A novel intelligence has roared into the mainstream, sparking euphoric excitement as well as abject fear. Explore the landscape of possible futures in a brave new world of thinking machines, with the very leaders at the vanguard of artificial intelligence.

The Big Ideas Series is supported in part by the John Templeton Foundation.

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Brian Greene

Participants

Sébastien Bubeck

Tristan Harris

Yann LeCun

The powerful blending of theory and observation has catapulted cosmology from campfire storytelling to precision science. Join this conversation among scientists at the forefront of fundamental physics and astronomy who are pushing that understanding ever closer to the beginning of time.

The Big Ideas Series is supported in part by the John Templeton Foundation.

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Brian Greene

Participants

Jo Dunkley

Adam Riess

Eva Silverstein

Every generation benefits from the insights and discoveries of the generations who came before. “If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants,” wrote Isaac Newton. In a special series, the World Science Festival invites audiences to stand on the shoulders of modern-day giants. The 2023 address Is being given by Nobel Laureate John Mather, who has led science teams in two of the greatest achievements in astronomy in the last half-century: NASA’s COBE mission, which provided the observational data needed to confirm the Big Bang as the means by which the universe came into being; and the design and deployment of the James Webb Space Telescope, which is providing unprecedented imagery and data to astronomers worldwide. Due to limited capacity, this event is open to All Access Premium General Admission ticket holders only.

This program is part of the Big Ideas Series, made possible with support from the John Templeton Foundation.

The event is hosted by the Simons Foundation.

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Participants

John Mather

A hundred years ago, scientists studying the microworld were stunned by a revolutionary new understanding, Quantum Mechanics, which has proved to be the most precise and the most puzzling description of nature’s workings ever conceived. Join researchers known for their vivid and accessible accounts of complex scientific ideas for a mind-bending journey to the forefront of the strange and mysterious realm of quantum reality.

The Big Ideas Series is supported in part by the John Templeton Foundation.

Please subscribe to our newsletter for updates and information about Festival programs. Your support is vital to the continued work of the Festival so please consider making a donation.

Brian Greene

Participants

Sean Carroll

Elise Crull

Carlo Rovelli

Einstein dreamed of a unified theory of nature’s laws. String theory has long promised to deliver it: a mathematically elegant description that some have called a “theory of everything.” Join one of the most influential groups of theorists ever assembled on a single stage to evaluate the current state of this most ambitious of theories.

The Big Ideas Series is supported in part by the John Templeton Foundation.

Please subscribe to our newsletter for updates and information about Festival programs. Your support is vital to the continued work of the Festival so please consider making a donation.

Brian Greene

Participants

David Gross

Andrew Strominger

Cumrun Vafa

Edward Witten

Dark energy is a mystery substance believed to drive the expansion of space. Black holes are monstrous regions endowed with such powerful gravitational pull that material relentlessly falls inward. White holes are hypothetical time-reversed versions of black holes, in which material relentlessly streams outward. Together, these ideas–ranging from confirmed to highly speculative–extend Einstein’s vision of reality and advance our understanding of fundamental physical law. Join renowned researchers to explore the wondrous implications of gravity pushed to the extreme.

The Big Ideas Series is supported in part by the John Templeton Foundation.

Please subscribe to our newsletter for updates and information about Festival programs. Your support is vital to the continued work of the Festival so please consider making a donation.

Brian Greene

Participants

Claudia de Rham

Shep Doeleman

Erin Kara

Carlo Rovelli

A universe that continually expands has long been the dominant cosmological framework. But a universe that undergoes cycles of expansion and contraction, perhaps for all time, has recently been analyzed mathematically, and its proponents claim that it provides a more convincing cosmological paradigm. Join leaders of this renegade approach as they make the case for a new kind of cosmology that reimagines time.

The Big Ideas Series is supported in part by the John Templeton Foundation.

Please subscribe to our newsletter for updates and information about Festival programs. Your support is vital to the continued work of the Festival so please consider making a donation.

Brian Greene

Participants

Peter Galison

Anna Ijjas

Paul Steinhardt