יום ב' 16.04.2007, 18:00 - 20:00
חדר 449 בנין גילמן

במסגרת קולוקוויום בר הילל

Professor Leonard Susskind,
Department of Physics, Stanford University


The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory
 and the Illusion of Intelligent Design

Commentator: Professor Dr. Alon Drori, Afeka College

התכנסות לקפה וכיבוד קל בשעה 17:30, ליד חדר 449
ההרצאה תינתן בשפה האנגלית!

 

This talk addresses the question of Intelligent Design and the Anthropic Principle from the vantage point of current insights provided by physics and cosmology. The cosmological constant is a highly unlikely value which is very close to zero and no one has found an explanation of its very existence. Weinberg suggested in 1987 that unless this constant existed and had this particular value, there would be no universe and no intelligent observers to calculate it. This idea was originally rejected by most scientists, but recent developments in String Theory suggest that perhaps there are good reasons to reconsider it in a more positive light.

Without dismissing the designer hypothesis offhand, one can try to work out how it could be consistent with the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, and what interactions would have to exist between the designer and the rest of the universe. Still, it turns out that there are real difficulties when trying to make the hypothesis consistent with Quantum Mechanics.

 

פרופ' מנחם פיש , יו"ר