Lawrence M. Krauss Shares How Far We Have Come, and How Much Further We Have To Go

 

The Known Unknowns: The Unsolved Mysteries of the Cosmos – Lawrence M. Krauss (2023)

 

            If I could define myself with just one word, it would be “reader.”  Everything in my life either stems from, or draws from, the many books I have read in my 49+ years on this planet Earth.  My biggest heroes, Kurt Vonnegut, Robert Anton Wilson, Richard P. Feynman, etc., came into my life through the written page.  When I began RXTT’s Book Journey almost ten years ago, I dreamed of the possibility that book publishers and authors would appreciate my reviews and want to share their soon-to-be-released work with me.  Dreams do come true.

            The latest advance copy received by the RXTT household is physicist Lawrence M. Krauss’ forthcoming book, The Known Unknowns. (That is the UK title.  The book will be titled The Edge of Knowledge in the USA, probably because Donald Rumsfeld’s use of the phrase “known unknowns” became such a joke in ignorant America.)  After requesting it from Mr. Krauss himself, he contacted his publisher on my behalf and I was sent the book.  MIND BLOWN.

            The reason I read is to enlighten myself, both with new ideas and new information, for I am a curious mind.  Sometimes, the most useful and valuable books are not the ones with the most data, but instead the books with the best questions.  One such book, among many faves, is Richard Feynman’s The Character of Physical Law, a book full of ideas and questions which, it turns out, was also a guiding light for Lawrence M. Krauss.  Feynman’s spirit, willing to share ideas in a thoughtful manner, directly engaged with the toughest questions, and able to explain the most obtuse scientific thought in a manner where a layperson can grasp the fundamentals, is alive and well in Mr. Krauss.  We are all very fortunate.

            Krauss divides this book into five chapters, each one concerning itself with a specific topic where science has shed some light, but where there are still far more questions than answers.  Time, Space, Matter, Life, and Consciousness are the guideposts for Lawrence M. Krauss to not only sum up our current knowledge, but to also point out the vast gaps.  Our collective ignorance is the greatest impetus towards science, scientific discovery, and new knowledge.  The very worst of humanity arises when humans feel absolute certainty, whether political, religious, or social.  Not knowing is the greatest gift to an inquisitive mind.

            My biggest surprise as I devoured this book was its readability.  There are many amazing minds in the world of science, and physics specifically, but very few have the ability to provide us their thoughts and knowledge in such a fun and engrossing manner.  Some books, even great ones, can be a chore to read.  Lawrence M. Krauss has succeeded in creating a book that will enlighten young and old alike, while also opening up their minds to the myriad possibilities yet available for exploration and research.  This may be this book’s most valuable contribution, sparking the mind of some young students out there, and starting their paths toward new discoveries, new fields of research, and, hopefully, new questions.  Questions are truly important.  Anyone claiming to have all the answers is trying to rip you off, and should be treated accordingly.

            Each chapter begins with questions.  For example, the chapter titled Matter starts with these:

What is the World Made of?

How Many Forces are there? 

Is Anything Fundamental?

Is Quantum Mechanics True? 

Will Physics Have an End?

Will Matter End?

Krauss perfectly encapsulates our current state of knowledge in each chapter, sharing it with the reader through the specific details of past scientific achievement.  He then explores how we came to find that knowledge, use it, and seek to understand the underlying principles involved.  One of the best attributes of scientists is their humility in the face of new data.  It allows for self-correction, which is why the scientific method has been such a valuable tool for humanity.  Krauss details the baby steps taken in our human search for knowledge, steps often met with wildly erroneous interpretations, each of them critical points in our collective knowledge.

