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The momentary or Laplacian nature of physical evolution doesn’t have much relevance for the choices we face in our everyday lives. For poetic naturalism, the situation is clear. There is one way of talking about the universe that describes it as elementary particles or quantum states, in which Laplace holds sway and what happens next depends only on the state of the system right now.

— Sean M. Carroll The Big Picture (2016)

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More quotes by Sean M. Carroll

It can't be stressed enough that the multiverse is utterly hypothetical—but that doesn't mean it isn't real.

But sometimes reality chooses not to conform to our preferences.

But the very fact that matter in the cosmos is still moving, rather than at rest, is the single most surprising thing about the universe.

In contrast to the arbitrarily complicated evolution of a (nonintegrable) classical system, all a quantum state ever does is move in circles.

Metaphysical principles are tempting shortcuts but not reliable guides. There are good reasons why things often seem to happen for reasons—and also reasons why that’s not a bedrock principle.

The Big Picture (2016)

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