(no subject)
I've finally decided to talk about the book I read a couple weeks back.
I found it in Barnes & Noble. I had just hopped onto a 'theoretical
physics jones' after I saw the movie What The @#%^ Do We Know? (www.whatthebleep.com), and got my fix via a Stephen Hawking book.
Yeah, the wheelchair guy.
The title is perfectly succinct: The Universe In A Nutshell.
It's clearly a difficult thing to fit inside of such a small object. Hawking did quite well in this regard.
The first three chapters lay out basic knowledge: Einstein's Theory of Relativity--General and Special--the newer Quantum theory, their differences, their relationship with how time functions, how the universe was created based on evidence we can find, and how scientists are searching for a unified theory, Relative and Quantum. Then he breaks off into tangents on the following chapters. Elaborating on what he spoke of in the first chapter, reaching further into the basis of existence by trying to explain P-Branes to our feeble little minds.
P-Branes are basically dimensions as Hawking explained. That's pretty easy to fathom, X, Y, and Z, oh I'm so fucking smart. But wait, there's more. It turns out that our universe, as Hawking postulates, is made up of 10 or 11 dimensions. Whaaa?
Yes.
We can only percieve four of them. X, Y, Z, and Time. The other 6 or 7, well they're "wrapped together tightly." That's sadly ss far as Hawking delves into the concept of extra dimensions. I have no earthly clue what wrapped together tightly could mean.
Then he talks about quantum physics, the uncertainty of things. How Quantum physics relies upon the assumption that all things are possible within the quantum realm--or basically the place where all the sub-atomic particles hang out--and that invariably all of those possibilites are occupied by seperate universes, or so a certain sub-theory explains.
Another way of looking at it is believing in concrete existance only with with prescence of an observer. Basically, when a tree falls in the forest, and absolutely nothing or no one is there to witness it, it does not make a sound. The tree never even fell. The tree isn't even there. Its particles and all particles that are not being observed, are in wave form. They occupy all space where their location is possible.
Whoa.
This shit gets me kind of pumped. It's mind-bending. It's paradigm shifting. It's stigma-erasing. We are all infinitesimally insignificant in this vast, limitless space of reality.
But no, I think. We are not. We are here. We exist. We think. We are all that we have for ourselves. So we cannot throw ourselves out once we have discovered the nature of our existence. But within this limitless existence, why the hell do we exist? From where I'm standing, it looks like no real reason at all. And I think I like that. It gives me the freedom to say whatever the hell I want about that.
And who better to make the decision than myself?
Hawking mentions quite a bit more. I'll talk about it later.
Yeah, the wheelchair guy.
The title is perfectly succinct: The Universe In A Nutshell.
It's clearly a difficult thing to fit inside of such a small object. Hawking did quite well in this regard.
The first three chapters lay out basic knowledge: Einstein's Theory of Relativity--General and Special--the newer Quantum theory, their differences, their relationship with how time functions, how the universe was created based on evidence we can find, and how scientists are searching for a unified theory, Relative and Quantum. Then he breaks off into tangents on the following chapters. Elaborating on what he spoke of in the first chapter, reaching further into the basis of existence by trying to explain P-Branes to our feeble little minds.
P-Branes are basically dimensions as Hawking explained. That's pretty easy to fathom, X, Y, and Z, oh I'm so fucking smart. But wait, there's more. It turns out that our universe, as Hawking postulates, is made up of 10 or 11 dimensions. Whaaa?
Yes.
We can only percieve four of them. X, Y, Z, and Time. The other 6 or 7, well they're "wrapped together tightly." That's sadly ss far as Hawking delves into the concept of extra dimensions. I have no earthly clue what wrapped together tightly could mean.
Then he talks about quantum physics, the uncertainty of things. How Quantum physics relies upon the assumption that all things are possible within the quantum realm--or basically the place where all the sub-atomic particles hang out--and that invariably all of those possibilites are occupied by seperate universes, or so a certain sub-theory explains.
Another way of looking at it is believing in concrete existance only with with prescence of an observer. Basically, when a tree falls in the forest, and absolutely nothing or no one is there to witness it, it does not make a sound. The tree never even fell. The tree isn't even there. Its particles and all particles that are not being observed, are in wave form. They occupy all space where their location is possible.
Whoa.
This shit gets me kind of pumped. It's mind-bending. It's paradigm shifting. It's stigma-erasing. We are all infinitesimally insignificant in this vast, limitless space of reality.
But no, I think. We are not. We are here. We exist. We think. We are all that we have for ourselves. So we cannot throw ourselves out once we have discovered the nature of our existence. But within this limitless existence, why the hell do we exist? From where I'm standing, it looks like no real reason at all. And I think I like that. It gives me the freedom to say whatever the hell I want about that.
And who better to make the decision than myself?
Hawking mentions quite a bit more. I'll talk about it later.