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Title: Three Roads to Quantum Gravity by Lee Smolin ISBN: 0-465-07836-2 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 02 July, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.32 (31 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Separate Conquests
Comment: Sorry about the review title, just musing on the phrase "Divide and Conquer". As every reader probably knows, general relativity and quantum theory are both extremely successful, predictive theories, but have yet to be brought together in a single, complete framework that seems to clearly apply to our universe. Smolin did an excellent job in this book, already several years old, of discussing approaches to the problem, with emphasis on Loop Quantum Gravity. As usual while reading it I wished that I could plumb the depths of the underlying math, which of course the author did not attempt to present.
Since the predictions of relativity seem to be holding up so well, I can't help wondering whether the current vogue is correct in assuming that gravity is much the same as other forces and is mediated by "gravitons". Might there be some deeper path to unification?
Rating: 5
Summary: The only book for laypeople...
Comment: I have read many books on quantum gravity, but this is the only one I have found that gives fair coverage to competing theories. Most books that claim to explain QG go straight to string theory or to the paranormal and metaphysics.
Dr Smolin is uniquely qualified to write this book. Having worked in both main theories (string theory and loop quantum gravity) and having known many researchers working with other less popular theories he is able to present the pros and cons of each in a way that everyone can understand.
Rating: 5
Summary: In a dynamic discrete space-time 'is' is an illusion
Comment: Prof. Smolin is a brilliant teacher.
His first book 'The Life of the Cosmos' contained already the simplest and brightest explanations of the basic elements, processes and principles of modern physics. Here he does it again with the latest progress in the search for a theory of quantum gravity: loop quantum gravity, string theory and black hole thermodynamics.
He dissects the strenghts and weaknesses of the different approaches and shows how they culminate into the holographic principle, where one set of events receives information about other parts of the world.
Lee Smolin explains in a very comprehensible vocabulary that space and time are not continuous, but discrete; that the world is made of processes, not things; and that the world is nothing more than an evolving network of relationships, of which causality is the most important.
These characteristics have important philosophical implications; e.g. they refute the belief that observer dependence rules out objectivity.
This book contains some mind-boggling propositions. One from Lee Smolin himself, where he admits that he doesn't belief in the uncertainty principle, although he continues to work with it. Another one is the use of the whole universe as an instrument.
In the end, the author is very optimistic and predicts that a theory of quantum gravity will be found in the first decades of the 21st century.
This book is a fascinating tale about the real nature of the universe. A must read.
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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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Title: Supersymmetry: Unveiling the Ultimate Laws of Nature by Gordon Kane, Edward Witten ISBN: 0738204897 Publisher: Perseus Publishing Pub. Date: 03 July, 2001 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: The Life of the Cosmos by Lee Smolin ISBN: 0195126645 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: January, 1999 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Physics Meets Philosophy at the Planck Scale: Contemporary Theories in Quantum Gravity by Craig Callender, Nick Huggett ISBN: 0521664454 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 15 February, 2001 List Price(USD): $50.00 |
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Title: The Book of Nothing : Vacuums, Voids, and the Latest Ideas about the Origins of the Universe by John Barrow ISBN: 0375726098 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 13 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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