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Lecture 2023
Hertz Lecture 2023
Why We Explore
Perimeter Institute
"Why We Explore"
Humanity faces real and present problems. Our resources to address
these problems are limited. It’s easy to think, then, that we should
devote ourselves to our most promising solutions.
It’s easy, but it’s wrong.
The great paradox of scientific research is that pure exploration –
research into deep questions motivated by pure curiosity, without
concern for applications – is ultimately what transforms our lives in
tangible, practical ways.
In this talk, I will speak not just as a physicist interested in puzzles
of quantum entanglement and five-dimensional black holes, but as the
director of an institute devoted to fundamental research. I make the
case for blue-sky research, and for optimism about our shared future.
