The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe | Roger Penrose

The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe | Roger Penrose | Required reading for the Intellectually curious.

books:

The Road to Realit...

	The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe Roger Penrose Vintage, 2007 - 1136 pages average customer review:based on 162 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

A book with a message

Other reviews focus on whether the book is easy to understand or not, or wheter it is too big or not. And it would seem that
the only purpose of the book is to put all togheter the physical laws mankind knows.

But this is a book with a message. A message that takes very long to transmit and Penrose chose to start from the very begining.
A significant part of the physics as it is known today is exposed in a long (900 pages) preamble, but Penrose wants to tell
us that he believes that the road to the Theory of Everything that is standard in today's physics leads nowhere.

If you have read "The Emperor's new mind" you know that Penrose's ideas are not mainstream in today's physics. But if you are
interested in cutting edge physics you'll also know that there is a growing number of physicists that believe that the field is on crisis. Let me sumarize Penrose views:

- The standard interpretations of quantum mechanics are wrong. Even the decoherence approach.
- Infactionary cosmology cannot be right.
- Superstring theory is just a beautiful mathematical construction with no connection to the physical world. His point of view is similar to Smolin's ("The trouble with physics").

I'm not at all an expert on the field, although I studied quantum mechanics in the University, and I'd say that at least Penrose has a very strong point. He is not able to provide but hints of alternative theories but this does not lower the merit of the book.

He also explains standard areas of mathematics and physics such as complex number calculus, Maxwell fields or group theory in a non-conventional but brilliant way. For example, it includes a beautiful demonstration of Pythagoream theorem. The chapter about the standard model of particle physics is particularly helpful; nowhere else can be found a concise and understable explanation of it.

And yes, the book is difficult, but if you don't understand the mathematics, just keep reading.

for more information click here

Required reading for the Intellectually curious.

I have long given-up reading general books on the sciences that use mathematics. I have tried, but consistently failed, to grasp what each highly-qualified author wishes to convey using purely language-based explanations. For many of us The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe by Rodger Penrose will be a tough read because it develops the basic mathematical ideas that are necessary to understand physics. The book is a series of short ladders that will consistently reward all categories of reader with increments in their understanding.

High school students will learn that mathematics is not some cruel and useless activity that is designed to rip off their creative wings: It is an activity that is intellectually stimulating and an essential tool. Parents may want to purchase the book and just leave it about the house; just as our parents left a book on sex education to await discovery at the appropriate stage in our maturation.

General readers will sample the book by opening it randomly to learn some math, gain some insight into the culture of physics, and learn some physics too. Any time spent on the book will be appropriately rewarded, but such readers should not expect to get-it-all unless they have an unlimited time to study it: for example, they are serving 30-years in a Federal jail. I keep the book under my bed ready for those quiet times when thinking is possible.

Trained physicist will find most of the text easy going, and bring their understanding of an important sub-field up-to-date. Such readers will include significant numbers of physics who were forced to sell-out and become financial engineers on Wall Street, hi-tech start-up wallahs, and high school teachers. It will remind them of their childhood when they were still innocent.

This book is the product of long and deep contemplation by a Grand Master of creative thought. Even the hard-back version is incredibly cheap. There is no sound reason why every intellectually curious reader should not own this book, so order it right now, and send the kids off to camp for a couple of months.

for more information click here

"The book of nature is written in mathematics." Galileo

"The book of nature is written in matehmatics." Galileo

If Galileo was right that the book of nature is written in mathematics then Oxford University's Roger Penrose has written the Cliff's Notes version of the book of nature...as we now know it.

Those last five words "as we now know it" become particularly critical as Penrose's account reaches its final chapters and Penrose attempts to bring semblance the unification of mathematics and its description of reality.

For one thing, it's not so sure that there can be a description of reality. In this regard, Penrose wisely covers Kurt Godel and his 1931 incompleteness theorem which -- for the purposes of this review -- might suggest that attempts by any one theory to describe reality are doomed to failure. (Maybe in later versions, Penrose would be better advised to style his book: "The roads to reality.")

For another thing, the thoroughness of Penrose's presentation makes it apparent that there is great on the ground research to be performed before we can even be sure about what happens around black holes, why the big bang even occured in the first place or for that matter why we even have an arrow of time (let alone one oriented as it seemingly is in a retarded state).

Like all good science therefore this book raises without really answering the big questions.

And this is right and this good because in science -- like on Broadway -- the focus is, as it must needs be, always on the next big thing.

for more information click here

Quantum Motion - Unveiling the Mysterious Quantum World

Roger is a genius in physics as well as in mathematics. His viewpoint about quantum physics is very profound. Roger coined the well-known pan "OR" for denoting the objective reduction of the state vector in quantum mechanics. In this book, Roger attempts to find a realistic road to unify relativity and quantum theory, the foundation stones of modern physics. Roger clearly realizes that these two theories are not only incomplete, but also incompatible. On the one hand, the conceptual foundations of quantum theory have not been firmly laid yet. For example, it is still unknown what on earth the wave function describes and whether or not the wave function really collapses. On the other hand, the existence of quantum nonlocality implies that the absolute validity of the principle of relativity may also be challenged. Moreover, general relativity and quantum theory also conflict with each other at the most fundamental level. These facts, as Roger points out, clearly indicate that our present understandings of space-time and motion require a revolution profounder than that brought by relativity and quantum theory.

Then where can we find the uniform basis for quantum theory and relativity? Since the basic task of physics is to study the motion of matter in space and time, the real form of motion will be such a basis. A recent analysis of space-time and motion, which is given in the book Quantum Motion - Unveiling the Mysterious Quantum World, implies that the real motion is the random discontinuous motion of particles in discrete space and time, which is called quantum motion, and the microscopic and macroscopic motions are both the displays of quantum motion. As a result, what the wave function describes is quantum motion, and the evolution of quantum motion naturally leads to the dynamical collapse of the wave function. This provides an ontological basis for quantum theory. In addition, quantum motion may also explain the maximum and constancy of the speed of light in special relativity, and might further provide a consistent framework for the unification of quantum theory and general relativity. Consequently, quantum motion is probably the uniform basis of quantum theory and relativity, which Roger tries to find in his seminal book. A popular introduction of quantum motion can be found at my name.

for more information click here

Challenging, but Somewhat Incomplete... NOT for the Average Reader

This truly is an excellent guide to our current scientific knowledge qua math and physics. However, this book has not been distinguished clearly as the advanced read it is. Rather, it has been marketed to the average pop-sci reader. Without a solid math background you will flounder while reading this book. One other concern I have is that Sir Roger expends little effort in thoroughly describing current concepts in string and M-theory, while focusing on his own twistor theory. While it's natural for a scientist and author to spend more time on his own ideas, it seems that a "complete guide" ought to address competing theories completely, especially when the competition has more support amongst physicists than does twistor theory at the time of writing.

for more information click here