Amazon.com
There is an ill-concealed skeleton in the closet of physics: "As they are currently formulated, general relativity and quantum mechanics cannot both be right." Each is exceedingly accurate in its field: general relativity explains the behavior of the universe at large scales, while quantum mechanics describes the behavior of subatomic particles. Yet the theories collide horribly under extreme conditions such as black holes or times close to the big bang. Brian Greene, a specialist in quantum field theory, believes that the two pillars of physics can be reconciled in superstring theory, a theory of everything.
Superstring theory has been called "a part of 21st-century physics that fell by chance into the 20th century." In other words, it isn't all worked out yet. Despite the uncertainties--"string theorists work to find approximate solutions to approximate equations"--Greene gives a tour of string theory solid enough to satisfy the scientifically literate.
Though Ed Witten of the Institute for Advanced Study is in many ways the human hero of The Elegant Universe, it is not a human-side-of-physics story. Greene's focus throughout is the science, and he gives the nonspecialist at least an illusion of understanding--or the sense of knowing what it is that you don't know. And that is traditionally the first step on the road to knowledge. --Mary Ellen Curtin
Book Description
"[Greene] develops one fresh new insight after another...In the great tradition of physicists writing for the masses,
The Elegant Universe sets a standard that will be hard to beat." --George Johnson, The New York Times Book Review
In a rare blend of scientific insight and writing as elegant as the theories it explains, Brian Greene, one of the world's leading string theorists, peels away the layers of mystery surrounding string theory to reveal a universe that consists of 11 dimensions where the fabric of space tears and repairs itself, and all matter-from the smallest quarks to the most gargantuan supernovas-is generated by the vibrations of microscopically tiny loops of energy.
Green uses everything from an amusement park ride to ants on a garden hose to illustrate the beautiful yet bizarre realities that modern physics is unveiling. Dazzling in its brilliance, unprecedented in its ability to both illuminate and entertain,
The Elegant Universe is a tour de force of science writing-a delightful, lucid voyage through modern physics that brings us closer than ever to understanding how the universe works.
Customer Reviews:
Anyone who is curious about the horizons of theoretical physics will enjoy this book.......2007-08-30
In this brilliantty articulated and refreshingly clear book, Greene, a leading string theorist, relates the scientific story and the human struggle behind the search for the ultimate theory. String theory, as the author vividly and easily describes, reveals a vision of the universe that is sending shock waves through the world of physics. Thrilling and revolutionary ideas such as new dimensions hidden within the fabric of space, black holes transmuting into elementary particles, rips and puncutures in the space time continuum, gigantic universes interchangealbe with minusclule ones, and a wealth of others are playing a pivotal role as physicists use string theory to grapple with some of the deepest questions of the ages.
Almost 5 Stars.......2007-07-19
Although I felt this book was excellent and covered all the bases there were a few areas that lacked for me and I couldn't quite give it 5 stars. The book started out phenomenally and the section on quantum mechanics was the best that I've read. The analogies that Mr. Greene used made the concepts clear and comprehendable but there were a few chapters in the middle where he used no analogies and I found myself completely lost even after re-reading the chapters. I might be too much of a layman for this book and that would certainly not be Mr. Greene's fault. There were additional parts of the book where I found myself easily destracted and those chapters were almost a chore to finish. Over all I think parts of this book are great for readers who are just begining to study this subject but other whole chapters are definately not.
First half zipped along with insight after insight........2007-07-19
First half zipped along with insight after insight. Second half got a bit heavy and bogged down. Overall I'm glad I made it through.
science or science fiction? .......2007-07-08
"Theoretical physicist is the one whose experiments don't work".
So says my friend, an engineer by profession, and The Elegant Universe fully confirms this view - more, since we learn that the theories of modern physics are beyond our technological ability to test them experimentally.
The theories themselves are indeed very elegant, composed with great care for estetics and symmetry, and well illustrated by pictures. Nonetheless, we are left with an impression that most of it is the stuff of phantasy, and just as one calculation will "prove" some idea, another set of equations will "disprove" it with identical claim to "scientific truth". I've put all this terms in quotes because the maybe factor of all proofs is too strong to take the presented theories seriously. The author admits that all the calculations are based on approximations and numerous assumptions, raising from still more approximations and probabilities. And when the result is absurd, the theorists quickly solve the problem by inventing one more spatial dimention, not accessible to our perceptions because it never expanded from its initial state.
Actually, the whole string theory deals with aspects of reality not accessible to our perceptions, and not provable by any experiments. Is it still reality or already a fiction? We don't know, and chances are will never know.
With all this, it is indeed an extremely elegant text, beautifully written and holding our attention all the way to the end. I just wish the author did not say all of the time that string theory had been "discovered", since for all we know theories are not material reality, such as a continent of America or a rare species of a butterfly, and so they cannot be discovered, theories can only be conceived, invented, or created. This lexical misuse is eye-catching due to the prevalence of hypotheses over the facts so stronly visible in string theory.
