Don Lincoln: uncertainty

Transcript context

…Speaking of which, string theory is the thing you’re referring to. So string theory posits that particles are tiny vibrating strings, and by tiny we mean extremely tiny at the scale of a Planck length. Then there’s other leading candidates like loop quantum gravity. Maybe there’s some alternate theories in the works. So can you link on that a little bit more? Do you think a theory of everything exists? So I hold personally that there are rules that govern matter and energy, space, time, and they probably are rules that I don’t know. There are probably phenomena I’m not aware of. But I do believe that something, there are, is a rule that governs reality. And so in that sense, once we understand the rules that govern reality, the fundamental rules, that would be a theory of everything. You know, there are things that are unknowable, like for instance, inside black holes, we don’t know what’s inside there, but that doesn’t mean that there’s not something inside there. So there’s a distinction between what we can know and truth. So I do believe that there are the rules, and I do believe that with sufficient time, technology, effort, we will be able to figure this all out. Now, this isn’t a thing in my lifetime. It’s not a thing in my grandchildren’s lifetime or even their grandchildren’s lifetime. Whoa, whoa, whoa. That’s a pretty strong statement, right? That’s a pretty strong statement saying we’re fifty to a hundred years out from finding a theory of everything.…

Stored transcript either side of the excerpt. The highlighted words are the published quote; the surrounding text is unedited source, never generated.