole have in common, the corruption of space and time, the singularity and what it that does to matter ....
As black holes bleed mass as Hawking Radiation, wouldn't their gravity diminish to a point where the mass is no longer black? They could end up as "charcoal grey" holes.
Hawking radiation happens at the event horizon. The size of the event horizon, the Schwarzschild radius, shrinks over time - the sphere would just get smaller and smaller :)
@Pixiepuddingxoand as it gets smaller, the hawking radiation becomes more intense. It eventually turns into a runaway process that ends in a massive explosion
It’s currently 852pm central time. About to get ready to go to work. And this magnificent video by Big Think featuring the great Brian Cox drops. It’s going be a good drive to work.
Meanwhile me hanging clothes to dry in the sun in Spain while listening to Cox on my earphones. All of us in our different realities connected by this video. Great times to be alive.
Brian Cox is a gem. He is the greatest physicist of our time. His explanations are simple but very detailed. This makes it super engaging and easy to understand. I could listen to him all day.
"Every scientist should be delighted if they are shown to be wrong because the moment your shown to be wrong you've learned something." He's such a spectacular speaker. So knowledgeable yet humble.
@jungbauahs8807 What is commonplace knowledge? I was talking particularly about the phrase: "Every scientist should be delighted if they are shown to be wrong because the moment you're shown to be wrong you've learned something."
13:10 and on the counter to what he just said if you were falling into a black hole you could turn around to basically watch how the universe ends as time speeds up for the surrounding universe
The surface area information thing @39:00 reminds me of the way electrons travel on the outside of a copper wire, though the energy is actually traveling in the magnetic field around the wire. Perhaps this is a similar concept for the information accosiated with a black hole, could it be stored outside the black hole,?
This is the exact reason I went to study physics 😭 Undocumented but these kinds of videos were the only thing which focused me. Anyway now it's diagnosed and I now know why studying is so hard for me
As someone with adhd, I love watching videos like these. However, it takes me forever to watch them. My attention comes and goes and im all over the place. But at the time of writing, I'm almost done
There is no correction, he said on the other side of the galaxy and big video cut to other frame of video by the editor (doesn't mean inside the galaxy).
I agree. He said, let's assume we only talk about our galaxy. I figure he meant to say 30 or 40 *thousand* light years away. Talking about civilizations across the galaxy from us. Just a mistake that wasn't caught
As far as I'm concerned, Brian Cox is hands down my favorite science communicator! Shawn Carroll is a close second. They are both unbelievable!! Thank you, Dr. Brian Cox.
Don't leave out Jim Al-Khalili..His documentaries (which are on here), are the best I've ever watched. He is, in my view, the greatest narrator. Highly recommend watching, Everything and Nothing, and Order and Disorder.. Both are two part series. Start with my favourite, What is Nothing.
@Big Think Can you PLEASE have Dr Cox on again to in the near future to ask him his thoughts on black hole cosmology?!! I’d LOVE to hear what he thinks about the concept in light of some of the new JWST data and everything else. Don’t make me start a petition 😂
Just LOOK at your comments to see how many people ADORE this man!! You could NEVER go wrong w a new long format Dr Cox interview… pretty pretty please 😫🙏😁
I love the idea that a black hole, at the moment of the formation of the event horizon, forms a new universe, and in that instant is the start of a new spacetime, a big bang, and that universe lasts has a completely separate timeline. It's elegant. Beautiful. And utterly massive in conceptual scale.
@RockMeAmad3us I hadnt thought of it like that. I really like it. Time appears to stop but its actually gone to completion in that instant. All the matter is converted to subatomic particle soup for the start of the big bang. Im still unclear about what happens to matter that falls in after the event horizon has formed. Can this still affect our universe?
@alex-b9t3c I know this is probably a "dumb" idea but I like to entertain the idea that the accelerating expansion of the universe is down to the newly formed black hole growing larger in its initial formation, and guzzling more material exponentially until it fizzles out to a slow trickle. On top of that, the expansion of the universe is due to the influx of information being converted into pure, raw spacetime, filling the void with space but no matter. I like to imagine that if black hole cosmology were real, we would still be in the infancy stages of the black hole's lifetime! As we are technically still in the early years of the universe's lifespan according to many ideas.
Impossible. That violates energy coservation laws. Absolutely retarded for any scientist or physicist to claim a multiverse or any type of doubling of energy. It violates their rules, that they set.
@jameswilkes451 Science hasn't touched the sides of this yet. I got subscription chatgpt to do a deep dive into this using the original source material. The first one took over 20 minutes to generate. There's a few issues. The new space time seems to be isolated so that the entirely timeline of the new universe goes to completion before the first atom enters the newly formed event horizon. Its possible but there is that hurdle. If this is true it makes a prediction: the rate of expansion will vary with the mater added in the parent universe. And if there black hole formed from a supernova it may cause predictable fluctuation in the rate of expansion. There is also dark matter. also there's unknowns: the first matter of all types of atoms was converted to subat.particles, atoms were dissolved, but would later additions be dissolved from say iron to plasma? We should see it if so and i don't think we do.
Man, Brian Cox is hands-down my favorite science guy. Dude makes crazy physics stuff sound chill and easy. Half the time I don’t even get the answers, but he makes me feel like I’m almost there - and that’s why I dig him so much. 😁
Whale now, Brian, if you mix the Anthropic Principle with Fermi's Great Filter concept, the concoction you get are Great Filters -- oodles of them! There may be a "final" Great Filter that if not overcome, ends techno-intelligent life, but the series of Great Filters that must be negotiated in order to get to the "end" are also "Great!" Prokyriotic to eukaryotic was just one of an innumerable galaxy of Great Filters, most of which we likely know nothing about. Our specific flavor of intelligent life met and overcame just such a Filter in the Permian Extinction, then again at Chickzulub. How many more? Snowball Earth? Theia? Even our "acquisition" of our Moon! Soooo, it's not Great Filter, but Great Filters, each being a potential species ending event, many taking place ancestorally even before there was a species. i realize that it's just semantics, but just like with event horizon entanglements, it's good to be respectful of terms as even a slight variation in semantics can be misleading. Every "cosmic day" we face yet another Great Filter------from womb, to tomb, so to speak. We don't have to recognize them in order to survive them. We should, however, recognize that any one of them, like the Great Oxidation Event could have spelled "curtains" for us as surely as WWIII might. Put in that context, evolution itself can be just such a Filter, potentially turning us into lizards rather than humans. --- 😬
Because I feel like an 80 minute video of Dr Cox talking about black holes should cost money, and I genuinely feel guilty that I get to watch it for free… so thank you 🙏 Please consider doing a segment on black hole cosmology!! I’d ALWAYS love to see Dr Cox, but Dr Poplawski has a really interesting model people would probably love to hear about… just a suggestion
I find the idea that information is never destroyed a comforting thought. Even trillions of years from now, the tiny fluctuations that we as humans produce is never lost, forever preserved in spacetime.
