Quantum Mechanics for the Soul

Reading Michio Kaku's Physics of the Impossible and enjoying it. This is the 6th physics book I've touched in the last 6 months. I didn't finish one because the author worshipped mathematics the way I worship dark chocolate. Mathematics starts squirming when abandoned at the edge of the multiverse during a playdate with both the cosmos and the atomic realm. Physicists are writing books for people who are curious while science-impaired by combining theoretical physics with pop culture, a grand idea. Dr. Kaku does triptychs of Star Trek, theoretical physics, and E.T. I put a hold on a new book by Brian Greene, author of The Elegant Universe, titled The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos. Greene wrote of parallel universes like magic carpet layers. Read an excerpt on npr today, and when my head stopped orbiting my neck, I drew this picture. Infinite mirror images + flipbook at faster than the speed of light. Don't know why this came to mind, but maybe I'll mention it to my therapist. Greene thinks the Large Hadron Collider will help prove or disprove his multiverse theory by measuring the energy lost [POOF!] which we all know can't happen, so it will have gone somewhere not here. I just hope the lost energy they're creating doesn't end up in my basement. I do not know why I'm fascinated by physics, quantum mechanics, string theory and the search for the Grand Unified Theory that will close the chasm created in the Laws of Everything by sticking the probability thumb in the pie. Maybe it's because I wanted to be an alien when I was a kid, and I'm still trying to figure out how I can still do that. Maybe "what if?" is a lifelong favorite question. Perhaps, like physicists who work at finding the Last Law, I'm looking for some endpoint. I think we'll all be disappointed. Whether the universe is infinite, or just pretends to be, how can we apply enough proof-laden theories to cover infinity? Perhaps the universe is concurrently too big and too small to grasp in our human brains. Maybe it's because I think the Grand Unifying Theory is already known, but physics, mathematics, string theory and quantum mechanics are all barking up the wrong science book. Meanwhile, I get to enjoy good reading, and entertain myself with puns and tshirt sayings. Today's: String Theory is Fringe Science. Remember Physicists Like p-Branes? Whatever makes us laugh, makes the world a better place: yet another experiment that unfortunately cannot be duplicated in the lab.

Physicists Like P-branes

Just read "The Grand Design" by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow and I'm enjoying the aftermath of discovering that the universe doesn't just have one history, but every possible history. My head is still spinning from coming soooo close to understanding the concept that observing an event alters an event. M-theory, we find out, isn't examining how the University of Michigan football team can actually develop some defensive strategy that actually works, but the network that has eleven space-time dimensions. "M-theory can contain not just vibrating strings but also point particles, two-dimensional membranes, three-dimensional blobs, and other objects that are more difficult to picture and occupy even more dimensions of space, up to nine. These objects are called p-branes (where p runs from zero to nine)." For those of us who loved string theory, here's the next joy. Imagine the inside of a straw. M-theory allows for 10 to the 500th power different universes in the curled interior, each with its own apparent laws. We occupy only one of those possible universes. It's a nice one; I think I'll stick around. Only in this universe could I have a tshirt that reads "Physicists like p-branes" and read a great book like this one. I'm content.