Scott’s review of Death's End (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #3) > Likes and Comments
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Erik wrote: "Amusingly enough, this book DID make me study physics. It helped me realize that I wouldn't want to reach my death bed without having truly mastered relativity, one of the greatest accomplishments ..." That's so cool! Does it give you a better appreciation of SF like this book? You've given me motivation to get of my own ass and learn more about the science underpinning the books I love :)
Scott wrote: "Erik wrote: "Amusingly enough, this book DID make me study physics. It helped me realize that I wouldn't want to reach my death bed without having truly mastered relativity, one of the greatest acc..."
Oh, it for sure gives me a better appreciation, on all sorts of different layers. It makes the actual act of reading hard sci-fi easier. And knowing the verisimilitude of the ideas enhances their impact.
But probably the coolest part is how sci-fi explores the various mysteries of science. Science is very strict in what it attempts to do. It doesn't really concern itself with the 'why?' so much as the 'what?' and the 'how?' But studying science nevertheless provokes such deeper pondering.
For example, I recently had a complete rethinking of time. Like many, I considered it almost spatially, like it was a line or a cycle. But as a result of studying concepts like time dilation and the relativity of simultaneity, I've now come to understand that time is better understood as a measurement of rate, that every bit of space has a sort of clock rate attached to it. So when I ponder the notion of a black hole, I'm thinking something like, "Well it has a clock rate of zero. That's why it's a black hole - it's simply not being rendered." Or when I think of the speed of light, I now consider it less as a speed limit and more as a maximum clock rate.
And then I start pondering the notion of the universe as being simulated or at least having some sort of computational architecture to it. And what does that mean?
Well, eventually, I'll come across a similar idea in sci-fi, and it's beautiful to behold. It's as if someone took my dreams and made them real.
Erik wrote: "Scott wrote: "Erik wrote: "Amusingly enough, this book DID make me study physics. It helped me realize that I wouldn't want to reach my death bed without having truly mastered relativity, one of th..." That's very cool. I've often thought that I might appreciate harder SF more if my understanding of physics was stronger. I love the mind-bending nature of SF and the little i've read of the more involved physics theories (relativity and quantum theory) gave me the same WTF momemts. I get from great novels. The time stuff you mentioned is particularly fascinating - the idea of time being different from the seemingly linear line that we subjectively experience is so counter-intuitive, but so fascinating. Do you have any books you would recommend to someone interested in getting their head around relativity?
Scott wrote: "Erik wrote: "Scott wrote: "Erik wrote: "Amusingly enough, this book DID make me study physics. It helped me realize that I wouldn't want to reach my death bed without having truly mastered relativi..."
Well I'm studying relativity via textbook (d'inverno's introducing einstein's relativity, to be precise), but getting a textbook and actually going through it would be a major commitment. I think my first exposure was Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time. It wasn't too technical, which is nice. For quantum, I always enjoyed Feynman's books, such as QED.
Erik wrote: "Scott wrote: "Erik wrote: "Scott wrote: "Erik wrote: "Amusingly enough, this book DID make me study physics. It helped me realize that I wouldn't want to reach my death bed without having truly mas..." Thanks Eric! Hawking sounds like a good start - I'm a ways off being ready for a textbook :)
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Erik wrote: "Amusingly enough, this book DID make me study physics. It helped me realize that I wouldn't want to reach my death bed without having truly mastered relativity, one of the greatest accomplishments ..." That's so cool! Does it give you a better appreciation of SF like this book? You've given me motivation to get of my own ass and learn more about the science underpinning the books I love :)
Scott wrote: "Erik wrote: "Amusingly enough, this book DID make me study physics. It helped me realize that I wouldn't want to reach my death bed without having truly mastered relativity, one of the greatest acc..."Oh, it for sure gives me a better appreciation, on all sorts of different layers. It makes the actual act of reading hard sci-fi easier. And knowing the verisimilitude of the ideas enhances their impact.
But probably the coolest part is how sci-fi explores the various mysteries of science. Science is very strict in what it attempts to do. It doesn't really concern itself with the 'why?' so much as the 'what?' and the 'how?' But studying science nevertheless provokes such deeper pondering.
For example, I recently had a complete rethinking of time. Like many, I considered it almost spatially, like it was a line or a cycle. But as a result of studying concepts like time dilation and the relativity of simultaneity, I've now come to understand that time is better understood as a measurement of rate, that every bit of space has a sort of clock rate attached to it. So when I ponder the notion of a black hole, I'm thinking something like, "Well it has a clock rate of zero. That's why it's a black hole - it's simply not being rendered." Or when I think of the speed of light, I now consider it less as a speed limit and more as a maximum clock rate.
And then I start pondering the notion of the universe as being simulated or at least having some sort of computational architecture to it. And what does that mean?
Well, eventually, I'll come across a similar idea in sci-fi, and it's beautiful to behold. It's as if someone took my dreams and made them real.
Erik wrote: "Scott wrote: "Erik wrote: "Amusingly enough, this book DID make me study physics. It helped me realize that I wouldn't want to reach my death bed without having truly mastered relativity, one of th..." That's very cool. I've often thought that I might appreciate harder SF more if my understanding of physics was stronger. I love the mind-bending nature of SF and the little i've read of the more involved physics theories (relativity and quantum theory) gave me the same WTF momemts. I get from great novels. The time stuff you mentioned is particularly fascinating - the idea of time being different from the seemingly linear line that we subjectively experience is so counter-intuitive, but so fascinating. Do you have any books you would recommend to someone interested in getting their head around relativity?
Scott wrote: "Erik wrote: "Scott wrote: "Erik wrote: "Amusingly enough, this book DID make me study physics. It helped me realize that I wouldn't want to reach my death bed without having truly mastered relativi..."Well I'm studying relativity via textbook (d'inverno's introducing einstein's relativity, to be precise), but getting a textbook and actually going through it would be a major commitment. I think my first exposure was Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time. It wasn't too technical, which is nice. For quantum, I always enjoyed Feynman's books, such as QED.
Erik wrote: "Scott wrote: "Erik wrote: "Scott wrote: "Erik wrote: "Amusingly enough, this book DID make me study physics. It helped me realize that I wouldn't want to reach my death bed without having truly mas..." Thanks Eric! Hawking sounds like a good start - I'm a ways off being ready for a textbook :)
Consequentially, I've just about wrapped up SR and getting into the tensor calculus & differential geometry needed to make sense of GR.