Lee Smolin Quotes

61 Sourced Quotes

Thinking in time is not relativism but a form of relationalism... the truest description of something consists of specifying its relationships to other parts of the system it is part of.

Lee Smolin
Calculation establishes that a quantum positive energy theorem may be possible using a representation based on the Ashtekar connection. Left open is a key question of whether this use of the Ashtekar connection is necessary or whether a positive quantum energy result can be achieved for representations based on other connections, i. e., for [other] values of the Immirzi parameter.

Lee Smolin
We show that some known classical results have particularly simple derivations within the Ashtekar formalism. These include Witten's positive energy theorem...

Lee Smolin
Having begun my life in science searching for the equation beyond time, I now believe that the deepest secret of the universe is that its essence rests in how it unfolds moment by moment in time.

Lee Smolin
The landscape problem represents a serious problem in the development of science. Its solution requires... the construction of speculative cosmological scenarios, which posit regions or epochs of our universe for which we presently have no observable evidence. Nonetheless we must insist on taking seriously only scenarios and hypotheses that make falsifiable or strongly verifiable predictions, otherwise people can just make stuff up and the distinction between science and mythology becomes porous.... there are already candidate solutions that make real, falsifiable predictions.

Lee Smolin
I believe that the main lesson of relativity and quantum theory is that the world is nothing but an evolving network of relationships.

Lee Smolin
To be human is to be suspended between danger and opportunity.... The challenge of life is to choose wisely, from the enormous number of possible dangers, what's worth worrying about. It is also about choosing, from all the opportunities... always in the face of incomplete knowledge of the consequences.

Lee Smolin
In the theory of electric fields it is assumed that points have meaning.... Physicists using general relativity... cannot speak of a point, except by naming some features of the field lines that will uniquely distinguish that point.... the network of relationships evolve with time... constantly changing.

Lee Smolin
The revolution which began with the creation of quantum theory and relativity theory can only be finished with their unification into a single theory that can give us a single, comprehensive picture of nature.

Lee Smolin
The geometry of space changes when things in the universe change their relationships to one another.

Lee Smolin
Time is described only in terms of change in the network of relationships that describes space.

Lee Smolin