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Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration of the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation and Time Travel
Physics of the Impossible takes us on a journey to the frontiers of science and beyond, giving us an exhilarating insight into what we can really hope to achieve in the future.
Everyday we see that what was once declared 'impossible' by scientists has become part of our everyday fax machines, glass sky-scrapers, gas-powered automobiles and a worldwide communications network. Here internationally bestselling author Micho Kaku confidently hurdles today's frontier of science, revealing the actual possibilities of perpetual motion, force fields, invisibility, ray guns, anti-gravity and anti-matter, teleportation, telepathy, psychokinesis, robots and cyborgs, time travel, zero-point energy, even extraterrestrial life. And he shows how few of these ideas actually violate the laws of physics.
Where does the realm of science fiction end? What can we really hope to achieve? 'Anything that is not impossible, is mandatory!' declares Kaku in this lucid, entertaining and enlightening read.
353 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 11, 2008
About the author
Michio Kaku
58 books7,025 followers(Arabic: ميشيو كاكو
Russian: Митио Каку
Chinese: 加來道雄)
Dr. Michio Kaku is an American theoretical physicist at the City College of New York , best-selling author, a futurist, and a communicator and popularizer of science. He has written several books about physics and related topics of science.
He has written two New York Times Best Sellers, Physics of the Impossible (2008) and Physics of the Future (2011).
Dr. Michio is the co-founder of string field theory (a branch of string theory), and continues Einstein’s search to unite the four fundamental forces of nature into one unified theory.
Kaku was a Visitor and Member (1973 and 1990) at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and New York University. He currently holds the Henry Semat Chair and Professorship in theoretical physics at the City College of New York.
Russian: Митио Каку
Chinese: 加來道雄)
Dr. Michio Kaku is an American theoretical physicist at the City College of New York , best-selling author, a futurist, and a communicator and popularizer of science. He has written several books about physics and related topics of science.
He has written two New York Times Best Sellers, Physics of the Impossible (2008) and Physics of the Future (2011).
Dr. Michio is the co-founder of string field theory (a branch of string theory), and continues Einstein’s search to unite the four fundamental forces of nature into one unified theory.
Kaku was a Visitor and Member (1973 and 1990) at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and New York University. He currently holds the Henry Semat Chair and Professorship in theoretical physics at the City College of New York.
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September 18, 2019
ENGLISH
Understandable and neutral, the bow spans from possible to fantastic.
To gild the skills of a highly regarded and successful scientist by cultivating such an accessible and entertaining writing culture that is second to none in the current non-fiction field is at least as much a part of Kaku as the co-founding of string theory. If not a bit more, because the awakening of enthusiasm of others for the miracles around us is considered to be almost even higher than the important, but for most inaccessible basic research.
Three categories make up the well-conceived basic structure of the work, starting with the "impossibilities of the first degree," which includes expected inventions in the foreseeable future such as invisibility, force fields, artificial intelligence, robots, teleportation, psychokinesis, telepathy, nanotechnology, and antimatter. Those foundations and functionality are already explored, but not yet implemented.
The second round is formed by the "impossibilities of the same, second degree," which fall within the theoretically possible, but with a substantially longer announced development time. Whereby it could take millennia or millions of years to the completion. Representatives of these species include parallel universes and communication with the same, over-light speed, contact with aliens and time travel. The distinction between the third and last supreme discipline of the book forms the harmony with the physical laws of nature and the associated realizability.
The "impossibilities of the third degree" have entirely alienated themselves from the standard order of things and are therefore in an area of seeming an impossibility. Examples of these, a little pitiable, since damned to be never discovered, species of inventions include the Perpetuum mobile or precognition.
Even if some readers are instinctively tempted to roll their eyes in case of some of these categories, one should consider the point of view of a few hundred or even just a few decades of years ago. Moreover, the accompanying worldview, or the same supporting hypotheses for the probabilities of various theories.
Then legions of former impossibilities will be found, which have since become antiquated and forgotten. Thus, to regard it as exceedingly arrogant to attest immutable and everlasting veracity to our momentary tiny fragments of parts of the whole thing. On the contrary, the author's ease of acknowledging that in many ways we have not even plunged into the deeper surf zone of the Cosmic Ocean would undoubtedly be useful for some of the established luminaries of the science community. As a motivation to open their intuition.
Kaku is also to be credited additionally, that he closes all dogmatics and instead has an open and critical approach to the matter. So that without reducing the entertainment value by drifting into too theoretical explanations, to instead bring in bright and varied images, to make the world of his beloved physics understandable to the layman.
Also, this love for his profession thankfully sparks from each new paragraph when turning the pages. This is how science didactics has to work.
GERMAN
Grandios gewandt, verständlich und neutral spannt sich der Bogen von möglich bis allzu fantastisch.
Die Kompetenzen eines noch dazu so angesehenen und erfolgreichen Wissenschaftlers zu vergolden, indem man eine so zugängliche und unterhaltsame Schreibkultur pflegt, die im momentanen Sachbuchbereich ihresgleichen sucht, gereicht Kaku mindestens ebenso zu Ehren wie die Mitbegründung der Stringtheorie. Wenn nicht gar einen Deut mehr, da die Begeisterung anderer für die Wunder um uns als fast noch höher zu erachten ist, als die wichtige, aber für die meisten doch unzugängliche Grundlagenforschung.
Drei Kategorien bilden das gut durchdachte Grundgerüst des Werks, den Anfang machen die „Unmöglichkeiten ersten Grades“, womit in absehbarer Zukunft zu erwartende Erfindungen wie Unsichtbarkeit, Kraftfelder, künstliche Intelligenz, Roboter, Teleportation, Psychokinese, Telepathie, Nanotechnik und Antimaterie fallen, deren Grundlagen und Funktionsweise bereits erforscht, allerdings noch nicht umsetzbar sind.
Den zweiten Reigen bilden die „Unmöglichkeiten eben selben, zweiten Grades“, unter die theoretisch ebenfalls mögliche, aber mit einer wesentlichen längeren Entwicklungszeit avisierte Entwicklungen fallen. Wobei es durchaus in die Jahrtausende oder Jahrmillionen bis zur endgültigen Fertigstellung gehen könnte. Vertreter dieser Spezies sind unter anderem Paralelluniversen und die Kommunikation mit selbigen, Überlichtgeschwindigkeit, Kontaktaufnahme mit Außerirdischen und Zeitreisen. Die Abgrenzung zur dritten und letzten Königsdisziplin des Buches bildet der Einklang mit den physikalischen Naturgesetzen und damit einhergehende Realisierbarkeit.
Die „Unmöglichkeiten dritten Grades“ haben sich von der normalen Ordnung der Dinge komplett entfremdet und gastieren daher in einem Bereich der vermutlichen Unmöglichkeit. Beispiele für diese, dadurch ein klein wenig bemitleidenswerte, da zum niemals entdeckt werden verdammte, Spezies an Erfindungen sind unter anderem das Perpetuum mobile oder Präkognition.
Auch wenn manch Leser instinktiv versucht ist, bei manchen der genannten Kategorien die Augen rollend laut auszuatmen, sollte man sich den Gesichtspunkt von vor ein paar Hundert oder auch nur paar Dutzend Jahren betrachten. Und das damit einhergehende Weltbild, beziehungsweise selbiges untermauernde Thesen für die Wahrscheinlichkeiten verschiedenster Theorien.
Dann werden sich Legionen von einstigen Unmöglichkeiten finden lassen, die mittlerweile selbst antiquiert und vergessen worden sind. Somit es als überaus hochmütig anzusehen, unseren momentanen Fragmenten von Teilen des Ganzen unverrückbare und ewig währende Richtigkeit zu attestieren. Im Gegenteil täte die Leichtigkeit des Autors, einzugestehen dass wir in vielerlei Hinsicht noch nicht einmal in die tiefere Brandungszone des kosmischen Ozeans eingetaucht sind, einigen etablierten Koryphäen des Wissenschaftsbetriebs als Motivation zur Öffnung der eigenen Anschauung gewiss gut.
Kaku ist noch zusätzlich anzurechnen, dass er sich sämtlicher Dogmatik verschließt und stattdessen offen und kritisch an die Materie herangeht. Und das ohne den Unterhaltungswert durch Abdriften in allzu theoretische Erklärungen zu mindern, um stattdessen in anschaulichen und abwechslungsreichen Bildern die Welt seiner geliebten Physik auch dem Laien verständlich näher zu bringen.
Und diese Liebe zu seinem Steckenpferd schießt einem dankenswerterweise beim Umblättern aus jedem neuen Absatz funkensprühend entgegen. So muss Wissenschaftsdidaktik funktionieren.
Understandable and neutral, the bow spans from possible to fantastic.
To gild the skills of a highly regarded and successful scientist by cultivating such an accessible and entertaining writing culture that is second to none in the current non-fiction field is at least as much a part of Kaku as the co-founding of string theory. If not a bit more, because the awakening of enthusiasm of others for the miracles around us is considered to be almost even higher than the important, but for most inaccessible basic research.
Three categories make up the well-conceived basic structure of the work, starting with the "impossibilities of the first degree," which includes expected inventions in the foreseeable future such as invisibility, force fields, artificial intelligence, robots, teleportation, psychokinesis, telepathy, nanotechnology, and antimatter. Those foundations and functionality are already explored, but not yet implemented.
The second round is formed by the "impossibilities of the same, second degree," which fall within the theoretically possible, but with a substantially longer announced development time. Whereby it could take millennia or millions of years to the completion. Representatives of these species include parallel universes and communication with the same, over-light speed, contact with aliens and time travel. The distinction between the third and last supreme discipline of the book forms the harmony with the physical laws of nature and the associated realizability.
The "impossibilities of the third degree" have entirely alienated themselves from the standard order of things and are therefore in an area of seeming an impossibility. Examples of these, a little pitiable, since damned to be never discovered, species of inventions include the Perpetuum mobile or precognition.
Even if some readers are instinctively tempted to roll their eyes in case of some of these categories, one should consider the point of view of a few hundred or even just a few decades of years ago. Moreover, the accompanying worldview, or the same supporting hypotheses for the probabilities of various theories.
Then legions of former impossibilities will be found, which have since become antiquated and forgotten. Thus, to regard it as exceedingly arrogant to attest immutable and everlasting veracity to our momentary tiny fragments of parts of the whole thing. On the contrary, the author's ease of acknowledging that in many ways we have not even plunged into the deeper surf zone of the Cosmic Ocean would undoubtedly be useful for some of the established luminaries of the science community. As a motivation to open their intuition.
Kaku is also to be credited additionally, that he closes all dogmatics and instead has an open and critical approach to the matter. So that without reducing the entertainment value by drifting into too theoretical explanations, to instead bring in bright and varied images, to make the world of his beloved physics understandable to the layman.
Also, this love for his profession thankfully sparks from each new paragraph when turning the pages. This is how science didactics has to work.
GERMAN
Grandios gewandt, verständlich und neutral spannt sich der Bogen von möglich bis allzu fantastisch.
Die Kompetenzen eines noch dazu so angesehenen und erfolgreichen Wissenschaftlers zu vergolden, indem man eine so zugängliche und unterhaltsame Schreibkultur pflegt, die im momentanen Sachbuchbereich ihresgleichen sucht, gereicht Kaku mindestens ebenso zu Ehren wie die Mitbegründung der Stringtheorie. Wenn nicht gar einen Deut mehr, da die Begeisterung anderer für die Wunder um uns als fast noch höher zu erachten ist, als die wichtige, aber für die meisten doch unzugängliche Grundlagenforschung.
Drei Kategorien bilden das gut durchdachte Grundgerüst des Werks, den Anfang machen die „Unmöglichkeiten ersten Grades“, womit in absehbarer Zukunft zu erwartende Erfindungen wie Unsichtbarkeit, Kraftfelder, künstliche Intelligenz, Roboter, Teleportation, Psychokinese, Telepathie, Nanotechnik und Antimaterie fallen, deren Grundlagen und Funktionsweise bereits erforscht, allerdings noch nicht umsetzbar sind.
Den zweiten Reigen bilden die „Unmöglichkeiten eben selben, zweiten Grades“, unter die theoretisch ebenfalls mögliche, aber mit einer wesentlichen längeren Entwicklungszeit avisierte Entwicklungen fallen. Wobei es durchaus in die Jahrtausende oder Jahrmillionen bis zur endgültigen Fertigstellung gehen könnte. Vertreter dieser Spezies sind unter anderem Paralelluniversen und die Kommunikation mit selbigen, Überlichtgeschwindigkeit, Kontaktaufnahme mit Außerirdischen und Zeitreisen. Die Abgrenzung zur dritten und letzten Königsdisziplin des Buches bildet der Einklang mit den physikalischen Naturgesetzen und damit einhergehende Realisierbarkeit.