Crackling and sizzling ! - This one requires some attention and tenacity though........2007-06-27
A good book which covers the below topics
1) Requirement of single physical law which brings together all the four fundamental forces: Electromagnetic, Strong nuclear, weak nuclear and gravity.
2) Disparity between theory of relatively (the world of the big) with quantum mechanics (world of the very small)
2) The need of a higher theory to explain the standard model (Explanation for the disparate mass and charges of the subatomic particles)
3) The concept of 11 dimensional space; Mass and charge of the numerous particles found in atom smashers being a result of frequency of vibrations of strings (closed or open) in different dimensions. Meaning a string vibrating with a certain frequency along one of the hidden 7 pinched up spatial dimensions (also termed calabi Yau spaces) will represent a subatomic particle
4) Membrane theory (2 branes, 3 branes etc)
5) M theory unifying the 5 known strings theories (by the addition of another spatial dimension)
6) Thus everything in this universe including the keyboard you are right now typing on is made up of tiny vibrating strings and below this level there is nothing. A string would be the last divisible entity beyond which it is not possible to divide anymore.
Basically everthing stripped down to strings. This is a book for the reader who doesn't know anything about string theory but wants to learn something. As a general reader, you are not in a position to take a stand for or against string theory, because the person picking up this book will be layman and hence rightly there are no equations, so you have to accept things at face value. If you were more deeply interested you would be a physicist doing his PHD and hence will read more dense and technical books as college courses.
But as a layman, you will also appreciate the paucity of physical evidence to support string theory. Particle physicists consider it the right theory because of its mathematical elegance in it's equations. As a layman, you and I are not able to see this elgance as we dont read equations. So I cant form a real opinion about this but I can say that this book will provide the uninitiated a quick cursory primer on string theory with the help of analogies. But this book wont make you believe or disbelieve string theory but you will become more aquainted with what this hype is all about.
regards, Vikram
Book Description
A 4–colour, illustrated best–of–the–best of the comic book world – with writers/creators who launched an industry (Jack Kirby, Stan Lee), amazing graphic novels (Preacher, The Watcher), legendary artists (Jim Lee) and characters as wide–ranging as Archie, The Gay Ghost, Batman, Blue Devil and the Fantastic Four.
Never before has there been a single volume of superheroes, graphic novels, strange comic icons, legendary writers and artists of the comic world. Comic Book Encyclopedia is the multiverse of comic legend and lore for every comic–book fan, and for everyone who wants to understand the characters, history, and universal appeal of this world.
Collected into a single volume, this is the best–of–the–best of comics. From the 1930s to today, it includes everything a young, budding comic reader – or an experienced pro – needs to know and/or read.
Customer Reviews:
The History of Comics.......2007-08-14
I bought this book because I wanted a guide of comics but all the comics, marvel, dc, image, dark horse, press, etc, and this book has that.
A decent comic encyclopedia that gears mostly towards the golden age........2007-02-14
As with most of these comic book/fantasy "guides" or "encyclopedias", such a huge task is bound to end up with a few factual errors and typos. There are certainly a few of those here in this book. For instance, Ron Goulart mentions that Jim Lee helped launch X-Men, Vol. 2 in 2001 (a full ten years after it originally happened). Such a mistake would probably fall in the "typo" category, but still pretty silly nonetheless.
The author admits that he grew up reading comics during it's "golden age", and it shows as this book *mostly* focuses on the industry throughout the late 20s-50s, and seems to completely forget all but the truly major top-selling characters of the 60s onward. But this indeed the "Comic Book Encyclopedia" because all years are represented, up to about 2001, it's just that the golden age seems to be the primary focus. Reading many entries in this book, I often wondered if Goulart was simply inserting his own favorites from his childhood into the book, because many of these characters and titles I had never heard of, even though I am a fan of that era. He seems to showcase the most obscure of companies, creators, and books even for the 30s & 40s.
Also at times Goulart seems to have a bit of a chip on his shoulder and may make remarks in regards to how underrated or overrated an artist or writer was, going as far to call out certain artists by speaking of how poor their style is.
But don't get me wrong, this encyclopedia is a joy to read. There's a great use of artwork here in relations to characters, comic book covers, and a creator's work. Having been born in 1981, I still have great interest in all those comic book years before me and I really enjoy reading about and seeing the artwork of the books of the 30s and 40s and 50s. So as long as you're not expecting an overview covering the New Avengers, X-Men, JLA, and Batman universes exclusively and don't mind catching up on the golden age, this is a very good book to pick up for fans of comics in general.
found a few mistakes..........2006-04-18
I skimmed through this book, which I fortunately bought from SFBC instead of a book store or Amazon, and found at least three errors.
Basically, don't count on this book to be 100% factual.
Superficial but beautiful.......2005-08-29
The graphics are simply outstanding and worth the price of the book alone. The text is something else, though. It's pretty superficial for the most part, and it misses some influential artists such as Gahan Wilson, Roy Krenkel and Edward Gorey (yes, I know they weren't really comic book artists, but they're so famous and their influence so profound they should have been included). For the most part I'd say this is light, enjoyable reading, certainly nothing in depth, but again, the graphics are just simply gorgeous.
