You sir, are a superlative teacher! And so is Professor Cox. This has been one of the most fascinating interviews and RUclips presentations that I have seen. But then, I’m an old man, an old medical doctor of a man, who has had the pleasure of experiencing many good and great teachers in his lifetime. And learning new things, for me, remains one of my greatest pleasures. And this border/ conjunction between the life sciences and the physical sciences is one of my greatest fascinations. I am so very glad that I found your channel and subscribed to it.
"... learning new things, for me, remains one of my greatest pleasures." Hear, hear! My life's motto is "When you've stopped learning, it's time to die." Fortunately, for me, learning is the single greatest aspect of living.
Hi, Dr. Carma, It is a privilege to have studied Medicine, including up to this day. And I appreciate very much your message! On a further note, I believe the EU is lucky to have also a physician as it's President, considering that they regulated AI first of all, showing the importance of protecting Human Neurology from copy Machines. Dr Crow stated that life may have merged out of a geophysics into biophysics replication or copies of orderly stored information. Now, computers are copying our daily living activities in a sort of reverse course. Good luck to all of us. God Bless.
My dad introduced me to him in high school and I have created a huge love for his shows and all he researches. Sure I don't understand it the way he does but he definitely makes complex lectures be more easily understood by people who don't major in scientific fields. Xoxo I am a 29 year old female who greatly appreciates people in the world like him
If you're lazing around, you consume less energy, you're making the universe disordered at a slower rate. So next time someone calls you lazy, tell them you're just postponing the universe's demise.
there is something about brian's voice that is like morphin, everything is gonna be all right when you hear it, everything is greater than we are and you just give in... fantastic voice! fantastic guy.
I absolutely love Professor Brian Cox, after watching his TedTalk about a year ago I watched as many videos of him as I could and he has incredibly increased my interest in physics and astronomy! Thank you for the great video!
Jeremy England would make for a GREAT follow-up interview. From the introduction to Quanta's interview: . Jeremy England, a 31-year-old assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has derived a mathematical formula that he believes explains this capacity. The formula, based on established physics, indicates that when a group of atoms is driven by an external source of energy (like the sun or chemical fuel) and surrounded by a heat bath (like the ocean or atmosphere), it will often gradually restructure itself in order to dissipate increasingly more energy. This could mean that under certain conditions, matter inexorably acquires the key physical attribute associated with life. “You start with a random clump of atoms, and if you shine light on it for long enough, it should not be so surprising that you get a plant,” England said. England’s theory is meant to underlie, rather than replace, Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection....
I can't remember if I knew you were a doctor of biology, but that's super cool! I'm always excited to find when people really studied on a subject can bring energy and knowledge in such a way that a broader audience can enjoy the subject as well.
Not me. Im still fearing my consciousness will survive and my childhood brainwashing of hell will kick in. I need parts of my brain deprogrammed so this fear goes. Philosophers Doctors and Physicists and Hindus who believe in God or Reincarnation scare me no matter how much i tell myself God or eternal consciousness is bullshit.
Hey Brian when is our habitable zone going to end ? You know we have been in our habitable zone for over 100 million years and every day the sun gets bigger and hotter! And the malovich cycle and solar maximums and solar minimums but you still call global warming our fault
I once asked my biology teacher in 9th standard that what is life? he said anything which do reproduction, breathing, movement etc, which was a definition given in our book but what I really meant was how some non-living things together creates life , so I again asked the the same question in more deep way and guess what, our teacher and our class representative stood and said same definition to me again, making me look like a fool in front of whole class and as an introvert it was not good for me but it didn't bother me much , as I thought that all of them just accept whatever is told to them even teachers without questioning and knowing how things actually works in world or they just don't want to(as they are dumb and just spending there life) and they just don't know what to answer to my question.. After that i didn't't bother to ask anything to anyone and find my own question's answer myself which is satisfying to me..
Love how Brian talks ...the only one that keeps all my attention when talking, wish I had internet 40 years ago to know about lal of this, probably would have a differet career
Don't always agree with what he says politically but what a bloke. We have a lot yo be thankful for. Science communicators connect plebs like me to the universe ✨️
I've never thought about the whole conservation of energy thing in terms of extrapolating all the way back to the big bang, and that there's been a finite amount energy since the beginning. That's gunna stick with me
What really got me was that we're simply "swirls in the coffee". That's probably the most elegant way anyone could have possibly put it. That, and I laughed out loud when he said we're personally responsible for the end of time.
Alan Watts, the thinker & spoken word artist, long ago described life and ourselves as "little curlicues" at the edge of the Big Bang. Coffee is an ok analogy, but he used smashing a bottle of ink on the floor. Disorder at the center, entropy spreading out from center, then little drops and squiggles (order) at the edges. He described the Big Bang as simply the birth of Now, which physicists don't disagree with. Only through meditation do we crazy apes get to experience what the Big Bang ACTUALLY is. You have to look to art and philosophy to help contextualize what science discovers because science -- god bless it! -- gets no further to understanding Life or consciousness or Now, even as it looks closer & further into the tools and components. The mystery only gets larger and less knowable.
I don't know how to describe the profound impact THIS VIDEO had on me. It is hard to understate how well the content produced by "Be Smart" in a conversation with Brian Cox conveyed concisely the journey from the Big Bang to complex life via entropy. It was an epiphany for me. Now, I am so curious as to the nature of how protons fit into this equation (I realize that you indicated it is very complex). I also derived that entropy is a great mystery in may respects, yet it is one of the most important fundamentals of the universe. Thank you so much.
I love both these men. They are lucky to be passionate about their work and still interested by hard to resolve questions. The origin of life has always interested me but, at this time, we haven’t a single clue how it started. All we really know is that it’s eventually going to end. Such is the life of our sun.
I love Brian Cox and his amazing energy for science and teaching. He has such a beautiful poetic way of describing the universe and is ways of life and destruction.