It's not going to help you. Nothing that happens after you die is going to affect you in any way except for how you might conceive of it and feel about it while you are alive. You will be dead forever, until the heat death of the universe, so time will be of no consequence and you might as well say the universe dies with you. So in what possible sense is it comforting? I've always thought it completely ridiculous that ideas about your genes or your work or affect on people "living on" after your death are comforting in any way. The terror comes from the increasingly imminent demise of existence, and there is nothing about leaving some effect after ceasing to exist that diminishes that terror.
@jimsmindonlineagain, while I like the poetry of it, it doesn't really help me, now, and obviously can't help me when I no longer exist. Woody Allen was quoted saying "I don't want to live on in my work, I want to live on in my apartment!" 😄
"You're not meant to understand what I've just said, because I don't understand what I've just said, because nobody understands what I've just said." Now, that is something to ponder! Brilliant stuff.
because humanity reached the great filter shortly after 2023 june and it took 2 years for a time traveler to sort it out, essentially allowing this video to inspire some random genius kid to become a scientist and lead humanity to interstellar travel lol
@RT-ol4hh Why do I feel like you’re one of those people who are suspicious & skeptical of the DUMBEST possible ish like scientific research and nature documentaries, but blindly accept creation myths as absolute truth and will believe every word you’re told inside your echo chamber without a second thought 😂 There’s nothing suspicious, the video’s been released in smaller segments, they’re just releasing the entire thing today. Lots of production channels and content creators do it that way to ensure they make a profit. Settle down, Karen 😂
My friend Duggary has been working on a method of time travel. His father invented the legendary engine known as the GRX. Duggary put it into a car and now it is the fastest car in the world. When you drive it the speed is so tremendous that you actually morph into another dimension. The problem is that no driver can handle the speed of the GRX. I hope my friend Duggary will be ok
Opposite of Matter is Space, zoom out and all you see is Light(galaxy) and Dark(space), the two fundamental opposites which creating the universe. Properties of Matter: - Properties of Space: Light(galaxy) Dark(space) White Black Hot Cold Density Void Visible Invisible Motion Stillness Attraction(matter gravity) Repulsion(space expansion) Here matter itself is gravity so it attracts to itself, and space itself is repulsion hence endless expansion.
@exzydian5294 I completely agree this comment amazingly piecing everything together! And you are right, it also seems to reflect the principle of duality even in quantum entanglement... like just as we can’t define life without death, cold without heat, or light without darkness... they are entangled.
The principle of "opposites attract" alone can be used to solve almost any question, and I truly mean any. You can try it for yourself, all it takes is enough time and thoughts to relate. Space is already unified, which is why it seeks division, hence the ongoing expansion. It's being drawn toward its opposite aspect. Matter, on the other hand, is already fragmented, and that's why it seeks unity. It's being pulled toward the opposite of what it is, "wholeness". The duality between matter(galaxy) and space also seeks unity, this is what leads to the formation of black holes, where both matter and space are drawn toward. This merging is the seed of a new universe, much like how male and female-two opposites-attracts to each other to create new life. So inside a black hole, there are more universes, and this cycle go on infinitely whether you zoom into blackhole or zoom out of universe. You can see these same principle everywhere in nature.
I want to start by saying I dont have a degree or anything - I just really love space and science. Black holes have always fascinated me, and I think this is the perfect moment to bring up Occam’s Razor. Everything in nature seems to have an opposite: birth and death, light and dark, up and down. So why is it so hard to apply that idea to black holes? A black hole is the final stage of a star’s life - its “death.” If death exists, then shouldn’t there also be a corresponding “birth”? We know black holes pull everything inward, but we don’t know what happens to it after. Since we also don’t fully understand the origin of the universe, how can we rule out the possibility that a black hole could be the starting point of something else - such as a new Big Bang? Sure, multiverse theory sounds like science fiction, but history has shown that “fiction” often turns out to be real-we just didn’t know it yet. Or it becomes real once we invent it (think about how automatic doors used to be a fantasy in old sci-fi). Since we don’t know what the Big Bang truly was or what happens inside black holes, I feel like the simplest explanation might be the right one: death at Point A, birth at Point B. That could not only explain where everything that falls into a black hole goes, but also how our own universe might have begun. Then again, I havent had the opportunity to study space professionally, so I could just be talking out of my ass here.
I'm no theorist either, but my gut is telling me that's probably what's going on. Our universe shares many characteristics of a supermassive black hole, just in the opposite direction, if you will. Our universe has its own event horizon, it just works in opposition to the event horizon of a black hole. Physics breaks down at the literal beginning of time, physics breaks down at the gravitational center of a black hole. That could very well be the purpose of our universe in itself. Produce more black holes/baby universes.
This comment section probably won’t remember me, but maybe someone scrolling needs this. A few months ago I hit a wall. Nothing made sense. I bought Manifest the Unseen by Luna Rivers after seeing it here on yt. I had no expectations. But chapter by chapter, it broke something open in me. Not motivation - momentum. Wishing that for you too.✨❤
What a lot of people don't know is that professor Brian Cox used to be in the '90s pop band called D-ream, and he was their keyboard player. He played in the band to make enough money to pay his way through University to become the particle physicist that he is today, and be able to tell you all these amazing things.