An Enjoyable Light Study of Comic Books.......2005-08-21
The Comic Book Encyclopedia is a good light reference book to have. Is it an in depth comprehensive reference manual, for the professional researcher? No. But one of this book's best features is the ability to give some direction to more focused comprehensive research. Specific targeted areas and ample availability of keywords and keyword phrases, will help immensely with an Internet search.
If you understand anything about marketing at all, you know that packaging is half the battle. This book is packaged extremely well. It has great visuals on the front and back covers. Be wary though, and accept the book for its general lighthearted nature.
There is a useable informative timeline of comic book evolution, located inside the front and back covers. But there is no table of contents, which would have been extremely helpful. The index is available, but many times a table of contents is of better use to me.
If this book is purchased from Amazon, it is a lot cheaper than running down to a local bookstore. And if you would like to learn more about comic books or want a general reference resource, I would recommend this book. If more in depth comic book knowledge is wanted, this book is also a good starting point.
As a website builder of "www.comic-book-collection-made-easy.com", it has helped me with content and direction into further research. So I have not regretted my purchase. There are better reference materials and websites available though, for the more experienced comic book connoisseur.
Book Description
What is Shen Ku? Roughly translated: "Pure Traveler" or "Phantom Passenger." What exactly is the "art of...?" Mastering the skill and knowledge of practically everything anyone comes across while on Earth, including:
* Tying knots and enhancing sex * Numerology and self hypnosis * Herbal therapy and forecasting weather * Curing nosebleeds and removing stains * Kung fu and magic tricks * Isometric and breathing exercises of monks * Self defense and catching fish
And this is only the beginning.
Irreverent and quirky, serious and 100% straightforward, The Art of Shen Ku explores hundreds of topics from a broad spectrum of life situations, and gives ingeniously simple advice on how to cope with them, overcome them, use them, and benefit from them.
"One amazing book...intensely practical. Offering awesome crash courses in everything from joke telling to acupuncture...if you are a traveler in life, this book is for you. If you have anybody who needs an awe-inspiring present, then this book is for you. In short, buy it!" (The Travel and Leisure Magazine)
Customer Reviews:
The Everything You Ever Wanted To Know (& Thensome) Book.......2007-05-12
This book is great...it has everything from tying knots, workout regimens, motivational anecdotes, all the way to macrobiotics and sex-enhancing techniques! This is by far the ultimate everything book! I was looking through a copy that one of my friends had and went to both Borders and Barnes & Noble, but they never seem to stock the neat titles I find! I immediately came home and ordered the book on Amazon.com and it came quick, in great shape, great transaction, great book!
Enlightening and packed.......2007-04-30
This book is full of great and interesting ways to accentuate your health and well being. Although you might want to really delve deeper with other volumes, this one is a great and diverse reference for asian health techniques.
The Art of Shen Ku.......2007-03-20
A manual for everyone to have to refer to for various life experiences. I recommend everyone to have this as a part of their survival kit in everyday life.
Priceless!.......2006-11-24
As a life-long student and practioner of martial arts and esoteric arts, the author, whoever he is, Zeek?, is a genius with respect to collecting and organizing an amazing amount of Asian Secrets that are essential to those who are determined to grow and lead interesting lives.
Save yourself a tremendous amount of time and money toward searching the world for "The Secrets" and instead get Zeek's book.
After owning, studying and using this book for more than a year, my questions are: "Who is this guy", "How did he find all of this information", and "Is he going to write more books?"
Get this book and buy an extra copy for safe keeping.
A very useful book.......2006-11-21
In the movie "MirrorMask" there is a publication titled "A very useful book". This is the RL equivilant for the physical world. (Sufi Book of Life for spiritual/mystic matters) Worth reading/memorizing for the 'boy scout' stuff alone, this is an infodense version of practical ways to survive, live and enjoy life.
Book Description
Ragnarok. Armageddon. Doomsday. Since the dawn of time, man has wondered how the world would end. In The Last Three Minutes, Paul Davies reveals the latest theories. It might end in a whimper, slowly scattering into the infinite void. Then again, it might be yanked back by its own gravity and end in a catastrophic "Big Crunch." There are other, more frightening possibilities. We may be seconds away from doom at this very moment.
Written in clear language that makes the cutting-edge science of quarks, neutrinos, wormholes, and metaverses accessible to the layman, The Last Three Minutes treats readers to a wide range of conjectures about the ultimate fate of the universe. Along the way, it takes the occasional divergent path to discuss some slightly less cataclysmic topics such as galactic colonization, what would happen if the Earth were struck by the comet Swift-Tuttle (a distinct possibility), the effects of falling in a black hole, and how to create a "baby universe." Wonderfully morbid to the core, this is one of the most original science books to come along in years.