Die „Unmöglichkeiten dritten Grades“ haben sich von der normalen Ordnung der Dinge komplett entfremdet und gastieren daher in einem Bereich der vermutlichen Unmöglichkeit. Beispiele für diese, dadurch ein klein wenig bemitleidenswerte, da zum niemals entdeckt werden verdammte, Spezies an Erfindungen sind unter anderem das Perpetuum mobile oder Präkognition.
Auch wenn manch Leser instinktiv versucht ist, bei manchen der genannten Kategorien die Augen rollend laut auszuatmen, sollte man sich den Gesichtspunkt von vor ein paar Hundert oder auch nur paar Dutzend Jahren betrachten. Und das damit einhergehende Weltbild, beziehungsweise selbiges untermauernde Thesen für die Wahrscheinlichkeiten verschiedenster Theorien.
Dann werden sich Legionen von einstigen Unmöglichkeiten finden lassen, die mittlerweile selbst antiquiert und vergessen worden sind. Somit es als überaus hochmütig anzusehen, unseren momentanen Fragmenten von Teilen des Ganzen unverrückbare und ewig währende Richtigkeit zu attestieren. Im Gegenteil täte die Leichtigkeit des Autors, einzugestehen dass wir in vielerlei Hinsicht noch nicht einmal in die tiefere Brandungszone des kosmischen Ozeans eingetaucht sind, einigen etablierten Koryphäen des Wissenschaftsbetriebs als Motivation zur Öffnung der eigenen Anschauung gewiss gut.
Kaku ist noch zusätzlich anzurechnen, dass er sich sämtlicher Dogmatik verschließt und stattdessen offen und kritisch an die Materie herangeht. Und das ohne den Unterhaltungswert durch Abdriften in allzu theoretische Erklärungen zu mindern, um stattdessen in anschaulichen und abwechslungsreichen Bildern die Welt seiner geliebten Physik auch dem Laien verständlich näher zu bringen.
Und diese Liebe zu seinem Steckenpferd schießt einem dankenswerterweise beim Umblättern aus jedem neuen Absatz funkensprühend entgegen. So muss Wissenschaftsdidaktik funktionieren.
February 14, 2016
هذا تحديث بعد ما يقرب من ثلاث سنوات او اقل قليلاٌ من قراءة الكتاب لأنقص نجمة من الاربعة ويصبح التقييم 3 فقط
العديد من افكار كاكو بغض النظر انها خيال علمي من الصعب تحقيقه الا انني بعد دراسة الكثير عن الفيزياء عرفت أنه أهمل تطورات أهم كان يجب التركيز عليها وهي فعلا التي ستحقق النقلة البشرية المستحيل توقعها فى الوقت الراهن
______________________________________________________________
الريفيو القديم
انتهيت فى 3 ساعات ليلا قبل امتحان مادة الادب من الكتاب وهو كتاب جيد الي حد كبير وتقييمي له بشكل عام اربع نقاط وسيفقد الخامسة بسبب افراطه فى الاعتقادات الشخصية فى بعض الجزئيات التي ابتعد بها عن الاصول العلمية
دعني اولا لاني كما الاحظ ساكون اول من يكتب مراجعة من العرب علي الكتاب بعد ترجمته وطرحه من مجلة عالم المعرفة اني اعرف به اولا
من هو ميتشيو كاكو ؟
هو عالم الفيزياء الامريكي الشهير والمختص بالفيزياء النظرية ، ولد في 24 يناير 1947، بسان خوسيه، كاليفورنيا من والدين يابانيين مهاجرين إلى الولايات المتحدة ولقد كان انجازه الاول الذي جعله يدخل نادي العباقرة هو انه قد اقدم على جمع (وهو طالب في الثانوية) 22 ميلا من أسلاك النحاس، وأربعمائة رطل من المحولات الكهربائية القديمة، وسط ساحة مدرسته، ليصمم جهاز تسارع جزيئات البيتاترون، بقوة 2.3 مليون الكترون فولت، حتى ينتج حقلاً مغناطيسياً يعادل عشرين ألف ضعف للجاذبية الأرضية. وكان هدفه من كل هذا هو توليد أشعة (جاما) ليستطيع خلق مضاد المادة، والذي يعد حتى اليوم من المهمات شبه المستحيلة. وبسبب انجاز هذا المشروع فقد حصل على منحة دراسية في جامعة هارفارد
تخرج في جامعة هارفارد عام 1968 وكان الاول على صف الفيزياء في الجامعة، عمل في مختبر بيركلي للإشعاع، وحصل على دكتوراه في الفلسفة عام 1972 ، وفي عام 1973 عمل محاضراً في جامعة برنستون ، وحالياً استاذ كرسي “هنري سيمات ” للفيزياء النظرية في سيتي كوليج بنيويورك وقد مارس التدريس مدة 25 عاماً.
كاكو من ابرز العلماء الذين يحاورون ويبسطون العلوم لفئة القراء العاديين من غير المختصين كما انه يهتم كثيراً بموضوع المستقبليات. وهو واضع نظرية مجال الاوتار (String field theory) التي تعد فرعاً من نظرية الاوتار الفائقة.
كما انه احد العاملين على إكمال عمل اينشتاين في توحيد القوى الاربع (الجاذبية ، الكهرومغناطيسية، النووية القوية والنووية الضعيفة) في الكون تحت ظل نظرية موحدة.
ومما قاله في هذا الصدد : “أتذكر اليوم الذي توفي فيه العالم ألبرت اينشتاين، حينها قرأت تعليقاً صحفياً عن نظريته التي لم تكتمل، نظرية توحد جميع قوانين الفيزياء في نظرية فريدة. فحلمت منذ ذلك اليوم باكتشاف هذه النظرية، وفعلا ساعدني هذا الحلم لاكتشاف نظرية الأوتار الفيزيائية.”
الكتاب :
بدأ ميتشيو بمقدمة جميلة وهو مدخل جيد لما يريد توضيحه فى الكتاب فكان موفقا جدا فى اختيار كلماته وافكاره فى المقدمة التي مهد بشكل رائع للفصول التالية فى الكتاب ودعونا نلاحظ ان تقسيمه للمستحيلات الي 3 فصول كان شئ فى منتهي الروعة لانه سهل علي الجميع ملاحظة الفروقات فى امكانية التحقق وقد ساهم ذلك فى ايصال الكثير من الامور التي طرحها الكاتب الي عقول غير المتخصصين
واقتبس من المقدمة ما أشرت اليه فى كلماتي السابقة
"لذلك ففي هذا الكتاب قمت بتقسيم الأشياء "المستحيلة" إلى ثلاثة طبقات. الأولى هي ما أسميته مستحيلات الفئة الأولى. وهي التكنولوجيا المستحيلة اليوم ولكنها لا تناقض القوانين المعروفة لعلم الطبيعة. ولذلك فقد تكون ممكنة في هذا القرن، أو ربما القرن القادم، على الأكثر. وهي تتضمن الانتقال الآني ومحركات المادة المضادة وأشكال معينة من التخاطر عن بعد وكذلك التحريك عن بعد والاختفاء.
الطبقة الثانية هي ما اصطلحت على تسميته مستحيلات الفئة الثانية. وهي التكنولوجيا التي تقف عند أقصى حدود فهمنا للعالم الفيزيائي. إذا كانت تلط الطبقة ممكنة أساسا، فمن الممكن أن نحققها في مستقبل يمتد إلى آلاف أو ملايين السنوات. وهي تتضمن آلات الزمن والسفر عبر إختصار الفراغ hyperspace travel وأيضا السفر عبر الثقوب الدودية(*) wormholes.
الطبقة الأخيرة هي ما أسميتها بمستحيلات الفئة الثانية. وهي التكنولوجيا التي تناقض القوانين الفيزيائية المعروفة. ومن المدهش أن التكنولوجيات المستحيلة قليلة جدا. وإذا تحولت ذات يوم إلى نطاق الإمكانية، فذلك يعني تحول جوهري في فهمنا لعلم الطبيعة. "
مراجعة شخصية للكتاب :
يمثل هذا الكتاب بحثاً في بعض المواضيع التي تنتمي في الوقت الحاضر الى خانة الخيال العلمي، كاكو يحاول ان يخبرنا عن الفرق بين الممكن والمستحيل، فليس كل ما يدرج تحت اسم الخيال العلمي من قبيل المستحيل الذي لا يمكن التفكير في احتمالية حصوله.
الخيال العلمي جذب الكثير من العلماء الى مجال دراسة خبايا الكون، كأدوين هابل وكارل ساغان، وسنأخذ أدوين هابل كنموذج، هذا “الفلكي العظيم كان مفتونا بأعمال جول فيرن (من ابرز المساهمين في ادب الخيال العلمي). وكنتيجة لقراءة أعمال فيرن، هجر هابل مستقبلا واعدا في مجال المحاماة وخيب آمال والده، وبدأ العمل في مجال العلم. ليصبح في النهاية أعظم فلكيي القرن العشرين.”
يتساءل كاكو : “هل من الممكن أن يأتي اليوم الذي نستطيع فيه السير عبر الجدران؟ أن نبني سفن فضاء تنتقل بسرعة أعلى من سرعة الضوء؟ أن نقرأ ما يدور في عقول الآخرين؟ أن نحرك الأجسام بطاقة عقولنا؟ أن ننقل أجسادنا بطريقة لحظية عبر الفضاء؟”
كل هذه الاسئلة قد يتم الاجابة عنها بكلمة “مستحيل” من قبل الكثير من الناس، ولكن لكاكو رأيٌ اخر. فهو يقول : “تعلمت كفيزيائي أن “المستحيل” مصطلح نسبي”
ولتوضيح وجهة نظره يقوم يطرح عدة امثلة من بينها ما اعتقده الفيزيائي كالفـن من أن الآلات الأثـقل من الهواء كالطائرات من المستحيل أن تطير. لكن ماذا يخبرنا الواقع الان؟
كما أن كيمياء القرن التاسع عشر أكدت عدم وجود حجر الفلاسفة واستحالة تحويل الرصاص إلى ذهب، اما اليوم فهذا الامر ممكن (نظرياً) بفضل وجود المحطمات الذرية، وبهذا نجد ان ما كان يعتبر مستحيلاً اصبح حقيقة ومسلّمة علمية في وقتنا الحالي.
دراسة تاريخ العلم توضح لنا حقيقة ان المستحيلات تتغير، الافكار والأشياء تتحول وتتطور بحسب عمق فهمنا الفيزيائي للعالم حولنا، فعلى قدر ما نملكه من رصيد علمي نستطيع ان نخفف ونحد قدر الامكان من هذه المستحيلات. وكلما اكتشف او اخترع العلماء اموراً جديدة كلما تغير مفهوم المستحيل في اذهاننا.
يقسّم كاكو المستحيلات بالنسبة للتقنية الى ثلاثة اقسام :
1 ـ مستحيلات الفئة الاولى : وهي المستحيلات التقنية الحالية التي لا تتعارض مع القوانين الفيزيائية وغير ممكنة الحدوث بسبب ضعف امكانياتنا، ولكنها ستغدو من الممكنات في نهاية هذا القرن او في القرن القادم، وكمثال عليها، امكانية الانتقال عن بعد، وقد تم تحقيقها على المستوى الذري فقط.
2 ـ مستحيلات الفئة الثانية : وهي المستحيلات التقنية التي تقف عند أقصى حدود فهمنا للعالم الفيزيائي ولا يمكن ان تظهر الى حيز الواقع الا بعد آلاف او ملايين السنين مثل آلة السفر بالزمن.
3 ـ مستحيلات الفئة الثالثة : وهي المستحيلات التقنية التي تتعارض مع القوانين الفيزيائية المعروفة، وان اصبحت من الممكنات فستحدث تغييراً جذرياً في فهمنا للعالم حولنا، ومثال على هذا النوع، آلات الحركة الابدية، وهي آلة خيالية يفترض فيها ان تعمل الى الابد.
ولان الفرق الجذري بين المستحيل والممكن معدوم فيجب علينا ان ننظر الى المستحيل والممكن من خلال اللحظة الآنية التي نعيشها … فما هو مستحيل اليوم سيغدو ممكننا غداً، وما هو ممكن اليوم كان مستحيلاً فيما مضى، هذا من جهة اما من جهة اخرى، فان المستحيل بالنسبة لحضارتنا وقدراتنا الحالية قد يكون ممكناً بالنسبة الى حضارة موجودة في غير مجرتنا وتكون اكثر تطوراً منا بآلاف او ملايين السنين، وهذا يعني ان هناك مقياس عامودي يتعلق بدرجة التطور الخاص بحضارة معينة، ومقياس افقي يتعلق بنسب التطور لدى الحضارات المتعددة في الكون.