The "dark forest" concept is quite a bit darker than Brian says - it's not that advanced civilizations come up with some esoteric reasons to stay hidden, the reasons are very simple and based on two facts. 1) interstellar distances makes communication and thus diplomacy and cultural mixing pretty much impossible. Imagine trying to negotiate a non-aggression pact with a civilization when the round trip for a message is 1,000 years, it's just not practically possible. 2) Civilizations advance in a leap frog manner, meaning that a civilization mat be at a somewhat stable level of scientific understanding and technological knowledge for a long time, but then make a breakthrough discovery that propels the civilization forwards massively in centuries or decades. What these premises means is that if you encounter an alien civilization that is equally powerful or less powerful than yourself, in the time it takes for you to exchange your first greetings, they may have arrived at a leap where they suddenly vastly overshadow your capabilities to defend yourself should a conflict arise. This makes it the most logical course of action that if you encounter en other civilization and you have the capability to destroy it, you absolutely should as a matter of self preservation. And should you notice a civilization more powerful than yourself, you should do anything in your power to avoid them detecting you. Add to this the fact that even as a very powerful civilization, there's good reason to assume that there are civilizations so much more ancient than you. This means that the only reasonable strategy for any civilization is to hide your existence as much as possible since being discovered almost certainly means the end of your civilization. And sadly, if this hypothesis is true, we've already doomed ourselves by loud and clearly announcing our presence.
It was a great relief to finally hear someone in the scientific community suggest that we might bear the responsibility of preserving consciousness in the galaxy, if not the universe. Consider how many improbabilities had to occur for us to be here. It’s more than simply being in the “Goldilocks” zone. The longevity of our sun, the outer planets, the proximity of a sizable moon to maintain axial tilt, stabilize rotation and plate tectonics; our molten core and the electromagnetic field it provides us as a defense against radiation. And what if the dinosaurs hadn’t been wiped out? I doubt they’d be building rockets! Whatever the reality may be, I believe we should conduct our earthly business as though we are the first and could be the last. Let us hope the Great Filter that lay before us is sufficiently permeable that enough of us pass through to carry out the mission.
Brian explains the extremely complicated in a very understandable way, that is a talent in itself. I watch these videos many times and pause to google things I don't understand and then my brain hurts and I take a break.
This interview was conducted in 2023. Watch our other videos from Brian Cox’s 2023 interview: Brian Cox on how black holes could unlock the mysteries of our universe ► ruclips.net/video/pGsbEd6w7PI/video.html Brian Cox on quantum computing and black hole physics ► ruclips.net/video/laGXRs9Ce70/video.html Why haven’t we found aliens? A physicist shares the most popular theories ► ruclips.net/video/dTjgrG2UY30/video.html
1. How does space and time emerge from a deeper theory, if indeed space and time emerge from a deeper theory? Space and time are nothing but the perceptions of our own minds.
2. How likely is it that life begins on a planet that has the potential to support it? It is inevitable.
3. What is the transition from geochemistry to biochemistry? How does that happen? Both happen continuously, there is no such transition.
4. How likely is it that given microbes on a planet, those microbes will get together into complex multicellular things? It is inevitable.
5. How does something as complex as the human brain evolve in the universe? Like everything else.
6. How common are brains in the universe? Very.
7. How does this little blob of matter, which is just a pattern of atoms, give rise to the feeling of existence, the feeling of consciousness? Mind and matter coexist and give rise to each other.
8. Is it possible for a computer to be conscious, not only to pass the Turing test, but actually to be conscious? No.
9. Does the universe have a beginning in time, or is it eternal? It is cyclical.
10. What happened to start inflation off? When did inflation start? It is cyclical.
11. What is the origin of the laws of nature? Our mind.
12. Why is gravity so much weaker than all the other three forces of nature? Because when you compare different things on a scale they will automatically be differentiated by their relative position (i.e. small/weak, medium and large/strong).
13. Why does the Higgs field produce masses for top quarks, up quarks, and down quarks, but not photons? Photons do not interact with the Higgs field directly because they are massless and the Higgs field only interacts with massive particles.
14. Is there only one way the universe can be? Is there only one logical construct for a universe, and is it this one? There are countless ways and they all lead to the same way.
15. Are there other possible universes? Do other possible universes exist? Yes, yes.
16. Is it possible that you can have universes which do not support life? Nobody can have those since there's nobody there.
17. How rare are universes that have laws of nature that can support living things? There are lots.
@saralamuni- Why type out an essay asking questions that you apply your own incorrect answers to?
It’s quite alright to simply say “we don’t know yet”, which is an intellectually honest answer.
@Valhalla-ZoSo I didn’t type the questions I fed the video transcript to an AI and asked it to list all the unanswered questions from the video, then I used transcendent wisdom to provide the correct and straightforward answers that are well known and accepted by the wise throughout the cosmos. You’re welcome!
@saralamuni- What’s your academic background? So, you’re not competent enough to ask your own questions then. Most of your questions don’t have ‘straightforward answers’ and Quantum Mechanics is not straightforward to understand either. The answer to most of the questions is simply we do not know, but you alone know… which you don’t.
What empirical evidence do you have to suggest that there are multiple universes?
What empirical evidence do you have to suggest that the expansion of the universe is cyclical?
Where is your work published? Has it been peer reviewed by other scientific professionals in their relevant fields?
@Valhalla-ZoSo the wise know.
Phew....Neil Tyson was not here to interrupt every sentence 😂
How dare you? NDT is the most brilliant human; past, present OR future! Indisputable, NDT told me this himself
Sounds legit
Brian would invite NDT over you anytime.
NDGT...another PhD earned in a cracker jack box
I'm a huge Neil fan but he definitely has a problem with interrupting. You can see him actively working on it though, he has such a stank face when he's biting his tongue 😂
I could listen to Brian Cox all day every day. Best science communicator today; a worthy successor to Carl Sagan.
I admire both of these guys so much as well as Richard Feynman. Sounds a bit odd, but I reverence them like heroes.
What did Sagan say about extra terrestrial life?
Carl Sagan was also a crackpot.
How so? @djrtime1398
@djrtime1398 The great ones usually are.
Every time I listen to Brian Cox, I'm blown away. Not only by the incredible physicist he is, but also by the human being he proves to be. His enthusiasm, his curiosity, how kind and humble he seems. People might see that as a weakness, but it's actually a superpower. Perhaps wisdom comes first from humility. If that's the case, I wish more people were like Brian.
That and hear me out.. he’s also pretty sexy too idk
Well said!!😉
Definitely not a weakness.
@gubemosgaaaaay
i'm not but i guess i'm into actual physics
once a person starts listening to you speak its nearly impossible for them to leave before youre finished.. well done, and thank you
Ditto 😅
Bow before your science savior
I see Brian cox. I press play
I get a Large Hadron
100%
LOL that's exactly what I do!
@tcritt 🤣🤣
💯💯💯
Wow, only a month since the last long format Brian Cox interview. I can get used to this!