            Krauss brings his physics knowledge to bear on what is the most complex and mysterious part of our everyday world, the quantum realm.  He guides the reader through the many different steps us humans required to comprehend that the sub-atomic world even existed, and details plainly why it remains such a difficult science to explain.  Everything in our modern world is touched by subatomic processes, from the manufacture of medicine, to the Global Positioning Satellite System, to the various smart phones and gadgets we all take for granted.  None would work without our collective understanding of the processes involved in the quantum realm.  The irony remains that, even as we use quantum science to create new wonders, we still do not fully grasp exactly what processes allow for these modern marvels to function.  We are much like the ancient humans who used fire to bake clay, cook food, warm their home, and provide light, but had no clue as to what caused the fire to exist in the first place.  We now know that free oxygen atoms in our atmosphere combine with the carbon in wood, and that this reaction creates new compounds (Carbon dioxide, water vapor) and energy (light, heat).  It seems common sense to us now, but to a human living 500 years ago this would be utter nonsense.  They “knew” that fire was but one of the four basic constituents of everything that exists, along with Water, Earth, and Air.  For centuries, this basic explanation served its purpose, but it did not actually provide verifiable, repeatable truth.  Only the scientific method does that.

            I hope that this book receives a very wide readership, for it is as equally valuable to a young scientist as it is to a layperson interested in big ideas.  Our world bounces back and forth from close-minded totalitarian fundamentalism to wide-open progressive ideals.  It is very easy for a society to lose ground, to lose hard-earned knowledge and wisdom, because someone, or something, claims to know all the answers.  Beware of anyone telling you to stop asking questions.  RUN AWAY from anyone telling there are no new answers out there and we already know all we need to know.  They are Liars and con-artists and only seek to control you so they can line their pockets.  Find those among us who are kind, who seek new answers and new questions, who understand that, for all we know as humans, our knowledge is dwarfed by the vast amounts we do not know.  Lawrence M. Krauss has crafted an amazing book, one that not only tells us what we know and how, but informs us of what we have yet to find out.  I highly recommend it.

(This book can be purchased here: https://mitpressbookstore.mit.edu/book/9781637588567 )

Hans Reichenbach Uses Math to Show Us the Direction of Time

The Direction of Time – Hans Reichenbach (1956)

            In the late part of the 18^th and the beginning of the 19^th century, many philosophers saw their world crumble when their old, long-held assumptions about reality crashed down around them, due mainly to the various advancements that occurred in physics during that time.  Einstein’s relativistic theories regarding the large-scale composition of our Universe, and quantum mechanics’ probabilistic theories regarding the small-scale composition of the fundamental particles creating our existence did not allow for the old stand-bys of philosophy.  A Priori ideas were discarded.  Previously believed truths about our reality that were simply accepted as fact because Plato said so were understood to be false.  The understanding that any philosophical theory needed to support and not contradict the verifiable, empirical facts of the world of science was required.  In this tumult, philosophers such as Bertrand Russell sough to unify the empirical results of science with the aims of philosophy, helping create what is now called “scientific philosophy.”

           Hans Reichenbach was at the forefront of this movement.  He understood early on that the world as described by the then-current physics was not one that could be easily codified into philosophical terms and concepts.  A new philosophy was needed, and Reichenbach sought to provide that for the world.  One of his final attempts at this unification came in the form of this book, The Direction of Time, which explores how science and philosophy merge to describe the way that humans experience what we call time.

            Time is a concept that many misunderstand.  People assume that time is a purely linear function, equally applicable to the entire universe as it is to an individual, while others believe that time is relativistic, that each person experiences a different flow of time from anyone else.  Reichenbach begins his discussion of time by exploring what time means and what it has meant to philosophers of the past.  He explains the basic mathematics that show how our Universe is in a constant state of becoming from the past to the present, and how these mathematics show that time is irreversible, even though our minds can imagine such time reversals.  In our reality, time moves forward in all respects, with the future defined as that which has yet to occur but is influenced by the past and present, while the past is defined as occurrences which cannot be changed once they happen, but which will influence future events indefinitely.

            In order to explain his reasoning, Reichenbach goes into levels of math that are frankly beyond my cognition.  I have to admit that I never got past Algebra II, or Pre-Calculus in school.  As a Fine Arts student I satisfied my math requirements with Logic classes.  Thankfully, those same Logic classes help me keep Reichenbach’s thought processes in clear focus, even though his mathematical specificity leaves me in the dust.  I wish I had more ability to process Logarithms!  The beauty of knowing mathematics, even on a level such as myself, is that, while I may not understand the full import of a formula, I can follow the thought processes as one formula is permutated into another, or as it is simplified by the author.  This does help a lot in understanding this book.

