Charlie McHenry on Nostr: Physicist John Wheeler saw the tear in reality. “When Johnny Wheeler was 4 years ...

Physicist John Wheeler saw the tear in reality. “When Johnny Wheeler was 4 years old, splashing in the bathtub in Youngstown, Ohio, he looked up at his mother and asked, ‘What happens when you get to the end of things?’” The question would haunt him for the rest of his life. Wheeler is the scientist who coined the term ‘black hole’ and thoroughly described them. He spent his career plumbing the depths of #space and #time - literally trying to get to the bottom of both, the ‘end of things’. In the process, he came to appreciate the role of the observer and the importance of ‘participation’ in the ongoing creation of the universe, but he never got the end. Close to death at the advanced aged of 95, his last journal entry was a provocative question: “Hope produces space and time?” #astrophysics #physics #philosophy #Universe #TheUniverse

https://www.quantamagazine.org/john-wheeler-saw-the-tear-in-reality-20240925/