TED2019
David Deutsch: After billions of years of monotony, the universe is waking up
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Theoretical physicist David Deutsch delivers a mind-bending meditation on the "great monotony" -- the idea that nothing novel has appeared in the universe for billions of years -- and shows how humanity's capacity to create explanatory knowledge could be the thing that bucks this trend. "Humans are not playthings of cosmic forces," he says. "We are users of cosmic forces."
David Deutsch - Quantum physicist
David Deutsch's 1997 book "The Fabric of Reality" laid the groundwork for an all-encompassing Theory of Everything, and galvanized interest in the idea of a quantum computer, which could solve problems of hitherto unimaginable complexity. Full bio
David Deutsch's 1997 book "The Fabric of Reality" laid the groundwork for an all-encompassing Theory of Everything, and galvanized interest in the idea of a quantum computer, which could solve problems of hitherto unimaginable complexity. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:12
I'm thrilled to be talking to you
by this high-tech method.
by this high-tech method.
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Of all humans who have ever lived,
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the overwhelming majority
would have found what we are doing here
would have found what we are doing here
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incomprehensible, unbelievable.
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Because, for thousands of centuries,
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in the dark time
before the scientific revolution
before the scientific revolution
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and the Enlightenment,
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people had low expectations.
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For their lives,
for their descendants' lives.
for their descendants' lives.
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Typically, they expected
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nothing significantly new
or better to be achieved, ever.
or better to be achieved, ever.
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This pessimism
famously appears in the Bible,
famously appears in the Bible,
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in one of the few biblical passages
with a named author.
with a named author.
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He's called Qohelet,
he's an enigmatic chap.
he's an enigmatic chap.
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He wrote, "What has been is what will be,
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and what has been done
is what will be done;
is what will be done;
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there is nothing new under the sun."
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Is there of which it is said,
"Look, this is new."
"Look, this is new."
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No, that thing was already done
in the ages that came before us.
in the ages that came before us.
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Qohelet was describing a world
without novelty.
without novelty.
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By novelty I mean something new
in Qohelet's sense,
in Qohelet's sense,
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not merely something that's changed,
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but a significant change
with lasting effects,
with lasting effects,
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where people really would say,
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"Look, this is new,"
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and, preferably, "good."
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So, purely random changes aren't novelty.
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OK, Heraclitus did say
a man can't step in the same river twice,
a man can't step in the same river twice,
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because it's not the same river,
he's not the same man.
he's not the same man.
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But if the river is changing randomly,
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it really is the same river.
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In contrast,
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if an idea in a mind
spreads to other minds,
spreads to other minds,
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and changes lives for generations,
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that is novelty.
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Human life without novelty
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is life without creativity,
without progress.
without progress.
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It's a static society, a zero-sum game.
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That was the living hell
in which Qohelet lived.
in which Qohelet lived.
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Like everyone, until a few centuries ago.
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It was hell, because for humans,
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suffering is intimately
related to staticity.
related to staticity.
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Because staticity isn't just frustrating.
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All sources of suffering --
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famine, pandemics, incoming asteroids,
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and things like war and slavery,
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hurt people only until we have created
the knowledge to prevent them.
the knowledge to prevent them.
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There's a story in Somerset Maugham's
novel "Of Human Bondage"
novel "Of Human Bondage"
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about an ancient sage
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who summarizes the entire
history of mankind as,
history of mankind as,
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"He was born,
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he suffered and he died."
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And it goes on:
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"Life was insignificant
and death without consequence."
and death without consequence."
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And indeed, the overwhelming majority
of humans who have ever lived
of humans who have ever lived
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had lives of suffering and grueling labor,
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before dying young and in agony.
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And yes, in most generations
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nothing had any novel consequence
for subsequent generations.
for subsequent generations.
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Nevertheless, when ancient people
tried to explain their condition,
tried to explain their condition,
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they typically did so
in grandiose cosmic terms.
in grandiose cosmic terms.
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Which was the right thing to do,
as it turns out.
as it turns out.
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Even though their actual
explanations, their myths,
explanations, their myths,
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were largely false.
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Some tried to explain
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the grimness and monotony of their world
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in terms of an endless cosmic war
between good and evil,
between good and evil,
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in which humans were the battleground.
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Which neatly explained why their own
experience was full of suffering,
experience was full of suffering,
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and why progress never happened.
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But it wasn't true.
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Amazingly enough,
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all their conflict and suffering
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were just due to the way
they processed ideas.
they processed ideas.
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Being satisfied with dogma,
and just-so stories,
and just-so stories,
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rather than criticizing them
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and trying to guess better explanations
of the world and of their own condition.
of the world and of their own condition.
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Twentieth-century physics
did create better explanations,
did create better explanations,
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but still in terms of a cosmic war.
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This time, the combatants
were order and chaos, or entropy.
were order and chaos, or entropy.
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That story does allow
for hope for the future.
for hope for the future.
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But in another way,
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it's even bleaker than the ancient myths,
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because the villain, entropy,
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is preordained to have the final victory,
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when the inexorable laws of thermodynamics
shut down all novelty
shut down all novelty
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with the so-called
heat death of the universe.
heat death of the universe.
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Currently, there's a story
of a local battle in that war,
of a local battle in that war,
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between sustainability, which is order,
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and wastefulness, which is chaos --
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that's the contemporary take
on good and evil,
on good and evil,
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often with the added twist
that humans are the evil,
that humans are the evil,
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so we shouldn't even try to win.
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And recently,
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there have been tales
of another cosmic war,
of another cosmic war,
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between gravity,
which collapses the universe,
which collapses the universe,
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and dark energy, which finally shreds it.
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So this time,
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whichever of those cosmic forces wins,
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we lose.
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All those pessimistic accounts
of the human condition
of the human condition
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contain some truth,
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but as prophecies,
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they're all misleading,
and all for the same reason.
and all for the same reason.
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None of them portrays humans
as what we really are.
as what we really are.
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As Jacob Bronowski said,
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"Man is not a figure in the landscape --
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he is the shaper of the landscape."
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In other words,
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humans are not playthings
of cosmic forces,
of cosmic forces,
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we are users of cosmic forces.
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I'll say more about that in a moment,
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but first, what sorts
of thing create novelty?
of thing create novelty?
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Well, the beginning
of the universe surely did.
of the universe surely did.
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The big bang, nearly 14 billion years ago,
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created space, time and energy,
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everything physical.
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And then, immediately,
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what I call the first era of novelty,
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with the first atom, the first star,
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the first black hole,
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the first galaxy.
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But then, at some point,
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novelty vanished from the universe.
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Perhaps from as early
as 12 or 13 billion years ago,
as 12 or 13 billion years ago,
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right up to the present day,
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there's never been any new kind
of astronomical object.
of astronomical object.
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There's only been what I call
the great monotony.
the great monotony.
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So, Qohelet was accidentally
even more right
even more right
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about the universe beyond the Sun
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than he was about under the Sun.
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So long as the great monotony lasts,
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what has been out there
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really is what will be.
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And there is nothing out there
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of which it can truly be said,
"Look, this is new."
"Look, this is new."
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Nevertheless,
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at some point during the great monotony,
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there was an event --
inconsequential at the time,
inconsequential at the time,
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and even billions of years later,
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it had affected nothing
beyond its home planet --
beyond its home planet --
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yet eventually, it could cause
cosmically momentous novelty.
cosmically momentous novelty.
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That event was the origin of life:
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creating the first genetic knowledge,
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coding for biological adaptations,
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coding for novelty.
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On Earth, it utterly
transformed the surface.
transformed the surface.
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Genes in the DNA
of single-celled organisms
of single-celled organisms
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put oxygen in the air,
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extracted CO2,
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put chalk and iron ore into the ground,
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hardly a cubic inch of the surface
to some depth has remained unaffected
to some depth has remained unaffected
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by those genes.
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The Earth became,
if not a novel place on the cosmic scale,
if not a novel place on the cosmic scale,
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certainly a weird one.
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Just as an example, beyond Earth,
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only a few hundred different
chemical substances have been detected.
chemical substances have been detected.
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Presumably, there are some more
in lifeless locations,
in lifeless locations,
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but on Earth,
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evolution created billions
of different chemicals.
of different chemicals.
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And then the first plants, animals,
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and then, in some ancestor
species of ours,
species of ours,
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explanatory knowledge.
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For the first time in the universe,
for all we know.
for all we know.
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Explanatory knowledge
is the defining adaptation of our species.
is the defining adaptation of our species.
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It differs from
the nonexplanatory knowledge
the nonexplanatory knowledge
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in DNA, for instance,
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by being universal.
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That is to say,
whatever can be understood,
whatever can be understood,
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can be understood
through explanatory knowledge.
through explanatory knowledge.
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And more, any physical process
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can be controlled by such knowledge,
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limited only by the laws of physics.
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And so, explanatory knowledge, too,
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has begun to transform
the Earth's surface.
the Earth's surface.
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And soon, the Earth will become
the only known object in the universe
the only known object in the universe
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that turns aside incoming asteroids
instead of attracting them.
instead of attracting them.
