2081: A Hopeful View of the Human Future by Gerard K. O’Neill (review)

58 Book Reviews The Cosmic Code. Heinz R. Pagels. Bantam Books, New York, 1982. Reviewed by J. Guberman* Since the discoveries of the quantum effect (1900) and the General Theory of Relativity (1916), philosophers acquainted with mathematics and physics have tried to convince the public that classical ideas regarding the nature of the external world must be abandoned; not only can our five senses not adequately depict nature, but, even worse, fundamental physical processes can only be really understood by those who understand complex mathematical formulae. Now, however, matters have even gone further. Not only are mathematical formulae indispensable, but what these formulae describe are pictures or models of a world in which the basic rules of formal logic seem to be set at defiance. This is the message at the core of this very good and readable new book. Published both in hardcover and paperback, The Cosmic Code is a history of the new quantum ideas as they have historically evolved since the 1920s. We are told in a very terse and well-written prose how certain experimental results of black-body radiation could not be interpreted within the framework of classical thermodynamics; eventually, under the workmanship of Schrodinger, Heisenberg, De Broglie, and others, these results led to a theory of the atomic world fundamentally different from what had always been considered the basic scheme of any theory of physical reality. The triumphs of the theory have overcome much of the initial disbelief and opposition to its new and peculiar view of physical reality; but at the same time a great amount of confusion, complexity and doubt about the possibility of a unified view of nature has resulted. Dr Pagels' book will provide many hours of stimulating and informative reading toward understanding the nature of this revolution. Dr Pagels accepts the conclusions of this new state of the world and its "quantum weirdness" with the enthusiasm of a professional man of science. Philosophers, on the other hand, might find some room for doubt, as there are many difficulties to acceptance which, in this semipopular work intended to promote physics, are only lightly touched upon. For instance, regarding the development of Schrodinger's wave mechanics, one may feel, as this reader did, that, while the methods employed were brilliant and empirically unimpeachable, some of the physical assumptions underlying the technique seem to border on the fantastic. [One is reminded of the passage in Bertrand Russell's Autobiography where, upon being given the very first proposition of Euclid which seemed to him fallacious (and was subsequently shown by him to be incomplete), he was told that unless he fully accepted it he could not proceed further with the study of geometry.] In another instance, while Pagels outlines von Neumann's attempt to prove the impossibility of "hidden variables" in quantum theory, nothing is said about his "theory of measurement" which is even more remarkable and concludes with the result that, within the framework of quantum theory, the observer is so interrelated with the measuring apparatus that no objective view of the world is possible since the reality is in some way connected with the act of observation. Those interested in the history and broad implications of a revolutionary new view of the microworld will find in this book a wellwritten and absorbing text. To those of a more philosophic bent who seek explanations, Dr Pagels' wholehearted advocacy of the current world view of subatomic physics leaves the reader somewhat unsettled. Future Worlds. John Gribbin. Plenum, New York, 1981.Cloth. ISBN: 0306 -40780-9. Reviewed by J. Lukasiewicz** In 1978 the Science Policy Research Unit of the University of Sussex (SPRU) published World Futures, a major investigation into the ways the future of mankind may develop over the next 50 years. John Gribbin, a Cambridge Ph.D. in astrophysics turned science-journalist, contributed to the SPRU study and published in 1979 his highly condensed and readable interpretation of the Sussex volume under the confusingly similar title, Future Worlds. Gribbin's main theme and preference is growth towards a more equal world. Future Worlds consists of three parts. The first is an objective summary of the 'futures debate', from the 1972Limits 10 Growth...