REVIEW: Hyperspace By Michio Kaku
Review by Scott Albright Michio Kaku begins his book Hyperspace in simple enough layman’s terms, but then about half way through the book my mind went into total panic mode. I had no idea what the hell Kaku was talking about. I was following along just find, understanding Kaku’s explanation of relativity and so forth, but then BAM! all of a sudden he goes into these descriptions of how subatomic particles like leptons, mesons, and positrons function under different energy levels. It’s not that the writing is incomprehensible, or that the concepts are out of grasp, it’s just that, well, quantum physics doesn’t make a lot of sense when trying to use Aristotelian logic. Kaku does just fine explaining high energy particle physics, 10th dimensional mathematics, and the theoretical applications of modern science in our every day lives, but he doesn’t explain the experience. There’s something missing from Kaku’s explanation of higher dimensions that I can’t quite put my finger on. It’s like he takes me from these three spatial dimensions into a new temporal dimension, but then he leaves me flat out guessing as to what the next dimensions have in store for us. Are the fifth, sixth, and seventh dimension spatial and temporal, or is another element added that no one is explaining? How can all these dimensions possibly be spiraled up into tiny microscopic resonances with no real physical form if the universe itself is expanding beyond all the normal directions in space-time that humans can understand? t’s truly mind boggling to venture into this fantastical |
|
world of multiple dimensions and universes. Although seemingly farfetched, these are concepts and theories physicists continue to pursue with serious rigor.with no real physical form if the universe itself is expanding beyond all the normal directions in space-time that humans can understand?
In particular, Kaku explains the pursuit of the unification of the forces, with superstring theory being one of the most possible candidates for making unification possible. Kaku’s description of the theory will swirl the mind into a spinning mess of strings and spaghettis, spider webs, and pieces of grass, and hair, slivers of glass, and world lines, laser beams, and photon rays, sun rays, light waves, and everything else that looks thin and string-like in appearance.
“The world is just a big ball of giant spinning spaghetti noodles,” I told my 5-year-old son, who was also seeing strings in everything around us after I tried to explain the concept to him. Digits, codes, html:km7501010101010101. Strings of language, strings of energy. Break the symmetry. . . Yes, the book will take the brain all over the place. It’s nuts!
But Kaku doesn't stop with string theory. He goes on to talk about black holes, warp drives, time machines, different civilization types, and all sorts of other wonderful and fantastical futuristic things in the world of math and physics. I highly recommend this book for anybody interested in particle physics, higher dimension mathematics, quantum field theory, and cosmology. I personally didn’t get the technical aspects of the book, especially when getting my pages mixed up with those I was reading in The Tao of Physics at the same time, but conceptually Kaku’s Hyperspace is easy to grasp even for non-physicists.
One of the most interesting parts of the book for me was Kaku’s few lines about his experience in the military. According to Kaku, he’d been drafted in the Army to go to Vietnam, while many of his scientist colleagues were forced into jobs not well suited for their skills because of the war. He talks about how he was running equations through his head during his machine-gun training. On page 165 Kaku writes, “Infantry training, I discovered, is rigorous; it is designed to toughen the spirit and dull the intellect. Independence of thought is ground out of you.” I couldn’t agree more. Thank goodness for books like Kaku which can reinvigorate the intellect for all those who’ve had theirs dulled!
In particular, Kaku explains the pursuit of the unification of the forces, with superstring theory being one of the most possible candidates for making unification possible. Kaku’s description of the theory will swirl the mind into a spinning mess of strings and spaghettis, spider webs, and pieces of grass, and hair, slivers of glass, and world lines, laser beams, and photon rays, sun rays, light waves, and everything else that looks thin and string-like in appearance.
“The world is just a big ball of giant spinning spaghetti noodles,” I told my 5-year-old son, who was also seeing strings in everything around us after I tried to explain the concept to him. Digits, codes, html:km7501010101010101. Strings of language, strings of energy. Break the symmetry. . . Yes, the book will take the brain all over the place. It’s nuts!
But Kaku doesn't stop with string theory. He goes on to talk about black holes, warp drives, time machines, different civilization types, and all sorts of other wonderful and fantastical futuristic things in the world of math and physics. I highly recommend this book for anybody interested in particle physics, higher dimension mathematics, quantum field theory, and cosmology. I personally didn’t get the technical aspects of the book, especially when getting my pages mixed up with those I was reading in The Tao of Physics at the same time, but conceptually Kaku’s Hyperspace is easy to grasp even for non-physicists.
One of the most interesting parts of the book for me was Kaku’s few lines about his experience in the military. According to Kaku, he’d been drafted in the Army to go to Vietnam, while many of his scientist colleagues were forced into jobs not well suited for their skills because of the war. He talks about how he was running equations through his head during his machine-gun training. On page 165 Kaku writes, “Infantry training, I discovered, is rigorous; it is designed to toughen the spirit and dull the intellect. Independence of thought is ground out of you.” I couldn’t agree more. Thank goodness for books like Kaku which can reinvigorate the intellect for all those who’ve had theirs dulled!