The Future of Physics

The 20th century was, arguably, the century of physics. While there was immense progress on so-called “fundamental physics” – the basic laws governing matter, space, and time – fundamental physics has slowed to a crawl since 1980, despite an immense amount of work. But, as John Baez will explain in this SFI Community Lecture, there is exciting progress in other branches of physics: for example, using the fundamental physics we have to design surprising new forms of matter.
But, like all other sciences in the 21st century, physics must also embrace the challenges of the Anthropocene: the era in which humanity is a dominant influence on the Earth’s climate and biosphere.

John Baez is an American mathematical physicist and a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Riverside (UCR). He has worked on spin foams in loop quantum gravity, applications of highest categories to physics, and applied category theory.

Baez is also the author of This Week’s Finds in Mathematical Physics, an irregular column on the internet featuring mathematical exposition and criticism.