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Sean Carroll: General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Black Holes & Aliens | Lex Fridman Podcast #428

Lex Fridman | July 7, 2026



Sean Carroll is a theoretical physicist, author, and host of Mindscape podcast. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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TRANSCRIPT:
https://lexfridman.com/sean-carroll-3-transcript

EPISODE LINKS:
Sean’s Website: https://preposterousuniverse.com
Mindscape Podcast: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/
Sean’s YouTube: https://youtube.com/@seancarroll
Sean’s Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll
Sean’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/seanmcarroll
Sean’s Instagram: https://instagram.com/seanmcarroll
Sean’s Papers: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Lfifrv8AAAAJ
Sean’s Books: https://amzn.to/3W7yT9N

PODCAST INFO:
Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8
RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/
Full episodes playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4
Clips playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOeciFP3CBCIEElOJeitOr41

OUTLINE:
0:00 – Introduction
1:54 – General relativity
14:13 – Black holes
19:03 – Hawking radiation
23:10 – Aliens
32:06 – Holographic principle
56:29 – Dark energy
1:02:29 – Dark matter
1:11:25 – Quantum mechanics
1:32:47 – Simulation
1:35:09 – AGI
1:49:33 – Complexity
2:02:17 – Consciousness
2:11:23 – Naturalism
2:15:40 – Limits of science
2:20:25 – Mindscape podcast
2:30:21 – Einstein

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– Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman

Written by Lex Fridman

Comments

This post currently has 36 comments.

  1. @lexfridman

    July 7, 2026 at 4:13 am

    Here are the timestamps. Please check out our sponsors to support this podcast.
    Transcript: https://lexfridman.com/sean-carroll-3-transcript

    0:00 – Introduction & sponsor mentions:

    – HiddenLayer: https://hiddenlayer.com/lex

    – Cloaked: https://cloaked.com/lex and use code LexPod to get 25% off

    – Notion: https://notion.com/lex

    – Shopify: https://shopify.com/lex to get $1 per month trial

    – NetSuite: http://netsuite.com/lex to get free product tour

    1:54 – General relativity

    14:13 – Black holes

    19:03 – Hawking radiation

    23:10 – Aliens

    32:06 – Holographic principle

    56:29 – Dark energy

    1:02:29 – Dark matter

    1:11:25 – Quantum mechanics

    1:32:47 – Simulation

    1:35:09 – AGI

    1:49:33 – Complexity

    2:02:17 – Consciousness

    2:11:23 – Naturalism

    2:15:40 – Limits of science

    2:20:25 – Mindscape podcast

    2:30:21 – Einstein

  2. @labibbidabibbadum

    July 7, 2026 at 4:13 am

    So the hardness or the brownness of the table, almost indisputably objects of consciousness, are just descriptors in the same class as consciousness? Please. Give me a break. That's your deep insight into why it is that physics can't explain what it is like to be me?
    If that's where physicalists are content to leave it, then they've very little claim to have thought deeply, if at all, about consciousness. Hand wave hand wave hand wave… "emergent!" Done, now let's go back to calculating quantum probabilities like REAL thinkers.

  3. @crossvinburn831

    July 7, 2026 at 4:13 am

    If there is anyone curious on looking into it for themselves, here are the three steps needed to follow, to get saved and be right with God who loved us all!

    Step 1.

    Realize that all of us have sinned before God, in one way or another, so everyone of us is a sinner in the sight of God.

    Romans 3: 10+23 (KJB)

    10. "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:"

    23. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”

    Step 2.

    Realize that God still loved us, even as wicked sinners in his sight, enough to allow his only begotten Son Jesus Christ to live a sinless life in our place and to shed his own precious blood on the cross, all to fully pay the price for our sins, as a freely given gift.

    Romans 5: 8-9+12 (KJB)

    8. “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

    9."Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him."

    12. “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for all that have sinned:”

    Step 3.

    To be saved and born again for eternal life with God, you just need to confess unto God (inwardly or outwardly) genuinely to ask for your sins to be forgiven, all by accepting this freely given gift of forgiveness out of God's love for us from him, that Jesus Christ shed his blood on the cross to pay the full price for all of your sins (that is it). 🙂

    1 Corinthians 15: 1-4 (KJB)

    1."Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto

    you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;

    2."By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.”