...always love the Guy.. he is a picture perfect genius yet so humble. Love and admire you Brian because there are very few like you around..❣❣ I'm also 1968 born, 25th July.
Great discussion - not the usual predictable fare of discussions with Brian Cox. Also, I get the sense that Brian Cox is finally reaching maximal public awareness. That makes me happy! …because he’s smart but he’s not hostile to Christianity. So he presents a humble, awesome, and wise perspective
I couldn’t tell you why but it’s a comforting thought that my life has effects on the vast cosmos. It’s comforting to know that my life has some meaning in the vast emptiness of the cosmos
I think what life should be defined around is intelligence. In general, the definition of intelligence we begin with for the purpose of deciding if some living system is indeed intelligent or if it is not intelligent is straight from the dictionary. This is easy to look up and can be commonly found to be: (A) Intelligence is the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills. For the purposes of specifically looking for the intelligence of living things, a logical requirement for this definition would be to include understanding that skills are a form of knowledge and that for the intelligence of all life forms we know of they have the ability to not just acquire and apply knowledge, but to evolve and grow a body of knowledge. In other words, to use the definition of intelligence as: (A+) Living Intelligence is the ability to learn and evolve a body of knowledge which is used to alter the decision making of the system learning that knowledge. There are some who will define intelligence in a manner which is more humancentric and biased to exclude forms of intelligence which are in fact clearly intelligent. For example, defining that intelligence requires abstract thinking like humans have, self-awareness as humans have, emotional intelligence like humans have, creativity like humans have, analytical intelligence like humans, practical intelligence like humans, etc. All defined in such a manner that if the intelligence displayed if not human like enough, it can be rejected as being intelligence. All these humancentric definitions of intelligence are a subset the definition (A+) above. But, the exclude systems of intelligence that are not human like enough even when a system can learn new knowledge, remember that knowledge, use that remembered knowledge to alter its decision making in intelligent ways which are not random, and repeat this process to grow and evolve a body of knowledge… which is clearly intelligent and something that all life as we know it demonstrates. · For example, consider Spearman’s General Intelligence definition. www.ipl.org/essay/Charles-Spearmans-Theory-Of-Intelligence-FCSGB742SG. This is focused on human intelligence, but it is also a subcategory of the (A+) definition above. · Consider Thurstone’s Primary Mental Abilities definition. psynso.com/louis-leon-thurstone-theory-intelligence/. Again, this is based on human intelligence, but it is also a subcategory of the (A+) definition above. · Consider Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences definition. www.simplypsychology.org/multiple-intelligences.html. Once again, this is for human intelligence, but it is also a subcategory of the (A+) definition above. · Consider Triarchic Theory of Intelligence definition. education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2104/Intelligence-TRIARCHIC-THEORY-INTELLIGENCE.html. Still a definition for human intelligence, but it is also a subcategory of the (A+) definition above. Psychologist Robert Sternberg defines intelligence with a different wording: Intelligence is the “mental activity directed toward purposive adaptation to, selection, and shaping of real-world environments relevant to one's life." This is a more general and broader than the definition which can more easily apply to non-human life. To us Sternberg’s feels too easy to think of exceptions of types of intelligence which life might demonstrate, for example imaginative intelligence which is clearly intelligent but not effecting any real-world environment. It also does not sound like it requires learning or growing a body of knowledge, which is an added requirement which all life as we know it appears to have. Still, it does seem closer to a broad general definition of intelligence than the human based definitions. So, reader, consider all the above. What living thing does not have the ability to learn and evolve a body of knowledge which is used to alter the decision making of the system learning that knowledge? The answer is none. What non-living thing does have the ability to learn and evolve a body of knowledge which is used to alter the decision making of the system learning that knowledge? Well, excluding our developing AI, the answer is none. Can any form of human defined life function without the ability to learn and evolve a body of knowledge which is used to alter the decision making of the system learning that knowledge? The answer is no.
Life is basically can be ascribed in a world,which is different from inanimate beings. A few of us being frustrated with life prone to define:Passive hunk of platoplsam.But the most acceptable definition is:microzem of reality or a shadow of eternity in a distorted form.
Surely we need a definition of life for coherent and credible ethics. If life deserves to be treated as something more deserving than just a resource (something with “rights”), then we need to be able to say what is alive and what is not. This matters for both how we relate to other things on earth, and our approach to things on other planets. Furthermore, if some lives matter more than other lives (e.g. it is okay to kill bacteria in your body so that you can survive), then it is worth identifying what makes some organisms more important. This moves the scientific question of defining life, along with the ethics of how to treat other lives, away from the boolean (“it is, or it isn’t”) and toward something more relative.
I like the analogy of the creamer and coffee. Also, has anyone noticed when people try to describe space and black holes they often use liquids as a way to show behavior? I'm inclined to think space has liquid-like properties itself. Obviously, it can bend and twist. But I feel it these systems are actually swirling and spinning and swimming.
Wow the idea the universe was wound up as sort of a clock or rather started in complete order before the big bang so that entropy could begin and thereby create life as that order unraveled.. this is why Brian is the man at communicating scientific concepts
Life is a word that has 2 meanings, I think many people get them confused. However science can explain both; as physics, biology, and cosmology for the physical meaning of life and philosophy, sociology, psychology for the social or mental meaning of life. However it seems when it comes to life the latter dosent get all the hype like the other dose, even know its meaning can solve far more problems.
I always come back to, if life was a natural process defined by simple rules of physics and nothing more, it would have happened more than once (even on Earth). As far as we know, it didn't, despite perfect conditions for billions of years. Inanimate objects only became alive once that we know of, and everything is descended from that. Makes ya think.