This is an old video from years ago
Correct, as noted in our description and the pinned comment, this interview was conducted in 2023. Our full interview with Brian conducted in 2025 is available here: ruclips.net/video/kO41iURud9c/video.html
is so cool that people like Brian can stay so calm and talk about the same thing 1000 time in different level of understanding
Hell yeah
Yes, please!
Thank you for not ruining this excellent episode by putting distracting music behind it 👍
Spot on, my very thoughts!
100% I hate how every history video or podcast has to have a soundtrack now as well.
Everytime I watch these at night.. I have nightmares about blackholes! 🕳 😮
I find it so incredible & quite moving, that someone who is obviously intelligent and who has studied so hard remains so humble and human. Also someone who still has an almost childlike desire to seek the truth...like a burning fire within. Brian Cox is a legend.
You subscribe to the Rare Brian Cox theory?
So well stated. I feel the same.
Dr Tyson once said something like "we're all born scientists, but we get it educated out of us."
So to me, that childlike desire to seek the truth is why he can be such an incredible scientist.
fun fact: hes 55 years old in this. lol, him and keanu defying the laws of time and umm.. old age!!!
It is more impressive that he was a semi famous pop star in the UK, too.
He was the keyboard player for D:Ream.
Given how full of themselves pop stars are generally, I'm glad Professor Cox became a physicist.
For the people who watched the whole video, you are my friend.
No u
I had no choice. Scientific hypnotist 😮
He didnt say anything that hasnt been said 500 times already, in less than 10 minutes.
@ludwigvonn9889i know. Videos like this are basically beating dead horses. Absolutely ZERO new information for anyone who's even remotely interested in this stuff.
Your friendship is gratefully accepted. What a world we would have if more people were like Brian.
Brian Cox is my absolute favorite science communicator. He translates the very complex language of physics and quantum physics into easy to understand explanations. And this was without a doubt the best interview I've ever seen with him.
His casual approach is comforting, and his sincerity is legitimate. I would love to be a fly on the wall and hear some of his and his colleagues conversations that go deeper, perhaps even more exotic. I probably wouldnt understand a damn thing but man, let me tell you, I would be fighting hard to get there. My greatest regret in life is that Im just smart enough to grasp the question, but not smart enough to understand many of the answers.
But Brian helps me get closer, and I love him for that.
He is kinda... Meh. Mid. Just another talking head, not really inventing anything new, not really adding to our understanding of the cosmos.
he translates truely complex subjects, into things i think i understand, what a guy!
@kayakMike1000An absolute insane take.
💯💯👌👌 Absolutely agree
@kayakMike1000 he’s just like you and I! Lol
The clarity is amazing.
It is not clear why good science communicators are so rare. Having grown up listening to Carl Sagan, I have a deep appreciation for people who can be both an expert in a scientific field, and share complex scientific concepts and phenomena in a clear, accessible manner. Thank you, Brian Cox, for being such a person. You make the world a better place.
It is rare because it's a combination of factors that are rarely all present. Someone has to be interested in talking about the subject, be a good orator/story teller and both master said subject and be creative enough to be able to create and adapt analogies that will accurately translate the essence of an extremely complex and in depth subject to format that is digestible by the everyday person.
I have a tremendous amount of respect for educated science communicators and what they do.
Glad that you also mention Carl Sagan:)
I also very much appreciate your [@mhansl] formulation:
"I have a deep appreciation for people who can be both an expert in a scientific field, and share complex scientific concepts and phenomena in a clear, accessible manner."
You can find them in most schools, colleges and universities. …Most of them don’t work on the telly.
“It could be that our knowledge, our scientific prowess, exceeds our wisdom”
Never a truer word spoken.
or he just full of sh*t
Wisdom is indeed a rare resource.
@MP-t3pjust go to sleep man
That's the single dumbass arrogant claims out there "knowledge" and "wisdom" doesn't matter if you ain't got experience let alone to use that experience to then form creativity by analyzing how random combinations of events in your life have effected you internally for example, so you can assign patterns to your field of work; "Scientific prowess" doesn't matter much if you don't know what you have found out and what to do with it, because "what to do with it" is experience while "what you have found" is a form of awareness that comes later without assumptions based on "could" "maybe" "perhaps" that's why knowledge comes last; we as humans experience life not knowing life. Experience first then awareness then thinking then forming knowledge. By the way wisdom comes with third person awareness which means outward observations about two preceptives for example observing two people throughout the years (your parents) to get to a place encompassing all of the processes I talked about within its width of awareness about behavior patterns (right and wrong) inside the life time you have lived in a spherical form (a black hole analogy) 💙
Unfortunately it only takes the wise to do the inventing
Who else can listen to Brian all day?
I fall asleep to him. Voice built for asmr 😊
not me, unless I want sleep
Buy a D: Ream album then and you can.
[raising my hand]✋🏻
@101mickdI listen him to 💤💤
One of the rare long videos I watch all the way through
Incredible. I watched this whole video, and shed a tear at the end when Brian was asking questions he wanted answers to, specifically when he was talking about our brain and why it gives us the ability to be conscious and experience life. Really puts it into perspective and makes you realize how much of a miracle it really is to be alive and conscious, and how we shouldn’t waste the opportunity.
Pondering whether a sufficiently advanced machine with true artificial intelligence would actually perceive the world the same way we do in our conscious state keeps me up at night on the regular... lol. An answer to that question really would change the world.
Aliens with iPhone-sized probes: "Dammit, Cox is onto us!"
What a riveting video, Brian is an amazing communicator.
I love that they went to the trouble of putting him in front of a white screen, then repeatedly zoom out showing him sitting in front of the white screen 😂
Why did they do this? Is this a usual practice?
Yeah they always do that
It's edgy, modern filmography, breaking the rules. It's like only fans for photographers
Real wisdom is realizing the whole room is a set.
It helps separate the subject from the background - contrast
The thing i will never understand: How is human interest in these types of questions so little, relatively speaking.
If we supported people and projects that research this stuff more we probably would be way further in comprehending the >universe
"You're not meant to understand what I just said because I dont understand what I just said" restores my faith in humanity a bit.
We're gonna figure out black holes before we get that client list aren't we
No we are never going to sus out black holes. Because you can never know if a theory is correct or not. Another chicken 🐔 and egg 🥚 argument. How did the supermassive black hole get to the centre of each galaxy ? You need suns to collapse first somehow merge in vast quantities. But suns can’t form a galaxy without a supermassive black hole to begin with. Plus there’s nowhere near enough time for all this to have happened if we are to believe universe timelines.