            Reichenbach seems to come to the conclusion that time and the measurement of time are probabilistic processes, which require the understanding of thermodynamics, entropy, and macrostatistics as they relate to microstatistics.  Probability is a lot different in the macro world of our Universe than it is in the micro world of our subatomic particles.  Yet, they both point to an inexorable direction of time.  They both show, mathematically, that time is a process that moves in only one direction.  This is far more important and valid that the old Greek assumptions that everyone took for granted as gospel truth.  While I wish I had more of a grasp on high end mathematics, I am very glad I forged on and finished this book.  I hope to return to it one day in the future once I have increased my math skills.  It is amazing to see the basis for our current scientific philosophers.


(This book can be purchased here: Dover Books )

Violence, like everything else, is relative

The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined – Steven Pinker (2011)

      Living in our world today presents a duality that we all must cope with.  Firstly, we now live in a time where fewer people are living in extreme poverty than ever before in our collective history.  Humans are living to older ages than ever before.  Humans have managed to engage in worldwide trade and diplomacy, and do so with the minimum of force or violence.  Secondly, we now have the ability to be informed about every single horror that occurs anywhere on our planet within seconds of its happening.  We have the ability to detect more and more varieties of cancer and disease.  We also have a never-ending news cycle that will repeat ghastly news over and over again, giving the impression that everything is chaos and horror.  These two sides of our world fight for our collective consciousness. 

Many people claim that humanity has degraded over the eons, beginning in a pastoral and peaceful existence, and ending in our constant competition for resources, bringing wars, violence, and terror to the people.  What Steven Pinker has done in this amazing book is gather up the data available to show that, as a whole, and throughout all of humankind, our collective violence has actually decreased due to the evolution of our collective humanity. 

Pinker explores the many methods by which violence is categorized and quantified, and proceeds to regale the reader with 8 chapters of the most brutal history of human violence upon ourselves, animals, and the world around us.  He details everything from state sponsored war, to individual acts of murder and violence.  In each instance, these violent acts have drastically decreased throughout the world.  Even in the most remote and government-less parts of Earth, violence has decreased. 

It is hard for a modern human to consider how horrible it was to exist a thousand years ago, with our knowledge of world wars, genocide, and other horrors fresh in our collective minds.  Pinker describes exactly how dangerous it was to be a human being at various points in our past, both distant and recent.  In fact, up until very recently indeed, most humans died before the age of 30, and a person reaching 50 years of age was considered ancient!  These days, we all expect to live to 80 and worry a ton about “premature” death, as if death was something we all have on a schedule like lunch or nap-time.  This bias comes specifically from how safe and non-violent our day-to-day world is. 

One of the most important conclusions from this research is that, as the world becomes less religious, it becomes less violent.  In previous eras, when religion was state-sanctioned, and belonging to a different religion regularly meant death, or at best, banishment, the ease by which humans saw other humans as NON-humans is evident.  Religion also taught men to subjugate women, and to approve of using “lesser humans” as slaves, for their god told them it was A-OK.  The worst were states where the religion controlled the politics.  These provided humanity with extreme cases of genocide, mass-murder, and the infestation of violence.

Violence was so pervasive in our past that people writing contemporaneously did not seem too bothered by public torture, public executions, and the display of endless gore and violence.  Every ancient culture had blood-sports, from the Romans and their gladiators, to the British and their bear-baiting. (Bear baiting is when a bear is chained up and then feral wolves or dogs are dispatched to attack the bear, and everyone had a blast watching dogs and bears get ripped to shreds in horrible ordeals of pain and gore.  The British LOVED this, and they were all very religious!)

What Steven Pinker has done here is provide factual, well-researched data to help spread the enlightenment and humanist ideas that have managed to make our current time the least violent of all.  It is a heavy book, and quite depressing at times, but the knowledge that we humans seem to be heading towards a less violent and more constructive existence is something that lifts my spirits.