وفي النهاية نضع تساؤلات كاكو كخاتمة للمقال :
“في حياتي القصيرة وجدت كثيرا من المستحيلات تتحول لحقائق علمية. ويبقى السؤال: هل من المستحيل أن ننتقل يوما ما من كوكب لآخر؟ وقد يبدو ذلك مستحيلا اليوم، فهل سيصبح ممكنا بعد عدة قرون؟ ولنفترض بأن هناك حضارة فضائية متطورة بملايين السنين عن حضارتنا، هل من الممكن أن تملك تقنيات تبدو مستحيلة في عالمنا؟”
August 10, 2020
While reading this book, I was thinking to myself, this book can easily be converted into a script for a television show. It's written in a form as if it was prepared in advance for a narrator to recite it on a stage set. Sure enough, a TV series was produced based on the Physics of the Impossible a year after the book's release.
Michio Kaku, who governs so well with all the complexities of modern physics, very briefly, but effectively, introduces the development of several branches of physics, staring from Newtonian mechanics of the 17th century up to relativity and quantum mechanics of the 20th century. However, if you're looking for a more elaborate exposition of the theories and laws of physics, I would suggest Brian Greene's The Fabric of the Cosmos.
You should definitely consider reading this book if you're a fan of Star Wars and Star Trek and curious no know how probable and feasible is it to achieve, in the future, the hypothetical technologies illustrated in these blockbusters.
Kaku, a well known science popularizer, does a superb job explaining how Sci-Fi technologies and ideas depicted in these movies could function and what is restricting us from achieving them today? How realistic is it to expect for humans to overcome these engineering challenges? In order to do so, do we need a new branch of physics or mathematics? Will a robot ever achieve or surpass the capabilities of the human brain? Kaku maintains an optimistic tone throughout the book while his overall assessment is cautiously optimistic concerning accomplishing these technologies.
The book even suggests different methods and ways to make flights into orbit more cost-effective, but does not propose reusable rockets, that have substantially decreased the cost of launching payloads into orbit since SpaceX's successful launch in 2015. The book was written in 2008.
The authors writing style is clear, smooth, and easy to understand. I read most of the book while watering my garden (a grove of fruit trees) and getting a couple of scratches from the tree branches, which made all this talk about the possibility of achieving human teleportation and interstellar travel seem light-years away. But I have to remind myself of the main lesson of the book: to stay open to far-fetched ideas and not reject them before considering every aspect, even though they sound impossible.
Michio Kaku, who governs so well with all the complexities of modern physics, very briefly, but effectively, introduces the development of several branches of physics, staring from Newtonian mechanics of the 17th century up to relativity and quantum mechanics of the 20th century. However, if you're looking for a more elaborate exposition of the theories and laws of physics, I would suggest Brian Greene's The Fabric of the Cosmos.
You should definitely consider reading this book if you're a fan of Star Wars and Star Trek and curious no know how probable and feasible is it to achieve, in the future, the hypothetical technologies illustrated in these blockbusters.
Kaku, a well known science popularizer, does a superb job explaining how Sci-Fi technologies and ideas depicted in these movies could function and what is restricting us from achieving them today? How realistic is it to expect for humans to overcome these engineering challenges? In order to do so, do we need a new branch of physics or mathematics? Will a robot ever achieve or surpass the capabilities of the human brain? Kaku maintains an optimistic tone throughout the book while his overall assessment is cautiously optimistic concerning accomplishing these technologies.
The book even suggests different methods and ways to make flights into orbit more cost-effective, but does not propose reusable rockets, that have substantially decreased the cost of launching payloads into orbit since SpaceX's successful launch in 2015. The book was written in 2008.
The authors writing style is clear, smooth, and easy to understand. I read most of the book while watering my garden (a grove of fruit trees) and getting a couple of scratches from the tree branches, which made all this talk about the possibility of achieving human teleportation and interstellar travel seem light-years away. But I have to remind myself of the main lesson of the book: to stay open to far-fetched ideas and not reject them before considering every aspect, even though they sound impossible.
May 7, 2008
This book is standard Michio Kaku. He starts off discussing the three classes of impossibilities. (Understand that much of what you would think of as impossible is not really impossible. In order to be proven impossible it must break a law of physics, there is not much that does.)
“Class 1 Impossibilities: These are technologies that are impossible today but that do not violate the known laws of physics. So they might be possible in this century, or perhaps the next, in modified form. They include teleportation, anti-matter engines, certain forms of telepathy, psycho kinesis, and invisibility.”
“Class 2 Impossibilities: These are technologies that sit at the very edge of our understanding of the physical world. If they are possible at all, they might be realized on a scale of millennia to millions of years. They include time machines, the possibility of hyperspace travel, and travel through wormholes.”
“Class 3 impossibilities: These are technologies that violate the known laws of physics. Surprisingly, there are vary few such technologies. If they do turn out to be possible they would represent a fundamental shift in our understanding of physics.”
He also goes into detailing the classes of civilizations, which is important because there are just something you can’t do until you have the power to do them. We are a class “0” civilization.
Type 1 civilization: Those that harvest planetary power, utilizing all the sunlight that strikes their planet. They can, perhaps, harness the power of volcanoes, manipulate the weather, control earthquakes, and build cities on the oceans. All planetary power is with in their control.
Type 2 civilization: Those that can utilize the total power of their sun, making them 10 billion times more powerful then a type 1 civilization. The Federation in Star Trek is a type 2 civilization. A type 2 civilization in a sense, is immortal; nothing known to science, such as ice ages, meteor impacts, or even supernovae, can destroy it. (In the event their mother star is about to explode they can just move to another system, perhaps even move their planet.)
Type 3 civilization: Those that can utilize the power of an entire galaxy. They are 10 billion times more powerful then a type 2 civilization. The Borg in Star Trek, the Empire in Star Wars, and the galactic civilization in Asimov’s Foundation series correspond to a type 3 civilization. They have colonized entire star systems and can exploit the black hole at the center of their galaxy. They freely roam the galaxy.
Over all I was fascinated by this book, Michio has a way of explaining heavy physics without losing a reader without a doctorate. There are some things I wish he would have went into in greater detail, but I guess there are always more books.
I am growing tiered of this universe I think I will go check out the one next door.
“Class 1 Impossibilities: These are technologies that are impossible today but that do not violate the known laws of physics. So they might be possible in this century, or perhaps the next, in modified form. They include teleportation, anti-matter engines, certain forms of telepathy, psycho kinesis, and invisibility.”
“Class 2 Impossibilities: These are technologies that sit at the very edge of our understanding of the physical world. If they are possible at all, they might be realized on a scale of millennia to millions of years. They include time machines, the possibility of hyperspace travel, and travel through wormholes.”
“Class 3 impossibilities: These are technologies that violate the known laws of physics. Surprisingly, there are vary few such technologies. If they do turn out to be possible they would represent a fundamental shift in our understanding of physics.”
He also goes into detailing the classes of civilizations, which is important because there are just something you can’t do until you have the power to do them. We are a class “0” civilization.
Type 1 civilization: Those that harvest planetary power, utilizing all the sunlight that strikes their planet. They can, perhaps, harness the power of volcanoes, manipulate the weather, control earthquakes, and build cities on the oceans. All planetary power is with in their control.
Type 2 civilization: Those that can utilize the total power of their sun, making them 10 billion times more powerful then a type 1 civilization. The Federation in Star Trek is a type 2 civilization. A type 2 civilization in a sense, is immortal; nothing known to science, such as ice ages, meteor impacts, or even supernovae, can destroy it. (In the event their mother star is about to explode they can just move to another system, perhaps even move their planet.)
Type 3 civilization: Those that can utilize the power of an entire galaxy. They are 10 billion times more powerful then a type 2 civilization. The Borg in Star Trek, the Empire in Star Wars, and the galactic civilization in Asimov’s Foundation series correspond to a type 3 civilization. They have colonized entire star systems and can exploit the black hole at the center of their galaxy. They freely roam the galaxy.
Over all I was fascinated by this book, Michio has a way of explaining heavy physics without losing a reader without a doctorate. There are some things I wish he would have went into in greater detail, but I guess there are always more books.
I am growing tiered of this universe I think I will go check out the one next door.
December 3, 2009
Looking for something substantive? Look for this author, his books are so interesting and engrossing. Here he dissects all the Sci-Fi tropes and explains how each of them is impossible, or what the hell it would take to make it a reality. I learned quite a lot and it was not too jumbled for a non-scientist like me to read.
April 3, 2023
بیاید بشینید پای ممبر که میخوام تجربیات ارزندهم از شش سال حضور در مجامع آکادمیک + دو سال حضور در مجامع غیر آکادمیک فیزیک رو همینجوری مفت در اختیارتون بذارم؛ باشد که پند گیرید!
در جامعهی فیزیکپیشگان (شامل فیزیکدان و فیزیکخوان) همیشه گروهی هستن که مردم غیر فیزیکپیشه عاشقشونن و فیزیکیها سایهشون رو با تیر میزنن. یکی از این افراد جناب میچیو کاکوئه که فامیلیش هیچ ربطی به شیراز قشنگمون نداره.
آقای کاکو از بنیانگذاران نظریهی ریسمانه ولی شهرتش به خاطر برنامههای تلویزیونیش و بازگو کردن مفاهیم فیزیکی به زبان خیلی خیلی خیلی ساده است؛ همون چیزی که فیزیکیها به خاطرش ازش متنفرن چون آسمون ریسمون رو به هم میبافه و انقدر از فیزیک دور میشه که فقط یک جنبهی نمایشی از همه چیز باقی میمونه؛ تازه گاهی اون هم درست نیست! البته نه اونقدر نادرست که در درک عمومی از فیزیک تغییری ایجاد کنه ولی قابلیت این رو داره که فیزیکپیشهها رو دیوانه کنه.
هدف کاکو در این کتاب اینه که نشون بده ناممکن یک مفهوم نسبیه و خیلی از چیزهایی که بشر نشدنی تصورشون میکرد الان دستیافتنی شدن. بعضی چیرها هم هستن که ناممکنن چون قوانین فیزیک رو نقض میکنن و اگر بتونیم ثابت کنیم اینها امکان پذیر هستند یعنی قوانین فیزیک مشکل داره!
مطالب این کتاب در مجامع علمی جایی نداره و صرفا تخیلات نویسنده از آینده و ممکن شدن ناممکنهاست.
نمیگم این کتاب به درد نمیخوره و اگر بخونید سرتون کلاه رفته یا وقتتون تلف شده. قطعا مطلب زیادی داره که دوستش خواهید داشت. اگر اطلاعاتتون از فیزیک کمه این کتاب میتونه شما رو علاقهمند کنه تا سراغ پژوهشهای بهتر برید
اما
از اون کتابهایی نیست که خواندنش رو توصیه کنم؛ به تمام دلایلی که بالاتر گفتم.
در جامعهی فیزیکپیشگان (شامل فیزیکدان و فیزیکخوان) همیشه گروهی هستن که مردم غیر فیزیکپیشه عاشقشونن و فیزیکیها سایهشون رو با تیر میزنن. یکی از این افراد جناب میچیو کاکوئه که فامیلیش هیچ ربطی به شیراز قشنگمون نداره.
آقای کاکو از بنیانگذاران نظریهی ریسمانه ولی شهرتش به خاطر برنامههای تلویزیونیش و بازگو کردن مفاهیم فیزیکی به زبان خیلی خیلی خیلی ساده است؛ همون چیزی که فیزیکیها به خاطرش ازش متنفرن چون آسمون ریسمون رو به هم میبافه و انقدر از فیزیک دور میشه که فقط یک جنبهی نمایشی از همه چیز باقی میمونه؛ تازه گاهی اون هم درست نیست! البته نه اونقدر نادرست که در درک عمومی از فیزیک تغییری ایجاد کنه ولی قابلیت این رو داره که فیزیکپیشهها رو دیوانه کنه.
هدف کاکو در این کتاب اینه که نشون بده ناممکن یک مفهوم نسبیه و خیلی از چیزهایی که بشر نشدنی تصورشون میکرد الان دستیافتنی شدن. بعضی چیرها هم هستن که ناممکنن چون قوانین فیزیک رو نقض میکنن و اگر بتونیم ثابت کنیم اینها امکان پذیر هستند یعنی قوانین فیزیک مشکل داره!
مطالب این کتاب در مجامع علمی جایی نداره و صرفا تخیلات نویسنده از آینده و ممکن شدن ناممکنهاست.