@Cavanjie The egg came first 😆
Def before GTA 6 for sure
Black holes and assholes are two very different things.
You are too dumb to understand
Very clear and well-paced explanations. I like the lack of distractions - no cuts to Brian walking along the rim of a volcano, etc!
Beautifully explained, with not a diagram or an equation in sight!
Hell yes!!! NOW we’re talking!! I couldn’t possibly be more EXCITED to watch anything as I am to watch an astrophysicist talk about physics and cosmology RIGHT NOW!! I seriously would’ve PAID good money to watch this, and somehow here it is available for FREE! Yeah, yeah, yeah… I’m a nerd, I know… back off 😭😂
Time to get my NERD ON 🤓👍
Like the singularity inside a black hole isn't a place in space but, it's a space in time.. THE END OF TIME LIKE WUT
So heckin cool omg
The fact that some of us aspire to inspire others to appreciate the beauty of our circumstance despite its flaws gives me a tidbit of hope.
Some
Just wanna be on TV
If everyone had access to teachers like this. The world would be quite a different place
your way of words is calming
Arthur C Clarke said:-
"Either we are alone in the universe or we are not."
"Both are equally terrifying."
Highly complicated crop circles made in minutes using technology humans don't have yet... the Fermi Paradox is no longer a paradox. At least for aliens who are graffiti artists.
Graffiti artists, human or alien, just GOTTA do their graffiti art compulsion thingy.
Birds gotta swim and fish gotta fly and artists just gotta be arteest-y.
And... it only takes two or three minutes of examining the plant stalks to determine if the graffiti was done by hoaxers or are the real deal.
So aliens exist... Big. Whoop. The real question is what sort of shenanigans are they up to?
"To Serve Man... it's... it's... a cookbook!"
If you're willing to exist as prey, then there will be predators willing to take advantage of that fact.
🤣🤣🤣drivel.
@satanofficial3902 Prove any crop circle ever found wasn't made by people.
We'll wait.
Try not to make random space comment challenge: impossible
Why does anyone find that quote profound? 😂
What Prof Cox says at 1:10:10 about the Great Silence is hugely profound. The very reasonable notion that we could be the only sentient civilisation in the observable universe should be a guiding principle for us all. Each of us is phenomenally special. We collectively bear a massive responsibility to preserve humanity and the planet that supports us.
The idea that we are among the first if not the first is a thing. Unlikely but someone has to be
We are the only ones so far by evidence. No other theories should be supported until evidence presents itself 😊
Lol, definitely not...When Europeans found out you can create unlimited energy, they put it in bombs to kill one another....Humans are not even close to what greatness the Universe has to offer...
@p.hiltenfalse.plenty of evidence. You're just not looking.
He understands that life only exists here on the ground, not in the sky.
Stop zooming in and out every 3 seconds.
nothing wrong with it lol
@ilikesonicxthe hard cuts are fucking annoying. i completely agree
I was enjoying the video until I saw your comment and now these cuts are all I can see, so now I hate this video and you for ruining it for me 🤣🤣🤣
@MarexKai🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
The easy solution would be to just listen. It's not like they're putting up graphs and stuff that you need to look at. What's the point of looking at his face?
The set design of this video shoot is more mind boggling than a black hole
Most of Prof. Cox's discussion flew far above my head (my ability to understand), yet I'm unable to turn away. I enjoy listening to the speculation, always informed by the scientific method.
I believe it was Echo Chamberlain that said it is important to read and watch things you do not understand. It forces you to have to reach for the concept.
I used to listen to audiobooks like this or legal podcasts when I worked overnight. My retention looked like melted Swiss cheese though it was good to pick something new up.
I just absolutely love when Brian explains anything. I just sometimes really feel dumb when i don't understand his jokes
Where are you from? I think most of his jokes are quite typical British self-deprecating in style, might not be obvious to non-brits, so that'd be my assumption :P
Im 41 years young. Ive been fascinated by the stars since I was around 9 years old or so. I adore the cosmos beyond words. This is easily one of the best and informative videos I've ever had the pleasure to consume. Bravo
lol
"X age young"-said every old person ever.😂
Great video, really enjoyed it.
Just love this dude and how clearly he can craft explanations to the most mind-blowing concepts in physics. Thank you, Big Think, for making content that continues to educate and inspire wonder. You guys are awesome.
You were great in Succession
😂
he explains it so well that i can understand this even in middle school
Awesome sci-fi stories.
I so love that you explain that we're not meant to understand at certain points, because just as I start to think I'm getting lost in the narrative, you bring me back.
I heard a theory once that we were all currently inside a huge blackhole. This was fascinating
Well, there are a number of things that the big bang and a black hole have in common, the corruption of space and time, the singularity and what it that does to matter ....
It's less a theory and more a hypothesis. It's called "Black Hole Cosmology"
I don't usually comment, but when I do, it's because videos like this deserve to be spread and shared as far and as wide as possible.
I don't usually reply to comments, but when I do, I drink dos equis.
Amazing sci-fi stories, bless him.
Well said same here
As black holes bleed mass as Hawking Radiation, wouldn't their gravity diminish to a point where the mass is no longer black? They could end up as "charcoal grey" holes.
Hawking radiation happens at the event horizon. The size of the event horizon, the Schwarzschild radius, shrinks over time - the sphere would just get smaller and smaller :)
Maybe, they would just give up hoe-ing and be respectable.
@Pixiepuddingxoand as it gets smaller, the hawking radiation becomes more intense. It eventually turns into a runaway process that ends in a massive explosion
@fademusic1980 A radiation explosion. Not like a supernova. Slightly different.
Wow this is super interesting to listen to!
no pointless images or music. just a well thought out & delivered talk. nice one.
I listen out of curiosity, but often don't understand 'why or how'. I will continue to listen until I understand a 'little'.
I had to press rewind like 5 or six times cuz I realized I had no idea what he even said😂😂😂
Awesome sci-fi stories.
It’s currently 852pm central time. About to get ready to go to work. And this magnificent video by Big Think featuring the great Brian Cox drops. It’s going be a good drive to work.
The time now is 18:72 in Iraq. Different time is exciting. 👽
How’s your day going so far?
You know what time it is when a sheep gets stuck in a fence in Montana? Mountin' Time. What has you on the night shift, @jesussoriano2176?
