This public lecture is part of the international conference Kurt Gödel's Legacy – Does Future Lie in the Past.
Every solution of Einstein's equation describes an entire universe. Such solutions sometimes leads to deep puzzles about the structure of the universe. In this lecture John Barrow will embark on a travel which will lead us through the islands of some of the pertinent questions of modern physics, cosmology, and mathematics. He will tell the story of many possible universes, solutions of Einstein's equations: static and expanding universes, contracting universes, oscillating universes, accelerating universes, chaotic and distorted universes — all make their appearance together with the unexpected spinning universe with time-travellers found first by Kurt Gödel. Will we ever discover a single scientific theory that tells us everything that has happened, and everything that will happen, on every level in the Universe? What might such a theory look like? What would it mean? And how close are we to getting there?
Prof. John D. Barrow is Professor of Mathematical Sciences, Computer Science and Astronomy at the University of Cambridge since 1999. He is the author of over 420 articles and 19 books, translated in 28 languages, exploring the wider historical, philosophical and cultural ramifications of developments in mathematics, physics and astronomy. He has delivered lectures in a unique combination of locations which includes 10 Downing Street, Windsor Castle, the Vatican Palace and the Venice Film festival.
Admission is free. Get your free ticket at http://bit.ly/2XZ1WyX.
After the lecture, you are welcome to take part in an informal reception.
This public lecture of Kurt Gödel's Legacy is in memory of Wolfgang Rindler, an Austrian physicist specializing in relativity and its effects on cosmology, who died in February 2019.
