Name: Three Roads to Quantum Gravity
ISBN: 9780465094547

Three Roads to Quantum Gravity

"It is a search for a view of the universe that unites two seemingly opposed pillars of modern science: Einstein's theory of general relativity, which deals with large scale phenomena like planets, solar systems and galaxies, and quantum theory, which deals with the world of the very small - molecules, atoms and electrons. In the last few years, physicists have made big steps toward their goal of a completely new theory of space, time and the universe, a "theory of everything." In Three Roads to Quantum Gravity, Lee Smolin, who has spent his career at the forefront of these new discoveries, presents the main ideas behind the new developments that have brought a quantum theory of gravity in sight. He explains in simple terms what scientists are talking about when they say the world is made from exotic entities such as loops, strings and black holes. As he does so, he tells the stories behind these discoveries: the rivalries, epiphanies and intrigues he witnessed first hand."--BOOK JACKET.

What Hacker News says

mindcrimeSep 2022

That would be a long list, given that I read a lot of books and would generally say that most of the books I've read were worth investing time in to some extent. But for what it's worth, here's a subset, cribbed from my previous HN comments:

Something Deeply Hidden - Sean Carroll

The Universe Speaks in Numbers: How Modern Math Reveals Nature's Deepest Secrets - Graham Farmelo

The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdos and the Search for Mathematical Truth - Paul Hoffman

The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan - Robert Kanigel

Lost in Math - Sabine Hossenfelder

The First Three Minutes - Steven Weinberg

Hyperspace - Michio Kaku

Not Even Wrong - Peter Woit

The Trouble With Physics - Lee Smolin

About Time - Paul Davies

Time Reborn - Lee Smolin

The Elegant Universe - Brian Greene

The Hidden Reality - Brian Greene

The Fabric of the Cosmos - Brian Greene

Quantum Space: Loop Quantum Gravity and the Search for the Structure of Space, Time, and the Universe - Jim Baggott

The Universe Speaks in Numbers: How Modern Math Reveals Nature's Deepest Secrets - Graham Farmelo

Three Roads To Quantum Gravity - Lee Smolin

Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos - Seth Lloyd

Higgs - The invention and discovery of the 'God Particle' - Jim Baggott

Analogy Making As Perception - Melanie Mitchell

Society of Mind - Marvin Minsky

Engineering General Intelligence, Part 1 - Ben Goertzel

Engineering General Intelligence, Part 2 - Ben Goertzel

The AGI Revolution - Ben Goertzel

Hackers & Painters by our very own Paul "pg" Graham

Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution - Steven Levy

The Soul of a New Machine - Tracy Kidder

Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier - Katie Hafner & John Markoff

Artificial Life: A Report from the Frontier Where Computers Meet Biology - Steven Levy

Ghost In The Wires - Kevin Mitnick

The Art of Deception - Kevin Mitnick

The Art of Intrusion - Kevin Mitnick

Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter

The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand

It's Not About The Bike - Lance Armstrong

Ultramarathon Man - Dean Karnazes

Charles Proteus Steinmetz: The Electrical Wizard of Schenectady - Robert Bly

Report From Engine Co 82 - Dennis Smith

Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind - Al Ries, Jack Trout and Philip Kotler

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk! - Al Ries and Jack Trout

Re-Positioning: Marketing in an Era of Competition, Change and Crisis by Jack Trout and Steve Rivkin

The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding - Al Ries and Laura Ries

Differentiate or Die: Survival in Our Era of Killer Competition - Jack Trout and Steve Rivkin

Marketing High Technology - William H. Davidow

Marketing Warfare - Al Ries

The Discipline of Market Leaders - Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema

Crossing The Chasm - Geoffrey Moore

How to Measure Anything - Douglas Hubbard

Fooled by Randomness - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The Black Swan - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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mindcrimeMay 2022

Something Deeply Hidden - Sean Carroll[1]

