Besides Nassim Nicholas Taleb's Fooled By Randomness, this was another book I bought in India.If I never took an introductory class in quantum physics in university, I might never read A Brief History Of Time by Stephen Hawking out of my own volition. (But then again, I might.) Although it is written with the lay person in mind, it is simply too damn hard to understand. (Even Tyler Cowen mentioned that the inner economist in him would gladly give Hawking's book a pass.)
One of the good things that came out of it, though, is knowing that there is the acknowledgement of knowledge and its limits. It is the realisation that the most powerful observation techniques developed are useless in trying to observe and know for sure what is going on at the tiniest quantum levels. Trying to pry into that world will only alter the state that its in. Spooky, but true.
The limits of knowledge and its consequences have startled physicists. Science might not be the endeavor it was made out to be because it can never truly know.
Physicists might have sighed and ripped hair out of their heads, but at least they have refuted Cartesian claims about cleanly separating mind and body. Mind and body interactions are impossible to take apart. Reductionism might be the singular most corrupted thought to have afflicted most of humanity's thinking.
Speaking of mind and body, Hawking seems to have defied the odds. You can only wonder what he is capable of achieving if he actually had his psycho motor skills functioning.
If you like physics,
you'll probably like this:
If you like science in general,
you'll probably dig this:
If you want to know more about how
physics is applied, try this:
