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Topic: virus: vibrant eleven-dimensional multiverse(msg body fixed) (Read 938 times) |
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Walter Watts
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virus: vibrant eleven-dimensional multiverse(msg body fixed)
« on: 2004-03-24 14:21:41 » |
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A new book recommendation. Just out.
This guy's NO R. Stuart Hall quack. He's a physicist's physicist.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375412883/qid=1080155508/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/103-9094806-4543828
Book Description
From Brian Greene, one of the world’s leading physicists, comes a grand
tour of the universe that makes us look at reality in a completely
different way.
Space and time form the very fabric of the cosmos. Yet they remain among
the most mysterious of concepts. Is space an entity? Why does time have
a direction? Could the universe exist without space and time? Can we
travel to the past? Greene uses these questions to guide us toward
modern science’s new and deeper understanding of the universe. From
Newton’s unchanging realm in which space and time are absolute, to
Einstein’s fluid conception of spacetime, to quantum mechanics’
entangled arena where vastly different objects can bridge their spatial
separation to instantaneously coordinate their behavior or even undergo
teleportation, Greene reveals our world to be very different from what
common experience leads us to believe. Focusing on the enigma of time,
Greene establishes that nothing in the laws of physics insists that it
run in any particular direction and that “time’s arrow” is a relic of
the universe’s condition at the moment of the big bang. And in
explaining the big bang itself, Greene shows how recent cutting-edge
developments in superstring and M-theory may reconcile the behavior of
everything from the smallest particle to the largest black hole. This
startling vision culminates in a vibrant eleven-dimensional
“multiverse,” pulsating with ever-changing textures, where space and
time themselves may dissolve into subtler, more fundamental entities.
Sparked by the trademark wit, humor, and brilliant use of analogy that
have made The Elegant Universe a modern classic, Brian Greene takes us
all, regardless of our scientific backgrounds, on an irresistible and
revelatory journey to the new layers of reality that modern physics has
discovered lying just beneath the surface of our everyday world.
With 146 illustrations
--
Walter Watts
Tulsa Network Solutions, Inc.
"Pursue the small utopias... nature, music, friendship, love"
--Kupferberg--
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Walter Watts
Tulsa Network Solutions, Inc.
No one gets to see the Wizard! Not nobody! Not no how!
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rhinoceros
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My point is ...
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Re:virus: vibrant eleven-dimensional multiverse(msg body fixed)
« Reply #1 on: 2004-03-25 08:51:52 » |
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[Walter]
A new book recommendation. Just out.
This guy's NO R. Stuart Hall quack. He's a physicist's physicist.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375412883
<snip>
[rhinoceros]
Here are two URLs I found:
1. An interview with Brian Greene on "The Fabric of the Cosmos"
http://www.bookbrowse.com/index.cfm?page=author&authorID=989&view=Interview
<snip>
Q: Doesn't that [the physicist's concept of time] make it hard to catch a train?
A: It does, but it doesn't make for a good excuse--at least not more than once.
<end snip>
2. An excerpt from the book giving an idea of how Greene uses his words.
http://www.bookbrowse.com/index.cfm?page=title&titleID=1380&view=Print
<snip>
"There is but one truly philosophical problem, and that is suicide," the text began. I winced. "Whether or not the world has three dimensions or the mind nine or twelve categories," it continued, "comes afterward"; such questions, the text explained, were part of the game humanity played, but they deserved attention only after the one true issue had been settled. The book was The Myth of Sisyphus and was written by the Algerian-born philosopher and Nobel laureate Albert Camus. After a moment, the iciness of his words melted under the light of comprehension. Yes, of course, I thought. You can ponder this or analyze that till the cows come home, but the real question is whether all your ponderings and analyses will convince you that life is worth living. That's what it all comes down to. Everything else is detail.
My chance encounter with Camus' book must have occurred during an especially impressionable phase because, more than anything else I'd read, his words stayed with me. Time and again I'd imagine how various people I'd met, or heard about, or had seen on television would answer this primary of all questions. In retrospect, though, it was his second assertion–regarding the role of scientific progress – that, for me, proved particularly challenging. Camus acknowledged value in understanding the structure of the universe, but as far as I could tell, he rejected the possibility that such understanding could make any difference to our assessment of life's worth. Now, certainly, my teenage reading of existential philosophy was about as sophisticated as Bart Simpson's reading of Romantic poetry, but even so, Camus' conclusion struck me as off the mark. To this aspiring physicist, it seemed that an informed appraisal of life absolutely required a full understanding of life's arena–the universe. I remember thinking that if our species dwelled in cavernous outcroppings buried deep underground and so had yet to discover the earth's surface, brilliant sunlight, an ocean breeze, and the stars that lie beyond, or if evolution had proceeded along a different pathway and we had yet to acquire any but the sense of touch, so everything we knew came only from our tactile impressions of our immediate environment, or if human mental faculties stopped developing during early childhood so our emotional and analytical skills never progressed beyond those of a five-year-old–in short, if our experiences painted but a paltry portrait of reality–our appraisal of life would be thoroughly compromised. When we finally found our way to earth's surface, or when we finally gained the ability to see, hear, smell, and taste, or when our minds were finally freed to develop as they ordinarily do, our collective view of life and the cosmos would, of necessity, change radically. Our previously compromised grasp of reality would have shed a very different light on that most fundamental of all philosophical questions.
<snip>
But while formulating his laws of motion, Newton encountered a critical stumbling block, one that is of particular importance to our story (Chapter 2). Everyone knew that things could move, but what about the arena within which the motion took place? Well, that's space, we'd all answer. But, Newton would reply, what is space? Is space a real physical entity or is it an abstract idea born of the human struggle to comprehend the cosmos? Newton realized that this key question had to be answered, because without taking a stand on the meaning of space and time, his equations describing motion would prove meaningless. Understanding requires context; insight must be anchored.
And so, with a few brief sentences in his Principia Mathematica, Newton articulated a conception of space and time, declaring them absolute and immutable entities that provided the universe with a rigid, unchangeable arena. According to Newton, space and time supplied an invisible scaffolding that gave the universe shape and structure. Not everyone agreed. Some argued persuasively that it made little sense to ascribe existence to something you can't feel, grasp, or affect. But the explanatory and predictive power of Newton's equations quieted the critics. For the next two hundred years, his absolute conception of space and time was dogma.
<end snip>
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Walter Watts
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Posts: 1571
Reputation: 8.24
Rate Walter Watts
Just when I thought I was out-they pull me back in
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Re: virus: vibrant eleven-dimensional "multiverse,"
« Reply #2 on: 2004-03-29 13:20:58 » |
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"Glazed" over and with sprinkles on it. Heh-heh. 
Walter
Blunderov wrote:
> [Blunderov] For those who, like me, find their minds glazing over at the
> prospect of any more than four dimensions, --
Walter Watts
Tulsa Network Solutions, Inc.
"Pursue the small utopias... nature, music, friendship, love"
--Kupferberg--
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Walter Watts
Tulsa Network Solutions, Inc.
No one gets to see the Wizard! Not nobody! Not no how!
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