نمیگم این کتاب به درد نمیخوره و اگر بخونید سرتون کلاه رفته یا وقتتون تلف شده. قطعا مطلب زیادی داره که دوستش خواهید داشت. اگر اطلاعاتتون از فیزیک کمه این کتاب میتونه شما رو علاقهمند کنه تا سراغ پژوهشهای بهتر برید
اما
از اون کتابهایی نیست که خواندنش رو توصیه کنم؛ به تمام دلایلی که بالاتر گفتم.
February 6, 2017
When I was a schoolkid I studied physics in part because - like many physics students - I wanted to know how to build the cool stuff in science fiction. The death star. Lightsabers. Warp drive. This is the stuff of Kaku's riotous introduction to modern physics and if I'd read it when I was in school it would have blown my goddamn mind.
I went into this book anticipating that I wouldn't learn all of that much - after all I have a masters degree in physics and read widely before studying at university - and that all the stories Kaku covered would be all too familiar to me already. For the first half of the book this was true, and his explanations of the science part of science fiction was either familiar to me or stuff I had worked out for myself. The second half of the book, where he took trips into the real bleeding edge of modern physics and invoked predictions of string theory, cosmology, and the standard model included fascinating nuggets of information that were totally novel to me.
So if you are a sci fi nerd and are interested in physics (that Venn diagram being all but a circle) then regardless of whether you are a high school student or a university student, I highly recommend this book. It certainly left me wanting to learn more, and further my reading - which after being jaded by four years of hardcore physics is saying something!
I went into this book anticipating that I wouldn't learn all of that much - after all I have a masters degree in physics and read widely before studying at university - and that all the stories Kaku covered would be all too familiar to me already. For the first half of the book this was true, and his explanations of the science part of science fiction was either familiar to me or stuff I had worked out for myself. The second half of the book, where he took trips into the real bleeding edge of modern physics and invoked predictions of string theory, cosmology, and the standard model included fascinating nuggets of information that were totally novel to me.
So if you are a sci fi nerd and are interested in physics (that Venn diagram being all but a circle) then regardless of whether you are a high school student or a university student, I highly recommend this book. It certainly left me wanting to learn more, and further my reading - which after being jaded by four years of hardcore physics is saying something!
February 24, 2026
Wherein "impossible" sometimes only means "quite difficult"!
What do Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, Lawrence Krauss, Clifford Pickover, Brian Greene, Douglas Hofstadter and Michio Kaku have in common? Aside from being respected physicists, scientists, mathematicians and theoreticians, they also have the uncanny ability to write at a level that we mere mortals can understand. Happily this allows our workaday world of common non-scientists to participate in at least a rudimentary understanding of the esoteric mysteries of the universe that are fascinating in the extreme and so bizarre as to outstrip the most obtuse imaginings of fiction writers.
Michio Kaku takes us on a grand tour of the modern world of physics by grouping topics that either were or are still considered impossible into three large classes - first, those items that don't appear to violate the currently known laws of science and having been considered as impossibilities in times past are either now realities or are verging on reality as technology and experimentation makes progress with such blinding speed; second, items that also don't appear to break the rules as we know them but await the development of technology that is likely centuries or millennia beyond whatever skills we might even envisage at this point in history; and, finally, those things that our current knowledge of scientific law would suggest are genuinely impossible.
Kaku treats the eager science loving reader with a generous and formidable list of topics - force fields, telekinesis and ESP, faster-than-light travel, time travel, parallel universes, perpetual motion, telepathy, phaser weaponry, precognition, antimatter, negative matter, hyperspace travel, extraterrestrials and much more. His writing style is at once down to earth, scientifically correct without being either esoteric or condescending, and even witty and humorous as he regales us with amusing tales of the correspondence between science and the astonishingly prescient writers of the science fiction genre. As you might well imagine, the brilliant writers and creators of the Star Trek series come up in Kaku's discussion on more than one occasion.
Brilliant, informative and entertaining! Highly recommended. But Class III impossibilities being forever impossible? If I learned anything from this book, I don't think I'll ever say "never" again. Who knows? Stay tuned!
Paul Weiss
What do Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, Lawrence Krauss, Clifford Pickover, Brian Greene, Douglas Hofstadter and Michio Kaku have in common? Aside from being respected physicists, scientists, mathematicians and theoreticians, they also have the uncanny ability to write at a level that we mere mortals can understand. Happily this allows our workaday world of common non-scientists to participate in at least a rudimentary understanding of the esoteric mysteries of the universe that are fascinating in the extreme and so bizarre as to outstrip the most obtuse imaginings of fiction writers.
Michio Kaku takes us on a grand tour of the modern world of physics by grouping topics that either were or are still considered impossible into three large classes - first, those items that don't appear to violate the currently known laws of science and having been considered as impossibilities in times past are either now realities or are verging on reality as technology and experimentation makes progress with such blinding speed; second, items that also don't appear to break the rules as we know them but await the development of technology that is likely centuries or millennia beyond whatever skills we might even envisage at this point in history; and, finally, those things that our current knowledge of scientific law would suggest are genuinely impossible.
Kaku treats the eager science loving reader with a generous and formidable list of topics - force fields, telekinesis and ESP, faster-than-light travel, time travel, parallel universes, perpetual motion, telepathy, phaser weaponry, precognition, antimatter, negative matter, hyperspace travel, extraterrestrials and much more. His writing style is at once down to earth, scientifically correct without being either esoteric or condescending, and even witty and humorous as he regales us with amusing tales of the correspondence between science and the astonishingly prescient writers of the science fiction genre. As you might well imagine, the brilliant writers and creators of the Star Trek series come up in Kaku's discussion on more than one occasion.
Brilliant, informative and entertaining! Highly recommended. But Class III impossibilities being forever impossible? If I learned anything from this book, I don't think I'll ever say "never" again. Who knows? Stay tuned!
Paul Weiss
August 9, 2009
There is no denying that this is an interesting book and one that presented many of the problems of physics in a way that is comprehensive, comprehensible and engaging. I think other people (people with a greater interest in science fiction, particularly) will find this book even more interesting than I did and more accessible than your standard pop science book on physics. I hadn’t realised I knew quite so little about science fiction – I hadn’t ever really thought about the fact that I hadn’t seen any of the Superman films or any of the Star Trek films or any of the Star Wars films after the first couple. If you’d asked me I would have said that my disillusionment with film had only really started a couple of years ago, but clearly it goes back much further than I realised.
I think it would have helped to have known more about popular culture and thereby to have gotten some of the references here – but really, I could make do without this knowledge. So, if you don’t know which end it is best to hold your light sabre or (and even though he doesn’t actually quote Dr Who) how to reverse the polarity of the neutron flow (sorry, that one always amuses me) you will still be able to follow what is going on.
This book looks at what it says it will look at – impossible stuff. It then tries to work out just how impossible this impossible stuff is. The answer generally being, not terribly. Basically, he identifies three levels of impossibility. Stuff that is impossible now, but might not be for all that long. Stuff that is impossible now and might remain so for the next couple of thousand years. And finally, stuff that is pretty damn well close to being totally impossible and is likely to stay that way unless there is a fairly impressive overturning of some of the fundamental laws of physics. (And do you know what, if I was killed by a bullet aimed under Newtons Laws and these ended up being proven to be wrong, well, I'd be asking for my money back)
What he doesn’t like to do is say stuff is completely impossible and will always remain impossible (even when discussing faster than light travel, for example, or perpetual motion machines – although he does point out that there are one or two fairly serious problems that need to be addressed if these are ever likely to work).
I really do understand that people don’t like it when other people (you know, like me) start talking about things being impossible. I know that they point back to past predictions of the impossible and smirk and tut or whatever they think is the best way to express their disgust. And look, all that is fine – but just because you’ve seen something rather cool happen on your favourite science TV show doesn’t mean that the world has to be made to conform to your desires. For example, it is pointed out in this book that to open a wormhole that might allow us to travel backwards in time might require all of the energy contained in a body the size of Jupiter. The wormhole still might not work, of course – it still might collapse as soon as we enter it – or it might not even open at all in the first place. Is there really ever going to be a time when we are likely to convert all of the matter in Jupiter into energy just so as to try out a wormhole that may or may not work? Look, I could be completely wrong (I have been known to be in the past) but I’d have thought we might have other uses for that amount of energy, even in some strange, undefined future. Margaret Wertheim’s criticism in Pythagoras' Trousers God, Physics, and the Gender Wars of the high priests of physics (ever noticed how often these boys talk about the mind of God?) and their preference for BIG science in a world were the majority of our species are barely scratching out an existence is apt and worth keeping in mind while reading this book, I think.
I know, I know, ‘where’s your sense of adventure and your desire to dream the dream, McCandless?’ But I want more than ‘there might not be anything in the laws of physics as we know them to stop us from …’ as a reason to believe my grandkids will be living on Mars. And he does a very good job in presenting the ‘problems’ here, even if he ends up being a bit more optimistic than I would be. Given I’ve rather strong doubts we will see out another century without destroying ourselves with nuclear weapons (a threat we seem to have ignored rather bizarrely as the threat increased following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the relative safety of the Cold War) many of these questions are likely to remain academic.
There is talk of interstellar flights (and this from a creature whose furthest adventures to date have been to the moon and who nearly kills astronauts (cosmonauts) whenever we leave them on space stations for any length of time). Still, we are talking millions of years into the future – so why not? Well, economics is probably one reason. If travelling away from Earth at near light speeds is necessary for those traveling to the stars it is hard to see why any future society would bother. The stars are an awfully long way away and by the time the people on the rocket would reach these far away places billions of years will have elapsed here on Earth. Why would the people on the Earth (the people paying the bills, after all) bother sending other people so far away only for us to never hear from them again? (Well, unless they are telephone hygienists, of course) I just can’t see how we would ever think that this would be the way to go. I’m not saying we never will go off to the stars, but if we do it will not be with the same sense of exploration that Columbus was sent off with. We will be sending off these ships with the certain knowledge that we will never hear from them again.
Despite Kaku being very interested in string theory, he does present it here as having many failings and also presents some interesting questions about the possibility of us ever developing a theory of everything, either made of strings or not. He discusses this concern on the basis of Gödel's incompleteness theorem in mathematics – and given physics is the most mathematical of the sciences this ought to provide some pause for thought. Gödel's theorem says that there will always be things in mathematics that we know must be true, but can never prove to be true within mathematics itself. The goal of mathematics throughout the ages (since the Greeks, in fact) has been to create a system of proven axioms that build upon each other to create the whole structure of mathematics as a logically complete whole – Gödel proved this dream could never be realised. The fear now is that this may also be true in Physics.
Kaku does not think that very much is impossible (given enough time, enough knowledge, enough energy). He also handles some of the philosophical issues in some of the impossibilities mentioned (teleportation is an interesting case – are you the same person on the other side of the teleportation device as you were on the side you entered or should Scotty be charged with your murder?) The stuff on lasers – and why light sabres might not be the weapon of choice for quite some time (a bit of a problem with the necessary power source) was very interesting.
There is a question I’ve always wondered about which is mentioned here, but not explained. We now have images of single atoms. In fact, I’ve seen pictures of atoms spelling IBM. All well and good (although I am rather surprised it didn’t spell Coke). But I’ve always wondered how this is possible given the uncertainty principle. The uncertainty principle says that we can’t know both the position and velocity of a particle with absolute certainty, I’d have thought a photo of an atom would violate that.
All the same, this book presents lots of material on many fascinating topics in a way that is very accessible (no maths required). My favourite was a discussion on how to point a star that is collapsing to form a black hole so that it becomes a kind of huge gamma ray weapon. I mean, you’d really have to hate the people you were aiming it at. I would say that to go to all that trouble you would really have to hate them rather a lot. Presumably they would need to be responsible for Vogon poetry or something equally atrocious.
I think it would have helped to have known more about popular culture and thereby to have gotten some of the references here – but really, I could make do without this knowledge. So, if you don’t know which end it is best to hold your light sabre or (and even though he doesn’t actually quote Dr Who) how to reverse the polarity of the neutron flow (sorry, that one always amuses me) you will still be able to follow what is going on.
This book looks at what it says it will look at – impossible stuff. It then tries to work out just how impossible this impossible stuff is. The answer generally being, not terribly. Basically, he identifies three levels of impossibility. Stuff that is impossible now, but might not be for all that long. Stuff that is impossible now and might remain so for the next couple of thousand years. And finally, stuff that is pretty damn well close to being totally impossible and is likely to stay that way unless there is a fairly impressive overturning of some of the fundamental laws of physics. (And do you know what, if I was killed by a bullet aimed under Newtons Laws and these ended up being proven to be wrong, well, I'd be asking for my money back)
What he doesn’t like to do is say stuff is completely impossible and will always remain impossible (even when discussing faster than light travel, for example, or perpetual motion machines – although he does point out that there are one or two fairly serious problems that need to be addressed if these are ever likely to work).
