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Title: The Conscious Universe: Parts and Wholes in Physical Reality by Robert Nadeau, Menas Kafatos, Minas C. Kafatos ISBN: 0-387-98865-3 Publisher: Springer Verlag Pub. Date: October, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $31.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.78 (9 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Looking forward to this 2nd edition
Comment: From the editorial review (and another customer's review), it sounds like the authors have made several improvements over the first edition. (For example, the first edition was in dire need of an editor who could tame the author's copiously worded and convoluted sentences.)
Anyway, I really enjoyed the first edition nonetheless. Not being a scientist (in physics or otherwise), I appreciated the ambitious attempt to condense the vast scope of quantum theory into a manageable package. The examples of non-locality and complementarity lead convincingly to the conclusion that the universe is an indivisible whole and effectively explain how the whole of reality is unknowable to us because our conciousness is part of that reality (i.e., the universe is "conscious").
We can take it as axiomatic that science can never reveal reality (no more or less than religion can, for example), yet the authors do torture their analysis of complementarity by trying to apply it as a kind of fundamental principle of human consciousness, e.g., asserting that a person's inability to both rationalize and "feel" an experience simultaneously is complementarity akin to the behavior of quanta under observation. To me, this conclusion seems based on a bias many scientists express quite openly, i.e., that human beings in general are profoundly complex in the manifestation of their consciousness and rather than accept the simplest explanation of consciousness, adopt one that is more exalted and ripe with metaphor. The problem is that the bias is unquestioned -- at least in the first edition. It's equally plausible that through the eons humans evolved separate, simple, and highly tactical systems that evince complexity in their combination, but under scrutiny are discrete and self-reinforcing through the evolutionary process.
Also, I don't think there's any evidence that the specific and "peculiar" behavior of infinitesimal quanta bear a relationship to a human's application of his or her consciousness to any macro effect. The brain, like the universe, may operate on quantum principles, but the brain's function was molded by macro forces, i.e., some adaptations/mutations survive, others do not.
That leads me to my last comment that the authors seemed to hurtle into the comparison of scientific ways of knowing vs. religious or spiritual ways of knowing. The conclusion that science cannot ultimate reveal reality is a good one. Yet again, the authors fall prey to a bias by drawing parallels between quantum physics and mystical traditions that intuitively posited the oneness of the universe. The bias revealed is similar to that of thinkers who equate aesthetic beauty with scientific truth (it's observational bias). The intuition of mystics, no matter how beautifully resonant of quantum mechanical principles, is still no more prescient or "true" than the belief that aliens seeded the earth because these beliefs cannot be correlated to any specific set of universal principals. They are grounded in beliefs that can be rationalized only by faith and by generational feedback and reinforcement. The faiths that "work" for people in turn resonate with truth. (So, rather than a reductionist camp, I'd have to say that I fall into the generative camp, i.e., complexity comes from the recursion of simplicity, the truth is what appears obvious, the beautiful is what we are evolved to regard as beautiful). The point is that although we may live in a quantum mechanical universe, it seems like the authors assume that our consciousness plays an exalted role in it and consequently leap into illogic.
Quantum physics is a good example of complementarity, but I don't think that the authors make their case that it's the same kind of complementary found in our macro experience.
Overall, I found the book thought-provoking and fun to read.
(Keep in mind that on the scale of scientific prowess, I was a Lit. major.)
Rating: 4
Summary: Improvement over the original
Comment: In this book, Kafatos and Nadeau update their 1990 book "The Conscious Universe: Part and Whole in Modern Physical Theory." The thesis/purpose of the new book is identical, the content is about 70% the same, but the book is completely reorganized and in mostly rewritten. The new book is greatly improved over the old. The authors made it shorter and more succinct, driving home their thesis with greater power. The florid prose of the old book is mostly absent. The only area I liked better from the old book is its earlier and extended elaboration on ontological dualism, a crucial concept for their thesis that is presented too late and too briefly in the new book. But all in all this is the book for new readers. The authors take Bohr's principle of complementarity and explore its application, espousing it as a new paradigm for human perception at every level, mundane to cosmic. The ramifications of their excellently thought-out argument make rich food for thought. The authors also shed clear light on ramifications of our universe's NON-LOCALITY as suggested by experiments testing Bell's Theorem. One irritating thing is the authors' dislike of hidden variable theories due to their untestability, while at the same time they reach equally untestable conclusions.
Rating: 4
Summary: Responsible, speculative synthesis
Comment: As a non-scientist who loves to see scientific principals applied to philosophical questions, I found this book rich with food for thought. The focus is definitely on ontology. However, I suggest a good layman's intro to quantum mechanics first; this book rests squarely on quantum theory but provides a sloppy, sporadic synopsis of the field. Not surprising, since it uses quantum theory only as a springboard. I agree with other reviewers that the writing is florid, verbose and wildly inconsistent in its level of explanatory detail. Its lovely vision of science and religion as complimentary tools of knowledge is self-consistent but marred by a naive description of religion which ignores dogmatic thinking and practice.
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Title: The Non-Local Universe: The New Physics and Matters of the Mind by Robert Nadeau, Menas Kafatos ISBN: 0195144082 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: April, 2001 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The Conscious Universe : The scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena by Dean Radin ISBN: 0062515020 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 27 August, 1997 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: The Physics of Consciousness: The Quantum Mind and the Meaning of Life by Evan Harris, Phd Walker, Evan Harris Walker ISBN: 0738204366 Publisher: Perseus Publishing Pub. Date: December, 2000 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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Title: The Self-Aware Universe: How Consciousness Creates the Material World by Maggie Goswami, Richard E. Reed, Amit Goswami, Fred Alan Wolf ISBN: 0874777984 Publisher: J. P. Tarcher Pub. Date: March, 1995 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The Elegant Universe : Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory by BRIAN GREENE ISBN: 0375708111 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 29 February, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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