Lost in Math - Sabine Hossenfelder[2]

The First Three Minutes - Steven Weinberg[3]

Hyperspace - Michio Kaku[4]

Not Even Wrong - Peter Woit[5]

The Trouble With Physics - Lee Smolin[6]

About Time - Paul Davies[7]

Time Reborn - Lee Smolin[8]

The Elegant Universe - Brian Greene[9]

The Hidden Reality - Brian Greene[10]

The Fabric of the Cosmos - Brian Greene[11]

Quantum Space: Loop Quantum Gravity and the Search for the Structure of Space, Time, and the Universe - Jim Baggott[12]

The Universe Speaks in Numbers: How Modern Math Reveals Nature's Deepest Secrets - Graham Farmelo[13]

Three Roads To Quantum Gravity - Lee Smolin[14]

Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos - Seth Lloyd[15]

Higgs - The invention and discovery of the 'God Particle' - Jim Baggott[16]

[1]: https://www.amazon.com/Something-Deeply-Hidden-Emergence-Spa...

[2]: https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Math-Beauty-Physics-Astray/dp/15...

[3]: https://www.amazon.com/First-Three-Minutes-Modern-Universe/d...

[4]: https://www.amazon.com/Hyperspace-Scientific-Parallel-Univer...

[5]: https://www.amazon.com/Not-Even-Wrong-Failure-Physical/dp/04...

[6]: https://www.amazon.com/Trouble-Physics-String-Theory-Science...

[7]: https://www.amazon.com/About-Time-Einsteins-Unfinished-Revol...

[8]: https://www.amazon.com/Time-Reborn-Lee-Smolin/dp/0544245598/

[9]: https://www.amazon.com/Elegant-Universe-Superstrings-Dimensi...

[10]: https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Reality-Parallel-Universes-Cos...

[11]: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375412883/ref=dbs_a_def_r...

[12]: https://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Space-Gravity-Structure-Unive...

[13]: https://www.amazon.com/Universe-Speaks-Numbers-Reveals-Natur...

[14]: https://www.amazon.com/Three-Roads-Quantum-Gravity-Smolin/dp...

[15]: https://www.amazon.com/Programming-Universe-Quantum-Computer...

[16]: https://www.amazon.com/Higgs-invention-discovery-God-Particl...

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BenMorganIOApr 2019

Having read Three Roads to Quantum Gravity, I think there's a lot of substance there. It's a book made to even include high schoolers, so you have to give it some benefit of the doubt.

As per the philosophy question, neither classical mechanics, relativity, or even death cares about what we think. What matters here is how we perceive and understand a concept.

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benreesmanAug 2022

Hossenfelder is a polarizing figure. “Lost In Math” was a thought-provoking book in the tradition of the other string iconoclasts (Smolin, Woit, Rovelli, roughly “the Perimeter crowd”). “Three Roads to Quantum Gravity” was the last general audience book that Smolin did before he’d fucking had it and did “The Trouble with Physics”. Woit went straight for the jugular with “Not Even Wrong”.

These people have (for better or worse) burnt the ships with the people of their generation who write grants and sit on tenure committees.

Hossenfelder’s pivot to “wildly over-credentialed pop-sci YouTuber” is interesting. My gut flinch reaction is like, “you’re better than this”, but… I have not walked a mile in her shoes, and if this is an end-run around a corrupt job market for particle/high-energy people who won’t won’t get on board with The Landscape? Maybe more power to her.

I give that context so that people will know (my opinion on) the backstory for why she’s in an adversarial relationship with The Academy.

The “will never know” phrasing might be unfortunate. But the epistemological principle goes back to Hawking at least: “asking what happened before the Big Bang or where it came from is like asking what is north of the North Pole”.

It’s a fun thing to theorize about, but the Big Bang is almost definitionally “the bound on observable causality”. It’s not a statement about what we won’t ever know, it’s a statement about what’s knowable.

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