Those who know me well know that my reading list infrequently departs from fiction as I find literature provides a healthy and spiritually fulfilling counterbalance to a professional life deeply rooted in business prose. When I do so depart it is usually into some realm of science (see blog post Strange Loops). For those interested some of my favorite authors of fiction are listed under the tab About Tom accessible from the home page.
I have just finished another great book of ideas on the grandest of themes The Elegant Universe by Professor Brian Greene of Columbia. For those of you who skipped 20th Century Physics in college or those like me who need a good refresher course on Einstein’s theories of relativity and then a fantastic journey on everything that has come since (from quantum mechanics through string theory) this book is for you. But be forewarned: even if you skip the detailed notes the text can be challenging.
Here is the prize:
[T]hrough superstring theory and its evolution into M-theory a cogent framework for merging quantum mechanics general relativity and the strong weak and electromagnetic forces has finally emerged.
The universe which emerges from these new theories consists of:
[L]oops of strings and oscillating globules uniting all creation into vibrational patterns that are meticulously executed in a universe with numerous hidden dimensions capable of undergoing extreme contortions in which their spatial fabric tears apart and then repairs itself.
If this sounds exciting to you I have the book for you but light beach reading it is not.
Mr. Glocer – I can across your blog while doing research about my former colleagues/clients at Thomson and really appreciated the side trip to your site. I am thankful for a CEO blog that is so cognitively thought provoking and challenges us on subjects such as work-life balance at the same time. In fact the combination of the two hit me with this post since I love to read about science (a subject I didn’t find all that enthralling in school at any level). Thanks for taking your own side trip from fiction for this post. Your example about superstring theory prompts me to take up the book – sounds perfect for a winter’s day at the beach. In my business side we focus attention on whatcanbe as we like to call it and I have a few colleagues who will want to read this also – I’m using your blog to pass along the idea.
Only for the incredibly inquisitive or bored senseless I imagine. No doubt in my mind that all these theories are wrong not to condemn mans ingenuity and quest for knowledge nor the usability of models that partially work but simply because we looking at the universe from a fish bowl. When I read about things like dark matter I sometimes think that our whole universe may be nothing more than a dew drop in a greater cosmological garden where eons to us is an insignificant blink of an eye in the greater scheme the next big bang to us may be nothing more than a little precipitation in a greater universe. I do think that part of the problem is that we are always looking to close the archetype complete the model. School teaches the truth the model is always closed and that I believe is wrong the model that we looking for will have no beginning or end it’s the only one that will fit. That’s the lesson I think man has to learn always test the model pragmatic acceptance until it’s ultimately proved incorrect that’s what we should be taught. Words do not contain absolute meaning they only as good as our archetypes and its important to always leave them open. I don’t see science and closing the archetype in a different light to prejudice and bigotry there the model has been closed too soon as well. When I watch lightning storms I can’t help thinking that nature is showing us the linkage between light conductivity heat plasma and much more but we not seeing it. The right approach is to specify the mechanics tentatively and make science “this is what we think but we don’t really know”… science and life is still a great adventure. We use copper wire for electricity but that’s just pragmatic necessity resistance itself is probably telling us we getting it wrong perhaps lightning is showing us how it should be done and we just cant see it yet. No more “books of truth” just humble attempts at understanding should be our worldview. Perhaps then man will realize what conditions us and ideology will take its true place in our internal universe along with meaningless statements like “war on terrorism”. We know more about the universe than we know about ourselves and closing the archetype is the reason we doing a terrible job of living together. Capitalism versus Socialism only makes sense to those that have closed the archetype. If you break them down the answer is we haven’t got it quite right yet a new system is needed but we don’t seem to want to go there because the archetype is already closed. We are the universe’s biggest failure and the only thing that needs to be repaired it seems God got the rest right. We not special we just guests and unless we learn our place nature will dust us off and start again. Johnny Kewl
It’s really a good feeling to know someone actually shares the interst of mine. A While ago I watched the PBS TV program The Elegant Universe hosted by Prof. Brian Breen. It’s just fascinating. My son (he is 9 now.) was fascinated even more than me. I am not sure how much he understands but String Theory certainly planted a seed into his nerve. What’s most fascinating to me is the output of the String Theory contrary to a mathematical solution its answers are not unique. Is it the flaw of the theory or does it indeed capture the essences of our Universe? Julie
Recently I was hearing a physicists take on common sense. Being our base rational that we can always rely on and how much is fails us in understanding our universe. The universe is not governed by common sense; our world and experience is the exception. Physicists may at times be mocked for the lunacy of their hypotheses but that’s what the universe is and it only brings us closer to full understanding. Great post.