I really do understand that people don’t like it when other people (you know, like me) start talking about things being impossible. I know that they point back to past predictions of the impossible and smirk and tut or whatever they think is the best way to express their disgust. And look, all that is fine – but just because you’ve seen something rather cool happen on your favourite science TV show doesn’t mean that the world has to be made to conform to your desires. For example, it is pointed out in this book that to open a wormhole that might allow us to travel backwards in time might require all of the energy contained in a body the size of Jupiter. The wormhole still might not work, of course – it still might collapse as soon as we enter it – or it might not even open at all in the first place. Is there really ever going to be a time when we are likely to convert all of the matter in Jupiter into energy just so as to try out a wormhole that may or may not work? Look, I could be completely wrong (I have been known to be in the past) but I’d have thought we might have other uses for that amount of energy, even in some strange, undefined future. Margaret Wertheim’s criticism in Pythagoras' Trousers God, Physics, and the Gender Wars of the high priests of physics (ever noticed how often these boys talk about the mind of God?) and their preference for BIG science in a world were the majority of our species are barely scratching out an existence is apt and worth keeping in mind while reading this book, I think.
I know, I know, ‘where’s your sense of adventure and your desire to dream the dream, McCandless?’ But I want more than ‘there might not be anything in the laws of physics as we know them to stop us from …’ as a reason to believe my grandkids will be living on Mars. And he does a very good job in presenting the ‘problems’ here, even if he ends up being a bit more optimistic than I would be. Given I’ve rather strong doubts we will see out another century without destroying ourselves with nuclear weapons (a threat we seem to have ignored rather bizarrely as the threat increased following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the relative safety of the Cold War) many of these questions are likely to remain academic.
There is talk of interstellar flights (and this from a creature whose furthest adventures to date have been to the moon and who nearly kills astronauts (cosmonauts) whenever we leave them on space stations for any length of time). Still, we are talking millions of years into the future – so why not? Well, economics is probably one reason. If travelling away from Earth at near light speeds is necessary for those traveling to the stars it is hard to see why any future society would bother. The stars are an awfully long way away and by the time the people on the rocket would reach these far away places billions of years will have elapsed here on Earth. Why would the people on the Earth (the people paying the bills, after all) bother sending other people so far away only for us to never hear from them again? (Well, unless they are telephone hygienists, of course) I just can’t see how we would ever think that this would be the way to go. I’m not saying we never will go off to the stars, but if we do it will not be with the same sense of exploration that Columbus was sent off with. We will be sending off these ships with the certain knowledge that we will never hear from them again.
Despite Kaku being very interested in string theory, he does present it here as having many failings and also presents some interesting questions about the possibility of us ever developing a theory of everything, either made of strings or not. He discusses this concern on the basis of Gödel's incompleteness theorem in mathematics – and given physics is the most mathematical of the sciences this ought to provide some pause for thought. Gödel's theorem says that there will always be things in mathematics that we know must be true, but can never prove to be true within mathematics itself. The goal of mathematics throughout the ages (since the Greeks, in fact) has been to create a system of proven axioms that build upon each other to create the whole structure of mathematics as a logically complete whole – Gödel proved this dream could never be realised. The fear now is that this may also be true in Physics.
Kaku does not think that very much is impossible (given enough time, enough knowledge, enough energy). He also handles some of the philosophical issues in some of the impossibilities mentioned (teleportation is an interesting case – are you the same person on the other side of the teleportation device as you were on the side you entered or should Scotty be charged with your murder?) The stuff on lasers – and why light sabres might not be the weapon of choice for quite some time (a bit of a problem with the necessary power source) was very interesting.
There is a question I’ve always wondered about which is mentioned here, but not explained. We now have images of single atoms. In fact, I’ve seen pictures of atoms spelling IBM. All well and good (although I am rather surprised it didn’t spell Coke). But I’ve always wondered how this is possible given the uncertainty principle. The uncertainty principle says that we can’t know both the position and velocity of a particle with absolute certainty, I’d have thought a photo of an atom would violate that.
All the same, this book presents lots of material on many fascinating topics in a way that is very accessible (no maths required). My favourite was a discussion on how to point a star that is collapsing to form a black hole so that it becomes a kind of huge gamma ray weapon. I mean, you’d really have to hate the people you were aiming it at. I would say that to go to all that trouble you would really have to hate them rather a lot. Presumably they would need to be responsible for Vogon poetry or something equally atrocious.
February 28, 2016
How often do you wonder about The Future? Can you conceive of the technologies people are going to use in the next millennium? Or is it at all conceivable? Is the ever growing ‘Technology Monster’ finally going to define or explain ‘every’ phenomenon around us some time in the far future? What about super intelligent extraterrestrials? Do they really exist? Are they going to invade us like the Hollywood ones? Can humans use psychokinesis in their regular lives as Jean Grey does in the X-Men comic books? Is a speed faster than light ever be attainable? Can we travel through time and alter the course of history? Is it at all possible to unveil what’s going on in the other universes (considering the idea they really do exist)? Are robots going to be so intelligent that someday ‘Terminator’ becomes a reality? Are these all going to happen or they are just fancy theories written on paper only, practically being impossible? If possible, then how long we have to wait? Few centuries? Millennium? Or may be Millions of years? Well, the answers my friend, are NOT blowing in the wind! Trillions, may be quadrillions, may be even larger number of phenomena are still left to be explained. With each discovery, more questions are popping up. We’re completely in the darkness about the technology of nature and the night is yet too young! The use of science since the last couple of centuries has taken us to a somewhat considerable point. But how many miles must we walk to meet these (at least some of these) ‘impossibilities’, is a matter of great debate. You have to know precisely where our science course is set to and where we are standing now for making such ‘predictions’. Michio Kaku, the Henry Semat Professor of Theoretical Physics at the City College of New York, tries to answer these questions from a physicist’s point of view and draws a possible outline when should these impossibilities turn into ‘almost’ everyday regularities. Being a human, if the rapid progression of science makes you wonder about what are the technologies individuals of your species are going to enjoy in the far, far future, this book is for you!
The organization of the book is excellent. Kaku divides the book into three parts according to the classes of the impossibilities (Class I, Class II and Class III). These impossibilities are, of course, impossible with respect to our current time frame. The Class I impossibilities (invisibility, teleportation, telepathy, psychokinesis, robots etc.) are the technologies that are not feasible today but they obey the laws of physics. They might be possible in this century, or perhaps the next. Class II impossibilities (faster than light, time travel and parallel universes) are the ones that “sit at the very edge of our understanding of the physical world.” They may be understood on a scale of millennia to millions of years. The final category is the Class III impossibilities (perpetual motion machines and precognition) which violate the laws of physics. “If they turn out to be possible, they would represent a fundamental shift in our understanding of physics”-Kaku’s remark on the Class III ones. Starting from 1960’s Star Trek to modern days’ Eternal Sunshine on The Spotless Mind, the book refers to various TV serials, movies and sci-fi/ fantasy books. Apparently, the movie directors and the storywriters from the old days were far more’ visionary’ than scientists for they pictured the impossible happenings decades earlier while scientists have started taking these into account only in the recent days (human brain’s Imaginative part prevails maybe?!) From pop culture items to pure scientific field, the book declares quite a large realm of itself and these references made the read a very enjoying one. Kaku’s explanations raised some ‘philosophical’ thoughts in my mind as well. For thousands of years people have been dreaming of teleportation, psychokinesis, precognition, telepathy or extraterrestrials. These have been the cores of the fairy tales. If these impossibilities are made possible someday, will it draw a conclusion to the fairy tales? In these days you certainly won’t like to hear a fairy tale about a prince who uses an hp laptop with internet connection, as they are too trivial today! There’s absolutely no fun hearing this story. In the far future, when precognition is achieved, would children want to read the stories about precognition? Who knows?
On a different note, I think this book could be a great influence for aspiring sci-fi writers. A writer with enough imagination can take lots of information and ideas from this book.
Keeping all the nice words aside, let’s point out that the book has some lacking as well! A popular science book without a single diagram is something I find ‘odd’. Any scientific paper, book, dissertation or thesis needs lots and lots of diagrams for making the ideas clear which this book didn’t address. When Kaku talked about quantum mechanics or matter-antimatter annihilation, the lack of figures really made me stumble on the letters. For making the book a little vague for me sometimes, I am ‘penalizing’ Kaku 1 star, and this is the explanation of a 4 star out of 5.
‘Prediction’ is always a tricky business and often improvident too! One prediction goes wrong and people will start hurling stones. Running the risk of ‘being proven wrong’, Michio Kaku did a splendid job. Things that he understands easily being a physicist are not very digestible for regular people and Kaku's attempt to make it digestible is appreciable. Surely Kaku deserves an applaud.
P.S: Before starting each chapter, Kaku mentions one or two quotations by famous people from different walks of life. I couldn’t resist the temptation to pick some of them and re-mention them here in this review! (The last two ones are mentioned as a mean of sarcasm!)
“If at first an idea does not sound absurd, then there is no hope for it”-Albert Einstein .
“If you haven’t found something strange during the day, it hasn’t been much of a day.”- John Wheeler
“Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not. Either thought is frightening” –Arthur C. Clarke
“Radio has no future. Heavier-than- air flying machines are impossible. X-ray will prove to be a hoax”-Physicist Lord Kelvin, 1890
“The (atomic) bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives”- Admiral William Leahy
The organization of the book is excellent. Kaku divides the book into three parts according to the classes of the impossibilities (Class I, Class II and Class III). These impossibilities are, of course, impossible with respect to our current time frame. The Class I impossibilities (invisibility, teleportation, telepathy, psychokinesis, robots etc.) are the technologies that are not feasible today but they obey the laws of physics. They might be possible in this century, or perhaps the next. Class II impossibilities (faster than light, time travel and parallel universes) are the ones that “sit at the very edge of our understanding of the physical world.” They may be understood on a scale of millennia to millions of years. The final category is the Class III impossibilities (perpetual motion machines and precognition) which violate the laws of physics. “If they turn out to be possible, they would represent a fundamental shift in our understanding of physics”-Kaku’s remark on the Class III ones. Starting from 1960’s Star Trek to modern days’ Eternal Sunshine on The Spotless Mind, the book refers to various TV serials, movies and sci-fi/ fantasy books. Apparently, the movie directors and the storywriters from the old days were far more’ visionary’ than scientists for they pictured the impossible happenings decades earlier while scientists have started taking these into account only in the recent days (human brain’s Imaginative part prevails maybe?!) From pop culture items to pure scientific field, the book declares quite a large realm of itself and these references made the read a very enjoying one. Kaku’s explanations raised some ‘philosophical’ thoughts in my mind as well. For thousands of years people have been dreaming of teleportation, psychokinesis, precognition, telepathy or extraterrestrials. These have been the cores of the fairy tales. If these impossibilities are made possible someday, will it draw a conclusion to the fairy tales? In these days you certainly won’t like to hear a fairy tale about a prince who uses an hp laptop with internet connection, as they are too trivial today! There’s absolutely no fun hearing this story. In the far future, when precognition is achieved, would children want to read the stories about precognition? Who knows?
On a different note, I think this book could be a great influence for aspiring sci-fi writers. A writer with enough imagination can take lots of information and ideas from this book.
Keeping all the nice words aside, let’s point out that the book has some lacking as well! A popular science book without a single diagram is something I find ‘odd’. Any scientific paper, book, dissertation or thesis needs lots and lots of diagrams for making the ideas clear which this book didn’t address. When Kaku talked about quantum mechanics or matter-antimatter annihilation, the lack of figures really made me stumble on the letters. For making the book a little vague for me sometimes, I am ‘penalizing’ Kaku 1 star, and this is the explanation of a 4 star out of 5.
‘Prediction’ is always a tricky business and often improvident too! One prediction goes wrong and people will start hurling stones. Running the risk of ‘being proven wrong’, Michio Kaku did a splendid job. Things that he understands easily being a physicist are not very digestible for regular people and Kaku's attempt to make it digestible is appreciable. Surely Kaku deserves an applaud.
P.S: Before starting each chapter, Kaku mentions one or two quotations by famous people from different walks of life. I couldn’t resist the temptation to pick some of them and re-mention them here in this review! (The last two ones are mentioned as a mean of sarcasm!)
“If at first an idea does not sound absurd, then there is no hope for it”-Albert Einstein .
“If you haven’t found something strange during the day, it hasn’t been much of a day.”- John Wheeler
“Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not. Either thought is frightening” –Arthur C. Clarke
“Radio has no future. Heavier-than- air flying machines are impossible. X-ray will prove to be a hoax”-Physicist Lord Kelvin, 1890
“The (atomic) bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives”- Admiral William Leahy
October 22, 2010
Dr. Michio Kaku is perhaps the or one of the most brilliant minds in theoretical physics living today. I've seen him present several concepts and theories on the Discovery Channel.
