Roger Penrose
Roger Penrose
Sir Roger Penrose OM FRSis an English mathematical physicist, mathematician and philosopher of science. He is the Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at the Mathematical Institute of the University of Oxford, as well as an Emeritus Fellow of Wadham College...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPhysicist
Date of Birth8 August 1931
thinking long people
And these little things may not seem like much but after a while they take you off on a direction where you may be a long way off from what other people have been thinking about.
thinking people feelings
People think of these eureka moments and my feeling is that they tend to be little things, a little realisation and then a little realisation built on that.
thinking issues serious
But I think it is a serious issue to wonder about the other platonic absolutes of say beauty and morality.
book thinking views
Some years ago, I wrote a book called the Emperor's New Mind and that book was describing a point of view I had about consciousness and why it was not something that comes about from complicated calculations.
thinking years long
My own way of thinking is to ponder long and I hope deeply on problems and for a long time which I keep away for years and years and I never really let them go.
running thinking views
There is a certain sense in which I would say the universe has a purpose. It's not there just somehow by chance. Some people take the view that the universe is simply there and it runs along-it's a bit as though it just sort of computes, and we happen by accident to find ourselves in this thing. I don't think that's a very fruitful or helpful way of looking at the universe, I think that there is something much deeper about it, about its existence, which we have very little inkling of at the moment.
reading thinking understanding
It is always the case, with mathematics, that a little direct experience of thinking over things on your own can provide a much deeper understanding than merely reading about them.
english-physicist entire five lights points rays space whose
Entire lights rays - you see if you made space, each of whose points represented an entire light ray, you'd find that space had five dimensions.
accident along bit fruitful helpful ourselves people runs simply sort though view
Some people take the view that the universe is simply there, and it runs along - it's a bit as though it just sort of computes, and we happen by accident to find ourselves in this thing. I don't think that's a very fruitful or helpful way of looking at the universe.
consciousness existence known phenomenon
Consciousness is the phenomenon whereby the universe's very existence is made known
consciousness english-physicist issue learn morality physical relates tied
So I think that the issue of how consciousness relates to the physical world is all tied up with morality but we have a lot to learn on that one.
people
Some people take the view that we happen by accident. I think that there is something much deeper, of which we have very little inkling at the moment.
approach either english-physicist string theory
In the book, I make the point that here we have string theory and here we have twistor theory and we don't know if either one of them is the right approach to nature.
english-physicist notion spin
Ordinary photons do have spin, they have a notion of helicity so they spin around their direction on motion.