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00:00Hello, Stephen Hawking here.
00:07I'm afraid I'm in a bit of a bind.
00:12I just got myself captured by an ancient artificial intelligence.
00:18Don't you hate it when that happens?
00:23Still, it's a fascinating place to be.
00:27Artificial intelligence can improve itself much faster than biological evolution.
00:38So, it's highly likely an AI like this one will end up more intelligent than its creators.
00:48Which wasn't great for the civilization that built it.
00:54They perished a long time ago.
01:00My only hope is that this intelligence is now so advanced...
01:04...that it doesn't even recognize me as intelligent at all.
01:10...just as we might regard a bacterium.
01:24Charming.
01:26I always thought human intelligence was so overrated.
01:38Our universe is a troubling place.
01:42But it's not being captured by angry A.I.s that concerns me most.
01:48It's trying to make sense of it all.
01:51I'm determined to find the ultimate answer.
01:57The theory of everything.
02:00If we are as insignificant as that A.I. thought, then there is something very troubling going on.
02:12The universe seems suspiciously well designed to allow us to exist.
02:30Driven by laws of physics, perfectly balanced to allow it to happen.
02:36Worse still, we are able to understand it all.
02:44As Einstein said, the most incomprehensible thing about the universe, is that it's comprehensible.
02:54It's almost like someone designed the universe for us, and then gave us clues on how to understand it.
03:04Let me show you what I mean.
03:24Despite my condition, I have lived a full and exciting life.
03:32I have traveled the world, and seen many wonderful things.
03:39But none quite as impressive as this.
03:52A true cosmic ballet.
03:55Two stars dancing their swan song together.
04:08The smaller one is a white dwarf.
04:11The white tot remains of a stellar core.
04:15It's incredibly dense.
04:18The mass of the sun, crushed into the volume of the earth.
04:22The understar is a red giant.
04:28A dying star in the last stages of stellar evolution.
04:33The white dwarf's immense gravity is dragging matter away from its dancing partner.
04:42Feeding on it.
04:48But as in life, eating too much and dancing on a full stomach, can have terrible end results.
05:00As these mismatched partners twirl ever closer together, the extra matter causes the core of the white dwarf to heat up.
05:10Odd enough to ignite carbon fusion.
05:16At which point it undergoes runaway nuclear fusion.
05:21The tempo of this particular waltz seems to be picking up.
05:27So, I have a feeling inevitable it's about to happen.
05:54That's some real star power.
05:56I'd give them a 9 out of 10.
06:24That wasn't just a fancy finish.
06:29There's a universal truth here too.
06:34If the laws of physics are the same everywhere, which helpfully they are.
06:39Then a white dwarf must always collapse at exactly the same size.
06:47Which allows us to easily spot, and measure, how far away each one is.
06:53It's as if the universe wants us to be able, to measure exactly how big it is.
06:59Thanks to these mesmerizing explosions, we made a stunning discovery.
07:14Our universe is expanding, with ever greater speed.
07:21Accelerating away from us, and no one knows why.
07:26At the outer limits of the universe, our knowledge ends.
07:35When the true search for the theory of everything, begins.
07:39Some people think that the edge simply bleeds into the void.
08:00Stars becoming fewer, further between, until there is nothing but emptiness.
08:06But I'm not so sure.
08:09I think the truth might be far stranger.
08:13But it's going to be a rather long journey to find out.
08:17Although, if one could do the impossible, we might just be able to make the journey bearable.
08:27Let's imagine a warp drive that somehow defeats relativity.
08:34Allowing us to travel at any speed.
08:37At the speed of light, it would take a hundred thousand years to cross just our own galaxy.
08:44None of us has that long to wait.
08:51So let's hit the gas.
08:53Let's crank her up a billion times faster.
09:03That's more like it.
09:04Just under an hour to cross the Milky Way now.
09:07But how long to our nearest galaxy?
09:14At this speed it would take a week and a half.
09:17Which is never going to make for great viewing.
09:22So let's go one hundred times faster still.
09:29A hundred billion times the speed of light.
09:33She's really cooking now.
09:47It'll only take thirteen minutes to get to Andromeda.
09:58But even at this impossible speed, we are hardly making any headway to our destination.
10:10We are like an ant, trying to roarskate across America.
10:17Wherever we look, we see galaxies.
10:25Millions upon millions of them.
10:40Spread out in giant filaments, like some colossal spider's web.
10:47Our universe is truly unimaginably large.
10:48Which goes some way to explain, why it seems so perfectly designed for us.
10:50Our universe is truly unimaginably large.
11:04Which goes some way to explain, why it seems so perfectly designed for us.
11:16If ours is one of billions of solar systems, with planets, it's not surprising that some will contain the right conditions for life.
11:29So while everything in our physical world must be just so, for us to exist, that doesn't mean that Earth was designed just for us.
11:43In fact, it doesn't need to have been designed at all.
11:47But, it's hard to accept that we just happen to live somewhere, that is perfect for life.
11:57Why should humans have won the cosmic lottery?
12:02We best get a move on if we are ever to find out.
12:07Even at this speed it will take almost half a year, to get to the edge of the observable universe.
12:16So it's time to flip the switch, and put this bad boy into ludicrous mode.
12:28Let's go for maximum speed.
12:53At last, we're here.
13:03Behold, the edge of the universe.
13:11I thought as much.
13:15More space.
13:17Lots more space.
13:22It would appear there is no edge, to the universe in the traditional sense.
