The Greatest Story Ever Told - So Far
In the beginning there was light. But more than this, there was gravity. After that, all hell broke loose…* In A Universe from Nothing, Krauss revealed how our entire universe could arise from nothing. Now, he reveals what that something—reality—is. And, reality is not what we think or sense—it’s weird, wild, and counterintuitive; it’s hidden beneath everyday experience; and its inner workings seem even stranger than the idea that something can come from nothing. In a landmark, unprecedented work of scientific history, Krauss leads us to the furthest reaches of space and time, to scales so small they are invisible to microscopes, to the birth and rebirth of light, and into the natural forces that govern our existence. His unique blend of rigorous research and engaging storytelling invites us into the lives and minds of the remarkable, creative scientists who have helped to unravel the unexpected fabric of reality—with reason rather than superstition and dogma. Krauss has himself been an active participant in this effort, and he knows many of them well. The Greatest Story challenges us to re-envision ourselves and our place within the universe, as it appears that “God” does play dice with the universe. In the incisive style of his scintillating essays for The New Yorker, Krauss celebrates the greatest intellectual adventure ever undertaken—to understand why we are here in a universe where fact is stranger than fiction. - [][1]
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What Hacker News says
- > As far as I understand the main problem of string theory is that it has been carefully constructed to fit all the physics we know about.
Doesn't string theory have a lot fewer tunable parameters than the standard model?
> and has not actually predicted anything we didn't already know about that we could experimentally verify
I don't like that argument for a couple of reasons.
First, it depends on the timing of when we discover things. If the experimentalists had taken longer to discover some things a theory that we would criticize today as not predicting anything we don't already know about would be a theory that would be celebrated for its predictions if it had just been posed earlier.
I think a better thing to look at is if a theory can correctly calculate things that weren't built into the theory. I remember reading [1] that string theory correctly calculated some things concerning black holes that none of the people who had developed string theory to that point knew about.
Second, I don't like it from a philosophical point of view. It suggests that if say some pre-Newton gravity theorist had just included enough epicycles, science should have rejected Newtonian gravity because it would not have explained anything that the epicycle theory didn't.
[1] Probably either in Brian Greene's "The Elegant Universe" or Lawrence Krauss' "The Greatest Story Ever Told--So Far". Possibly Greene's "The Fabric of the Cosmos", but that seems unlikely. I distinctly remember reading it, and my copy of "The Fabric of the Cosmos" is an audiobook. The other two are Kindle books.
- > She was asked by David Hilbert to work on the problem of invariants in General Relativity, came up with one of the most important theorems in physics, and then moved on to other (extremely important) mathematical work.
Interestingly I just read about this in a Lawrence M. Krauss book [0] where it was described that David Hilbert insisted on hiring Noether by the university but was overruled by the male majority that didn't like the idea that a female would teach male students. Hilbert commented that "this is university, not a bath-house!" [1].
[0]: I think it was "The Greatest Story Ever Told—So Far"
[1]: I'm writing that from memory so excuse some inaccuracies.
- I typically have several books in progress. I'll read a chapter from whichever one I'm in the mood for when I have some time for reading. Currently in progress:
"A Book of Abstract Algebra: Second Edition" by Charles C. Pinter [1].
"How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking" by Jordan Ellenberg [2].
"Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared Diamond [3].
"Introduction to Analytic Number Theory" by Tom M. Apostol [4].
"Algorithmic Puzzles" by Levitin and Levitin [7].
I've also got a 46 books in my Safari Library queue, although only about half a dozen are actually in the in progress state.
In addition to the above, I'm about 3 years behind on Analog, the science fiction magazine. Those are all on my Kindle and I'm slowly trying to catch up.
Recently finished:
"Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything" by Joshua Foer [5].
Probably going to pick up soon:
"The Greatest Story Ever Told--So Far" by Lawrence M. Krauss [6]. Flipped through it at a bookstore and there were some very interesting things in it.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Book-Abstract-Algebra-Second-Mathemat...
[2] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00G3L6JQ4/
[3] https://www.amazon.com/Guns-Germs-Steel-Fates-Societies/dp/0...
[4] https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Analytic-Number-Theory-A...
[5] https://www.amazon.com/Moonwalking-Einstein-Science-Remember...
[6] https://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Story-Ever-Told-So-Far-ebook...
[7] https://www.amazon.com/Algorithmic-Puzzles-Anany-Levitin/dp/...