Customer Reviews:
Escape from Yourself and Join the Stars.......2007-01-27
An elegant book on the ultimate fate of the universe - cosmological speculations based upon well known hard physics - and all very exciting stuff extremely well written, and easily grasped if one remembers any high school science at all.
All the subject matter concerns a physical scale (large and small), a time scale (long and short), and a temperature scale (hot and cold) of such stupendously extreme parameters that reading becomes a terrific brain stretching exercise that delightfully removes one from the tiny doings of one's own overly personalized and petty mind circus.
The human end and not so much the universe's .......2004-12-15
I am not a scientist, and do not understand technical scientific matters in a deep way. For better descriptions of what this book is about in scientific terms I recommend the reader of this review look at the other Amazon Reviews.
I am the kind of reader who reads the scientific material in order to use it as basis for understanding certain fundamental questions. Science provides the ' truth' and my own thought the conjecture.
However what happens when the Science itself is conjecture, and what we are dealing with is alternative theories? From what I understand the most accepted view of the Universe's ' end' in scientific terms is its continuous expansion. Thus a number of readers on Amazon have indicated that the ' contraction scenario 'or ' big crunch scenario ' for the world's end is not held today by the great majority of Astronomers.
My question and here I share Davies' concern is not with ' the end of the Universe' the ' last three minutes as it were of everything' but with the ' ultimate fate of mankind'. And I wonder if the kind of material presented here brings to a greater understanding of that.
On the one hand it is possible to suggest that Mankind is such a small part of the Universe, and has been in existence for such a small interval of time that its continued existence through the kinds of times and distances the Universe is likely to exist through seems extremely unlikely. Here it is possible to speak about various scenarios of ' colonization' and the human transformations involved in them. Speculations in other words.
But then too since Mankind is now rapidly developing ' machine - intelligences' that may in some way become ' independent others' the question of ultimate human fate is connected with our own efforts here. In other words we might not wait until the last three minutes of the universe but might through our own ' creative means' put ourselves to sleep.
All this of course raises questions which are ultimately religious or spiritual.
And that question too I think should be asked in relation to ' the final time' of the universe.
All this leads me to the thought that the real subject we should be thinking about is the subject of God at the beginning or before the beginning, and God at the end or beyond the End. And what that means for us. And what we mean for God?
And how we are to make sense of this universe, and whether or not we can at all.
This is to say that the kinds of information Davies presents do not help me so much in my own quest to ' understand the ultimate meaning of who I am, who we are, and what my and our purpose is here on this earth and in this Universe.
For all those we now living love will end long before the physical Universe does.
Is there some other meaning for all of us only God knows ? Is there another universe next door or up above, or in some other way of perception and knowing we cannot possibly grasp?
Mind Expanding... (or is it contracting?).......2004-12-09
This book overviews the current major ideas of cosmology and sets them against a logical background of ultimate fate. What happens to the universe ultimately depends upon whence we came. Davies takes several theories and then logically extrapolates the possible fates of the universe.
One of the things to keep in mind is the fact that "infinity is a long time" and this reoccuring theme is central to the ideas he develops. If the universe is expanding, what eventually happens to matter? If the universe is contracting, what will eventually happen to matter? Where does matter come from? Can matter be created or destroyed over infinite amounts of time?
Such ideas explored are the steady state theory, the expanding universe and "cold heat" death. The contracting universe and the eventual ceasing of all time, matter --- everything... The oscillating universe where matter can be created from "nothing" .
Some of the info is a little dated -- I suppose this applies if you are a graduate student in the Astrophysic department of Cambridge University. But for the average bloke with an interest in cosmology, one need not be worried about reading "old" materials. In fact the popular science, current considerations about the universes initial inflation stage -- that fraction of a secong when expansion and matter may have formed --- is well described and should serve as an intro to other reading.
The one thing that I really like about Davies is that his writing is clean and does not become a political tract: eg. Dawkins, Pinker and Dennet.
This trend towards writing "polically" based appreciations of scientific theory is based upon two things in my estimation: 1) the rise of the irrational, Voodoo Science and stark raving mad religious fundementalists --- scientific authors often rightly feel that they are fighting a rear guard action against the forces of darkness, and: 2) amazing egos that need to be assuaged (Dawkins and Dennet) so they feel that they must always address all potential attacks, however inconsequential, to defend their "good name."
Davies is clean and can present contrasting and even illogical ideas (Bede's "Darwin's Black Box") in a non-political way -- and still make the guy look irrelevant to modern science.
That is why, along with Matt Ridley, Davies is the best writer in popular science, worthy to assume the mantle of Carl Sagan.
A bit dry in the middle.. .......2004-09-03
The book starts with what I might consider a fake-out: Davies starts by recounting a situation where some asteroid has been found to be on a collision course with Earth and the final minutes in our existence considering that we know we're going to be hit by a "global killer". While this is interesting, it's a bit of fiction. We were scared for a bit that later this century we would be hit by something heading our direction, but it was found to be missing us by just a little bit later. After considering the possibilities and probabilities of these happening for some pages, he notes that even if we do die this way, it's not exactly the last three minutes of the
universe, just life on earth. Going on, he discusses the possibility of heat death, seemingly unavoidable by the second law of thermodynamics and something which depressed scientists to no end after they found it out. He also covers the possibility that the universe may stop expanding and start contracting at some point in the future.
