WEBVTT

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(pensive music)

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(tires on gravel)

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(bird and insect sounds)

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My name is Alan Lightman.

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I'm a scientist and a writer.

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(car door opens)

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(insects chirping)

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(door closes )

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My family has a home on
a small island in Maine.

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(pensive music)

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The island has no roads or bridges

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and there's no ferry service.

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(switch clicking)

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(pensive music)

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One summer night, in the wee hours,

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I was coming back to
the island in my boat.

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(boat engine hums)

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I was alone on the water.

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(pensive music)

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I was captivated by the quiet

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and the stars overhead.

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(pensive music)

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I decided to turn off the engine.

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(anchor splashes)

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(switch clicks)

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I lay down in the boat and looked up.

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(pensive music)

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After a few moments,

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my world dissolved into
that star-littered sky.

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(music swells)

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The boat disappeared, my body disappeared,

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and I found myself falling into infinity.

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(uplifting music)

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(waves crash)

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(birds chirping)

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I felt as if I were part of the stars.

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(uplifting music)

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I was merging with something
much larger than myself.

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(rain pattering)

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(uplifting music)

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And the vast expanse of time

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extending from the far distant
past long before I was born

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and then into the far distant future

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long after I'll be gone

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seemed compressed to a dot.

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(lightning crack and uplifting music)

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What was happening to me?

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(uplifting music)

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As a scientist,

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I used to think that everything
could be reduced to numbers.

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(uplifting music)

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But at that moment in the boat,

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I believe you could have hooked
up every neuron in my brain

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to a giant computer,

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and all of that data

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wouldn't have come close to
explaining my experience.

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(uplifting music)

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(boat engine revving)

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After a time, I sat up and
started the engine again.

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(boat engine whirring)

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And so began my personal journey

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to understand how these
different worlds relate:

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the world of atoms and molecules

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and the world of complex
human experiences.

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In a material and impermanent
cosmos, in the age of science,

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what is it that has meaning,
and how can we find it?

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(music fades)

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I'll confess.

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I'm still a materialist.

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(ethereal music)

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I continue to believe that
the universe is made of atoms

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and nothing more.

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(thoughtful music)

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But how could a thing made
of atoms and only atoms

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feel what I felt in that
boat looking up at the stars?

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(music)

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Or be entranced on misty mornings

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when the air shimmers with light?

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(somber music)

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Or feel part of ancient Earth

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when looking out over the ocean?

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(bird call)

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(water splash)

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(mellow piano)

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(gentle waves)

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I've always loved the ocean.

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My grandparents had a beach house.

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And when I was a young
boy, I went for a visit.

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(mellow music)

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One evening, I walked out on a pier

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and I took a stick and
waved it in the water.

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(water sloshing)

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The ocean started glowing.

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I was totally mesmerized.

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(mellow music)

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I thought this was pure magic.

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I scooped up the water and
shouted to my grandparents

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that I had discovered something fantastic.

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After the water settled,

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I saw tiny bugs swimming around,

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and I realized that this magical glowing

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was coming from these little
creatures in the water.

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(uplifting music)

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I was a little disappointed,
but I also thought,

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"Wow, nature is capable of
some pretty amazing stuff."

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At the same time,

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I saw the material cause
of that amazing stuff.

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(clock ticking)

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What does it mean that our
world is just material,

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and that everything follows
the laws of cause and effect?

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(compelling music)

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Is the world just one giant clock,

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wind it up and it ticks away,
one cog linking to another?

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(clock ticking)

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As a scientist,

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I don't believe there's anything
outside the material world

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or any supernatural forces.

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But what about our
consciousness, our thoughts,

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our paintings and our
symphonies,

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our falling in love?

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(compelling music)

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Could all of that come from mere material

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mechanically following the
laws of cause and effect?

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(uplifting music)

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Isn't it possible to have
transcendent experiences

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and still believe in a world

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made only of atoms and molecules?

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(somber music)

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I came to that belief quite early.

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I was probably 10 or 11 when I
built a laboratory of my own.

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(somber music)

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I'd read in a magazine somewhere

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that the time for a pendulum
to make a complete swing

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was proportional to the square root

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of the length of the string.

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(compelling music)

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And so I made pendulums
of different lengths.

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(compelling music)

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I timed their swings.

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And lo and behold, this law
that I'd read about

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was true.

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(classical music)

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It's enormously satisfying to
prove something for yourself.

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(classical music)

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It gives you a feeling of power

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that you can discover things on your own.

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(classical music)

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That pendulum law was
first discovered by Galileo

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around the year 1600.

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(classical music)

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But I believed this law

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not because the great man
Galileo had discovered it

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or because I had read
it in Popular Science.

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I believe it because I
had verified it myself.

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(thoughtful music)