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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(expectant 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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(music echoes and fades)

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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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(water splashes)

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(soft piano music)

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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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One evening, I walked out on the pier

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

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The ocean started glowing,

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I was totally mesmerized.

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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, 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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I was a little disappointed,

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but I also thought,
"Wow, nature is capable

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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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(soft string 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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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,

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our thoughts, our paintings,
and our symphonies,

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our falling in love?

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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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Can it all just be material?

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Could we be all material?

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Just stuff?

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I read somewhere that you could build

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an entire human body for about 500 bucks.

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So just suppose I could
go shopping for the atoms

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that make up my body.

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In terms of matter, each
one of us is 65% oxygen,

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18% carbon,

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10% hydrogen,

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3% nitrogen,

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1.4% calcium,

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1.1% phosphorus,

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and a smidgen of other atoms.

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(soft music)

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(register beeping)

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Oh, and 1/100th of an ounce of zirconium.

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- And your total is $538 and 66 cents.

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- We're just stuff,
and we're pretty cheap.

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(thoughtful music)