Tag: physics
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Putting Ourselves Back in the Equation, Musser (2023)
The measurement problem in quantum mechanics, the hard problem of consciousness, and the challenge of developing general AI are not separate issues. Absorbing that message—understanding its potentially enormous leverage for a revolution in human understanding—is enough to justify picking up George Musser’s Putting Ourselves Back Into the Equation. The book is readable, which is no…
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A Brief History of Time, Hawking (1988)
A Brief History of Time is clear, precise, and (indeed) short. Other books about cosmology are perhaps clearer (From Eternity to Here) or more precise (Black Holes & Time Warps) or even shorter (The First Few Minutes), but to date none have quite pulled off the combination like Hawking did decades ago. The book could…
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The Trouble with Physics, Smolin (2006)
If Lee Smolin is right, the first half ofThe Trouble with Physics is destined to be forgotten. A decade or two hence, string theory may feel like a fever dream—a kaleidoscopic rush of ideas, some brilliant, some absurd, but the whole ultimately incoherent. If that’s the case, then the details of string theory will become…
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The Second Creation, Crease and Mann
Crease and Mann write in the afterword of The Second Creation that they sought to tell the history of the Standard Model through the words of those most closely involved. This they do, admirably. Many of the scientists appear as deeply human, their flaws on clear display, and to flattering effect: humanness makes their subtle…
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From Eternity to Here, Carroll (2010)
From Eternity to Here is the best available single-book popular treatment of time and entropy as understood by present-day physics. These are not easy topics. The history of the philosophy of time is byzantine, burdened with both wishful thinking and self-absorbed pessimism; and if there’s one modern topic that’s been thoroughly obfuscated by misuse (by…