Rotwang

Science Fiction or prophecy?

Revisado: 12-31-18

H. G. Well's was first with many of the novel ideas that are still prominent in science fiction today. For this reason, H.G. Wells is arguably the greatest science fiction writer who ever lived. Before I was twenty, I read almost every book Wells wrote, but an exceptions was The World Set Free. I wish I had found it sooner, because this book goes far beyond the science fiction of it's day. Well's was very knowledgeable when it came to the latest scientific discoveries of his day. Back in 1913, Wells was able to extrapolate the early work going on in atomic physics into a surprisingly accurate concept of the atomic bomb. Leo Szilard, who was the first to fully grasp the mechanics of a chain reaction, credits his inspiration in 1933 to this book, which was written by Wells 20 years earlier. Well's prediction became reality in 1945, with the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan, thirty-one years after The World Set Free was published. The World Set Free may be quaint by today's standards, but it should be read for it's historical significance. Wells may not have been a prophet, but he was certainly a great visionary.

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Is this Einstein's Holy Grail?

Revisado: 12-31-18

Einstein spent the last years of his life trying to unite gravity and electromagnetism in a Unified Field Theory, but he died before accomplishing his goal. Carlo Rovelli may have found the key to Einstein's Holy Grail and he explains it in Reality Is Not What it Seems. This book has upset my world view more than any book I've read in recent years, because Carlo Rovelli questions the validity of many sacred cows in physics. For example, I was converted to the "many worlds" theory many years ago, because I took the word "infinity" literally. Carlo Rovelli asks us to consider the possibility that infinity may be a word for something that does not actually exist. As Einstein pointed out, the universe can appear to us to be unbounded without actually being infinite. Without infinity, the many worlds concept I have embraced becomes less plausible. I can't say I am a total convert to Carlo Rovelli's way of thinking, but this book has opened my eyes to possibilities that I never considered before and caused me to re-examine the foundation of my belief system.

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So rich in detail that I keep going back to it

Revisado: 12-26-18

Have you ever watched a film, heard a symphony, or looked at a painting, which was so rich in detail that you keep going back to it and every time you find something new that you missed previously. What Is Real is like that, I've already gone through it several times, but there is so much information and so many concepts to grasp, that I keep going back to it. This scope of this work was challenging for a non-physicist like myself, but the explanations are so clear that they are not difficult for the layman to understand. I expect to keep coming back to this work for a long time, because I feel like I've only scratched the surface.

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A must for anyone interested in quantum mechanics

Revisado: 12-19-18

Along with the Michelson–Morley experiment, the double-slit experiment is one of the most ground breaking experiments in the history of modern physics. For many years I've seen references to the double-slit experiment in books on quantum mechanics, but there was never enough detail about the experiment; especially about the photon detection methods used. The more I read about the double-slit experiment, the more questions I had. Finally, I discovered Through Two Doors at Once, which gave a complete history of the experiment and answered most of my questions. I learned that the experiment has evolved over time in ways that I never expected. Don't be fooled by the title, this is a profound subject that touches on philosophy and on the nature of existence. This book is essential for anyone who is interested in quantum mechanics. Also, the narrator has a pleasant voice that is unusually clear and easy to understand for those of us with some degree of hearing loss.

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