Книга: Penrose Roger «Fashion, Faith, and Fantasy in the New Physics of the Universe»

Fashion, Faith, and Fantasy in the New Physics of the Universe

Производитель: "Princeton University Press"

What can fashionable ideas, blind faith, or pure fantasy possibly have to do with the scientific quest to understand the universe? Surely, theoretical physicists are immune to mere trends, dogmatic beliefs, or flights of fancy? In fact, acclaimed physicist and bestselling author Roger Penrose argues that researchers working at the extreme frontiers of physics are just as susceptible to these forces as anyone else. In this provocative book, he argues that fashion, faith, and fantasy, while sometimes productive and even essential in physics, may be leading today`s researchers astray in three of the field`s most important areas string theory, quantum mechanics, and cosmology. Arguing that string theory has veered away from physical reality by positing six extra hidden dimensions, Penrose cautions that the fashionable nature of a theory can cloud our judgment of its plausibility. In the case of quantum mechanics, it`s stunning success in explaining the atomic universe has led to an uncritical faith that it must also apply to reasonably massive objects, and Penrose responds by suggesting possible changes in quantum theory. Turning to cosmology, he argues that most of the current fantastical ideas about the origins of the universe cannot be true, but that an even wilder reality may lie behind them. Finally, Penrose describes how fashion, faith, and fantasy have ironically also shaped his own work, from twistor theory, a possible alternative to string theory that is beginning to acquire a fashionable status, to`conformal cyclic cosmology`, an idea so fantastic that it could be called`conformal crazy cosmology`. The result is an important critique of some of the most significant developments in physics today from one of it`s most eminent figures.

Издательство: "Princeton University Press" (2016)

ISBN: 978-0-691-11979-3

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Fashion, Faith, and Fantasy in the New Physics of the UniverseWhat can fashionable ideas, blind faith, or pure fantasy possibly have to do with the scientific quest to understand the universe? Surely, theoretical physicists are immune to mere trends, dogmatic… — Princeton University Press, - Подробнее...20162149бумажная книга

Penrose, Roger

   b. 1931, Colchester
   Mathematician
   Roger Penrose is a mathematician with radical views about the relationship between quantum physics and consciousness. He, like Dawkins and Hawking, has been able to interest and influence a wide audience through his lucid and compelling style. In his widely read books, The Emperor’s New Mind and Shadows of the Mind, he examines consciousness and the human mind from the perspective of the laws of physics and binary computers, and concludes that classical computers lack some fundamental aspect of function found in human and other animal brains. His views are contentious amongst the artificial intelligence (AI) community, whose major paradigm is that increasing complexity of computers can or will lead to consciousness.
   PETE SHETERLINE

Источник: Penrose, Roger

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