13:30I don't believe we'd ever reach one either.
13:33Even if we traveled forever in one direction.
13:36Because of the way space-time is folded, it would be like flying around parallel to the inside surface of a bubble.
13:48We'd never get beyond the horizon.
13:50It's not as spectacular here as I was hoping, but it's still one of my favorite places.
14:05Because, it reveals a fundamental fact about our universe.
14:09If it has no edge, then it must be completely self-contained.
14:21And, if that is the case, it opens up some interesting possibilities.
14:26I think there is somewhere we need to go, to test the last part of my theory, and discover why we are here at all.
14:40It's somewhere we've been before.
14:42But, this time we need to look at it from a slightly different scale.
14:53Be infinitely small.
15:1313.8 billion years ago, the universe was smaller than a proton.
15:27And now, so are we.
15:33All that vast amount of space we have just traveled through, and more, is packed inside a tiny point.
15:40Just about to inflate.
15:52At this quantum scale things don't act as you would expect.
15:56They obey the laws of quantum mechanics.
16:01Simply, the probability of one thing happening, versus something else happening.
16:07And, I have a suspicion something truly remarkable is about to happen.
16:20Look.
16:26Not a single self-contained bubble universe.
16:30But now too.
16:37I believe there are an infinite number of universes.
16:52The multiverse.
16:58Some universes will have laws of physics that are different from ours.
17:01In some, inflation may never occur, and they will disappear as quickly as they began.
17:14Others may go on to expand, but they contain no stars or galaxies.
17:20Or even matter to make those things from.
17:22We exist in a perfect understandable universe, because our particular universe was perfect for us to evolve in, and understand.
17:36There is no need for someone to create it for us.
17:40There are infinite others which are not perfect.
17:43And nobody is there to appreciate them.
17:47There are many other universes similar to ours, but with tiny differences.
17:50Other versions of history, where different sets of events occurred.
17:51There are many other universes similar to ours, but with tiny differences.
18:05Other versions of history, where different sets of events occurred.
18:12Everything that can happen does.
18:14Somewhere out there Hillary Clinton is precedent, and I am the world record holder in the marathon.
18:25These alternate histories might be connected by black holes.
18:30If you could pass through one without getting squished, you might come out in another universe altogether.
18:36But from here, it's as easy as picking one and diving in.
18:50Who knows where we'll end up?
19:06Let's jump straight to the present day in this universe.
19:27Incredible.
19:29Another Earth, exactly where I left the last one.
19:37It looks just like ours too.
19:41I wonder what this version of history has in store for us.
19:55So far, so good.
19:58Everything looks the right color.
20:00All though, I'm not picking up any communications.
20:14In fact, I'm not detecting any signs of modern life at all.
20:24Where is everyone?
20:25Where is everyone?
20:29Perhaps humans never evolved here.
20:36I wonder who's in charge now.
20:39Wow.
20:53What on earth was that?
20:56This isn't a forest.
21:00This isn't a forest.
21:09It's a city.
21:12What terrible fate has befallen this society.
21:18I hope a rogue I didn't wipe them out.
21:20Perhaps climate change finally did for agriculture what it did for the ice caps.
21:33Hang on.
21:35I'm picking up a signal.
21:37It's a grid reference.
21:39Looks like somewhere in Egypt.
21:41Where in Egypt.
21:55What on earth?
21:58Some kind of monument.
22:03No, a beacon.
22:04A beacon.
22:07A lighthouse.
22:12But where is it directing me?
22:17Only one way to find out.
22:18Find out.
22:36A welcome party.
22:37A welcome party.
22:42They don't look pleased to see me.
22:45I hope this adventure doesn't end prematurely.
23:04They're hailing me.
23:05That's strange.
23:06It looks a bit like ancient Greek.
23:15Whoever said studying classics was a waste of time.
23:20Who ever said studying classics was a waste of time.
23:42Saved by a dead language.
23:49I wonder where they are escorting me.
23:52I wonder where they are escorting me.
24:10Remarkable.
24:12In this reality humanity has become a stage 5 civilization.
24:18With limitless resources.
24:20And fully spacefaring.
24:25How are they so much more advanced than we are?
24:35New Alexandria.
24:39Incredible.
24:41The library of Alexandria was one of the most significant libraries of the ancient world.
24:49Rumor to have held an unfathomable amount of knowledge for the time.
24:54But, it was destroyed in a fire centuries ago.
25:02Except, perhaps in this reality the great library of Alexandria never burnt down.
25:08Knowledge from the ancient Greeks flowed in a straight line through to the modern day.
25:18My love of books made me who I am.
25:21And now, they have saved the earth.
25:23This, for me, is the best of all possible worlds.
25:24A perfect future for humanity.
25:25I believe that we live in an infinite universe, cradled within the multiverse.
25:26Full of possibility.
25:27Full of possibility.
25:28Full of possibility.
25:29This, for me, is the best of all possible worlds.
25:31This, for me, is the best of all possible worlds.
25:33A perfect future for humanity.
25:36I believe that we live in an infinite universe, cradled within the multiverse.
25:53Full of possibility.
25:54Full of possibility.
26:01In life, we cannot determine the cards we are dealt, nor blame others for them.
26:10Some of us might draw an unlucky hand.
26:17But the path we choose is our own.
26:19If we aim high, and work hard, then any future is possible.
26:30Give you this one.
26:31descchtecrow in action
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26:59Transcription by CastingWords