March 9, 2023 • 6 mins
Clairsy & Lisa speak to Professor Brian Greene about his new show coming to Perth's Astor Theatre called The Twilight of Time, which among other topics, explores the beginning of time through to science's best guess at how it all, y'know, ends.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Professor Brian Green is a world renowned theoretical physicist, and
you can catch his show The Twilight of Time at
the ASTA Theater at the end of the month March
thirty tickets through ticketek and he's joining us this morning.
Good morning, Professor Green, good to see you. Tell us
about your show. How does it work?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Well, I take the audience from the beginning of time
through all the developments that lead to stars and galaxies
and planets and people, and then we turn our attention
to the future and we see what science tells us
about our best guess for how it all ends. So
it's from the beginning of time to the end of time.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
It sounds like a long shown.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yes, yeah, it's about one hundred ten of the one
hundred years or so we'll cover.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
Yeah, I'll compress it. I'll compress it. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Yeah, like I'm sure you do it dinner parties.
Speaker 5 (00:51):
I'm sure people ask you very profound questions and you've
tried to abbreviate and put them in Layman's terones.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
That's the goal, you know, I mean, these questions are
are questions that people care about because we all want
to know where we came from. We all want to
know how all things are going to end up. We
want to know whether the things that we do are
going to last or they all going to just disintegrate
into oblivion.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Does anything matter?
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Right?
Speaker 1 (01:16):
What is the one question that people ask you most
at dinner parties lately?
Speaker 4 (01:21):
It's been, for whatever reason, what happened before the Big Bang?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Okay, you know?
Speaker 4 (01:28):
And the answer is, I don't know. My guess is good,
but we have some ideas. But we have some ideas.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
It could be that there's no conception before the Big Bang,
because maybe time itself begins at the Big Bang, and
so the very notion of before is meaningless as one possibility.
Or perhaps our universe is one of many universes. Maybe
there are other Big Bangs that happen at distant and
bar flown locations, And maybe the universe has been around,
(01:58):
maybe forever, and it's only our part of it that
began with the Big Bang.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Yeah, there is a chance for people to ask questions
at the show. Have you what have you ever been
asked a question that just really threw you? You thought,
where did that one come from?
Speaker 4 (02:13):
It's never ever happened.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
You can't throw Professor Gray, no way.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
You know, if you ask me like why why did
you two you know, when whatever the nineteen eighty seven
grammy everything, that would be tough for me to answer. No,
I mean they're great, that's the answer.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
That's the answer to that question.
Speaker 5 (02:31):
Yeah, what about the state of the planet right now
and its inhabitants? So we selfish to go off and
find our little pockets of joy, you know, because that's
what we often do these days.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
It's what we often do, and I think that's what
evolution has certainly propelled us to do. It's one of
the things that motivates us to go forward, that there
are moments of joy and happiness and love at the
same time.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
We need to have a larger perspective, at least a
global perspective. But the point of my show is to
give us a.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Cosmic perspective, the largest view. And when you do take
that perspective, I think he can have an impact on
how you behaved because you thinks you see things in
a larger landscape and that changes your value system.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
We were really over overly curious kid. I mean, did
little Brian ever take it face value anything his teachers
or parents told him, or was he like, yeah, Bob.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Yeah, well I try not to be too irritating, but
curious that I was, Yeah, I was curious. Actually, mathematics
is what really fascinated me as a kid, that you
can learn a little bit of these operations and then
do calculations that nobody has ever done before. So I
was the kind of kid who would spend a Saturday
afternoon multiplying thirty digit numbers by thirty digit numbers on
(03:47):
big pieces of paper.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
So yeah, there were some odd things perhaps that.
Speaker 5 (03:50):
I did, but it chose. We've seen a couple of
comedians be heckled lately here. Have you ever had someone
Maybe not, you've had questions that haven't thrown you, But
I have been heckled from an order it's members that
happened to the show.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
Oh yeah for sure, Yeah, oh absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
I mean they're those who say, like I believe that
all we are are collections of particles governed by laws
of physics that every so often come together into an
organized pattern that we call a human being that happens
to have a human brain.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
But that's all that we are. There's nothing beyond that.
And there are many people who find that.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Perspective either hard to accept or downright, you know, sacrilegious.
And my point is to try to integrate this perspective
with the things that give us meaning, that give us purpose.
This doesn't mean the universe is purposeless. It just means
you need to look at it in a different way
than perhaps our ancestors did a few thousand years ago.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Right at what stage in your life does one think,
you know what, I think, I'm going to be a
theoretical physicist.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
Yeah, like for me, it's yeah, definitely, Yeah, I was.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
I was. I was in twelfth grade, and again I
said I was a math kid. But then in twelfth
grade I realized from taking physics that math could tell
you about the world. I mean, imagine the power of
sitting down and doing a calculation and looking at your
window and like verifying that the math was true by
what you see out there in the world that way.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
And what about downtime for your professor?
Speaker 5 (05:28):
Is it do you hang out with other physicists or
mathematicians or is it time with family and just to
chill out and get away from these big thoughts.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Yeah, it's funny downtime. I'm not even sure what it
means any longer. I'm either writing articles or writing books,
or doing calculations or going on lecture tours.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
It seems to never end.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
But for me, I don't really draw a sharp distinction
between work and life. To me, they're all blended together,
and certainly in there my family is the top most
thing that really I put my energy into, so that
certainly is distinct, but otherwise it's all part of one
big mass.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
I think that's an awesome attitude.
Speaker 5 (06:07):
I like that.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
I think everyone should do that. You can catch Professor
Brian Green the Twilight of Time at the ASTA Theater
on March thirty. Get your tickets through ticket Tech. Thank
you for joining us this morning, Brian, Professor.