I used it to get ready for work today. It was a fantastic listen!
Meanwhile me hanging clothes to dry in the sun in Spain while listening to Cox on my earphones. All of us in our different realities connected by this video. Great times to be alive.
Very good! I have never thought you would be so good in observation and diligent delivery of it. I do like it. I hope you still play music.
Such good content, keep it up.
Brian Cox is a gem. He is the greatest physicist of our time. His explanations are simple but very detailed. This makes it super engaging and easy to understand. I could listen to him all day.
You might be right. But how do you know? How would anyone go about ranking physicists?
@JohnJohnson-bs4cw Well have have you ever heard of a subjective opinion? Not ranking anyone, it's just my opinion.
he is a far cry from a greteates physicist.. saying hes the greates physicist..most physicists are introverts and dont have youtube videos..
"Every scientist should be delighted if they are shown to be wrong because the moment your shown to be wrong you've learned something."
He's such a spectacular speaker. So knowledgeable yet humble.
I like Brian Cox, one of my faves, but that particular phrase is really more like a filler or something.
More like commonplace knowledge. I think it’s important to remember, but it’s applicable to almost everything humans can learn.
@jungbauahs8807 What is commonplace knowledge? I was talking particularly about the phrase:
"Every scientist should be delighted if they are shown to be wrong because the moment you're shown to be wrong you've learned something."
you're*
@JaaayVeee I bet YOU'RE fun at parties /s
Thank you so much for giving everyone the opportunity to learn from - big thinkers -, its beneficial to everybody I believe
You're welcome
If only everyone was INTERESTED in learning…
I appreciate the effort you put in.
13:10 and on the counter to what he just said if you were falling into a black hole you could turn around to basically watch how the universe ends as time speeds up for the surrounding universe
I’m glad I saw this comment. I was wondering what the astronaut would see if he turned around to look 👀 at the universe.
From the 'blackholes' perspective the whole universe falls in on it, instantaneously.
The surface area information thing @39:00 reminds me of the way electrons travel on the outside of a copper wire, though the energy is actually traveling in the magnetic field around the wire. Perhaps this is a similar concept for the information accosiated with a black hole, could it be stored outside the black hole,?
That is effectively the crux of the idea that 'blackholes have no hair'.
The Rockstar Scientist ❤
I love your content! Do you have any content where you visualise the things you tell? Thanks! Keep it up!
I love Brian Cox
Not even my undocumented ADHD could stopped me from listening the whole video.
This is the exact reason I went to study physics 😭
Undocumented but these kinds of videos were the only thing which focused me. Anyway now it's diagnosed and I now know why studying is so hard for me
You’re undocumented ADHD makes you genius and probably smarter than him
You aren't adhd your normal don't let anyone convince you otherwise
you dont have ADHD
As someone with adhd, I love watching videos like these. However, it takes me forever to watch them. My attention comes and goes and im all over the place. But at the time of writing, I'm almost done
14:50 - im way too baked to hear that. Mind blowing.
Such a satisfying video.
Small correction needed just before 59:57 our galaxy is only 100,000 light years across not 30 or 40 million
I'm sure they cut the video rather badly there. He probably said something else beforehand that was the bigger number
They make it up as they go, don't worry.
There is no correction, he said on the other side of the galaxy and big video cut to other frame of video by the editor (doesn't mean inside the galaxy).
I agree. He said, let's assume we only talk about our galaxy. I figure he meant to say 30 or 40 *thousand* light years away. Talking about civilizations across the galaxy from us. Just a mistake that wasn't caught
@bloodsthicker5651Yep. 100,000 light years or 100 million light years all I hear is "So... Pretty large, right?"
As far as I'm concerned, Brian Cox is hands down my favorite science communicator! Shawn Carroll is a close second. They are both unbelievable!!
Thank you, Dr. Brian Cox.
Don't leave out Jim Al-Khalili..His documentaries (which are on here), are the best I've ever watched. He is, in my view, the greatest narrator.
Highly recommend watching, Everything and Nothing, and Order and Disorder.. Both are two part series. Start with my favourite, What is Nothing.
@machineelf5801watched it and it is great!! Thank you!
@Big Think Can you PLEASE have Dr Cox on again to in the near future to ask him his thoughts on black hole cosmology?!! I’d LOVE to hear what he thinks about the concept in light of some of the new JWST data and everything else. Don’t make me start a petition 😂
Just LOOK at your comments to see how many people ADORE this man!! You could NEVER go wrong w a new long format Dr Cox interview… pretty pretty please 😫🙏😁
And if you do… please give that man a more comfortable chair to sit on for the love of god 😂
Black holes don't exist. Well, that didn't take much time. Too bad someone like Cox doesn't realize that, or tries to suppress it......
Thank you Brian and thank you Big Think and everyone else.
I just think there is infinite amounts of life is out there, but time is just too large for them to co exist realistically speaking
I love the idea that a black hole, at the moment of the formation of the event horizon, forms a new universe, and in that instant is the start of a new spacetime, a big bang, and that universe lasts has a completely separate timeline. It's elegant. Beautiful. And utterly massive in conceptual scale.
I Was thinking similar when he said the event horizon is where time stops ...or is it contained?
@RockMeAmad3us I hadnt thought of it like that. I really like it. Time appears to stop but its actually gone to completion in that instant. All the matter is converted to subatomic particle soup for the start of the big bang. Im still unclear about what happens to matter that falls in after the event horizon has formed. Can this still affect our universe?
@alex-b9t3c I know this is probably a "dumb" idea but I like to entertain the idea that the accelerating expansion of the universe is down to the newly formed black hole growing larger in its initial formation, and guzzling more material exponentially until it fizzles out to a slow trickle. On top of that, the expansion of the universe is due to the influx of information being converted into pure, raw spacetime, filling the void with space but no matter. I like to imagine that if black hole cosmology were real, we would still be in the infancy stages of the black hole's lifetime! As we are technically still in the early years of the universe's lifespan according to many ideas.
Impossible. That violates energy coservation laws.
Absolutely retarded for any scientist or physicist to claim a multiverse or any type of doubling of energy.
It violates their rules, that they set.