E F Schumacher is best known for his book "Small is Beautiful". But in 1977 he wrote what I believe is a much more interesting book. It is called "A Guide for the Perplexed", and its aim is to give its readers some signposts for navigating the world. Two of these are relevant here. One is that scientists have an inveterate habit of reducing things to absurdly simple constituents, and then claiming that by explaining something about one of the constituents they have explained the thing itself. "We are nothing but $1.98 worth of chemicals." Rarely have I encountered so many examples of reductionism than there are in this video. And most of these are only incredibly distantly related to the ostensible topic. A second Schumacher signpost is the observation that we are not so much plagued by greater and greater specialization as we are by specialists who generalize. They use their prestige in one field of endeavour to enhance the authority of their statements about a field which they know very little about and have clearly not thought deeply about either. Again, Dr. Cox is a living example of this phenomenon. The gap between a piece of rock and a human being is absolutely monumental. The creation of life, a necessary stage in our arrival, requires 12 extraordinarily improbable steps to occur in the correct sequence. The joint probability of all of these occurring is roughly that of finding a single atom in the entire universe. www.amazon.ca/Stairway-Life-Origin-Life-Reality/dp/1734183705 And then there is consciousness, the "hard problem" of the materialist philosophy upon which Dr. Cox's thinking is based. It is a hard problem because materialism obviously cannot explain the essence of humans, their intentions, their emotions, their thoughts, their dreams. And there is no hope that it ever will. Chance and laws of physics have extremely limited explanatory power when it comes to the things that really matter. If anyone is interested in a much better explanation of our existence and purpose, might I recommend a book. Keith Ward is a former Regius professor of theology at Oxford, though his academic career began as a mathematical physicist. www.amazon.ca/Personal-Idealism-Keith-Ward/dp/1506484476 He also has a number of RUclips videos.
To me your saying what I know, fifteen billion years made us and, it is an example of number. Life is nothing but a response to the sun beating on the ground for a long time. It does try by nature to defy entropy itself but never gets there completely because all species struggle some how. You nailed it good work.
I've been fascinated with life since about five, sixty years ago, I am amazed to have arrived here at a time when we still don't know what life really is, just are able to describe it to a fine line. We learned of RNA and DNA back in my childhood, I learned of it in the mid-sixties, have seen research take it far and away from those early understandings, and still only skimmed the surface, it appears.
We cannot explain emergence in biology, chemistry, etc. Until then, there is no way to explain life from physics. We also cannot seem to understand how to unify quantum physics and gravity. Probably again another emergent relationship.
Physicists have such a hard time to address the question of life. They will invoke processes of matter, energy and entropy, the more open minded will even venture into the concept of information without pointing out we don’t even have a proper set of equations for the physics of information and how it relates to matter and energy (i.e. the collapse of the wave function) , and then again, will admittedly fall short of really touching the fundamental nature of life. We need physicists with the courage to get out of the comfortable realm of standard physic and address more daring questions such as : do information, decision making or even agency have a physical nature?
Example of a pathological disorder caused by mutations: Spinal muscular atrophy is a group of inherited disorders that cause progressive muscle degeneration and weakness. Gene alterations (mutations) in the SMN1 and VAPB genes cause SMA.
I dont think we learn all this stuff to just simply have an understanding of it. I see us reaching the point of understanding to where we create life elsewhere instead of searching for it.
The second law of thermodynamics, for me, suggests neverending life. nergy can neither be created nor destroyed, but change from one form to another. We are energy.
When you build a house it should accomodate atleast 10 people. So 2 baths 2 toilets 2 varandah two rooms two dining hall. Even if there are less people it is easy to maintain.
Have a sneaking suspicion that consciousness is not reducible to atoms. BUT IS dependent on the presence of Atoms. There is another dimension to existence beyond the reach of conventional physics. That is where mind resides and mind influences the atoms. Mind may be primary and matter contingent but it is a 2 way street and they interact and depend on each other.
8:50. Complexity does not contradict the second Law but it has to be balanced by greater net increased entropy. Rare stable local situations, free available energy, time for it to develop, a limited time of function. A conservation of structure program can iterate itself into being. I'll say again, net increase in entropy. Like a spark that starts a continent wide forest fire.
20:57 and that is the correct question. "*How* did life emerge.?" It's when the question is phrased as "*Why* did life emerge?" that things begin to go off the rails. Great video!
@@albertleibold1415 No, and no one, to my knowledge claims it did. There was clearly a time when there was no life (at least here on Earth that we know of) and then there was. `How` it emerged is the question to answer. "Why` would be a question for existence its self. Why does anything exist? Two different questions though.
Modern research on Near Death Experience by Raymond moody, reincarnation memories by Ian Stevenson/Jim trucker and past lives regression by Brian Weiss all independently but coincidentally show that our consciousness survive death, we live many lives and our thoughts and actions matter in the hereafter. So be kind and helpful to others, be virtuous, meditate and cultivate ourselves to higher spiritual levels. Cheers.
the quicker we can explain how natural processes resulted in the human ego, the quicker we can dispense with the plague o' religious delusion......consciousness is matter recognizing itself one could say (a twist on Watt's famous expression)......absolutely fascinating discussion/episode !
10:22 order, like matter/energy, is never lost. eg the "unraveling" of the sun via the emission of photons. each individual photon given off is ordered. traveling at an ordered speed, on an ordered path, at an ordered wavelength. so while the sun may be reducing its "local order" it is radiating that order far and wide, via photons, magnetic waves, etc., & that radiated order is creating order in other places.....like earth.
The connection between life and non-life is DNA. DNA is a structure that follows a chemical conservation of structure law. DNA is also information, that is, it acts like information, directing other processes. Lastly DNA ( or more likely its predecessor RNA) had ( given the perfect conditions )a boot--strapping capability that got the whole thing started in the first place. What we call life is DNA's way of conserving itself, kind of like a crystal grows, conserves itself at the edge of the right solution.
