WEBVTT 00:00:20.845 --> 00:00:24.220 I have a friend who is an artist, and has sometimes 00:00:24.220 --> 00:00:27.572 taken a view which I don't agree with very well. 00:00:27.572 --> 00:00:30.952 He'll hold up a flower and say "Look how beautiful it is" 00:00:30.952 --> 00:00:35.828 and I'll agree. And he says you see as an artist I can see how beautiful this is, 00:00:35.828 --> 00:00:42.934 but you as a scientist take this all apart and it becomes a dull thing. And I think that he's kind of nutty. 00:00:42.934 --> 00:00:48.895 First of all, the beauty that he sees is available to other people and to me too, I believe, although 00:00:48.895 --> 00:00:52.315 I may not be quite as refined aesthetically as he is; 00:00:52.315 --> 00:00:56.123 but I can appreciate the beauty of a flower. 00:00:56.123 --> 00:01:01.370 At the same time, I see much more about the flower than he sees. I could imagine the cells in there, 00:01:01.370 --> 00:01:04.625 the complicated actions inside, which also have a beauty. 00:01:04.625 --> 00:01:10.800 I mean, it's not just beauty at this dimension of one centimeter, there's also beauty at smaller dimensions. 00:01:10.800 --> 00:01:19.192 The inner structure, also the processes, the fact that the colors and the flower are evolved in order 00:01:19.192 --> 00:01:23.215 to attract insects to pollinate it is interesting. 00:01:23.215 --> 00:01:25.924 It means that insects can see the color. 00:01:25.924 --> 00:01:32.875 It adds a question: does this aesthetic sense also exist in the lower forms that... why is it aesthetic... 00:01:32.875 --> 00:01:41.187 all kinds of interesting questions which with science, knowledge, only adds to the excitement, 00:01:41.187 --> 00:01:49.463 and mystery, and the awe of a flower. It only adds. I don't understand how it subtracts. 00:01:50.848 --> 00:01:55.367 If you expected science to give all the answers to the wonderful questions about what we are, 00:01:55.367 --> 00:02:01.046 where we are going, what the meaning of the universe is, and so on, then I think you could easily become 00:02:01.046 --> 00:02:06.851 disillusioned and look for some mystic answer to these problems. How a scientist can take a mystic answer, 00:02:06.851 --> 00:02:12.441 I don't know, the whole spirit is to understand... Well, never mind that, I mean I don't understand that. 00:02:12.441 --> 00:02:19.770 But anyhow, if you think of it, the way I think of what we're doing is that we are exploring, we're trying to find out 00:02:19.770 --> 00:02:22.072 as much as we can about the world. 00:02:22.072 --> 00:02:26.077 People say to me "Are you looking for the ultimate laws of physics?" 00:02:26.077 --> 00:02:30.505 No I'm not, I'm just looking to find out more about the world, and if it turns out there is a simple 00:02:30.505 --> 00:02:33.215 ultimate law that explains everything, so be it. 00:02:33.215 --> 00:02:37.455 That would be very nice to discover. If it turns out it's like an onion with millions of layers, 00:02:37.455 --> 00:02:41.234 and we're just sick and tired of looking at the layers, then that's the way it is. 00:02:41.234 --> 00:02:46.529 But whatever way it comes out, nature is there and she's going to come out the way she is. 00:02:46.529 --> 00:02:51.097 Therefore, when we go to investigate it, we shouldn't pre-decide what it is we're trying to do 00:02:51.097 --> 00:02:53.894 except to find out more about it. 00:02:53.894 --> 00:03:01.261 You see, one thing is: I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. 00:03:01.261 --> 00:03:08.815 I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong. 00:03:08.815 --> 00:03:12.391 I have approximate answers, and possible beliefs, and different degrees of certainty 00:03:12.391 --> 00:03:15.814 about different things, but I'm not absolutely sure of anything, 00:03:15.814 --> 00:03:18.542 and there are many things I don't know anything about. 00:03:18.542 --> 00:03:24.823 But I don't have to know an answer. I don't feel frightened by not knowing things; 00:03:24.823 --> 00:03:30.136 by being lost in the mysterious universe without having any purpose, which is the way it really is 00:03:30.136 --> 00:03:34.668 as far as I can tell possible. It doesn't frighten me. 00:03:34.668 --> 00:03:38.463 And so altogether I can't believe the special stories 00:03:38.463 --> 00:03:48.389 that have been made up about our relationship to the universe at large because they seem to be 00:03:48.389 --> 00:03:55.752 too simple, too connected...too local, too provincial. The earth, he came to the earth! 00:03:55.752 --> 00:04:00.165 One of the aspects of god came to the Earth, mind you. 00:04:00.165 --> 00:04:07.610 And look at what's out there, it isn't in proportion. 00:04:07.610 --> 00:04:10.105 Anyway, it's no use arguing, I can't argue it. I'm just trying 00:04:10.105 --> 00:04:15.768 to tell you: with the scientific view, my father's view, that we should look to see what's true and what 00:04:15.768 --> 00:04:25.195 may not be true; once you start doubting, which to me is a very fundamental part of my soul, is to doubt, 00:04:25.195 --> 00:04:34.065 and to ask; when you doubt and ask, it gets a little harder to believe. 00:04:37.885 --> 00:04:44.813 Beauty 00:04:46.044 --> 00:04:48.127 The Feynman series is a side project of 00:04:48.127 --> 00:04:50.308 facebook.com/thesaganseries 00:04:50.308 --> 00:04:55.158 visit or subscribe directly above for more 00:04:55.384 --> 00:05:03.438 Credits 00:05:03.790 --> 00:05:10.510 Social media created by Reid Gower.