The theory of everything

My curiosity
We avoid questions
The sense of everything and the religion
My readings and the university
Physics and Philosophy
My frustration
LHC and Hubble experiments
A weird reality
Hawking
Questions on first hit
Books and movies

My curiosity
The subject of my talk is the theory of everything. But not exactly, I’ll talk about my curiosity. I’m very
curious, since I was a child. I always had questions in my head about everything around me, about life,
time, space and the real sense of everything. I always wanted know how all the stuff around works. But
not only this. There are questions more difficult to answer, for example, why we are here. Why is there
something rather than nothing? Why there’s just one direction to time? Why we can’t back in time?

We avoid questions
I think most of people ignore them because they’re questions whose answers are very difficult to find an
answer. It’s easier accept the things how they are. We often accept the things just because they’re
common, they’re everywhere, and everytime they’re are the same way. We think there are things more
important to worry about. We’re often busy with more real problems.

The sense of everything and the religion

But I couldn't avoid think about some questions like the real sense of everything. What is life, where will
go after death, what is death. The history has shown that, along the time, the religion tried to give us
answers to these questions but there’s a problem. There are many religions and so many answers. They
change in time and space according to the religion. So the answer can’t satisfy everyone.

My readings and the university

I have read many books about science, physics, philosophy. Not many, some of them, to find answers to
these questions. But the better chance that I had to read texts about these subjects was when I was at
university. Nowadays I often read books and texts on internet to be updated.

Physics and Philosophy

It isn't the Philosophy that will answer this question. Philosophy don’t give us answers but It teaches us
how to ask. What are the right questions. Maybe it sounds weird but physics and Philosophy are more
closer than we can suppose. Recent discoveries in the more advanced physical research fields has
changed the way we understand reality. Physics, can give us, someday, an answer to our questions.

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My frustration
It’s not necessary say that I couldn’t find what I’m looking for. I’m frustrated? A little but not completely
because I think I know a little more than before. And I learn that these answers are more complex that I
thought before.

LHC and Hubble experiments

The ignorance, the lack of knowledge, annoys me. But not only me. The mankind has expended much
time and money to discover how the universe works. The budget of experiments like LHC is almost 20
billions of dollars. The Hubble budget is about 2.5 billions of dollars. Many people claims that there are
more importants things to worry about like the lack of food, the poverty. But we can’t live avoiding these
fundamental issues. Did you ever heard this phrase? We are made of stardust. The atoms that make our
body were not made here, but in the nucleus of stars far away from here.

A weird reality
When we look deeper the things, when we look closer and closer like a very power zoom over the
matter. What will we see? And if we can see what is beyond the frontier of universe? What we will see at
very long distance? We will see a very weird reality. A very different one from that we are used to. The
things happens in a very different way at a very long distance, in the other side of universe. What about
the realm of the atoms. It’s worse. It’s a freak reality. So, if we know why the things happens that way in
these different realities, maybe we can discover, someday, why our world is the way it is. Maybe we can
find the answer to the question, why we are here.

Hawking
A famous scientist has made the same question along his whole life. But there’s a big difference
between us. He’s much more smart. I think everyone here knows him, or have heard about Stephen
Hawking anytime, anywhere. Hawking has a motor-neuron disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
So he has been confined to a wheelchair. This disease avoid him from walk or make any movement. But
the most interesting about him is that he became smarter as the disease grows up.

Questions on first hit

Many years ago I found this book, A brief history of time, written by Stephen Hawking. It’s a book about
cosmology and quantum theory. In this book Hawking looks for answers to questions like:
- Where did we come from?
- Why is the universe the way it is?
- The universe had a beginning?
- What happened before?
- It ‘s going to have an ending?
Of course, we have no final answers to these questions. But the book shows what science knows about
the subject.

Books and movies

Hawking has written many others books.
- A briefer history of time
- The universe in a nutshell
The story of Stephen Hawking is incredible and is depicted by many films.
- The Theory of Everything (2014) by James Marsh.
- Hawking (2013) documentary by Stephen Finnigan.
- Hawking (2004) BBC drama by Philip Martin. With Benedict Cumberbatch as Prof. Hawking
- A Brief History of Time (1991) by Errol Morris
Despite the illness he tries to lead un ordinary life.