Physics of the Impossible
A fascinating exploration of the science of the impossible—from death rays and force fields to invisibility cloaks—revealing to what extent such technologies might be achievable decades or millennia into the future. One hundred years ago, scientists would have said that lasers, televisions, and the atomic bomb were beyond the realm of physical possibility. In Physics of the Impossible, the renowned physicist Michio Kaku explores to what extent the technologies and devices of science fiction that are deemed equally impossible today might well become commonplace in the future. From teleportation to telekinesis, Kaku uses the world of science fiction to explore the fundamentals—and the limits—of the laws of physics as we know them today. He ranks the impossible technologies by categories—Class I, II, and III, depending on when they might be achieved, within the next century, millennia, or perhaps never.
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5recommend
7mentions
7people
2009–2025years
71% recommend29% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
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Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel
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- Flip phones were designed from the communicators in the original series of Star Trek.
If you're interested in the more theoretical side of the Beeb's article then I'd recommend Michio Kaku's book "Physics of the Impossible"[1] (he also did a TV series on this topic but that wasn't nearly as good in my opinion)
[1] https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/cka/Physics-Impossible-Scientific...
- If you like this sort of thing, you might enjoy the book "Physics of the Impossible", which examines the feasibility of various science fiction technologies (such as FTL) from a pop-sci level.
- "Physics of the Impossible" by Michio Kaku
- There is a very interesting book Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku (http://www.amazon.com/Physics-Impossible-Scientific-Explorat...). It is exactly about those questions.
- In physics of the impossible (in 2008, I know a lot of our opinions of the author have shifted) Michio Kaku makes a pretty good case that force fields are the least likely phenomenon to exist.
There’s just not a field that hangs out in space and forms a repulsive boundary to matter as its interaction, besides matter.
The EM field kinda, but no one means big magnets when they think of a practical force field (if so, “QED,” they already exist) :p
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