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Qohelet was understandably misled
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by the painful slowness
of progress in his day.
of progress in his day.
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Novelty in human life
was still too rare, too gradual,
was still too rare, too gradual,
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to be noticed in one generation.
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And in the biosphere,
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the evolution of novel species
was even slower.
was even slower.
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But both things were happening.
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Now, why is there a great monotony
in the universe at large,
in the universe at large,
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and what makes our planet buck that trend?
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Well, the universe at large
is relatively simple.
is relatively simple.
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Stars are so simple
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that we can predict their behavior
billions of years into the future,
billions of years into the future,
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and retrodict how they formed
billions of years ago.
billions of years ago.
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So why is the universe simple?
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Basically, it's because big,
massive, powerful things
massive, powerful things
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strongly affect lesser things,
and not vice versa.
and not vice versa.
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I call that the hierarchy rule.
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For example, when a comet hits the Sun,
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the Sun carries on just as before,
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but the comet is vaporized.
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For the same reason,
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big things are not much affected
by small parts of themselves,
by small parts of themselves,
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i.e., by details.
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Which means that their overall behavior
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is simple.
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And since nothing very new
can happen to things
can happen to things
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that remain simple,
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the hierarchy rule,
by causing large-scale simplicity,
by causing large-scale simplicity,
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has caused the great monotony.
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But, the saving grace is
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the hierarchy rule is not a law of nature.
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It just happens to have held
so far in the universe,
so far in the universe,
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except here.
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In our biosphere,
molecule-sized objects, genes,
molecule-sized objects, genes,
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control vastly disproportionate resources.
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The first genes for photosynthesis,
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by causing their own proliferation,
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and then transforming
the surface of the planet,
the surface of the planet,
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have violated or reversed
the hierarchy rule
the hierarchy rule
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by the mind-blowing factor
of 10 to the power 40.
of 10 to the power 40.
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Explanatory knowledge
is potentially far more powerful
is potentially far more powerful
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because of universality,
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and more rapidly created.
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When human knowledge
has achieved a factor 10 to the 40,
has achieved a factor 10 to the 40,
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it will pretty much control
the entire galaxy,
the entire galaxy,
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and will be looking beyond.
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So humans,
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and any other explanation creators
who may exist out there,
who may exist out there,
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are the ultimate agents
of novelty for the universe.
of novelty for the universe.
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We are the reason and the means
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by which novelty and creativity,
knowledge, progress,
knowledge, progress,
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can have objective,
large-scale physical effects.
large-scale physical effects.
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From the human perspective,
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the only alternative
to that living hell of static societies
to that living hell of static societies
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is continual creation of new ideas,
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behaviors, new kinds of objects.
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This robot will soon be obsolete,
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because of new explanatory
knowledge, progress.
knowledge, progress.
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But from the cosmic perspective,
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explanatory knowledge
is the nemesis of the hierarchy rule.
is the nemesis of the hierarchy rule.
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It's the destroyer of the great monotony.
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So it's the creator
of the next cosmological era,
of the next cosmological era,
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the Anthropocene.
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If one can speak of a cosmic war,
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it's not the one portrayed
in those pessimistic stories.
in those pessimistic stories.
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It's a war between monotony and novelty,
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between stasis and creativity.
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And in this war,
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our side is not destined to lose.
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If we choose to apply our unique
capacity to create explanatory knowledge,
capacity to create explanatory knowledge,
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we could win.
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Thanks.
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(Applause)
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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
David Deutsch - Quantum physicistDavid Deutsch's 1997 book "The Fabric of Reality" laid the groundwork for an all-encompassing Theory of Everything, and galvanized interest in the idea of a quantum computer, which could solve problems of hitherto unimaginable complexity.
Why you should listen
David Deutsch will force you to reconsider your place in the world. This legendary Oxford physicist is the leading proponent of the multiverse (or "many worlds") interpretation of quantum theory -- the idea that our universe is constantly spawning countless numbers of parallel worlds.
In his own words: "Everything in our universe -- including you and me, every atom and every galaxy -- has counterparts in these other universes." If that doesn't alter your consciousness, then the other implications he's derived from his study of subatomic physics -- including the possibility of time travel -- just might.
In The Fabric of Reality, Deutsch tied together quantum mechanics, evolution, a rationalist approach to knowledge, and a theory of computation based on the work of Alan Turing. "Our best theories are not only truer than common sense, they make more sense than common sense,"Deutsch wrote, and he continues to explore the most mind-bending aspects of particle physics.
In 2008, he became a member of the Royal Society of London.
David Deutsch | Speaker | TED.com