(This book is available for purchase here: THE BETTER ANGELS OF OUR NATURE  )

G. Brent Dalrymple Provides a Great Tool to Fight the "Young Earth Creationist"

The Age of the Earth – G. Brent Dalrymple (1991)

            Back in the late 1970’s there began a series of challenges to the scholastic curriculum of schools in Alabama.  Certain religious idiots wished to force the school boards to devalue the teaching of natural selection, geology, and other science topics, while pushing the “alternate theories” of christian creationist bullshit that states the Earth and the Universe were all created sometime around 5,000-6,000 years ago (even though the nation-state of Egypt has been around for at least twice that long….morons.)  During this time Mr. Dalrymple was asked by the state if he could testify on the behalf of the science.  Mr. Dalrymple, being an eminent geophysicist and geologist, spent the better part of 5 months preparing, only to have the case be thrown out before it reached the courtroom.  Sadly, even more proudly ignorant people tried to do the same in other states, so Mr. Dalrymple saw that a need existed for a book that could explain the very many methods by which scientists have determined not only the approximate age of our planet Earth, but also the age of the Solar System, our Galaxy, and the Universe as a whole.

            A big part of how ignorant fundamentalists of every religious stripe manage to continue their assaults on everything good and decent in the world is their reliance on the lack of substantial scientific knowledge in the general American population.  Most US public schools teach the very basics of science, much of it severely outdated and archaic, but still needed as a foundation for what actual science is doing currently.  The problem lies in that schools are never given the chance to teach everything we currently now in the realms of science, as this is the purview of the Universities and their researchers.  This makes it very easy to fool people.  Make your false statements sound like actual science, and most people will assume it is.  It gives the backwards troglodyte religious-fundamentalist “humans’ among us a lot of joy to keep everyone ignorant.  If they are dumb as rocks, it makes it easy to feed them the lies that keep religions rich.  Believe me, all the religious leaders at the top KNOW their followers are blind idiots, sucking up whatever ”theology” the leaders wish to make the sheep believe.  They sit in their massive, lavish, extravagantly outfitted homes and offices and laugh and laugh and laugh….

            So, Mr. Dalrymple goes into great length to describe every aspect of how we know the ages of things.  He details what radioactivity is, what a “half-life” is, the methods used to test radioactivity, how they function, how we know they function, and what type of radiocarbon dating is good for what type of rock.  Each chapter then explains in exhaustive detail, sufficient for a learned expert, but still graspable by the lay reader, topics such as the age of the Earth based on modern geophysics and geology, the age of our Moon based on the rocks that humans have brought back, and then the age of the Universe itself, focusing on the data gathered from meteorites and interstellar debris we have collected.  In the hands of an educated person, this book could wholly rebuff any asshole trying to use make-believe fairy tales to keep young students ignorant.  This fight never ends, for ignorant fundamentalists will never change their mind, and they will go on indoctrinating their poor children in their backwards, regressive, baseless beliefs.

            The greatest aspect of science, and most scientists, is that they willingly accept the vast quantities of unknown information, without suffering from desperation.  Scientists understand that unexpected answers may point to new truth, a new area of study, or they may point to an old false belief, correcting what could be centuries of ill-informed assumptions.  The last chapter of this book details the many things we do not yet know about the age of the Earth and the Universe, much to its credit.  Scientists are always willing to concede what they do NOT know. The greatest fault in religious fundamentalists lies in that they assume without question that everything in the parts of the holy book they like are invariably and divinely true, and anything else is false.  They are so brainwashed that the world “gospel” in English has come to mean undisputed, unvarnished truth. So pathetic. Every single person that seeks to curtail a young child’s learning or that seeks to teach them patently erroneous fantasy instead of accepted scientific fact should be fought against vigorously.  It is wonderful that Mr. Dalrymple has provided at least one excellent weapon against these morons.

(This book can be purchased here:  THE AGE OF THE EARTH  )

Our universe is not "The Universe." Get over it.