@jameswilkes451 Science hasn't touched the sides of this yet. I got subscription chatgpt to do a deep dive into this using the original source material. The first one took over 20 minutes to generate. There's a few issues. The new space time seems to be isolated so that the entirely timeline of the new universe goes to completion before the first atom enters the newly formed event horizon. Its possible but there is that hurdle. If this is true it makes a prediction: the rate of expansion will vary with the mater added in the parent universe. And if there black hole formed from a supernova it may cause predictable fluctuation in the rate of expansion. There is also dark matter. also there's unknowns: the first matter of all types of atoms was converted to subat.particles, atoms were dissolved, but would later additions be dissolved from say iron to plasma? We should see it if so and i don't think we do.
Man, Brian Cox is hands-down my favorite science guy. Dude makes crazy physics stuff sound chill and easy. Half the time I don’t even get the answers, but he makes me feel like I’m almost there - and that’s why I dig him so much. 😁
I like to ponder these these topics often
Whale now, Brian, if you mix the Anthropic Principle with Fermi's Great Filter concept, the concoction you get are Great Filters -- oodles of them! There may be a "final" Great Filter that if not overcome, ends techno-intelligent life, but the series of Great Filters that must be negotiated in order to get to the "end" are also "Great!"
Prokyriotic to eukaryotic was just one of an innumerable galaxy of Great Filters, most of which we likely know nothing about. Our specific flavor of intelligent life met and overcame just such a Filter in the Permian Extinction, then again at Chickzulub. How many more? Snowball Earth? Theia? Even our "acquisition" of our Moon!
Soooo, it's not Great Filter, but Great Filters, each being a potential species ending event, many taking place ancestorally even before there was a species. i realize that it's just semantics, but just like with event horizon entanglements, it's good to be respectful of terms as even a slight variation in semantics can be misleading.
Every "cosmic day" we face yet another Great Filter------from womb, to tomb, so to speak. We don't have to recognize them in order to survive them. We should, however, recognize that any one of them, like the Great Oxidation Event could have spelled "curtains" for us as surely as WWIII might. Put in that context, evolution itself can be just such a Filter, potentially turning us into lizards rather than humans.
--- 😬
He will not get old.
He's surfing the event horizon.
@tcritt I've never heard it called that before...
Because I feel like an 80 minute video of Dr Cox talking about black holes should cost money, and I genuinely feel guilty that I get to watch it for free… so thank you 🙏 Please consider doing a segment on black hole cosmology!! I’d ALWAYS love to see Dr Cox, but Dr Poplawski has a really interesting model people would probably love to hear about… just a suggestion
How do I do that, mate? It would be cool if I could reply to your comment (great rationale, btw) and see what that reasoning can raise.
Dr Poplawski's model is wrong as black holes don't exist.
@UnfoxYourself hit the 3 dots button -> thanks button
Don’t we already pay our professors ever since? It’s called taxes….
I'm sure if you were traveling the world, doing free interviews, visiting schools etc, you'd think you deserve a regular teacher's salary. @MaMeixner
nothing better then listening to someone explain something he is incredibly knowledgeable of and is passionate about
"it's not a point in space, it's a point in time." Until now, I thought I had a decent understanding of black holes. Nope! 14:34
Yes. Correct. 💯 Also I don’t know what time is. So.
@JoeLillibridgelive in the moment
:D:D:D
I find the idea that information is never destroyed a comforting thought.
Even trillions of years from now, the tiny fluctuations that we as humans produce is never lost, forever preserved in spacetime.
It's not going to help you. Nothing that happens after you die is going to affect you in any way except for how you might conceive of it and feel about it while you are alive. You will be dead forever, until the heat death of the universe, so time will be of no consequence and you might as well say the universe dies with you. So in what possible sense is it comforting? I've always thought it completely ridiculous that ideas about your genes or your work or affect on people "living on" after your death are comforting in any way. The terror comes from the increasingly imminent demise of existence, and there is nothing about leaving some effect after ceasing to exist that diminishes that terror.
You are terrified by oblivion. I am not. Oblivion didnt harm me for billions of years before i came along.
Stop projecting your issues on others.
Maybe someone or something is simulating us right now from all those traces.
@jimsmindonlineagain, while I like the poetry of it, it doesn't really help me, now, and obviously can't help me when I no longer exist. Woody Allen was quoted saying "I don't want to live on in my work, I want to live on in my apartment!" 😄
Ooo I'm early
Great job man really keeps us thinking about big questions!!
"You're not meant to understand what I've just said, because I don't understand what I've just said, because nobody understands what I've just said." Now, that is something to ponder! Brilliant stuff.
Projection ia steong with this one😅
@ngcastronerd4791it's a quote and pretty accurate when it comes to quantum computing.
because it's bull sh*t ?
that makes zero sense
Because its all utter nonsense, bless him.
Why did it take 2 years to get this video out?
Exactly my thought! What was edited out? What did he say that caused the publisher to delay its release? Something doesn’t pass mustard
because humanity reached the great filter shortly after 2023 june and it took 2 years for a time traveler to sort it out, essentially allowing this video to inspire some random genius kid to become a scientist and lead humanity to interstellar travel lol
I assumed he meant to say "June 2025".....
@RT-ol4hh Why do I feel like you’re one of those people who are suspicious & skeptical of the DUMBEST possible ish like scientific research and nature documentaries, but blindly accept creation myths as absolute truth and will believe every word you’re told inside your echo chamber without a second thought 😂 There’s nothing suspicious, the video’s been released in smaller segments, they’re just releasing the entire thing today. Lots of production channels and content creators do it that way to ensure they make a profit. Settle down, Karen 😂
@nothingaroundus_ don't do drugs, kids
My friend Duggary has been working on a method of time travel. His father invented the legendary engine known as the GRX. Duggary put it into a car and now it is the fastest car in the world. When you drive it the speed is so tremendous that you actually morph into another dimension. The problem is that no driver can handle the speed of the GRX. I hope my friend Duggary will be ok
Where is this car?
Very engaging content.
That chair looks uncomfortable...
It’s the chair from Full Metal Alchemist, the chair that every state alchemist must sit on to demonstrate balance
He reminds me of Christopher Robin.
Opposite of Matter is Space, zoom out and all you see is Light(galaxy) and Dark(space), the two fundamental opposites which creating the universe.
Properties of Matter: - Properties of Space:
Light(galaxy) Dark(space)
White Black
Hot Cold
Density Void
Visible Invisible
Motion Stillness
Attraction(matter gravity) Repulsion(space expansion)
Here matter itself is gravity so it attracts to itself, and space itself is repulsion hence endless expansion.