Speaker 5 (06:19):
Posy, thank you, Thanks bub We've got to get you
to stick around for a you two quiz, but we've
played that one for out of time.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
All of this.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Thanks
Professor Brian Green is a world renowned theoretical physicist, and
you can catch his show The Twilight of Time at
the ASTA Theater at the end of the month March
thirty tickets through ticketek and he's joining us this morning.
Good morning, Professor Green, good to see you. Tell us
about your show. How does it work?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Well, I take the audience from the beginning of time
through all the developments that lead to stars and galaxies
and planets and people, and then we turn our attention
to the future and we see what science tells us
about our best guess for how it all ends. So
it's from the beginning of time to the end of time.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
It sounds like a long shown.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yes, yeah, it's about one hundred ten of the one
hundred years or so we'll cover.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
Yeah, I'll compress it. I'll compress it. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Yeah, like I'm sure you do it dinner parties.
Speaker 5 (00:51):
I'm sure people ask you very profound questions and you've
tried to abbreviate and put them in Layman's terones.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
That's the goal, you know, I mean, these questions are
are questions that people care about because we all want
to know where we came from. We all want to
know how all things are going to end up. We
want to know whether the things that we do are
going to last or they all going to just disintegrate
into oblivion.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Does anything matter?
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Right?
Speaker 1 (01:16):
What is the one question that people ask you most
at dinner parties lately?
Speaker 4 (01:21):
It's been, for whatever reason, what happened before the Big Bang?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Okay, you know?
Speaker 4 (01:28):
And the answer is, I don't know. My guess is good,
but we have some ideas. But we have some ideas.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
It could be that there's no conception before the Big Bang,
because maybe time itself begins at the Big Bang, and
so the very notion of before is meaningless as one possibility.
Or perhaps our universe is one of many universes. Maybe
there are other Big Bangs that happen at distant and
bar flown locations, And maybe the universe has been around,
(01:58):
maybe forever, and it's only our part of it that
began with the Big Bang.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Yeah, there is a chance for people to ask questions
at the show. Have you what have you ever been
asked a question that just really threw you? You thought,
where did that one come from?
Speaker 4 (02:13):
It's never ever happened.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
You can't throw Professor Gray, no way.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
You know, if you ask me like why why did
you two you know, when whatever the nineteen eighty seven
grammy everything, that would be tough for me to answer. No,
I mean they're great, that's the answer.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
That's the answer to that question.
Speaker 5 (02:31):
Yeah, what about the state of the planet right now
and its inhabitants? So we selfish to go off and
find our little pockets of joy, you know, because that's
what we often do these days.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
It's what we often do, and I think that's what
evolution has certainly propelled us to do. It's one of
the things that motivates us to go forward, that there
are moments of joy and happiness and love at the
same time.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
We need to have a larger perspective, at least a
global perspective. But the point of my show is to
give us a.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Cosmic perspective, the largest view. And when you do take
that perspective, I think he can have an impact on
how you behaved because you thinks you see things in
a larger landscape and that changes your value system.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
We were really over overly curious kid. I mean, did
little Brian ever take it face value anything his teachers
or parents told him, or was he like, yeah, Bob.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Yeah, well I try not to be too irritating, but
curious that I was, Yeah, I was curious. Actually, mathematics
is what really fascinated me as a kid, that you
can learn a little bit of these operations and then
do calculations that nobody has ever done before. So I
was the kind of kid who would spend a Saturday
afternoon multiplying thirty digit numbers by thirty digit numbers on
(03:47):
big pieces of paper.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
So yeah, there were some odd things perhaps that.
Speaker 5 (03:50):
I did, but it chose. We've seen a couple of
comedians be heckled lately here. Have you ever had someone
Maybe not, you've had questions that haven't thrown you, But
I have been heckled from an order it's members that
happened to the show.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
Oh yeah for sure, Yeah, oh absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
I mean they're those who say, like I believe that
all we are are collections of particles governed by laws
of physics that every so often come together into an
organized pattern that we call a human being that happens
to have a human brain.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
But that's all that we are. There's nothing beyond that.
And there are many people who find that.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Perspective either hard to accept or downright, you know, sacrilegious.
And my point is to try to integrate this perspective
with the things that give us meaning, that give us purpose.
This doesn't mean the universe is purposeless. It just means
you need to look at it in a different way
than perhaps our ancestors did a few thousand years ago.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Right at what stage in your life does one think,
you know what, I think, I'm going to be a
theoretical physicist.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
Yeah, like for me, it's yeah, definitely, Yeah, I was.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
I was. I was in twelfth grade, and again I
said I was a math kid. But then in twelfth
grade I realized from taking physics that math could tell
you about the world. I mean, imagine the power of
sitting down and doing a calculation and looking at your
window and like verifying that the math was true by
what you see out there in the world that way.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
And what about downtime for your professor?
Speaker 5 (05:28):
Is it do you hang out with other physicists or
mathematicians or is it time with family and just to
chill out and get away from these big thoughts.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Yeah, it's funny downtime. I'm not even sure what it
means any longer. I'm either writing articles or writing books,
or doing calculations or going on lecture tours.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
It seems to never end.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
But for me, I don't really draw a sharp distinction
between work and life. To me, they're all blended together,
and certainly in there my family is the top most
thing that really I put my energy into, so that
certainly is distinct, but otherwise it's all part of one
big mass.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
I think that's an awesome attitude.
Speaker 5 (06:07):
I like that.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
I think everyone should do that. You can catch Professor
Brian Green the Twilight of Time at the ASTA Theater
on March thirty. Get your tickets through ticket Tech. Thank
you for joining us this morning, Brian, Professor.
Speaker 5 (06:19):
Posy, thank you, Thanks bub We've got to get you
to stick around for a you two quiz, but we've
played that one for out of time.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
All of this.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Thanks
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