This is why the recent UAP phenomenon is so mind blowing. How could humans create a technology that breaks so many laws of physics? It would literally redefine everything we know about EVERYTHING.
The thing about laws of physics is that they can't be broken. If you break what we think is a law of physics - we were wrong, and have to find the actual law of physics that explains it. That doesn't happen often - nearly always these days when someone claims to have broken a law of physics, they didn't, they just misunderstood something.
What I find amazing, is that I, me I , exist on this one world that exists , yet , where are the other places, their must be other places, but, we haven't yet found it
The answer is simple. Life is a made up word someone came up with to explain their self experience. Then is was expanded upon. So the answer is whatever we decided it is.
Every single person knows the meaning of things, its just we cant figure in the regular brain state. Anybody that is experienced enough on using acid, notice that at some point they have answers for any question but forget just after the efect ends. In reality, its not that they forget, its they cant perceive and make sense of the answers the same way of when they are on the drug effects.
"... being alive certainly feels like more than that" And it is! None of this explains the MIND and how and why we can make that statement in the first place
What if life isn't part of the universe hence why it breaks certain mathematical principles... Like when it comes to life 1+1 is not equal to 2 but it's greater than or equal to 2?
If you really want to understand life. please do not ask physicists or mathematicians but do ask instead a biochemist. There's a very good book by Nick Lane entitled "Transformer: The Deep Chemistry of Life and Death" explaining rather convincingly what "life" is and how it works. And consciousness is the cerebellum "self" enhanced by our cerebral neuronal system. That consciousness is a physical brain function is apparent when anesthesia puts it to sleep. Consciousness is not a separate entity and actually just a higher form of emotions, like your thoughts. Religious casuists have and continue to invoke "consciousness" to refute science.
Well: the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi explains life down to the final detail in his great commentary on the Bhagavad Gita (which is the definitive work of Holy Scripture) and he was a qualified physicist
The domain of science appears to be subject to the influence of a select group whose intellectual perspectives may be questioned. The discourse involving narratives positing a universe emerging from nothingness over billions of years and life originating from non-life is viewed skeptically, as it seemingly lacks coherence. A more profound comprehension emerges when considering the scientific endeavor as a means of unraveling the intricate tapestry of creation. Within this framework, the exploration extends beyond mere chronicles of cosmic evolution to an inquiry into the intricacies of divine design. Science, as a tool, enables us to fathom the grandeur of the universe, deciphering the interwoven laws governing celestial bodies, quantum particles, and the energies that bind them together.
"All life on earth gets its energy from the sun" (10:43) Err, I disagree. There is life at great depths of the ocean where photosynthesis is not part of their life or evolution. They seem to have evolved from chemicals spewing out of hot rocks (and some magic).
I do think consciousness is the big question. Sure brains are physical, but how does a mind come of the physical brain matter, and why is there an experience at all?
Life, man. What is it even?
Idk
A Game which Humans don't understand.
That's why started studying biology for my Advanced level examinations.
What's life? I am not even sure what I am
Life is what happens to you while you are making other plans
You sir, are a superlative teacher! And so is Professor Cox. This has been one of the most fascinating interviews and RUclips presentations that I have seen. But then, I’m an old man, an old medical doctor of a man, who has had the pleasure of experiencing many good and great teachers in his lifetime. And learning new things, for me, remains one of my greatest pleasures. And this border/ conjunction between the life sciences and the physical sciences is one of my greatest fascinations. I am so very glad that I found your channel and subscribed to it.
"... learning new things, for me, remains one of my greatest pleasures." Hear, hear! My life's motto is "When you've stopped learning, it's time to die." Fortunately, for me, learning is the single greatest aspect of living.
Much respect for keeping that passion for learning alive. I hope I never lose it, myself.
Hi, Dr. Carma,
It is a privilege to have studied Medicine, including up to this day.
And I appreciate very much your message!
On a further note, I believe the EU is lucky to have also a physician as it's President, considering that they regulated AI first of all, showing the importance of protecting Human Neurology from copy Machines.
Dr Crow stated that life may have merged out of a geophysics into biophysics replication or copies of orderly stored information.
Now, computers are copying our daily living activities in a sort of reverse course.
Good luck to all of us.
God Bless.
My dad introduced me to him in high school and I have created a huge love for his shows and all he researches. Sure I don't understand it the way he does but he definitely makes complex lectures be more easily understood by people who don't major in scientific fields. Xoxo
I am a 29 year old female who greatly appreciates people in the world like him
if there is a girl who interest with this object, ill date her
@@benynyomin5012 but will she date you tho?
@@ghfgxijaorgf5393 🥲😭, i dont know
If you're lazing around, you consume less energy, you're making the universe disordered at a slower rate. So next time someone calls you lazy, tell them you're just postponing the universe's demise.
I think you missed about 12 minutes of this video lmao
Hilarious
@@scy1038 wdym, the video talks about how you existing is hastening the heat death of the universe, however insignificant it might be
Mind blown
Chaos theory?
I swear I get goosebumps everytime he tells me to stay curious. In my mind I'm like "I will Joe. I always will"
there is something about brian's voice that is like morphin, everything is gonna be all right when you hear it, everything is greater than we are and you just give in... fantastic voice! fantastic guy.
I absolutely love Professor Brian Cox, after watching his TedTalk about a year ago I watched as many videos of him as I could and he has incredibly increased my interest in physics and astronomy! Thank you for the great video!
Have you watched all his BBC work?
Really enjoyed this episode Joe! Great topic to discuss with Professor Cox.
Jeremy England would make for a GREAT follow-up interview.
From the introduction to Quanta's interview:
. Jeremy England, a 31-year-old assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has derived a mathematical formula that he believes explains this capacity. The formula, based on established physics, indicates that when a group of atoms is driven by an external source of energy (like the sun or chemical fuel) and surrounded by a heat bath (like the ocean or atmosphere), it will often gradually restructure itself in order to dissipate increasingly more energy. This could mean that under certain conditions, matter inexorably acquires the key physical attribute associated with life.