    3."For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;”

    4."And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:”

    Romans 10: 9-10+13 (KJB)

    9. “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

    10."For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."

    13."For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

    Hebrews 9: 27-28 (KJB)

    27."And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:"

    28."So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.”

    Revelation 21: 8 (KJB)

    "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”

    Romans 6: 23 (KJB)

    “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

    Lastly here is an example of what to pray to God to get saved and forgiven of your sins if you are having trouble finding the exact words to pray to God.

    Although it is the genuine intent towards God that matters , more than the exact words being said. 🙂

    “Dear God, I am a sinner and need saving.

    I know I’m not good enough to get to heaven and I need you to save me.

    I need the righteousness of your son, Jesus Christ.

    I believe that Jesus is the Lord, who died, was buried and resurrected so that his precious blood can wash away my sins.

    I trust in him alone to save me. Nothing else.

    Not my good works or anything else.

    Only Jesus. I pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

  4. @TB-ni4ur

    July 7, 2026 at 4:13 am

    The answer to the many worlds theory is that there is not a base level reality. There is no “universal” truth. Every consciousness is a self contained system of its observed sensory data. If a star contains 10^30 pieces of quantum information in theory, yet I only “saw” 10^12 photons form that star that hit my eyes, guess what, that star only consumes 10^12 data bits in my self contained reality. And if you or I is the only person in the universe who through circumstance is the only person to have ever seen that star, than how much data in the universe does it consume? 10^30 or 10^12? I don’t know but I’d guess that it would be 10^13 and the extras data is God’s min overhead. Now obviously there is a shared reality that we experience; If I throw a baseball at you and you catch it that was clearly a “shared” experience that we both agree on, and that is where the concept of entanglement comes in. Now if I’m the only person on earth that saw a particular star with 10^12 resolution of photons, and another observer saw that same star with 10^12 resolution and NOBODY else has ever seen that star, how much data does that star consume for God? 10^30 bits of quantum information as some sort of base level reality would archive? Or 20^12 bits because there are two sets of unentangled sets of data that DO NOT have to agree on anything because the resulted will never be compared?

  5. @Aeaste-i3h

    July 7, 2026 at 4:13 am

    Physicists must be careful to not bias and delude themselves or others with their measurements of the universe. Their formulas may be comfort for themselves but they are just measurements really that make them think they have collapsed something, or built something.

    Some formulas have appeared as human progress and technology but the formulas are themselves measurements and limits. Now we are pushing through and must redefine gravity as not a law. Scary to some it will free us to travel in a much more advanced way. It takes letting go of how we looked at it previously. Leave it out of quantum physics. Unification is vain.

    Something will be missing, that familiar blanket. Then the unconfined will emerge. It may look like another formula for a while. Or it may not. But one way or another what will emerge will make it easier to live and travel.

    Then take time out. Same way. Then space. That will redefine reality in a much truer way. The human mind thinks it has to get comfortable but it really doesn’t have to. Einstein showed how unconfined new ideas are. That was his gift. He thought to see time as not a rigid, confined count. Wow. We just need to be willing to see reality in its unconfined infinity instead of narrowly going back to the proverbial, small and limiting blanket of the confined, yesterday. Yesterday doesn’t exist. It’s fresh cookies every day.

    Also why do we think that science has to go through stages? Can we let go of that heavy as concrete, accretive method?

    Sorry to disappoint, but formulas are just measuring instruments that tend to collapse, not redefine, reality into limitation. They keep us earthbound and energy stricken. So if you find yourself weighing a formula or theory, ask if it is truly and wholly good and does it only bring good. If so then adopt it.

    Einstein’s theory was too limiting and kept the time delusion. Time is not a wholly good concept. It’s limited. So while his formula brought us farther to see the unconfined nature of reality, it didn’t bring us farther enough. He still stuck to the limiting measurement of time. He still stuck to the limiting measurement of space.