Davies seems to work very hard to make the material not as dry as a AA member at a monastery by connecting most of the theory to what would actually happen, assuming that human life exists at that point. Unfortunately, the evaporating power of the material seems to take over, and I couldn't really get through this book all the way without forcing myself through long sections on black holes that I really didn't care much about. After the long discussion of black holes and how we could possibly get energy out of them stops, Davies got to the meat of what I was actually looking for: heat death or contracting universe. The last third of the book was actually much easier to read than the middle and much more intersting than most of the rest. Contracting and "Bouncing back" universes are discussed along with an actually interesting tangent about artifically creating universes by tricks with false vacuum. One other thing I really like about this book - Davies seems to go out of his way to make sure you know where to look up more information about the situations he talks about - even without resorting to looking at the notes in the back.
The book is actually better than many I could have read on the subject, and did increase my knowledge of the possibilities for the ultimate fate of the universe fairly extensively. It definitely gets my recommendation for geeky reading over the summer, at least if you can get through to the really interesting parts. At 176 pages, it is actually more reading than it looks like at a paltry paperbook size. If it weren't for the dry section in the middle, it wouldn't be B grade material.
Fire or ice?.......2004-01-29
It is safe to say that I grew up reading Paul Davies; my first real introduction to physical sciences such as astronomy and physic was the television series 'Cosmos'; that inspired me to purchase the companion text, which further inspired me to join the Astronomy Book Club two dozen years ago. One of the first books offered, and the first book I received from them, was Paul Davies' 'Other Worlds' -- from then on, I was hooked. I have nearly a dozen books by Paul Davies, all on topics of theoretical physics, astrophysics and cosmology -- he is consistently readable, entertaining and educating with the same style that compels the reader to want more (which he then provides).
It was not surprising to me to see his name on the Science Masters Series. The series has basic introductions to many of the key issues in science today -- evolution, origins of life, cognitive science, time, computer science, and more. Each volume is relatively short -- 'The Last Three Minutes' has a mere 150 pages of text that is not too dense, sparing technically and mathematically without losing much conceptually.
The issue of the end of the universe is one of the 'hot spots' of astrophysics and cosmology, and so there are elements of this book that are already a bit out of date, despite being less than a decade old. However, given the speculative nature of many 'discoveries' in this field, it is impossible to say if anything is truly out of date or false at the present time.
Davies explores the end of the universe by setting the stage -- drawing from current thinking about the origins of the universe, in fact one of the options for conjecture, in a closed universe system, would be that the last three minutes would resemble quite closely the first three minutes. Davies looks at the various processes -- stellar evolution and decay, gravitational issues, overall radiation depletion, energy-fuel consumption -- and draws these together for the various theories about the end of the universe.
Davies shows the ideas of the closed/collapsing universe (a view not widely held today) and of the infinitely expanding universe (the current reigning theory), giving ideas about the variables required to tip the scales in one direction or the other. Even with an infinitely expanding universe, however, all is not necessarily well with the world -- the universe runs the risk (in the future so distant there is no realistic way of expressing it in terms of time we know) of becoming a dark, deep freeze with no activity left, and all matter becoming inert and inactive in every respect.
Davies speculates on what this means for the survival of humanity and human history -- how can information be preserved? How can our species go on in the face of this? Such speculation is pure conjecture; the time distances are so far removed that nothing we devise will likely come close to resembling an actual answer to this. However, it is interesting as a mental exercise, and leads the reader hopefully to further reading.
Book Description
In books such as The World Within the World and The Anthropic Cosmological Principle, astronomer John Barrow has emerged as a leading writer on our efforts to understand the universe. Timothy Ferris, writing in The Times Literary Supplement of London, described him as "a temperate and
accomplished humanist, scientist, and philosopher of science--a man out to make a contribution, not a show." Now Barrow offers the general reader another fascinating look at modern physics, as he explores the quest for a single, unifying theory that will unlock nature's secrets.
Theories of Everything is more than a history of science, more than a popular report on recent research and discoveries. Barrow provides a reflective, intelligent commentary on what a true Theory of Everything would be--its ingredients, its limitations, and what it could tell us about the
universe. Never before, he writes, have physicists been so confident and so eager in the hunt for this "cosmic Rosetta Stone," as he calls it: "a single all-embracing picture of all the laws of nature from which the inevitability of all things seen must follow with unimpeachable logic." He lays
out eight essential ingredients for a Theory of Everything and then explores each in turn, tracing how our knowledge has developed and how scientific discovery relates to our changing philosophy and religious thought in each area. Some of these ingredients are obvious--the laws of nature must be
explained, for example, as well as its organizing principles--but others may be surprising, such as broken symmetries and selection biases. A Theory of Everything must account for the fact that the universe is "messy and complicated," he tells us, and for the limitations imposed by the questions we
ask and the information we can obtain. The key lies in the remarkable capacity of mathematics to express the fundamental workings of the physical world--a language that the human mind is uniquely equipped to understand and manipulate. Barrow examines what mathematics actually is and describes how
it makes the universe intelligible and provides a path to the underlying coherence in nature--which has led, in fact, to arguments that the universe itself is a vast computer. Yet even the most complete theory, even the most comprehensive mathematical explanation, cannot account for the
uncomputable varieties of human experience and thought. "No non-poetic account of reality," he writes, "can be complete."
In a field where the authorities converse in equations and mathematical notations, John Barrow speaks with the voice of thoughtful and knowledgeable humanist. Written with eloquence and expertise, Theories of Everything establishes a new perspective on humanity's efforts to explain the
universe.
Customer Reviews:
Now I've seen everything..........2003-06-05
'Science is a differential equation. Religion is a boundary limit.'
- Alan Turing
My first academic love was theoretical physics. I was going to be a astrophysicist; when I arrived at university, however, the department told me that I knew too much for the introductory courses, and to come back in a few years to take the advanced courses. Alas, I studied on my own and never returned officially (still an honourable course in astronomy, which has a great love and need of the dedicated amateur), and went professionally in different directions.
However, I should have known even back then what my ultimate directions would be (as John Barrow's book, 'Theories of Everything' has as a subtitle 'The Quest for Ultimate Explanation', I may slip into a lot of 'ultimates' here), for when I picked up the book in the shop and began reading the first page, I knew I had to read it (and read it right away) when I came across the following quotation:
'Suddenly scientists are asking such questions in all seriousness and theologians find their thinking pre-empted and guided by the mathematical speculations of a new generation of scientists. Ironically, few theologians have an adequate training in physics to keep abreat of the details, and few physicists have a sufficient appreciation of the wider questions to make a fruitful dialogue easy.'
The idea in physics of The Theory of Everything is the quest for that single, all-encompassing, simple set of principles by with all other laws, actions, and outcomes can be explained (and possibly predicted) with unerring logic. Some physicists of late have begun to have confidence that human progress is very close to this.
Perhaps this is a misplaced confidence; one is reminded of the Director of the Prussian Patent Office a century ago who stated that the office might as well close soon, since everything that was going to be invented probably already had been. There was a confidence in Newtonian-based world views that was very strong indeed (a mighty fortress, one might say, to support the altar of physics) -- this was discovered to be a golden calf, which was in turn melted by Einstein et al. It the 'Theory of Everything' another idol?
'Our monotheistic traditions reinforce the assumption that the Universe is at root a unity.'
So much of mathematics, physics, philosophy, and other disciplines have, even if it is unspoken, a sense of unity at heart, in which this belief plays a part.
'Indeed, the concept of a Supreme Being is in all cultures a more primitive and natural notion than that of laws of Nature. It could well be argued that no culture arrived at a robust concept of the latter without a preliminary concept of the former.'
The book quickly becomes more theoretical and scientific in nature; this is not a text for the faint hearted. This is what Barrow meant by theologians (and, by extension, the general public) not being aware or familiar with the details. In discussing symmetries in the universe and the idea of creation ex nihilo, Barrow brings in ideas of overall net roation and electric charge to the universe (where is the evidence for these?), and basic conservation principles, in part to dispute the idea that creation ex nihilo somehow violates a cosmological principle.
'The total mass-energy of all the constituents of a finite Universe appears to be always equal in magnitude but opposite in sign to the total gravitational potential energies of those particles. It could suddenly thus appear spontaneously without violating the conservation of mass-energy.'
This is beyond any systematic theology text I've ever encountered.
The science is sound, and fair in presentation. Barrow presents opposing viewpoints with clarity and critique. Barrow expands into mathematics (of course, incompleteness theorems, that gem of philosophical speculation that is so often misapplied beyond its narrow purview, is here), biological ideas of organising principles (is this natural or a fluke, or did it require an outside intervention?), time and space difficulties and paradoxes, and more.
Of course, there is a caution in the 'Theory of Everything'. This is not, in fact, meant to explain everything. It will not explain human inspiration (i.e., the Homeric epics, Shakespeare's plays, or Mozart's Requiem); it will not explain emotions; ultimately, it will not explain God.
'There is no formula that can deliver all truth, all harmony, all simplicity. No Theory of Everything can ever provide total insight. For, to see through everything, would leave us seeing nothing at all.'
Now I've seen everything..........2003-05-27
`Science is a differential equation. Religion is a boundary limit.'
- Alan Turing
My first academic love was theoretical physics (which some of you may have discerned from my reviews; although my life has gone in a different direction, occasionally a book with the title `Introduction to Cosmology' pops up). I was going to be a astrophysicist; when I arrived at university, however, the department told me that I knew too much for the introductory courses, and to come back in a few years to take the advanced courses. Alas, I studied on my own and never returned officially (still an honourable course in astronomy, which has a great love and need of the dedicated amateur), and went professionally in different directions.