I am a man who truly appreciates the marvel of theoretical physics. The stuff of Albert Einstein. Although I have some education along these lines and have watched and read quite a lot, I still find it very difficult to follow.
In this book/audio book, Dr. Kaku takes us on a journey into all of those "sci-fi sciences" we've witnessed on Star Trek and the like. He helps the lay person to understand what is or is not "potentially" possible in accordance with the laws and theories of physics that are most accepted today.
It is a real pleasure to take this journey if you are, in the least, a sci-fi reader or a geek who gets excited by science. That's me!
If you're going to attempt reading in this direction I highly recommend this as a good starting place.
John
I am a man who truly appreciates the marvel of theoretical physics. The stuff of Albert Einstein. Although I have some education along these lines and have watched and read quite a lot, I still find it very difficult to follow.
In this book/audio book, Dr. Kaku takes us on a journey into all of those "sci-fi sciences" we've witnessed on Star Trek and the like. He helps the lay person to understand what is or is not "potentially" possible in accordance with the laws and theories of physics that are most accepted today.
It is a real pleasure to take this journey if you are, in the least, a sci-fi reader or a geek who gets excited by science. That's me!
If you're going to attempt reading in this direction I highly recommend this as a good starting place.
John
September 1, 2013
I was never promised a flying car.
What I mean to say is that my generation was never the generation of flying cars. We grew up knowing better. It’s been seventy years since we started breaking open atomic nuclei to harness their incredible capacity for destruction and creation, and we are still sucking fossilized plants from the bowels of the Earth and lighting it on fire as fuel. My parents grew up watching men go to the moon. I grew up watching NASA’s budget bleeding out on the table, their shuttle fleet slowly becoming more obsolete and decrepit until it was only a matter of time that Challenger repeated itself. The euphoric spirit of technological progress that had so long balanced its darker fear of nuclear apocalypse waned, its promises seemingly hollow.
Of course, that’s not to say that my generation hasn’t been promised things, or that we haven’t been promised good things. Global warming and economic recession aside, we’re being told that computers are going to continue to shrink and become more mobile. Wearable computing is just around the corner (hello, Google Glass). My car might not fly, but it will probably drive itself. And, if Kurzweill and his buddies are right (they probably aren’t), we will either be immortal or computer uploads by the middle of the century, so hey, how bad can it get?
I say this all just to underscore the constant tension between what we have now and what we might have, what we envision as our future for science and technology. This is an entire academic field, one that is as important as it is dangerous in the sense that nothing it says can really be trusted, but we ignore what it says at our own peril. Futurists are increasingly valuable, because it seems like Gibson is right about the future already being here, just not evenly distributed—but they are human, like the rest of us, and fallible, prone to overexcitement and unable, sometimes, to step back from something in which they’ve invested so much time and energy.
I wouldn’t necessarily call Michio Kaku a futurist, but sometimes he plays one in books. Physics of the Impossible is his stab at categorizing certain things that are impossible now but might not remain that way forever. For example, the type of teleportation you see on Star Trek won’t be putting airlines out of business any time soon—but does teleportation really go "against" the laws of physics, or is our technology and understanding of physics just not there yet? In this way, Kaku distinguishes between things that we might be able to do in the next century or so, things we might be able to do in the next few millennia when we grow up, and things that we won’t ever be able to do unless our understanding of physics drastically alters. These Class I, II, and III impossibilities form the backbone for the structure of a book that is a mixture of physics lecture, geeky enthusiasm for cutting-edge tech, and optimism for the boundless ingenuity of the human species.
Kaku’s classification approach is a very useful one. We bandy about the word “impossible” quite often. The lay public, the scientifically-literate public, and the scientist public all seem to have different ideas about what it might mean, much like the confusion over the “theory” of evolution or “law” of gravity. Is anything really impossible? (The answer is yes, things that are logically impossible, but that is a much smaller domain than what we generally refer to when listing impossibilities.) Kaku has taken the time to give “impossible” a more well-formed definition that we can actual use. In this way, even if one’s understanding of physics is quite limited, one gets a better sense of the relative difficulty of creating or harnessing some of these phenomena.
The book contains ten Class I impossibilities, three Class II, and two Class III. The first category includes such things as teleportation, telepathy, and psychokinesis. From this, it’s clear that Kaku is either using a very loose definition of “within a century” or is incredibly optimistic about our how much progress we’ll make in the next century. Think “best case scenario”. In some cases, such as with telepathy and psychokinesis, Kaku doesn’t so much explain possible physics approaches as point to existing technology (brain-computer interfaces) and upcoming research (brain-mapping projects) and enthuse about how much we’ll probably learn in the next few decades. Hmm. In other cases, such as with force fields and invisibility, he seems to present the challenges of replicating what we see in Star Trek and other science fiction much more realistically. While this might not be as reassuring, I definitely find it more interesting.
I learned lots of interesting tidbits about physics from this book. I love reading books about physics, although lately the more I read, the less I feel I understand. Quantum physics is just so weird—and yes, I know that if this is the way the universe actually works, then technically that makes quantum physics the ultimate standard of normality. However, it’s still weird, OK? And the more you learn, the weirder it gets, until you’re so far down the rabbithole it doesn’t matter how many blue pills you take; you’re not going home, Alice.
Physics of the Impossible is a little more “pop sci” than many of the other physics books I’ve been reading lately, such as The Universe Within . There is only one equation in this book, and it’s one you’ve all seen: E = mc². Kaku doesn’t go into too many concepts in depth—he tosses out certain facts that I was able to accept, because I’ve been exposed to these ideas in other books, but they might cause another person to doubletake. I think it’s asking a little much to expect him to give in-depth treatises on all the concepts he touches upon, though. There’s just so many. It’s one of those situations where, if something intrigues you or confuses you, you should seek out a book specifically about that subject. Since this book is lighter on a lot of the explanation, I suspect that many more people will find it accessible.
My favourite fact is one I have not, as far as I remember, seen mentioned before: antimatter is actually just ordinary matter travelling back in time. How cool is that? And as a corollary, it’s possible that our entire universe is just a single electron travelling back and forth through time infinitely many times.
And you know what, I get so frustrated with technology sometimes. Some days I feel like I’m living in the future. Other days I wonder why everyone else seems so happy with their mobile devices while mine chug along at a sluggish pace. But maybe it doesn’t matter if I never get a flying car, or self-driving car for that matter. Sometimes, it’s reward enough just to learn the true depths of the weird and wondrous place that is our universe. Kaku definitely captures that here, and he does it in a way that is both edifying and gratifying.
What I mean to say is that my generation was never the generation of flying cars. We grew up knowing better. It’s been seventy years since we started breaking open atomic nuclei to harness their incredible capacity for destruction and creation, and we are still sucking fossilized plants from the bowels of the Earth and lighting it on fire as fuel. My parents grew up watching men go to the moon. I grew up watching NASA’s budget bleeding out on the table, their shuttle fleet slowly becoming more obsolete and decrepit until it was only a matter of time that Challenger repeated itself. The euphoric spirit of technological progress that had so long balanced its darker fear of nuclear apocalypse waned, its promises seemingly hollow.
Of course, that’s not to say that my generation hasn’t been promised things, or that we haven’t been promised good things. Global warming and economic recession aside, we’re being told that computers are going to continue to shrink and become more mobile. Wearable computing is just around the corner (hello, Google Glass). My car might not fly, but it will probably drive itself. And, if Kurzweill and his buddies are right (they probably aren’t), we will either be immortal or computer uploads by the middle of the century, so hey, how bad can it get?
I say this all just to underscore the constant tension between what we have now and what we might have, what we envision as our future for science and technology. This is an entire academic field, one that is as important as it is dangerous in the sense that nothing it says can really be trusted, but we ignore what it says at our own peril. Futurists are increasingly valuable, because it seems like Gibson is right about the future already being here, just not evenly distributed—but they are human, like the rest of us, and fallible, prone to overexcitement and unable, sometimes, to step back from something in which they’ve invested so much time and energy.
I wouldn’t necessarily call Michio Kaku a futurist, but sometimes he plays one in books. Physics of the Impossible is his stab at categorizing certain things that are impossible now but might not remain that way forever. For example, the type of teleportation you see on Star Trek won’t be putting airlines out of business any time soon—but does teleportation really go "against" the laws of physics, or is our technology and understanding of physics just not there yet? In this way, Kaku distinguishes between things that we might be able to do in the next century or so, things we might be able to do in the next few millennia when we grow up, and things that we won’t ever be able to do unless our understanding of physics drastically alters. These Class I, II, and III impossibilities form the backbone for the structure of a book that is a mixture of physics lecture, geeky enthusiasm for cutting-edge tech, and optimism for the boundless ingenuity of the human species.
Kaku’s classification approach is a very useful one. We bandy about the word “impossible” quite often. The lay public, the scientifically-literate public, and the scientist public all seem to have different ideas about what it might mean, much like the confusion over the “theory” of evolution or “law” of gravity. Is anything really impossible? (The answer is yes, things that are logically impossible, but that is a much smaller domain than what we generally refer to when listing impossibilities.) Kaku has taken the time to give “impossible” a more well-formed definition that we can actual use. In this way, even if one’s understanding of physics is quite limited, one gets a better sense of the relative difficulty of creating or harnessing some of these phenomena.
The book contains ten Class I impossibilities, three Class II, and two Class III. The first category includes such things as teleportation, telepathy, and psychokinesis. From this, it’s clear that Kaku is either using a very loose definition of “within a century” or is incredibly optimistic about our how much progress we’ll make in the next century. Think “best case scenario”. In some cases, such as with telepathy and psychokinesis, Kaku doesn’t so much explain possible physics approaches as point to existing technology (brain-computer interfaces) and upcoming research (brain-mapping projects) and enthuse about how much we’ll probably learn in the next few decades. Hmm. In other cases, such as with force fields and invisibility, he seems to present the challenges of replicating what we see in Star Trek and other science fiction much more realistically. While this might not be as reassuring, I definitely find it more interesting.
I learned lots of interesting tidbits about physics from this book. I love reading books about physics, although lately the more I read, the less I feel I understand. Quantum physics is just so weird—and yes, I know that if this is the way the universe actually works, then technically that makes quantum physics the ultimate standard of normality. However, it’s still weird, OK? And the more you learn, the weirder it gets, until you’re so far down the rabbithole it doesn’t matter how many blue pills you take; you’re not going home, Alice.
Physics of the Impossible is a little more “pop sci” than many of the other physics books I’ve been reading lately, such as The Universe Within . There is only one equation in this book, and it’s one you’ve all seen: E = mc². Kaku doesn’t go into too many concepts in depth—he tosses out certain facts that I was able to accept, because I’ve been exposed to these ideas in other books, but they might cause another person to doubletake. I think it’s asking a little much to expect him to give in-depth treatises on all the concepts he touches upon, though. There’s just so many. It’s one of those situations where, if something intrigues you or confuses you, you should seek out a book specifically about that subject. Since this book is lighter on a lot of the explanation, I suspect that many more people will find it accessible.
My favourite fact is one I have not, as far as I remember, seen mentioned before: antimatter is actually just ordinary matter travelling back in time. How cool is that? And as a corollary, it’s possible that our entire universe is just a single electron travelling back and forth through time infinitely many times.
And you know what, I get so frustrated with technology sometimes. Some days I feel like I’m living in the future. Other days I wonder why everyone else seems so happy with their mobile devices while mine chug along at a sluggish pace. But maybe it doesn’t matter if I never get a flying car, or self-driving car for that matter. Sometimes, it’s reward enough just to learn the true depths of the weird and wondrous place that is our universe. Kaku definitely captures that here, and he does it in a way that is both edifying and gratifying.
March 1, 2018
Description: A fascinating exploration of the science of the impossible—from death rays and force fields to invisibility cloaks—revealing to what extent such technologies might be achievable decades or millennia into the future.
One hundred years ago, scientists would have said that lasers, televisions, and the atomic bomb were beyond the realm of physical possibility. In Physics of the Impossible, the renowned physicist Michio Kaku explores to what extent the technologies and devices of science fiction that are deemed equally impossible today might well become commonplace in the future.