Very amazingly written comment. Yes the universe seems like it's behaving dualistically. Consciousness, unconsciousness. Life, death.
@exzydian5294 I completely agree this comment amazingly piecing everything together! And you are right, it also seems to reflect the principle of duality even in quantum entanglement... like just as we can’t define life without death, cold without heat, or light without darkness... they are entangled.
What do you mean by that matter is gravity? so there is a opposite of gravity which is space expansion is what you saying??
☯️
The principle of "opposites attract" alone can be used to solve almost any question, and I truly mean any. You can try it for yourself, all it takes is enough time and thoughts to relate.
Space is already unified, which is why it seeks division, hence the ongoing expansion. It's being drawn toward its opposite aspect.
Matter, on the other hand, is already fragmented, and that's why it seeks unity. It's being pulled toward the opposite of what it is, "wholeness".
The duality between matter(galaxy) and space also seeks unity, this is what leads to the formation of black holes, where both matter and space are drawn toward. This merging is the seed of a new universe, much like how male and female-two opposites-attracts to each other to create new life. So inside a black hole, there are more universes, and this cycle go on infinitely whether you zoom into blackhole or zoom out of universe. You can see these same principle everywhere in nature.
I want to start by saying I dont have a degree or anything - I just really love space and science. Black holes have always fascinated me, and I think this is the perfect moment to bring up Occam’s Razor.
Everything in nature seems to have an opposite: birth and death, light and dark, up and down. So why is it so hard to apply that idea to black holes? A black hole is the final stage of a star’s life - its “death.” If death exists, then shouldn’t there also be a corresponding “birth”?
We know black holes pull everything inward, but we don’t know what happens to it after. Since we also don’t fully understand the origin of the universe, how can we rule out the possibility that a black hole could be the starting point of something else - such as a new Big Bang?
Sure, multiverse theory sounds like science fiction, but history has shown that “fiction” often turns out to be real-we just didn’t know it yet. Or it becomes real once we invent it (think about how automatic doors used to be a fantasy in old sci-fi).
Since we don’t know what the Big Bang truly was or what happens inside black holes, I feel like the simplest explanation might be the right one: death at Point A, birth at Point B. That could not only explain where everything that falls into a black hole goes, but also how our own universe might have begun.
Then again, I havent had the opportunity to study space professionally, so I could just be talking out of my ass here.
I'm no theorist either, but my gut is telling me that's probably what's going on. Our universe shares many characteristics of a supermassive black hole, just in the opposite direction, if you will. Our universe has its own event horizon, it just works in opposition to the event horizon of a black hole. Physics breaks down at the literal beginning of time, physics breaks down at the gravitational center of a black hole. That could very well be the purpose of our universe in itself. Produce more black holes/baby universes.
@bobbyosborne2375IT doesnt Break down. We Just dont understand it.
There ist No Magic Happening
This is my theory and I deduced this theory many years ago, glad that others now support my theory.
This comment section probably won’t remember me, but maybe someone scrolling needs this. A few months ago I hit a wall. Nothing made sense. I bought Manifest the Unseen by Luna Rivers after seeing it here on yt. I had no expectations. But chapter by chapter, it broke something open in me. Not motivation - momentum. Wishing that for you too.✨❤
What a lot of people don't know is that professor Brian Cox used to be in the '90s pop band called D-ream, and he was their keyboard player. He played in the band to make enough money to pay his way through University to become the particle physicist that he is today, and be able to tell you all these amazing things.
Nobody asked, but ok. Most people work their way through school…
@battenkillrambler3543holy shit you must be the most bitter loser ever
Tell us something we didn’t already know 😂
@battenkillrambler3543 how is "nobody asking" a relevant point at all? Nobody was asking for your response.
This was so well structured.
The "dark forest" concept is quite a bit darker than Brian says - it's not that advanced civilizations come up with some esoteric reasons to stay hidden, the reasons are very simple and based on two facts. 1) interstellar distances makes communication and thus diplomacy and cultural mixing pretty much impossible. Imagine trying to negotiate a non-aggression pact with a civilization when the round trip for a message is 1,000 years, it's just not practically possible. 2) Civilizations advance in a leap frog manner, meaning that a civilization mat be at a somewhat stable level of scientific understanding and technological knowledge for a long time, but then make a breakthrough discovery that propels the civilization forwards massively in centuries or decades.
What these premises means is that if you encounter an alien civilization that is equally powerful or less powerful than yourself, in the time it takes for you to exchange your first greetings, they may have arrived at a leap where they suddenly vastly overshadow your capabilities to defend yourself should a conflict arise. This makes it the most logical course of action that if you encounter en other civilization and you have the capability to destroy it, you absolutely should as a matter of self preservation. And should you notice a civilization more powerful than yourself, you should do anything in your power to avoid them detecting you.
Add to this the fact that even as a very powerful civilization, there's good reason to assume that there are civilizations so much more ancient than you. This means that the only reasonable strategy for any civilization is to hide your existence as much as possible since being discovered almost certainly means the end of your civilization. And sadly, if this hypothesis is true, we've already doomed ourselves by loud and clearly announcing our presence.
It was a great relief to finally hear someone in the scientific community suggest that we might bear the responsibility of preserving consciousness in the galaxy, if not the universe. Consider how many improbabilities had to occur for us to be here. It’s more than simply being in the “Goldilocks” zone. The longevity of our sun, the outer planets, the proximity of a sizable moon to maintain axial tilt, stabilize rotation and plate tectonics; our molten core and the electromagnetic field it provides us as a defense against radiation. And what if the dinosaurs hadn’t been wiped out? I doubt they’d be building rockets! Whatever the reality may be, I believe we should conduct our earthly business as though we are the first and could be the last. Let us hope the Great Filter that lay before us is sufficiently permeable that enough of us pass through to carry out the mission.
Your personality shines through.
Very useful tips, thanks!
Exactly what I was looking for.
I didn’t expect that ending!
Teacher to the core...
With buttery voice..
So glad JRE introduced me to Brian Cox, so interesting to listen to.
Appreciate the effort you put in.
Your passion really shows.
8th session watching this video cause I keep falling asleep. His voice is so calming and nice.
Brian explains the extremely complicated in a very understandable way, that is a talent in itself. I watch these videos many times and pause to google things I don't understand and then my brain hurts and I take a break.
Repairing a dropped mug never seemed so simple.