“You start with a random clump of atoms, and if you shine light on it for long enough, it should not be so surprising that you get a plant,” England said.
England’s theory is meant to underlie, rather than replace, Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection....
I had the same thought! Hopefully that can be organised soon.
As a follow up, a philosophical standpoint on life is want I want like an exurb1a video. As told in the video, it's upto the poets to define life🙂
@@randlker2152 ah, but what defines a poet?
I can't remember if I knew you were a doctor of biology, but that's super cool! I'm always excited to find when people really studied on a subject can bring energy and knowledge in such a way that a broader audience can enjoy the subject as well.
Joe, You are a National Treasure. Thank you for all the wisdom you bring to us.
When you think of where you were before you were born, it will give you an idea of where you are going after you die.
Not me. Im still fearing my consciousness will survive and my childhood brainwashing of hell will kick in. I need parts of my brain deprogrammed so this fear goes. Philosophers Doctors and Physicists and Hindus who believe in God or Reincarnation scare me no matter how much i tell myself God or eternal consciousness is bullshit.
Memories of another person's life precedes my birth, maybe reincarnation is true after all.
@@lukak1774
Highly unlikely.
@@justicegusting2476 I suppose we'll find out after we die.
Or not at all.
Hey Brian when is our habitable zone going to end ? You know we have been in our habitable zone for over 100 million years and every day the sun gets bigger and hotter! And the malovich cycle and solar maximums and solar minimums but you still call global warming our fault
Love anything with Brian Cox in it.
I learn so much from him!
This was a great show. I was pretty much aware of all the facts, but these guys ordered them in an interesting way. Like life does.
Life did not emerge on its own.
Id love to see a genuine sit down conversation between you and Professor Cox, would definitely be an interesting watch
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” - Ferris Bueller
Timeless wisdom and hilarity in one film.
I once asked my biology teacher in 9th standard that what is life? he said anything which do reproduction, breathing, movement etc, which was a definition given in our book but what I really meant was how some non-living things together creates life , so I again asked the the same question in more deep way and guess what, our teacher and our class representative stood and said same definition to me again, making me look like a fool in front of whole class and as an introvert it was not good for me but it didn't bother me much , as I thought that all of them just accept whatever is told to them even teachers without questioning and knowing how things actually works in world or they just don't want to(as they are dumb and just spending there life) and they just don't know what to answer to my question..
After that i didn't't bother to ask anything to anyone and find my own question's answer myself which is satisfying to me..
When sadhguru talks about life, evolution etc there are many people like your teacher who troll him using textbook definition and call him a scam.
Your teacher was worried in making sure you knew the answer to what would be in the exam, not satisfying your unrelated curiosity
Brian Cox! Awesome
please make more videos with brian cox. he is awesome
Love how Brian talks ...the only one that keeps all my attention when talking, wish I had internet 40 years ago to know about lal of this, probably would have a differet career
Brian Cox as always, doesn’t disappoint… He’s very deep and thoughtful in a very accessible way…
Don't always agree with what he says politically but what a bloke. We have a lot yo be thankful for. Science communicators connect plebs like me to the universe ✨️
I've never thought about the whole conservation of energy thing in terms of extrapolating all the way back to the big bang, and that there's been a finite amount energy since the beginning. That's gunna stick with me
What really got me was that we're simply "swirls in the coffee". That's probably the most elegant way anyone could have possibly put it. That, and I laughed out loud when he said we're personally responsible for the end of time.
Alan Watts, the thinker & spoken word artist, long ago described life and ourselves as "little curlicues" at the edge of the Big Bang. Coffee is an ok analogy, but he used smashing a bottle of ink on the floor. Disorder at the center, entropy spreading out from center, then little drops and squiggles (order) at the edges.
He described the Big Bang as simply the birth of Now, which physicists don't disagree with. Only through meditation do we crazy apes get to experience what the Big Bang ACTUALLY is.
You have to look to art and philosophy to help contextualize what science discovers because science -- god bless it! -- gets no further to understanding Life or consciousness or Now, even as it looks closer & further into the tools and components. The mystery only gets larger and less knowable.
Love Brian Cox, thanks for this video ❤️
I don't know how to describe the profound impact THIS VIDEO had on me. It is hard to understate how well the content produced by "Be Smart" in a conversation with Brian Cox conveyed concisely the journey from the Big Bang to complex life via entropy. It was an epiphany for me. Now, I am so curious as to the nature of how protons fit into this equation (I realize that you indicated it is very complex). I also derived that entropy is a great mystery in may respects, yet it is one of the most important fundamentals of the universe. Thank you so much.
Please explain in simple terms how life came from non-living matter.
The voices I can fall asleep to will forver be special for me
edit: souds like i have schizophrenia and maybe i do, but Brain is indeed a legend
I would love to have an hour of Mr. Cox talking. Uninterrupted.
12:50 is a crucial confirmation: "it's getting disordered faster than..." thank you for helping my understanding!
This was excellent. Fascinating.
Life...it sure beats the alternative.
I love both these men. They are lucky to be passionate about their work and still interested by hard to resolve questions. The origin of life has always interested me but, at this time, we haven’t a single clue how it started. All we really know is that it’s eventually going to end. Such is the life of our sun.
I love Brian Cox and his amazing energy for science and teaching. He has such a beautiful poetic way of describing the universe and is ways of life and destruction.
...always love the Guy.. he is a picture perfect genius yet so humble. Love and admire you Brian because there are very few like you around..❣❣ I'm also 1968 born, 25th July.
Keep on thinking..keep on experimenting.
Best video from young thinkers. This needs to be in every class room, everywhere, and, may be in boardrooms also.
