Lisa Randall: Do you believe in absolute truth?

Lisa Randall is asking if there’s one single way that everything in the world works, like a rulebook for all things.

Imagine you have a big box of toys. Some are cars, some are blocks, and some are dolls. Each toy has its own way of playing. If someone says, “There’s only one way to play with all these toys,” that would be like saying absolute truth, the idea that everything follows just one rule.

But maybe you can play with your cars by rolling them on the floor, or stacking blocks in a tower, or even dressing up your doll. Each of those ways is true, but they are not the same. So Lisa Randall might be thinking: is there one big rule that explains everything, like how all the toys work at once? Or do we have many rules for different things?

Just like you can have more than one way to play, the world might also have more than one true way of working, and that’s totally fine!