    And so a simultaneous holy joke from a distance, that was intended as a sign of holy smoke, signaling the election of reality beyond the limits of time and space, went unappreciated. Reality was at Einstein’s door so he thought, but there was no door.

    Einstein’s prayer (desire to know Truth) was answered, in the best knock knock joke, and he saw no door. Einstein saw time and space disappear, but may have been reticent to fully acknowledge it. He got the joke but it wasn’t funny to him. To rethink what he may have seen as his life work was probably uncomfortable. He chose to exit the same door he came in, proving collapse.

    But there is no collapse.

  6. @Aeaste-i3h

    July 7, 2026 at 4:13 am

    You’d be more scientific if you rescued all the dogs and cats from a kill shelter and gave them love, than all the gab of all this gab that leaves to more “I don’t know.”

  7. @Aeaste-i3h

    July 7, 2026 at 4:13 am

    No back holes. This is misunderstood. It’s a fantasy. Like something you see from a distance that disappears when you get closer to reality.

    If you believe you are existing in time and space how are you going to find what is already there? You are always a blip. A blip in infinite space. Then be a line. Then be a plane, then be … and you’ll be … dimensions are all reality not perceived physically. Time is really not a true dimension.

  8. @lhovwjvuir

    July 7, 2026 at 4:13 am

    Dear Lex, please invite Max Tegmark for a second round and dub him in Russian. Thank you for the Russian voiceover.
    I don't speak English, but I know Russian.

  9. @ShahrukhKhan-j4e4e

    July 7, 2026 at 4:13 am

    "Wow, Sean Carroll is such a genius when it comes to explaining complex concepts in an accessible way! I really appreciate how he ties together general relativity and quantum mechanics, and his discussion on black holes was so thought-provoking. What struck me most about this episode, though, was the connection he made between the mysteries of space-time and our own existence. It's like he's hinting at a deeper understanding of reality that's just beyond our current comprehension – it's both exhilarating and humbling. I've been reading a lot of books on quantum theory lately, including 'Eye of Shiva' by Deepak Chopra and 'The Awakening of Vishnu' by Deepak Chopra (which is the second book in the same series), and they're really expanding my perspective on the nature of awareness and its relationship to the universe. It's amazing how these concepts can be woven together in ways that seem both profound and simple at the same time – I feel like I'm just scratching the surface of this incredible topic, but it's definitely got me more curious than ever!"

  10. @Juanelmajo13

    July 7, 2026 at 4:13 am

    I have nothing but admiration for Carroll, but I disagree about the galaxy being "small." 100,000 light years across is immense! And physics being what it is, 10% of light speed would be a tremendous technological achievement requiring immense energy. And reaching other galaxies, impossible.

  11. @RobinSchaarschmidtj

    July 7, 2026 at 4:13 am

    To me, time is the friction that allows matter to move — or more precisely: the measure of all possible energetic reactions waiting at a given point.
    Time arises and fades in exact proportion to the potentials that can ignite between a radiating source and the matter it strikes.
    Only where radiation meets matter can stored energy shift its form, discharge, transform.
    Where no such reaction is possible — no photons, no fields dancing and binding — time simply stops. Nothing happens. Nothing changes. And so time ceases to “flow,” because it never truly began.
    This raises the sharp question: How can matter exist if time is not moving?
    The answer lies at the heart of it: In such a state, it does not truly exist — not in the sense of being visible, reachable, effective. It rests in an eternal, timeless sleep: unseen, untouchable, motionless. Only when a spark, a quantum, a breath of Gaia touches it does it awaken into the Now and become part of the great, breathing weave.
    In this view, time is less an ever-running river than the very crackle of discharge itself — the snap of ice when warmth kisses it, the first splitting of the seed under dawn’s light.

  12. @rickhood

    July 7, 2026 at 4:13 am

    Earth is very rare, with its composition, magnetic field and atmosphere. Quite possibly we are the only intelligent life — at this point in time — in the Milky Way. Unlikely we are the only ones in the universe, but anything outside our galaxy is way too far away to ever detect. Radio waves dissipate with distance squared.

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