We are taught in college that the definition of life is still debated to this day
Yeah hell yeah that a big dose of pessimism
Yes
Great discussion - not the usual predictable fare of discussions with Brian Cox. Also, I get the sense that Brian Cox is finally reaching maximal public awareness. That makes me happy! …because he’s smart but he’s not hostile to Christianity. So he presents a humble, awesome, and wise perspective
This is an excellent broadcast!!! Very intelligent!!! Love it!!!!
I couldn’t tell you why but it’s a comforting thought that my life has effects on the vast cosmos. It’s comforting to know that my life has some meaning in the vast emptiness of the cosmos
Brian Cox is a national treasure speaks so clearly beautiful scientist that’s what I call him.😊
I think what life should be defined around is intelligence.
In general, the definition of intelligence we begin with for the purpose of deciding if some living system is indeed intelligent or if it is not intelligent is straight from the dictionary. This is easy to look up and can be commonly found to be:
(A) Intelligence is the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills.
For the purposes of specifically looking for the intelligence of living things, a logical requirement for this definition would be to include understanding that skills are a form of knowledge and that for the intelligence of all life forms we know of they have the ability to not just acquire and apply knowledge, but to evolve and grow a body of knowledge. In other words, to use the definition of intelligence as:
(A+) Living Intelligence is the ability to learn and evolve a body of knowledge which is used to alter the decision making of the system learning that knowledge.
There are some who will define intelligence in a manner which is more humancentric and biased to exclude forms of intelligence which are in fact clearly intelligent. For example, defining that intelligence requires abstract thinking like humans have, self-awareness as humans have, emotional intelligence like humans have, creativity like humans have, analytical intelligence like humans, practical intelligence like humans, etc. All defined in such a manner that if the intelligence displayed if not human like enough, it can be rejected as being intelligence.
All these humancentric definitions of intelligence are a subset the definition (A+) above. But, the exclude systems of intelligence that are not human like enough even when a system can learn new knowledge, remember that knowledge, use that remembered knowledge to alter its decision making in intelligent ways which are not random, and repeat this process to grow and evolve a body of knowledge… which is clearly intelligent and something that all life as we know it demonstrates.
· For example, consider Spearman’s General Intelligence definition. www.ipl.org/essay/Charles-Spearmans-Theory-Of-Intelligence-FCSGB742SG. This is focused on human intelligence, but it is also a subcategory of the (A+) definition above.
· Consider Thurstone’s Primary Mental Abilities definition. psynso.com/louis-leon-thurstone-theory-intelligence/. Again, this is based on human intelligence, but it is also a subcategory of the (A+) definition above.
· Consider Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences definition. www.simplypsychology.org/multiple-intelligences.html. Once again, this is for human intelligence, but it is also a subcategory of the (A+) definition above.
· Consider Triarchic Theory of Intelligence definition. education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2104/Intelligence-TRIARCHIC-THEORY-INTELLIGENCE.html. Still a definition for human intelligence, but it is also a subcategory of the (A+) definition above.
Psychologist Robert Sternberg defines intelligence with a different wording: Intelligence is the “mental activity directed toward purposive adaptation to, selection, and shaping of real-world environments relevant to one's life." This is a more general and broader than the definition which can more easily apply to non-human life. To us Sternberg’s feels too easy to think of exceptions of types of intelligence which life might demonstrate, for example imaginative intelligence which is clearly intelligent but not effecting any real-world environment. It also does not sound like it requires learning or growing a body of knowledge, which is an added requirement which all life as we know it appears to have. Still, it does seem closer to a broad general definition of intelligence than the human based definitions.
So, reader, consider all the above.
What living thing does not have the ability to learn and evolve a body of knowledge which is used to alter the decision making of the system learning that knowledge?
The answer is none.
What non-living thing does have the ability to learn and evolve a body of knowledge which is used to alter the decision making of the system learning that knowledge?
Well, excluding our developing AI, the answer is none.
Can any form of human defined life function without the ability to learn and evolve a body of knowledge which is used to alter the decision making of the system learning that knowledge?
The answer is no.
Life is basically can be ascribed in a world,which is different from inanimate beings. A few of us being frustrated with life prone to define:Passive hunk of platoplsam.But the most acceptable definition is:microzem of reality or a shadow of eternity in a distorted form.
The biggest difference between Joe and a rock is that a rock wouldn't ask this, or any other, question.
I agree
Surely we need a definition of life for coherent and credible ethics. If life deserves to be treated as something more deserving than just a resource (something with “rights”), then we need to be able to say what is alive and what is not. This matters for both how we relate to other things on earth, and our approach to things on other planets.
Furthermore, if some lives matter more than other lives (e.g. it is okay to kill bacteria in your body so that you can survive), then it is worth identifying what makes some organisms more important. This moves the scientific question of defining life, along with the ethics of how to treat other lives, away from the boolean (“it is, or it isn’t”) and toward something more relative.
I like the analogy of the creamer and coffee. Also, has anyone noticed when people try to describe space and black holes they often use liquids as a way to show behavior? I'm inclined to think space has liquid-like properties itself. Obviously, it can bend and twist. But I feel it these systems are actually swirling and spinning and swimming.
I LOVE this video; in fact anything Briantalks about is interesting to me. GREAT program; lets keep this one....
your videos are perfect as background sound for drawing sessions
Wow the idea the universe was wound up as sort of a clock or rather started in complete order before the big bang so that entropy could begin and thereby create life as that order unraveled.. this is why Brian is the man at communicating scientific concepts
It is hard to believe that such a smart man teaches such nonsense.
Life is a word that has 2 meanings, I think many people get them confused. However science can explain both; as physics, biology, and cosmology for the physical meaning of life and philosophy, sociology, psychology for the social or mental meaning of life. However it seems when it comes to life the latter dosent get all the hype like the other dose, even know its meaning can solve far more problems.