However, I should have known even back then what my ultimate directions would be (as John Barrow's book, `Theories of Everything' has as a subtitle The Quest for Ultimate Explanation, I may slip into a lot of 'ultimates' here), for when I picked up the book in the shop and began reading the first page, I knew I had to read it (and read it right away) when I came across the following quotation:
`Suddenly scientists are asking such questions in all seriousness and theologians find their thinking pre-empted and guided by the mathematical speculations of a new generation of scientists. Ironically, few theologians have an adequate training in physics to keep abreat of the details, and few physicists have a sufficient appreciation of the wider questions to make a fruitful dialogue easy.'
The idea in physics of The Theory of Everything is the quest for that single, all-encompassing, simple set of principles by with all other laws, actions, and outcomes can be explained (and possibly predicted) with unerring logic. Some physicists of late have begun to have confidence that human progress is very close to this.
Perhaps this is a misplaced confidence; one is reminded of the Director of the Prussian Patent Office a century ago who stated that the office might as well close soon, since everything that was going to be invented probably already had been. There was a confidence in Newtonian-based world views that was very strong indeed (a mighty fortress, one might say, to support the altar of physics) -- this was discovered to be a golden calf, which was in turn melted by Einstein et al. It the 'Theory of Everything' another idol?
`Our monotheistic traditions reinforce the assumption that the Universe is at root a unity.'
So much of mathematics, physics, philosophy, and other disciplines have, even if it is unspoken, a sense of unity at heart, in which this belief plays a part.
`Indeed, the concept of a Supreme Being is in all cultures a more primitive and natural notion than that of laws of Nature. It could well be argued that no culture arrived at a robust concept of the latter without a preliminary concept of the former.'
The book quickly becomes more theoretical and scientific in nature; this is not a text for the faint hearted. This is what Barrow meant by theologians (and, by extension, the general public) not being aware or familiar with the details. In discussing symmetries in the universe and the idea of creation ex nihilo, Barrow brings in ideas of overall net roation and electric charge to the universe (where is the evidence for these?), and basic conservation principles, in part to dispute the idea that creation ex nihilo somehow violates a cosmological principle.
`The total mass-energy of all the constituents of a finite Universe appears to be always equal in magnitude but opposite in sign to the total gravitational potential energies of those particles. It could suddenly thus appear spontaneously without violating the conservation of mass-energy.'
This is beyond any systematic theology text I've ever encountered.
The science is sound, and fair in presentation. Barrow presents opposing viewpoints with clarity and critique. Barrow expands into mathematics (of course, incompleteness theorems, that gem of philosophical speculation that is so often misapplied beyond its narrow purview, is here), biological ideas of organising principles (is this natural or a fluke, or did it require an outside intervention?), time and space difficulties and paradoxes, and more.
Of course, there is a caution in the 'Theory of Everything'. This is not, in fact, meant to explain everything. It will not explain human inspiration (i.e., the Homeric epics, Shakespeare's plays, or Mozart's Requiem); it will not explain emotions; ultimately, it will not explain God.
`There is no formula that can deliver all truth, all harmony, all simplicity. No Theory of Everything can ever provide total insight. For, to see through everything, would leave us seeing nothing at all.'
Impossible search........2002-09-06
The author believes that it is beyond the human reach to find a 'Theory of Everything', in other words an abbreviated representation - an algorithm or formula - of the logic behind the Universe's properties. A theory that unites the four fundamental forces.
His reasoning is solid, but sometimes difficult to follow. Not an easy read.
Here are a few of his arguments: (1) the world (e.g. chaotic processes) is not totally algorithmically compressible. (2) many constants of Nature got their values in the earliest stages of the universe. From the predictions emerging from the 'Theory of Everything, we should arrive at the current structure of the universe. This is nearly impossible. (3) If random elements of the Universe, inherited from its quantum origins, differ significantly from place to place, the knowledge of its global structure from our point of view will be incomplete. (4) Superstrings and its corollary 'many dimensions'. What happened with the vanished dimensions?
To the bargain, the author believes that even if we should find this theory, the factual impact on our life would be very limited.
Why then are all members of the physicists guild searching fot it? And why writes the author such a challenging book about it? It is like the quest of the Holy grail in the Middle Ages. The sheer beaty of Einstein's simple formula left everybody dumbfounded, but the person who will find a new equation 'for everything' would provoke a long lasting general silence followed by a burst of applause nearly as loud as the Big Bang.
By the way, I am not so sure that the impact on our life of this theory would be limited. The theory of general relativity and his counterpart 'quantum mechanics' had an immense impact on our daily lives, for the good and the bad.
A must read for everybody interested in the fate of the universe, or better multiverse.