From teleportation to telekinesis, Kaku uses the world of science fiction to explore the fundamentals—and the limits—of the laws of physics as we know them today. He ranks the impossible technologies by categories—Class I, II, and III, depending on when they might be achieved, within the next century, millennia, or perhaps never. In a compelling and thought-provoking narrative, he explains:
· How the science of optics and electromagnetism may one day enable us to bend light around an object, like a stream flowing around a boulder, making the object invisible to observers “downstream”
· How ramjet rockets, laser sails, antimatter engines, and nanorockets may one day take us to the nearby stars
· How telepathy and psychokinesis, once considered pseudoscience, may one day be possible using advances in MRI, computers, superconductivity, and nanotechnology
· Why a time machine is apparently consistent with the known laws of quantum physics, although it would take an unbelievably advanced civilization to actually build one
Kaku uses his discussion of each technology as a jumping-off point to explain the science behind it. An extraordinary scientific adventure, Physics of the Impossible takes readers on an unforgettable, mesmerizing journey into the world of science that both enlightens and entertains.
TR Parallel Worlds
CR Physics of the Impossible
January 1, 2021
This books shows a wonderful science writer at work. I don't take Michio Kaku for granted any longer having recently tried to read another science book, written by a less skilled writer, and found it to be slow progress.
This book is a joy. It explains all the scientific details clearly and simply, outlining why some of the impossibilites are more impossible than others. The writer refers back to leading figures of the past such as Newton, Maxwell, and Faraday as well as 20th-Century scientists such as Einstein, Bohr, Dirac, and Heisenberg. This book is entertaining and fascinating in equal measure. Who knew electrons could be so much fun and quite so weird, and that anti-electrons are travelling backwards in time? Things can travel faster than the speed of light (you won't be surprised to learn electrons are involved again) but no information is passed when this event takes place.
This book is recommended for all.
This book is a joy. It explains all the scientific details clearly and simply, outlining why some of the impossibilites are more impossible than others. The writer refers back to leading figures of the past such as Newton, Maxwell, and Faraday as well as 20th-Century scientists such as Einstein, Bohr, Dirac, and Heisenberg. This book is entertaining and fascinating in equal measure. Who knew electrons could be so much fun and quite so weird, and that anti-electrons are travelling backwards in time? Things can travel faster than the speed of light (you won't be surprised to learn electrons are involved again) but no information is passed when this event takes place.
This book is recommended for all.
April 23, 2008
Great introduction to current issues in Physics - without the pain of complex equations. Also, fun as the author esplores the plausibility of the physics in the Star Trek, Star Wars, and Time travel movies and books.
July 2, 2020
Best thing about this book is that it covers EVERYTHING that comes to our mind while we are speculating about the future, but not in a dystopic manner.
Worst thing about this book is that it's FULL of Physics!
Now, don't get me wrong. The title fairly screams at us. And I was joking.
This is truly an amazing book. I have been one of the hardened admirers of Kaku ever since reading his absolutely awesome book 'Hyperspace'. This book only enhanced his reputation, as far as I'm concerned.
In the inimitable 'Preface' Kaku segregates the 'futuristic' physics into three different classes of impossibilities.
Class I impossibilities include several things that have been popularised through books and films. They include Force Fields (Star Trek), Phasers and Death Stars (Star Trek), Robots, UFO-s, Antimatter etc. Kaku describes the physical concepts behind these impossibilities, mercifully avoiding the mathematics involved. He states that these are definitely possible according to the laws of physics known to us, and might be achieved in this or the next century.
Class II impossibilities include Time Machine, Hyperspatial travel etc. These, according to the author, may become possible several millennia in the future.
Class III impossibilities include technologies that violate the laws of Physics, like Perpetual Motion Machine or Precognition— which may never be possible.
After reading this book I'm fairly convinced that Kaku is THE author to read before we either procrastinate or get euphoric whenever something new gets splashed across the screen. We may not understand a single thing about String Theory as the Theory of Everything, but he actually knows his stuff.
Highly recommended.
Worst thing about this book is that it's FULL of Physics!
Now, don't get me wrong. The title fairly screams at us. And I was joking.
This is truly an amazing book. I have been one of the hardened admirers of Kaku ever since reading his absolutely awesome book 'Hyperspace'. This book only enhanced his reputation, as far as I'm concerned.
In the inimitable 'Preface' Kaku segregates the 'futuristic' physics into three different classes of impossibilities.
Class I impossibilities include several things that have been popularised through books and films. They include Force Fields (Star Trek), Phasers and Death Stars (Star Trek), Robots, UFO-s, Antimatter etc. Kaku describes the physical concepts behind these impossibilities, mercifully avoiding the mathematics involved. He states that these are definitely possible according to the laws of physics known to us, and might be achieved in this or the next century.
Class II impossibilities include Time Machine, Hyperspatial travel etc. These, according to the author, may become possible several millennia in the future.
Class III impossibilities include technologies that violate the laws of Physics, like Perpetual Motion Machine or Precognition— which may never be possible.
After reading this book I'm fairly convinced that Kaku is THE author to read before we either procrastinate or get euphoric whenever something new gets splashed across the screen. We may not understand a single thing about String Theory as the Theory of Everything, but he actually knows his stuff.
Highly recommended.
October 11, 2024
أكثر أمر مثير للسخرية حدث معي هذا الشهر هو معرفتي بأن عالما قديرا ، كاللورد كلفن ، كان على يقين ذات يوم في القرن التاسع عشر، ان لا مستقبل للمذياع، وان الاشعة السينية خدعة ، وان بناء طائرة مستحيل علميا !وان اللورد رذرفورد استحال بناء قنبلة ذرية!
ضحكت حين علمت بذلك
التقدم التكنولوجي المتسارع مدهش حقا.
حدود الممكن والمستحيل تتغير باستمرار.
يختار كاكو عددا من المستحيلات ،خمسة عشر مستحيلا بالتحديد، منها ما هو مثير للاهتمام الى حد بعيد جدا-جدا جدا -، كالاكوان الموازية والسفر عبر الزمن ، ومنها الأقل اثارة كنجوم الموت . ثم يناقش كلا منها بتفصيل مناسب، لم هي مستحيلة؟ أو أهي مستحيلة؟! من هو أول من فكر بها؟ ما احتمالية تحقيقها مستقبلا؟
هل يمكنك الحصول على سيف ليزري؟
هل الأطباق الطائرة حقيقة ؟
هل يمكننا السفر الى المستقبل؟
هل نحن قريبون من العصر الذي تحكمنا فيه الروبوتات؟
هل قراءة الأفكار ممكنة؟
كيف نستفيد من المادة المضادة؟
هل صنع آلة دائمة الحركة مستحيل؟
أحببت الكتاب كثيرا ، أحببت أيضا تصنيف الحضارات من حيث استخدام الطاقة ، ولابد ان اغرب فصل هو فصل الروبوتات الذي لم أجده كما كنت أتوقع أبدا.
أسلوب الكاتب ممتع ومشوق للغاية ،يخاطب غير المتخصص، ويورد الكثير من القصص، والكثير من مشاهد من أفلام وكتب الخيال العملي، الترجمة ممتازة ، لم يترك لي الا ان اندمج في القراءة ولا أشعر بمرور الوقت .
اذا كان المستحيل هو الذي لا يتلاءم مع قوانين العلم وإمكانات التكنلوجيا ،وكلاهما في تطور دائم وسريع ومطرد؛ سنكتشف تطبيقات مبتكرة للقوانين الفيزيائية، سيمكننا ايجاد تفسير علمي للظواهر التي عجزنا في تفسيرها الى الان . ولا يخفى ان سرعة تطور التكنولوجيا باتت سابقة لنا، فإذا كان كل ذلك ،فالأفضل إذن ان لا نتسرع في أحكامنا ، وان نكون أكثر حذرا في الحديث عن المستقبل
فربما نكون مدعاة لضحك شخص ما بعد مئتي سنة ...
ضحكت حين علمت بذلك
التقدم التكنولوجي المتسارع مدهش حقا.
حدود الممكن والمستحيل تتغير باستمرار.
يختار كاكو عددا من المستحيلات ،خمسة عشر مستحيلا بالتحديد، منها ما هو مثير للاهتمام الى حد بعيد جدا-جدا جدا -، كالاكوان الموازية والسفر عبر الزمن ، ومنها الأقل اثارة كنجوم الموت . ثم يناقش كلا منها بتفصيل مناسب، لم هي مستحيلة؟ أو أهي مستحيلة؟! من هو أول من فكر بها؟ ما احتمالية تحقيقها مستقبلا؟
هل يمكنك الحصول على سيف ليزري؟
هل الأطباق الطائرة حقيقة ؟
هل يمكننا السفر الى المستقبل؟
هل نحن قريبون من العصر الذي تحكمنا فيه الروبوتات؟
هل قراءة الأفكار ممكنة؟
كيف نستفيد من المادة المضادة؟
هل صنع آلة دائمة الحركة مستحيل؟
أحببت الكتاب كثيرا ، أحببت أيضا تصنيف الحضارات من حيث استخدام الطاقة ، ولابد ان اغرب فصل هو فصل الروبوتات الذي لم أجده كما كنت أتوقع أبدا.
إن الخطر الرئيس الذي يواجه النمل ليس في ان البشر يريدون اجتياحه أو مسحه من على وجه الأرض. إنه ببساطة هو أننا سنزيحه لأنه موجود في طريقنا. تذكر ان المسافة بين حضارة من النوع الثالث وحضارتنا من النوع صفر بمقياس استخدام الطاقة أوسع بكثير من المسافة بيننا وبين النمل
أسلوب الكاتب ممتع ومشوق للغاية ،يخاطب غير المتخصص، ويورد الكثير من القصص، والكثير من مشاهد من أفلام وكتب الخيال العملي، الترجمة ممتازة ، لم يترك لي الا ان اندمج في القراءة ولا أشعر بمرور الوقت .
اذا كان المستحيل هو الذي لا يتلاءم مع قوانين العلم وإمكانات التكنلوجيا ،وكلاهما في تطور دائم وسريع ومطرد؛ سنكتشف تطبيقات مبتكرة للقوانين الفيزيائية، سيمكننا ايجاد تفسير علمي للظواهر التي عجزنا في تفسيرها الى الان . ولا يخفى ان سرعة تطور التكنولوجيا باتت سابقة لنا، فإذا كان كل ذلك ،فالأفضل إذن ان لا نتسرع في أحكامنا ، وان نكون أكثر حذرا في الحديث عن المستقبل
فربما نكون مدعاة لضحك شخص ما بعد مئتي سنة ...
February 22, 2019
If school textbooks were written by Michio Kaku, half of the kids would grow up to be engineers.
January 4, 2023
Libro de divulgación que pretenden analizar científicamente la posibilidad de hacer las cosas que vemos continuamente en las historias de ciencia ficción, viajas interestelares, viajes en el tiempo, telepatía, telequinesia, teletransporte....
La parte entretenida del libro son los ejemplos basados en series, películas y libros, el recordarnos como muchas de esas quimeras ya llevan siglos siendo una preocupación de los físicos y las explicaciones que dicen que la mayoría de esas cosas no violan las leyes fundamentales de la física.....el caso es que todas ellas son teóricamente posibles aunque quizás no falten siglos o incluso milenios para poder acercarse a ellas.
Lenguaje ameno y cercano, pero algunos capítulos dedicados a la antimateria, los antiuniversos o los saltos hiperespaciales se hacen algo pesados.
La parte entretenida del libro son los ejemplos basados en series, películas y libros, el recordarnos como muchas de esas quimeras ya llevan siglos siendo una preocupación de los físicos y las explicaciones que dicen que la mayoría de esas cosas no violan las leyes fundamentales de la física.....el caso es que todas ellas son teóricamente posibles aunque quizás no falten siglos o incluso milenios para poder acercarse a ellas.
Lenguaje ameno y cercano, pero algunos capítulos dedicados a la antimateria, los antiuniversos o los saltos hiperespaciales se hacen algo pesados.
