It feels sometimes like there are layers to the universe.

You know, imagine a scene like you're eating some breakfast.

At the topmost layer is your conscious awareness and the decisions you are making.

Do you reach for the eggs?

Do you reach for the bacon?

Do you reach for the cereal?

These are decisions you're making.

Beneath that layer, there's the macroscopic physics, the motions of your hands and fingers, the momentum of the cereal as it pours into your

mouth, the liquid sloshing of the milk, you reach for your glass of orange juice or

your cup of coffee, and there's the potential energy change.

You know, there's all the macroscopic physics.

Beneath that, there is biology.

You know, the crunching of the food between your teeth, your salivary glands, your stomach muscles

contracting and doing stuff. I'm not a biologist. The peristolsus

of your esophagus. Beneath that is biochemistry. There are proteins doing their job of

chopping of fats and sugars. There are the acids in your stomach breaking down foods.

There are cell membranes admitting some elements and molecules and

rejecting others. Beneath the biochemistry is the chemistry, the atomic bonds, the covalent

electrons. Beneath that is physics, electrons, orbitals, electromagnetism, strong nuclear forces.

Beneath that, atomic physics is the quantum field theory, the vibration of these esoteric

quantum fields that subsume the entire cosmos and interact with each other in complicated ways.

Beneath that is, well, we don't really know, but that's not the point of today's episode.

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