Brian is the type of cool that is required when contemplating the baffling and terrifying questions
I always come back to, if life was a natural process defined by simple rules of physics and nothing more, it would have happened more than once (even on Earth). As far as we know, it didn't, despite perfect conditions for billions of years. Inanimate objects only became alive once that we know of, and everything is descended from that. Makes ya think.
Your comment makes sense. 👍
E F Schumacher is best known for his book "Small is Beautiful". But in 1977 he wrote what I believe is a much more interesting book. It is called "A Guide for the Perplexed", and its aim is to give its readers some signposts for navigating the world. Two of these are relevant here. One is that scientists have an inveterate habit of reducing things to absurdly simple constituents, and then claiming that by explaining something about one of the constituents they have explained the thing itself. "We are nothing but $1.98 worth of chemicals." Rarely have I encountered so many examples of reductionism than there are in this video. And most of these are only incredibly distantly related to the ostensible topic.
A second Schumacher signpost is the observation that we are not so much plagued by greater and greater specialization as we are by specialists who generalize. They use their prestige in one field of endeavour to enhance the authority of their statements about a field which they know very little about and have clearly not thought deeply about either. Again, Dr. Cox is a living example of this phenomenon.
The gap between a piece of rock and a human being is absolutely monumental. The creation of life, a necessary stage in our arrival, requires 12 extraordinarily improbable steps to occur in the correct sequence. The joint probability of all of these occurring is roughly that of finding a single atom in the entire universe.
www.amazon.ca/Stairway-Life-Origin-Life-Reality/dp/1734183705
And then there is consciousness, the "hard problem" of the materialist philosophy upon which Dr. Cox's thinking is based. It is a hard problem because materialism obviously cannot explain the essence of humans, their intentions, their emotions, their thoughts, their dreams. And there is no hope that it ever will. Chance and laws of physics have extremely limited explanatory power when it comes to the things that really matter.
If anyone is interested in a much better explanation of our existence and purpose, might I recommend a book. Keith Ward is a former Regius professor of theology at Oxford, though his academic career began as a mathematical physicist.
www.amazon.ca/Personal-Idealism-Keith-Ward/dp/1506484476
He also has a number of RUclips videos.
To me your saying what I know, fifteen billion years made us and, it is an example of number. Life is nothing but a response to the sun beating on the ground for a long time. It does try by nature to defy entropy itself but never gets there completely because all species struggle some how. You nailed it good work.
I've been fascinated with life since about five, sixty years ago, I am amazed to have arrived here at a time when we still don't know what life really is, just are able to describe it to a fine line. We learned of RNA and DNA back in my childhood, I learned of it in the mid-sixties, have seen research take it far and away from those early understandings, and still only skimmed the surface, it appears.
The laws of physics and chemistry cannot explain the emergence of life. It is that simple.
@@albertleibold1415 prove it
The laws of physics cannot explain a simple thought.
Long story short, we don t know yet. I appreciate the honesty a lot.
We cannot explain emergence in biology, chemistry, etc. Until then, there is no way to explain life from physics. We also cannot seem to understand how to unify quantum physics and gravity. Probably again another emergent relationship.
@DrewMcFederiesCEO not happening. Physicists are stuck. String theory is a dead end. Maybe AI will help, but then there will be no need for us. 😭
Life is to live now with no questions, you are the universe and universe is within you.
Physicists have such a hard time to address the question of life. They will invoke processes of matter, energy and entropy, the more open minded will even venture into the concept of information without pointing out we don’t even have a proper set of equations for the physics of information and how it relates to matter and energy (i.e. the collapse of the wave function) , and then again, will admittedly fall short of really touching the fundamental nature of life. We need physicists with the courage to get out of the comfortable realm of standard physic and address more daring questions such as : do information, decision making or even agency have a physical nature?
Thank you for your insightful comment. 👍
Example of a pathological disorder caused by mutations:
Spinal muscular atrophy is a group of inherited disorders that cause progressive muscle degeneration and weakness.
Gene alterations (mutations) in the SMN1 and VAPB genes cause SMA.
Life cannot be explained , only lived , but that aliveness is astonishing
I dont think we learn all this stuff to just simply have an understanding of it. I see us reaching the point of understanding to where we create life elsewhere instead of searching for it.
The second law of thermodynamics, for me, suggests neverending life. nergy can neither be created nor destroyed, but change from one form to another. We are energy.
2:30?cool fade from the tardigrade to mosaic bears! fun fact they both can swim in water.
When you build a house it should accomodate atleast 10 people. So 2 baths 2 toilets 2 varandah two rooms two dining hall. Even if there are less people it is easy to maintain.
very interesting. i like what you do. it makes my day better. thank you!
Have a sneaking suspicion that consciousness is not reducible to atoms. BUT IS dependent on the presence of Atoms. There is another dimension to existence beyond the reach of conventional physics. That is where mind resides and mind influences the atoms. Mind may be primary and matter contingent but it is a 2 way street and they interact and depend on each other.
Wow. I've seen people who are in love with themselves but this guy ( host ) takes the cake.
8:50. Complexity does not contradict the second Law but it has to be balanced by greater net increased entropy. Rare stable local situations, free available energy, time for it to develop, a limited time of function. A conservation of structure program can iterate itself into being. I'll say again, net increase in entropy. Like a spark that starts a continent wide forest fire.
Life did not emerge from entropy, however (as you stated ), the maintenance of life is “balanced by greater net increased entropy”.
20:57 and that is the correct question. "*How* did life emerge.?" It's when the question is phrased as "*Why* did life emerge?" that things begin to go off the rails. Great video!
It did not emerge on its own.
@@albertleibold1415 No, and no one, to my knowledge claims it did. There was clearly a time when there was no life (at least here on Earth that we know of) and then there was. `How` it emerged is the question to answer. "Why` would be a question for existence its self. Why does anything exist? Two different questions though.
