Name: A Different Universe
ISBN: 9780465038299

A Different Universe

A Different Universe: Reinventing Physics from the Bottom Down is a 2005 physics book by Robert B. Laughlin, a winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics for the fractional quantum Hall effect. Its title is a play on the P. W. Anderson manifesto More is Different. The book extends his articles "The Middle Way" and "The Theory of Everything", arguing the limits of reductionism. A key concept in Laughlin's works is protectorates, meaning robust physical regimes of behavior that do not depend on the underlying smaller-scale physics such as quantum noise. Such robust or reliable behavior at macroscopic scales makes possible higher-level entities, from biological life to nanotechnology. The book emphasizes more study of such macroscopic phenomena, sometimes called emergence, over the ever-downward dive into theoretically fundamental ideas such as string theory, which at some point become empirically irrelevant by having no observable consequences in our world. The arguments come full circle with modern dark energy ideas suggesting that spacetime or the vacuum may not be empty, but rather a medium, a possibility ironically glimpsed even by Einstein whose career began with demolishing the similar but too-simplistic notion of ether with his special relativity work.

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asplakeOct 2026

There are less reductive forms of materialism. For the view of a Nobel prize physics laureate see A Different Universe: Reinventing Physics from the Bottom Down by Robert B. Laughlin. From the philosophy world, read Manuel DeLanda or Alicia Juarrero.

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goatsneezDec 2021

Nice piece meant for one to pause and think a little bit about limitation of mathematics and our perception of reality. There, however, I would submit that I find the mixture of several limitations too confusing to even allow (in my view) the question the article outlines to be a valid one. First, our perception limitation (that is a multi-level problem, going from personal all the way to entire species). Im not sure at which level the author wants to start and stop. Second, limitations of mathematics explaining physical phenomena as we perceive them and can measure them. Third, mathematical models are not the reality and never have been considered to represent reality as is. They are necessary abstractions for us to have our linear and local time predictability.

I would further submit for a thought that as of right now there is nothing we understand from first principles using mathematical models. This is not a conjecture or speculation, but a fact. See eg. Wheeler's "More is different", ("More is really different" by another author), or R. Laughlin's book Different Universe which with simple logic shows physical laws cannot be build from first principles, because, well, "more is different" (emergent phenomena acquire characteristics not in the original constituents). Lets think about weather, clima, planet formation, galaxy evolution, economics, etc ... It would be foolish to even begin such enterprise...(imho). But, in any case this is issue is not to be closed for discussion and interpretations and learning...that I agree with the author.

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jdetleJun 2016

I strongly encourage anyone who is thinking about this to read: "A Different Universe" by Robert Laughlin. This is one of his main concerns of modern science, and although its kind of a muddled argument he thinks that the emergent phenomena captured by photographs are entirely misapplied to atomic forces.

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nabla9Jan 2018

Out of curiosity, was Robert B. Laughlins (Nobel price for Laughlin wavefunction explaining the fractional quantum Hall effect) on right track and is his work any way relevant to what is currently happening?

The Theory of Everything, R. B. Laughlin and David Pines http://www.pnas.org/content/97/1/28.full

A Different Universe: Reinventing Physics from the Bottom Down, R. B. Laughlin https://www.amazon.com/Different-Universe-Reinventing-Physic...

http://large.stanford.edu/publications/

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