Legendary physicist David Deutsch on our place in the cosmos

[disappoint]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQliI_WGaGk

Below are the quotes at TED.com and Wikipedia.com about David Deutsch

Legendary scientist David Deutsch puts theoretical physics on the back burner to discuss a more urgent matter: the survival of our species. The first step toward solving global warming, he says, is to admit that we have a problem. -TED.com

David Deutsch laid the foundations of the quantum theory of computation, and has subsequently made or participated in many of the most important advances in the field, including the discovery of the first quantum algorithms, the theory of quantum logic gates and quantum computational networks, the first quantum error-correction scheme, and several fundamental quantum universality results. He has set the agenda for worldwide research efforts in this new, interdisciplinary field, made progress in understanding its philosophical implications (via a variant of the many-universes interpretation) and made it comprehensible to the general public, notably in his book The Fabric of Reality. -Wikipedia.com

I found this very interesting and I urge you to make the time to listen to all of it. If you're anything me you love physics and our understanding of it's beauty and elegance so far. This isn't exactly a political discussion but Highly Technical just doesn't get the right amount or quality of attention as can be seen in this thread derailed by a 911 truther troll:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2089991&highlight=murray+gell+mann

So the other point I want to make is a call to ignore trolls and religious nuts. In other words, if someone tries to derail discussions, and I see this on YouTube as well as here sometimes, to ignore their comments rather than engage them. Now if someone wants to make a joke that is fine by me, and even welcome. I do that myself sometimes and it's fine. But when someone is being completely obtuse I just find it better to ignore them and move on to address more on topic discussions rather than get pulled down to their level as in that example thread discussing Murray Gell-Mann's Beauty and Truth in Physics.

Thanks for watching and I welcome discussion on the topic and can't wait to hear what you think of it.

 

[Icepick]

This is a good video. Thanks for sharing it. I found it reassuring in that the speaker is confident that we can solve any problems with the appropriate knowledge at hand. For example, at this point we can not expect to reduce green house gas emission to the point where the adverse effects of global warming will be prevented. Instead we should research ways to make ourselves more resilient to the changes that will almost surely take place.
"Problems are solvable. Problems are inevitable."

 

[Jadow]

ohh jeez, another lib scientist jerking off at the altar of global warming. creditability fail.

 

[disappoint]

This is a good video. Thanks for sharing it. I found it reassuring in that the speaker is confident that we can solve any problems with the appropriate knowledge at hand. For example, at this point we can not expect to reduce green house gas emission to the point where the adverse effects of global warming will be prevented. Instead we should research ways to make ourselves more resilient to the changes that will almost surely take place.
"Problems are solvable. Problems are inevitable."

You're welcome. Thanks for sharing your take on the video. Yes as you pointed out I think his opinion is that reduction in greenhouse gas emissions would just "kick the can down the road" to use a figure of speech for only a little while, and is not actually a solution to the problem. Rather use technology to reduce global temperatures or to live in a warmer climate comfortably.