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My name is Paul (Hello again!). I'm interested in Theoretical Physics & Pure Mathematics. Currently, I am watching the lecture series Relativistic Quantum Field Theory II (Summer 2023), by Prof. Dr. Dominik Stöckinger & reading the book "Field Theory: A Path Integral Approach" by Ashok Das.
Here are some learning resources on Theoretical Physics (mostly) that I have curated since 2012.
Interesting things I have watched or listened to recently:
Simon Schama’s Story of Us | A lot of interesting material covered including: Empire Windrush & The Beatles, "Going, Going" by Philip Larkin and the funny (but sinister) The Cheviot the Stag and the Black Black Oil.
The UK government has given away £700, 000, 000, 000 since the beginning of COVID (combination of new money and borrowing). This would be £14,000 for every man and woman in the country! Where has all this money gone? £700bn Covid Money - What is it & Where did it come from?
Where we are now
It is no longer possible to reverse the damage that is now being done to the climate of our only home — planet Earth. Even if we all stopped burning fossil fuels today, it wouldn't make any difference. It is no longer possible to do something that will prevent runaway climate breakdown and the 6th mass exinction of life on Earth! This civilisation is now finished!!. The amount of carbon dioxide we are putting into the atmosphere today is still increasing, it has been increasing since the industrial revolution. Over the last 30 years, it has not just been increasing, we have been putting carbon dioxide (and other greenhouse gases) into the atmosphere at a faster and faster and faster rate!!! This is now resulting in the irreversible heating of our planet from positive feedback loops like the melting of snow and ice at the polar regions [*] and the abrupt thawing of permafrost in the Arctic [**]. These and other irreversible changes to our climate (which are happening now) will ensure that our planet will now only ever get hotter and hotter and hotter for the lifetime of people alive today. The UK reached 40C last year in some parts of the country for the first time in recorded history (probably for the first time in millions of years). This year it is going to be hotter than last year. We already have the hottest June on record! (There may be other records broken since June) Next year it will be hotter again. It has been getting hotter year after year after year for the last 20 years!
Food shortages are coming soon, followed by breakdown of law and order. More people will be on the move around the world looking for food, water and safety for their families. We will then probably enter a long period of instability with wars between nation states & nation states breaking down followed by ..
What we should do as individuals
At a minimum all working people should have the right to direct their labour towards making their local communities more resilient for the future ie. growing food, planting trees, recycling, etc. If you are currently in a job that is directly contributing to climate & ecological breakdown (which definitely does not help your family or local communities) you should decide whether you should remove your labour (or have your labour removed) or actively work against tasks that are performed while carrying out your job, that are impacting the environment.
What we should do as a society
Ideally, it would be good if everyone who wanted to could remove their labour on the grounds of not wanting to do harm to the environment. If you can’t do good for your local community, you should at the very least be able to do no harm. Their should be a basic income for all that want to remove their labour which should be paid for by a tax on wealth created from (or associated with) the burning of fossil fuels, wealth that was made from destroying our planet.
What I am going to do
In the not too distant future (if we don't go immediately for nuclear Armageddon) I hope to eventually find work that will be of value to my local community, that could be helping with growing food, planting trees, etc. In the era of (accelerating) climate breakdown there should be full employment with everyone working to make their local community self-sufficient. I hope to find opportunities to talk about these ideas with other people in my community, and investigate how to get more involved with climate activism.
I would like to suggest that we should all consider the following when thinking about work:
UPDATE
I believe we only have only a few years before there is a breakdown of society.
In the future I may decide to participate in nonviolent civil resistance to demand the UK Government stop licensing new oil, gas and coal projects.
UPDATE
Global levels of carbon dioxide rose at their quickest rate in 2024 [BBC (17th January 2025)]
[*] with less snow and ice in the polar regions less radiation (heat) from the sun is reflected back into space, and more radiation is absorbed by our oceans
[**] releasing more greenhouse gases (including methane) into the atmosphere capturing more heat from the sun
The way we should raise money for public spending is first to determine what public services we need and then to raise the money for these services through taxes where citizens with the most wealth contribute the most (on a sliding scale). We should not decide how much taxes should be raised and then decide how to spend the money as we would always raise too little money and then have to waste a lot of time and energy deciding how to spend the money, or who gets the money.
The next thing to consider is that money is a convenient fiction that we have created. Money is not "real". You are real. Your family are real. Your community is real. Our planet Earth and everything living on this planet is real. Money is not real. When we say we want to raise money to fund all of the public services that we need, all we are really saying is that we want to organise our society so that power and resources are distributed so that all of the public services that we need are provided. When Hitler was invading Europe our country didn't say we can't resist Hitler because we don't have the money. We just decided as a country to resist, and reorganised our industries and priorities so that the nations resources were directed to the singular aim of resisting. After the war our country didn't say we can't rebuild because we don't have the money. We just decided as a country to rebuild. We could do the same for managing our public services, transitioning away from fossil fuels, etc.
In this way of thinking there is still room for individuals to acquire power and resources, it is just that personal wealth cannot be acquired to the detriment of anyone and everyone.
Money is not subject to immutable physical laws like gravity it is just an elaborate game we have created subject to arbitrary rules that people can change. It is just a game. A game of power and resources.
When talking about our public services we need to stop talking about money and talk about power & resources. We can build a society with all the public services we need, there is nothing stopping us, certainly not money!
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Another urgent existential problem for society is the emergence and deployment of more advanced AI systems: A Right to Warn about Advanced Artificial Intelligence | Former OpenAI Engineer William Saunders on Silence, Safety, and the Right to Warn | The A.I Dilemma
If you're looking for some words of inspiration have a listen to The Desire to Exceed One's Programme from How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day by Arnold Bennett (1867 - 1931) and Thinking for Oneself, Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)