Cosmological Koans A journey to the heart of physical reality
Book - 2019
"A leading physicist unravels the mysteries of the universe through pleasingly paradoxical Zen- style vignettes. Cosmological Koans takes a fresh approach to explaining the most mind- bending concepts in physics and cosmology by invoking the ancient Zen tradition of the Koan. Anthony Aguirre presents more than fifty beguiling Koans (Could there be a civilization in a mote of dust? How much of your fate have you made? Who cleans the universe?) that explore the strange hinterland between the deep structure of the physical world and our personal experience of it. With a flair for explaining complex science, Aguirre covers cosmic questions from the nature of time to the origin of multiple universes, and shows how scientific giants from Ari...stotle to Galileo to Heisenberg have grappled with them. A playful and enlightening book, Cosmological Koans gives readers what Einstein himself called "the most beautiful and deepest experience" anyone can have: a sense of the mysterious"--
- Subjects
- Genres
- Trivia and miscellanea
- Published
-
New York :
W.W. Norton & Company, Independent Publishers Since 1923
[2019]
- Language
- English
- Main Author
- Edition
- First edition
- Physical Description
- xvi, 373 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm
- Bibliography
- Includes bibliographical references (pages [363]-373).
- ISBN
- 9780393609219
- A Map of the Journey
- Introduction
- Part 1. The Path Laid Out before Us
- 1. The Arrow (1630)
- 2. Setting Sail (1610)
- 3. Being Time (1630)
- 4. The Tower (1608)
- 5. A Perfect Map (1617)
- 6. The Cosmic Now (now)
- 7. Drifting Dreams of Venice (1609)
- 8. Choose Your Path (1612)
- 9. Taking the Leap (1612)
- Part 2. An Uncertain Trail through Treacherous Terrain
- 10. Releasing the Djinn (1610)
- 11. Many Paths Make the Road (1617)
- 12. Sufficient Reason for a Roll of the Dice (1611)
- 13. Through the Gates (1612)
- 14. Splitting the World (1624)
- 15. What Cannot Be Known (1627)
- 16. What We Talk about When We Talk about Free Will (1610)
- 17. The Mind of Ming (1618)
- 18. A Halting Problem (1610)
- Part 3. Torn Apart and Reassembled
- 19. Instructions from the Cook (1625)
- 20. Nothing Is Lost (now and then)
- 21. Being and Knowingness (1610)
- 22. Each Morning Is the Universe (1612)
- 23. Wandering in the Desert (1610)
- 24. A Hundred Thousand Million Kalpas (1612)
- 25. Mountains and Mist (1612)
- 26. Hazy Bifurcations in Decohered Histories (1610)
- Part 4. Lofty Peaks with Endless Views
- 27. Beneath the Firmament (1608)
- 28. Celestial Spheres (1611)
- 29. Through the Looking Glass (1608)
- 30. Theodicy (1610)
- 31. The Floating Gardens (1611)
- 32. The Painting in the Cave (1613)
- 33. A Dialogue concerning Infinitely Many Things (1608)
- 34. Sickness unto Death (1615)
- 35. An Honored Guest (1611)
- Part 5. Who Am I? Don't Know!
- 36. Who Sleeps, Perchance to Dream? (unknown)
- 37. A Simple Arrangement of Some Bits (1610)
- 38. What Survives (1627)
- 39. The Ice Garden (1621)
- 40. An Unfettered Mind (1612)
- 41. The Simulation Argument (unknown)
- 42. Time and Free Will (1624)
- 43. An Arc of Recohering Trajectories (1610-1641)
- Part 6. Form Is Emptiness; Emptiness Is Form
- 44. What Is It You Sail In? (1620)
- 45. The Clear Blue Sky (1614)
- 46. At the Foundation (1620)
- 47. The Great Inheritance (1611)
- 48. A Long Hidden Game (1629)
- 49. The Mind-Only School (1619)
- 50. East and West (1630)
- 51. The Arrow (1630)
- Acknowledgments
- Notes
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review