Back to Show
PBS Space Time
Why Do You Remember The Past But Not The Future?
Season 7
Episode 1
The laws of physics don’t specify an arrow of time - they don’t distinguish the past from the future. The equations we use to describe how things evolve forward in time also perfectly describe their evolution backwards in time. Why does the brain and the conscious experience that emerges from it, see the arrow of time so clearly? In other words why do we remember the past and not the future?
Support Provided By
21:17
We’ve found lots of “habitable” worlds but we don’t know what factors are needed for life.
19:52
Antimatter drives sound like science fiction, but they may not be as far as you think.
23:22
Does quantum mechanics allow the future to retroactively influence the past or not?
19:14
Life on mars could result in humanity’s destruction via Fermi Paradox.
19:01
How to build a particle collider the size of the solar system.
12:39
One of the most important reasons we go to space is to know our own planet better.
16:18
Is there evidence for the existence of an enormous number of other universes?
18:56
It may be that our very DNA inherited its twist from the underlying handedness of reality.
17:21
Did God have any choice in creating the world? So asked Albert Einstein
18:19
What if, just before we reach the bottom, we find out that reductionism fails?