September 27, 2015
سنة ونصف أقرأ في هذا الكتاب
أدركت فيها جهلي المدقع بالفيزياء وبالحياة
والسنين الضوئية التي يسبقنا بها الغرب في نوعية أبحاثهم وأفكارهم
الكتاب صعب جدا محتاج معرفة جيدة بالفيزياء
كنت أظن أني لم أفهم شيئا من الكتاب
لكن بدا اول تطبيق عملي مع فيلم interstellar ساعدني كتاب ميشيو كاكاو هذا في فهم الفيلم
وأظن ان الفكرة مأخوذة من أحد فصوله
وهذا ليس جديدا على العالم الموهوب ميشيو كاكاو الحاصل على جائزة نوبل في الفيزياء عن نظريته في الأوتار الفائقة
فتم من قبل أخذ فكرة مسلسل The Sliders عن الأكوان المتعددة من كتابه Hyperspace
لا ينصح به للمبتدأين
في منتهى السعادة اني أنهيته اليوم
يجب أن أقرأ كثيرا في الفيزياء بعد اليوم
أدركت فيها جهلي المدقع بالفيزياء وبالحياة
والسنين الضوئية التي يسبقنا بها الغرب في نوعية أبحاثهم وأفكارهم
الكتاب صعب جدا محتاج معرفة جيدة بالفيزياء
كنت أظن أني لم أفهم شيئا من الكتاب
لكن بدا اول تطبيق عملي مع فيلم interstellar ساعدني كتاب ميشيو كاكاو هذا في فهم الفيلم
وأظن ان الفكرة مأخوذة من أحد فصوله
وهذا ليس جديدا على العالم الموهوب ميشيو كاكاو الحاصل على جائزة نوبل في الفيزياء عن نظريته في الأوتار الفائقة
فتم من قبل أخذ فكرة مسلسل The Sliders عن الأكوان المتعددة من كتابه Hyperspace
لا ينصح به للمبتدأين
في منتهى السعادة اني أنهيته اليوم
يجب أن أقرأ كثيرا في الفيزياء بعد اليوم
October 18, 2023
"Física de lo imposible" de Michio Kaku, ensayo de divulgación que, con amenidad y un lenguaje asequible, se asoma a cuestiones del imaginario colectivo, propio de la ciencia ficción, como: autos voladores, invisibilidad, teletransporte, telepatía, espadas láser, campos de fuerza, etc., e intenta explicar como los nuevos avances de la física, aplicados en nuevas tecnologías, pueden hacer viables soluciones a estas interrogantes.
March 23, 2018
"لكن مهما اكتشفنا ستكون هناك دائما آفاق جديدة للإستمرار. "
بهذه الجملة يختم ميشيو كاكو حديثه الشيق عن "المستحيلات" التي سبق و قسمها إلى ثلاثة أصناف:
مستحيلات من الصنف الأول: و هي التقانات المستحيلة اليوم و التي لا تخالف قوانين الفيزياء المعروفة
مستحيلات من الصنف الثاني: تقانات تقع على حافة المفاهيم الفيزيائية المعروفة
مستحيلات من الصنف الثالث: و هي التقانات التي تناقض قوانين
الفيزياء في شكلها الحالي على الأقل.
و على حسب هذه التصنيفات جاءت أبواب الكتاب حيث عني الباب الأول بتقانات من قبيل حقول القوة، الحجب عن الرؤية، المدافع الشعاعية، النقل الفوري البعيد، التخاطر من بعد، الحركة بتأثير الدماغ، الروبوتات، الكائنات الفضائية و الأجسام الغامضة، السفن النجمية و أخيرا مضاد المادة و مضاد الأكوان.
فيما جاء في الباب الثاني مناقشة لحركة بسرعة أسرع من الضوء، السفر عبر الزمن و الأكون الموازية. بينما اقتصر الباب الثالث على الآلة الدائمة الحركة و الإستبصار
لوهلة أولى سيبدو للقارئ أنه أمام كتاب يتناول الخيال العلمي و إن كان ذلك غير خاطئ تماما إلا أن الكتاب علمي بالأساس و كتب بلغة سهلة تجعله متاحا لشريحة واسعة من القراء. تناوُل كاكو لأكثر نظريات الفيزياء جموحا جاء على عادته بطريقة مبسطة تثير الإعجاب بحق (في نظري ليس ذلك سوى دليل آخر على وهن من يغطون عدم قدرتهم على شرح بإدعائهم عدم قدرتهم على "الهبوط" لمستوى المتلقي)
كما أن تعريجه على أغلب النظريات الفيزيائية (ميكانيكا نيوتون، ميكانيكا الكم، النظرية النسبية، نظرية الأوتار، الثيرموديناميكا إلخ…) من خلال تقديم شروحات مفهومية لها، حيثيات التوصل لها و بعض ما رافق ذلك من غرائب يجعل من هذا العمل أكثر متعة، أكثر فائدة و أكثر إثارة
فشكرا للمجلس الوطني للثقافة و الفنون و الأدب بالكويت على توفير هكذا كتاب بمحتواه العلمي الدسم للقارئ العربي بسعر زهيد و شكرا للدكتور سعد الدين خلفان على ترجمته الأنيقة
تمت
22/03/2018
00:24
July 16, 2008
While I really liked this book, a lot, it felt incomplete to me in that much of the math and science behind these concepts is not very in depth. Sure, it's not a text book, but I would have liked to have seen equations or at least references to something that could explain the math.
Also, while there is a TARDIS on the cover, there is no TARDIS, and no mention of Doctor Who at all in the book. I felt slightly cheated, but not enough to not give it a five star rating.
Oh, and the other quibble. Vulcan was a Roman God, Hephaestus was the Greek God. Bad editor. Bad.
Also, while there is a TARDIS on the cover, there is no TARDIS, and no mention of Doctor Who at all in the book. I felt slightly cheated, but not enough to not give it a five star rating.
Oh, and the other quibble. Vulcan was a Roman God, Hephaestus was the Greek God. Bad editor. Bad.
January 24, 2010
Notice that I filed this one under fiction. Kaku is a HACK. This whole book is an exercise in misunderstanding the word "impossible". There is no scientific value to this book. It is a fanciful weave of outright scientific untruth, confusing metaphors, and semantic diarrhea. DO NOT READ THIS BOOK!
January 31, 2016
Čovjek se potrudio, nije da nije, ali mi se zavrtjelo u glavi od džepnih univerzuma, antielektrona i stringova...
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April 28, 2019Събрали се Наука и Фантастика на една маса и после Наука седнала да запише за какво си говорили.
Много ми хареса, но честите неточности и грапавини в превода, допуснати на елементарно ниво в разговорния регистър, ми докараха съмнения доколко легитимно са предадени на български всичките научни понятия, заради които хванах да чета тази книга. Честно казано, звучаха ми съвсем окей, имаше логика, имаше адекватност, имаше последователност, за което много респект към преводача, но аз съм много гол в тази тема, така че ми остава само да се надявам, че наистина съм се нахранил с правилните термини. Разбира се, не е никак редно една книга, особено научна, да ме оставя с надежда, а не със сигурност.
Само един пример, един от десетина подобни: "Това едва ли е материал от научната фантастика" – не разполагам с оригинала, но под това изречение прозира английското "This is hardly sci-fi material", което означава "От това трудно би станало научна фантастика", какъвто е и контекстът на фразата.
Много ми хареса, но честите неточности и грапавини в превода, допуснати на елементарно ниво в разговорния регистър, ми докараха съмнения доколко легитимно са предадени на български всичките научни понятия, заради които хванах да чета тази книга. Честно казано, звучаха ми съвсем окей, имаше логика, имаше адекватност, имаше последователност, за което много респект към преводача, но аз съм много гол в тази тема, така че ми остава само да се надявам, че наистина съм се нахранил с правилните термини. Разбира се, не е никак редно една книга, особено научна, да ме оставя с надежда, а не със сигурност.
Само един пример, един от десетина подобни: "Това едва ли е материал от научната фантастика" – не разполагам с оригинала, но под това изречение прозира английското "This is hardly sci-fi material", което означава "От това трудно би станало научна фантастика", какъвто е и контекстът на фразата.
January 9, 2019
After a five-star impression that the Author had left me with his "Parallel Worlds", I couldn't give this book more than a four. I liked it very much, but I didn't feel that interested in all those ray guns, death stars and light sabres. The second and the third part of the book were more like "Parallel Worlds", exploring the very edge of theoretical physics and its impact on our understanding of the reality - and these parts I liked much better. I can't say I've understood everything, but even the phantom of the picture is bewildering.
May 27, 2017
There's no denying in the scientific researches. Kaku encouraged for free thinking, "thinking out of the box!"
I believe teleportation is the most interesting matter in this book. Hence it doesn't matter what's your beliefs bit you need to bear in mind that everything is possible if not at the current time it going to be happening in the future. Whether you like it or not. Thank you Kaku
I believe teleportation is the most interesting matter in this book. Hence it doesn't matter what's your beliefs bit you need to bear in mind that everything is possible if not at the current time it going to be happening in the future. Whether you like it or not. Thank you Kaku
October 3, 2022
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This was a mind bending fascinating read!
The book is well structured into 3 classes of impossibilities.
Class 1:
The kind of possibilities that does not breaks any physical laws, but seems difficult to achieve in near future.
Examples: Invisibility, Teleportation, Telepathy, Death Stars, Antimatter and Antiuniverse - all of them possible as they adhere to the scientific laws that we know of today.
Class 2:
Deals with the stuff that is speculative - as in beyond our current realm of understanding. For instance - why the Newton's gravitational laws are not applicable at atomic level?
This was the part which caused dizziness at times - Higher Dimensions and Quantum!
Took considerable time as each paragraph is loaded with chunks of good information. Also the part that I enjoyed the most.
It has only 3 chapters, namely - Faster than Light; Time Travel; Parallel Universes.
Brilliant ideas and theories proposed, which is going to take us some centuries to either accept or refute!
Class3:
The kind of impossibilities that disobey the fundamental physical laws that we know of till now. If any of these become true, it's going to dent our elementary laws of Science.
This section was easily graspable and a fast read - Perpetual Motion Machines; Precognition.
Follow up reading:
The String Theory
The Theory of Everything
Big Bang
Highly recommended for physics enthusiasts.
This was a mind bending fascinating read!
The book is well structured into 3 classes of impossibilities.
Class 1:
The kind of possibilities that does not breaks any physical laws, but seems difficult to achieve in near future.
Examples: Invisibility, Teleportation, Telepathy, Death Stars, Antimatter and Antiuniverse - all of them possible as they adhere to the scientific laws that we know of today.
Class 2:
Deals with the stuff that is speculative - as in beyond our current realm of understanding. For instance - why the Newton's gravitational laws are not applicable at atomic level?
This was the part which caused dizziness at times - Higher Dimensions and Quantum!
Took considerable time as each paragraph is loaded with chunks of good information. Also the part that I enjoyed the most.
It has only 3 chapters, namely - Faster than Light; Time Travel; Parallel Universes.
Brilliant ideas and theories proposed, which is going to take us some centuries to either accept or refute!
Class3:
The kind of impossibilities that disobey the fundamental physical laws that we know of till now. If any of these become true, it's going to dent our elementary laws of Science.
This section was easily graspable and a fast read - Perpetual Motion Machines; Precognition.
Follow up reading:
The String Theory
The Theory of Everything
Big Bang
Highly recommended for physics enthusiasts.
April 5, 2014
When the author appeared at a convention I attended last year I was surprised not to have heard of him as he was listed as a NY Times best seller. I was impressed enough with his talk to order a couple of his books, this one among them.
He divides phenomena into 3 levels of the impossible. Class I impossibilities are those that are "impossible today but that do not violate the known laws of physics." Examples would include teleportation, antimatter engines and "certain forms of telepathy, psychokinesis and invisibility."
Class II phenomena include those that "sit at the very edge of our understanding of the physical world" and include time machines, travel through wormholes and hyperspace travel.
The final category, III, includes "technologies that violate the known laws of physics" and include precognition and perpetual motion machines.
I thoroughly enjoyed the references to Star Wars movies, Star Trek episodes and various pieces of well known science fiction literature.
If you are the type who enjoys mind benders like "... the true secret of anti-matter: it's just ordinary matter going backward in time" and who can get excited about the LISA program scheduled for next year which "consists of 3 satellites circling the sun, arranged in a triangle, each connected by laser beams 3 million miles long ...orbiting the sun about 30 million miles from earth ... able to detect vibrations to within one part in a billion trillion, about 1/100th the size of an atom" in search of gravity waves, then this is probably a book you will enjoy. And nary a math equation anywhere! I had a good time with it.
He divides phenomena into 3 levels of the impossible. Class I impossibilities are those that are "impossible today but that do not violate the known laws of physics." Examples would include teleportation, antimatter engines and "certain forms of telepathy, psychokinesis and invisibility."
Class II phenomena include those that "sit at the very edge of our understanding of the physical world" and include time machines, travel through wormholes and hyperspace travel.
The final category, III, includes "technologies that violate the known laws of physics" and include precognition and perpetual motion machines.
I thoroughly enjoyed the references to Star Wars movies, Star Trek episodes and various pieces of well known science fiction literature.
If you are the type who enjoys mind benders like "... the true secret of anti-matter: it's just ordinary matter going backward in time" and who can get excited about the LISA program scheduled for next year which "consists of 3 satellites circling the sun, arranged in a triangle, each connected by laser beams 3 million miles long ...orbiting the sun about 30 million miles from earth ... able to detect vibrations to within one part in a billion trillion, about 1/100th the size of an atom" in search of gravity waves, then this is probably a book you will enjoy. And nary a math equation anywhere! I had a good time with it.
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