Sean Carroll

Sorry.

Well, I'm actually there to understand the universe.

I think that the common thing within natural philosophy is we're not studying the process of science or anything like that.

We're studying nature.

We're studying reality.

But there's a way of doing it

that is kind of foundational, that takes a step back.

Look, physicists, bless their hearts.

You've met physicists, Neil.

I know this.

That's how it goes.

I started the book by saying, you do not need a PhD in theoretical physics to be afraid of quantum mechanics, but it doesn't hurt.

And physicists don't want to dig into the deep questions about quantum mechanics.

They want to calculate their differential equations.

Shut up and calculate.

And that's the opposite of what I like to do myself.

So the philosophers humor me on that.

Yeah, absolutely.

Just like it drove professors Einstein and Schrodinger back in the day.

But there was this consensus that developed in the 1920s and 30s by physicists where, like you say, we have some equations, we can solve them, we can calculate them, we can make predictions.