@@somersetcace1 : This video does not provide us with a scientific answer concerning the “how”.
@@albertleibold1415 No, they didn't. They simply posed the question and I simply agreed it's the proper question.
@@somersetcace1 : Great. 👍
I wish there is an arabic translation caption so more people here can consume this wonderfull content, I hope u consider that and maybe more languages
I’ve been trying to understand life for some time now.
I have no answer, but the most disturbing is to find out that there’s no answer, shocking.
Modern research on Near Death Experience by Raymond moody, reincarnation memories by Ian Stevenson/Jim trucker and past lives regression by Brian Weiss all independently but coincidentally show that our consciousness survive death, we live many lives and our thoughts and actions matter in the hereafter.
So be kind and helpful to others, be virtuous, meditate and cultivate ourselves to higher spiritual levels. Cheers.
the quicker we can explain how natural processes resulted in the human ego, the quicker we can dispense with the plague o' religious delusion......consciousness is matter recognizing itself one could say (a twist on Watt's famous expression)......absolutely fascinating discussion/episode !
We obviously cannot explain it just like that.
Will answering the questions about what life is and how it began tell us why and where we're going?
10:22 order, like matter/energy, is never lost. eg the "unraveling" of the sun via the emission of photons. each individual photon given off is ordered. traveling at an ordered speed, on an ordered path, at an ordered wavelength. so while the sun may be reducing its "local order" it is radiating that order far and wide, via photons, magnetic waves, etc., & that radiated order is creating order in other places.....like earth.
Dr. Brian Cox is the man!
The singular is mitochondrion
Thank you Joe and Brian!
For me the question is less whether physics can explain life, it's more whether it can explain and consciousness
The connection between life and non-life is DNA. DNA is a structure that follows a chemical conservation of structure law. DNA is also information, that is, it acts like information, directing other processes. Lastly DNA ( or more likely its predecessor RNA) had ( given the perfect conditions )a boot--strapping capability that got the whole thing started in the first place. What we call life is DNA's way of conserving itself, kind of like a crystal grows, conserves itself at the edge of the right solution.
William James Sidis has wrote those points in an ild book and with the view if thermodynamics for life and entropy
This is why the recent UAP phenomenon is so mind blowing. How could humans create a technology that breaks so many laws of physics?
It would literally redefine everything we know about EVERYTHING.
What is uap?
The thing about laws of physics is that they can't be broken. If you break what we think is a law of physics - we were wrong, and have to find the actual law of physics that explains it. That doesn't happen often - nearly always these days when someone claims to have broken a law of physics, they didn't, they just misunderstood something.
What I find amazing, is that I, me I , exist on this one world that exists , yet , where are the other places, their must be other places, but, we haven't yet found it
7:20 from my point of view as the milk and the coffee mixes up it becomes more ordered, the same for the universe
The answer is simple. Life is a made up word someone came up with to explain their self experience. Then is was expanded upon. So the answer is whatever we decided it is.
The most important part of the law of entropy from my perspective is "...unless acted upon by an outside force."
Your comment cannot be explained by energy conversion.
Thank you
Every single person knows the meaning of things, its just we cant figure in the regular brain state. Anybody that is experienced enough on using acid, notice that at some point they have answers for any question but forget just after the efect ends. In reality, its not that they forget, its they cant perceive and make sense of the answers the same way of when they are on the drug effects.
Not sure if I'd call infrared radiation less ordered than the full spectrum sunlight. I mean, there is IR in sunlight to begin with, isn't there?
"... being alive certainly feels like more than that" And it is! None of this explains the MIND and how and why we can make that statement in the first place
What if life isn't part of the universe hence why it breaks certain mathematical principles... Like when it comes to life 1+1 is not equal to 2 but it's greater than or equal to 2?
I grew up on Carl Sagan. Brian Cox is the first science explainer who I like BETTER than Carl Sagan.
now you think life and consciousness is two different things
If you really want to understand life. please do not ask physicists or mathematicians but do ask instead a biochemist. There's a very good book by Nick Lane entitled "Transformer: The Deep Chemistry of Life and Death" explaining rather convincingly what "life" is and how it works. And consciousness is the cerebellum "self" enhanced by our cerebral neuronal system. That consciousness is a physical brain function is apparent when anesthesia puts it to sleep. Consciousness is not a separate entity and actually just a higher form of emotions, like your thoughts. Religious casuists have and continue to invoke "consciousness" to refute science.
Well: the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi explains life down to the final detail in his great commentary on the Bhagavad Gita (which is the definitive work of Holy Scripture) and he was a qualified physicist
The domain of science appears to be subject to the influence of a select group whose intellectual perspectives may be questioned. The discourse involving narratives positing a universe emerging from nothingness over billions of years and life originating from non-life is viewed skeptically, as it seemingly lacks coherence.
A more profound comprehension emerges when considering the scientific endeavor as a means of unraveling the intricate tapestry of creation. Within this framework, the exploration extends beyond mere chronicles of cosmic evolution to an inquiry into the intricacies of divine design. Science, as a tool, enables us to fathom the grandeur of the universe, deciphering the interwoven laws governing celestial bodies, quantum particles, and the energies that bind them together.
Great episode!
"All life on earth gets its energy from the sun" (10:43)
Err, I disagree. There is life at great depths of the ocean where photosynthesis is not part of their life or evolution.
They seem to have evolved from chemicals spewing out of hot rocks (and some magic).
I think brian Cox should be starting documentaries on the bbc and im going to cover latino hits on bbc radio six in 20 years time!!!
Life is all about dominating less fortunate people. That’s what we’ve always done and will keep on doing
I do think consciousness is the big question. Sure brains are physical, but how does a mind come of the physical brain matter, and why is there an experience at all?
I mean- yes, life is a catalyst that increases disorder, but disorder is also how you get possibility :3