Walker Wang Wang itibaren Холи, Махараштра, Индия
This book attempts to explain why physics is in such a sorry state, and why no new revolutionary ideas have been put forward in the past few decades – certainly nothing that can be compared with relativity or quantum physics. John Horgan said the same thing about all branches of science in The End of Science, but Smolin focuses on physics only, and he partly blames it on the string theory being fashionable and stifling other approaches to solving physics’ fundamental problems. Smolin, a first-rate theoretical physicist himself, doesn’t believe that that the string theory is going anywhere. He also blames the politics and the culture that dominate universities, research institutes, and granting agencies. I was hoping that he would have a few words about the possibility that we, as a species with a brain that is the product of natural selection and has a limited ability, have reached the limit of our understanding of the fundamental laws of the universe. How much deeper do we think we can dig into the nature of reality? If a dog can’t understand quantum physics, why can’t we have our own ceiling? He didn’t bring up this possibility. Scientists’ optimism is commendable. “We must know and we shall know,” as David Hilbert famously proclaimed. I presume that my understanding of, and interest in physics are above the average population, but I had a hard time with some parts of the book. Smolin feels compelled to justify why he thinks that the string theory is not working, so he goes on explaining what the string theory is about, and why it can lead to unverifiable absurdities, and the alternative approaches that can be taken. In the process of explaining all this, I’m sure he loses many readers. If you don’t have at least an undergraduate degree in physics, I suggest that you read the introduction and the first chapter, and then skip to the last 100 pages which contain a few really great chapters about what science is and what it should do.