Masks of the Universe – Edward Harrison (1985)

            I have always been very curious when it comes to the subject of perception.  Perhaps this comes from having worn eyeglasses from a very early age, but the awareness of difference in perception between two people probably began there.  Even now, after over 4 decades of living, I find it very hard to adequately explain how frustrating it is to me when I am not wearing my glasses to someone who has never worn them before.  This glitch in communication magnified a thousand-fold, is what occurs when people who live in a Christian universe attempt to merge their world-view with someone who is Hindu, or vice versa.  We all assume that the universe we experience every day is the same universe that others live in, and any inconsistencies are tossed off by assuming the other person is mistaken, or deluded, or just plain stupid.  What Edward Harrison discusses in this cool book is the difference between the personal universes we as people and societies create and live in, and the Universe at large which encompasses all of existence.

            Mr. Harrison draws a distinction that is critically important.  An individual’s view of the world at large, and their place in it, is labeled a “world picture.”  Each of us carries a world picture in our minds that defines the universe around us, changes due to new stimuli, and is based on our personal experience, as well as the education/indoctrination that we receive about the universe we all share.  A lower-case “universe” is the collective ideas of the culture and society that an individual happens to find themselves living in.  For example, a human living in NYC in 2016 lives in a universe that is “explained” by science, contains very little overt religion compared to past universes, is run by our supposed “free will,” etc.  500 years ago however, the average human being lived in a universe where any event was ruled by mysterious unseen demons or angels, where free will did not exist, where life was brutish and short and meant only to wait until death and eventual entry into an afterlife.  Two thousand years ago the average human lived in a universe where gods were abundant, fought each other, had petty human qualities, and where the appropriate ritual or incantation to the proper god would guarantee a good harvest.  Each of these universes were self-consistent.  The ideas we now think are stupid were seen as “common sense,” and to question them could, at times, send you to your death as a heretic. 

            What is urgently explained by Mr. Harrison is that our current universe is also not The Universe, but yet another filter by which we view ourselves and our world, and our place in it.  In the future our universe may be seen as ridiculous and wrongheaded, just as we see the universes of past people’s sometimes.  The Universe itself never altered, but our human-created vision of what the universe is and was changes as humans develop intellectually.  One big problem is that humans very rarely are able to step outside the confines of their world-picture to see the bigger universe they collectively reside in, or to step out of their culture’s universe to grasp things at the level of The Universe.  Not all universes are beneficial to humanity, just as some world-pictures are twisted and demented.  For 400 years the western world lived in a universe where witches and Satan were active players in day to day life, where no matter how many innocent people were burned at the stake for witchcraft, the Inquisition would always find more and more.  This was a universe in direct odds with the one described in the Bible, but by this time the word of theologians and church leaders took on more weight than the very scripture they supposedly based their religion on.  Corruption can affect even whole universes of thought.

            Books such as these are invaluable to me because they help remind me that those people who seem ignorant because they espouse a world-view that I do not follow or agree with, are all floating around in a universe they did not create, and which they are grasping to understand, just like we all are.  It also helps me somewhat understand the minds of the early humans and the universe they lived in, before organized religion or a designated order of humans who are the intermediaries between humanity and the gods.  The universe that ancient humans lived in was alive in ways that our universe cannot approximate, and which will never come around again.  Each universe is self-consistent.  In a universe where witches run the show, you will find evidence of witches everywhere you look.  In a universe where all things are divine and have a spirit/soul then it makes perfect sense to worship the cave in which you found shelter, or to yell at the rock which stubbed your toe, so it knew you were mad and would never do it again.

            At least one soothing thought comes to my mind.  The Universe has been and is and will be here whether or not our own personal universes are true, or whether our world-pictures are erroneous.  Life, energy, matter, and everything that comes with them are an inherent part of The Universe, and our “universes” are the mental structures that us humans create to try and make sense of The Universe, of which we will only ever be allowed an exceedingly tiny glimpse at.  Better a tiny glimpse than no glimpse at all!

(To read the Introduction from Masks of The Universe in PDF form, click here: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam041/2002031342.pdf )

(This book can be purchased here:  AMAZON  )