Quantum Mechanics (not to mention Strings and Multi-universes psychedelia) appears too crazy for me, and will always be as I guess I do not have enough notions plus it does not seem to fit into my brain’ settings. That is probably why I find it fascinating. According to one of the quantum theories, It’s all – we are all – about irregularities of a field!!!

I just finished reading (and partially understanding) the book “A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes” by Stephen Hawking. Every night I couldn’t wait to read some pages more before falling asleep and continuing travelling the Universe in my mind. How understanding the origin of the Universe could lead to the formulation an Unified Theory (and vice-versa) and the Anthropic Principle are takeaways I am looking forward to further exploring.

“The Anthropic Principle says that the universe has to be more or less as we see it, because if it were different there wouldn’t be anyone here to observe it. … As an example of the power of the Anthropic Principle, consider the number of directions in space. It is a matter of common experience that we live in three-dimensional space. That is to say, we can represent the position of a point in space by three numbers. For example, latitude, longitude and height above sea level. But why is space three-dimensional? Why isn’t it two, or four, or some other number of dimensions, like in science fiction? In fact, in M-theory space has ten dimensions (as well as the theory having one dimension of time), but it is thought that seven of the ten spatial directions are curled up very small, leaving three directions that are large and nearly flat. It is like a drinking straw. The surface of a straw is two-dimensional. However, one direction is curled up into a small circle, so that from a distance the straw looks like a one-dimensional line. Why don’t we live in a history in which eight of the dimensions are curled up small, leaving only two dimensions that we notice? A two-dimensional animal would have a hard job digesting food. If it had a gut that went right through, like we have, it would divide the animal in two, and the poor creature would fall apart. So two flat directions are not enough for anything as complicated as intelligent life. … Read more

Disappointed by Astronomical, the latest book I read by Tim James: overall a collection of measures and numbers, disconnected facts and diluted theories, with no story nor crescendo and with a forced humor. But I kind of liked the final quote :
“Everyone wonders sometimes if the human race is worth preserving and everyone has moments where they look at the size of the Universe and feel insignificant by comparison. Space science can potentially be depressing because it reminds us of our smallness. My answer is this: imagine if the Universe really were simple. Imagine how boring the story of science would be if Earth genuinely were flat, or if there was nothing outside our solar system. Imagine if, after spending a few years looking around with telescopes, we knew everything there was to know. No more mystery. No more exploration. No more discovery. How awesome it is that instead we find ourselves in a universe as huge and varied as this one. How fortunate we are to be surrounded with so many mysteries in desperate need of solving and how lucky we are to live in a universe bigger than our imaginations.”