Not so much about the ultimate theory but what it should be.......2001-02-15
This was not quite what I expected it to be, which was an overview of the latest ultimate theories of physics. The book does go into that topic to some extent, but it is as much about the philosophy of science as about science itself: not just the ultimate theories, but what constitutes a successful theory and what characteristics an ultimate theory should have. As such, it addresses such topics as symmetry (especially the broken symmetry believed to explain the four basic forces), compressibility (the capability of a simple theory to explain complex consequences), constants, laws, the anthropic principle, initial conditions, and much more. It's difficult going at times, and I can't pretend that I understood all of it. However, I think it's a book that will bear rereading, which I will plan on doing. Oh, and the quotes at the beginning of each section are great!
Entertaining, Educational and Not What I Expected.......1997-11-04
I expected a book that would focus on Theories of Everything that have been proposed to date-- a history of Grand Unified Theories, their proposers, to what extent they have been correct and have unified previously disparate theories, and to what extent they are not really Grand Unified Theories.
That is not what I got. I got something not necessarily better than described above, but different; certainly not worse. To highlight the difference from what you might expect, during one early chapter, I thought I had started rereading Roger Penrose's The Emperor's New Mind by mistake. And the Penrose is about consciousness and Artificial Intelligence. (Also a very good book, by the way.)
Theories of Everything is more of a cookbook. Whether you will come out with a cake at the end is doubtful, but it gives you what the necessary ingredients are to bake a successful theory of everything.
You need some universal principles or laws, some logic, some math, some chaos/complexity theory, the initial conditions of the universe (possibly quantum), some time theory, some elementary particles, a bit of gauge theory, possibly some wormholes and parallel universes, some questionable constants, some symmetries and symmetry breaking, an absence of theoretical bias (probably an impossible ingredient), and a philosophical mathematical basis. And that is exactly what you get.
Barrow seems to love philosophy as much as he loves physics, math and logic. That makes me like this book even more, as those are the fields of my concern, as well.
My one area of contention with Barrow is that he is ultimately a dualist, I am a physicalist. I disagree with him that a theory of everything could not contain music, poetry, consciousness, etc.
An alternate reading from the cookbook reading is that this book _is_ theories of everything--not a unified singular one, but it contains theories on all of the topics mentioned above and then some. Barrow is an extremely intelligent man and a very entertaining writer. Don't pass this book up.
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All hail the heroes of DC! Create your own scenes with the good guys and gals of DC‹including Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, and other famous favorites.
Book Description
All great religions have one thing in common: in different ways, they all point the way to a higher consciousness a paradisiacal realm of eternal life.
Does such a "state" exist? If so, how can one know for sure?
. . . Is it necessary to become a monk? Spend years in therapy? Swallow hundreds of pills? Sit at the feet of a guru?
"Not at all," says Roy Masters. With penetrating insight into the causes and cures of the most painful problems common to all humanity, Masters offers real and practical solutions. The answer is simple: "Be still." Your decision to face your problems honestly, objectively, and with a sincere desire to overcome them will automatically connect you to the source of inner healing. But how?
This book elaborates with stunning clarity and surgical precision on the themes presented in his earlier works, and includes such chapters as: "Stress: Are You Coping Or Failing?", "Rebellion and Conformity," "Destiny: Chance Or Choice?" "Unmasking the Mind Benders," and "Breaking Free From Psychotherapy." "If you could discover how to meet each new moment with awareness and patience, rather than with the same old angry responses conditioned in childhood, you will effortlessly resolve the traumas of the past and discover a truly blessed future."
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i never receved the item.......2006-11-04
when i asked for it to be diliverd to a differant address i was told that i will have to wait untill it is returned i am still waiting
To solve Life's Problems.......2002-02-17
Life could be so simple if we are only willing to be quiet and observe our thoughts instead of being pulled in to them. This book is all about how do it and to leave your problems behind.
Book Description
You want to know how it really is. Start here and by the end of the book you will know cause of the universe. Ultimate Cause is your most intimate companion It makes a difference to you yourself, your culture and the people of the world what you think about cause of the universe. You are your thoughts. They are all of the mortal universe except for Ultimate Cause. THINK The universe is a box. Think outside the box. Think of cause of the box. That is Ultimate Cause. This book is about cause of the whole universe from galaxies of stars to subatomic particles, from DNA to human cultures. In seeking to know, in contributing to knowing and in knowing cause of the universe all people, all thought, sciences, religions and philosophies are united. We know Ultimate Cause by inference from our knowledge of the universe as capability to cause the universe to be as it is. With the point of view of Ultimate Cause we see that UC likes and enjoys everything and everyone. We can too. We work and struggle in the processes of life. It all ends. It is all mortal --- except for Ultimate Cause. The mortality and recycling of the universe make sense when we think of it as a drama for UC to experience and enjoy. Our existence, birth and growth depend on mortality and recycling. UC is not mortal, so is not moral, likes and enjoys everyone and everything.. Ultimate Cause is our most intimate companion, sharing our every thought and feeling. UC has it all in memory beyond the existence of the universe. This is
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