For assignment number six I watched a Ted Talk that I found to be very interesting. The speaker was writer and philosopher Jim Holt and the subject, of the video was titled "Why Does The Universe Exist?" Throughout the presentation Holt gave examples on various view points that groups of people have on the origins and overall meaning of the universe, including views from the Christian, Buddhist and scientific perspectives. From a creationist standpoint the universe is designed from top to bottom by a higher power (God) creating everything from essentially nothing where everything has a purpose. The Buddhist viewpoint is almost the opposite where the world and existence mean nothing, basically saying that there is no purpose in wondering about existence. The third viewpoint touched on was from the scientific perspective that many scientist have of big bang like theories. He criticizes them as being pseudo religious in the fact that they believe that certain physical laws hold enough power to create everything out of an abyss of nothing, comparing it to a let there be light scenario.
He later went on to explain the theory of multiverses. Two version of this were touched on but the main one was of the possibility of there being an infinite number of universes that are governed by different laws of physics and chemistry forming somewhat exotic realities. He also mentioned how he disagreed with many scientist who speculate that our own universe is among the possible exotic ones, as he believes are universe to be sloppy with useless particles and elements, unbalanced mass ratios and unexplainable phenomena like dark matter. In the end the title question doesn't really get answered but there is a point that is made. Holt says we have hit a cosmic lottery to be here yet our reality is mediocre. He believes that our "mediocre reality" is whats gives us a beings purpose because living in a perfect reality where everything is possible makes choices and morals meaningless. He sums it up in the end basically saying that our reality comes with "good bits" and "bad bits which drives us to make the good bits bigger and the "bad bits" smaller thus giving us purpose.
In my opinion the end point was a little anti-climatic ending with a weird "I've never had a cell phone." joke but overall I found the speech very fascinating. There were no visual props or slides used here as the content of the speech really didn't require much in the way of visualization. Humor on the other hand was used throughout which I thought worked in very well. The pacing was also great as the speaker was able to touch on various things like the contrast between two religious extremes of the same idea, and the concept of multiverses in a concise enough manner that I never felt bored or like the presentation ran on too long. If I were asked to choose between the ideas presented here I would be in favor of the multiverse theory. To clarify my choice isn't the version that says that there is an infinite number universes that exist based on the decisions or events an individual experiences. The idea that I preferred was the one that stated that there were a infinite number of universes governed by different laws. Overall this Ted talk definitely sparked my interest in the idea of multiverses and in watching more Ted talks in the future as most of the topics look very interesting.
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