It’s an age old question: what happens to your mind and body after you die?
According to a US scientist – not much at all. In a recently resurfaced video from 2012, theoretical physicist Sean Carroll gave a talk on the subject.
The scientist — an associate professor at the Santa Fe Institute and Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University — said that “the laws of physics underlying everyday life are fully understood.”
Because of this, once we cease to exist as physical beings, there is no material understanding of how we might continue to exist in our world, Carroll explained.
It’s an age-old question: what happens after death? According to a US scientist – not much at all. In a recently resurfaced video from 2012, theoretical physicist Sean Carroll gave a talk on the subject. Stock image used
“That’s because there are no particles and forces that could store the information in your brain after you die,” he told an audience at The Amazing Meeting (TAM) 2012 in Nevada.
“There is no way that the knowledge of who you were before you died will persist after the chemical reaction that defines your life comes to an end.”
“And I’m really talking about an additional material spirit that would somehow be you even after your body ceased to exist — which is inconsistent with the laws of physics as we know it.”
Carroll added that there was no need to examine this further as it is inherently inconsistent with our theory of how life happens on the physical plane.
“We don’t need to look closely at the past life regression studies or anything like that,” he continued.
“The claim violates the laws of physics.”
He further explained, “What you are is a collection of atoms obeying the laws of nature: ‘You are not a physical meatbag being propelled about by a little blob of mental energy like a soccer mom driving an SUV.’
“There are electrons, protons and neutrons interacting through electromagnetism, nuclear force and gravity.”
“So the laws of physics tell us what these things do — there’s no need to factor anything else into the equation.”
In his talk, Carroll emphasized that while this doesn’t detract from human efforts to live “good, fulfilling, and meaningful lives,” the answers we’re looking for should “be consistent with how reality works at a fundamental level “.
There are also different ways of talking about the world, he added, and not all of them need to be purely descriptive in a physical context.
“When you meet someone for the first time, when you go on a first date, and your date says, ‘Tell me about yourself – then you’re not writing down the positions and velocities of all the electrons, protons and neutrons in your body.’
