Download The Dancing Wu Li Masters An Overview of the New Physics Gary Zukav

Product details File Size 2009 KB Print Length 385 pages Publisher HarperOne (September 23, 2009) Publication Date October 6, 2009 Sold by  Digital Services LLC Language English ASIN B002Q1YCW8

The Dancing Wu Li Masters An Overview of the New Physics Gary Zukav Reviews

• Having just re-read both books, in my mind I inevitably compare this to "Tao of Physics", as both of them relate ideas in quantum physics to Eastern mysticism. However, "...Wu Li Masters" only kind of touches on that, but it provides a much more solid introduction to the basic ideas of physics as they relate to subatomic phenomena. My background in physics is very limited and I found myself struggling with many of the concepts Zukav covers (& he kind of lost me in the last chapter or two). But overall, the book was very interesting - to the extent that, as mentioned, I read it twice and took copious notes the second time through. The book was written about 4 decades ago, so I'd be very interested to learn how the ideas he described have developed since then.
• This is one of those books that will have you completely absorbed instantly--and it's about quantum physics! Even if you're not math-savvy, you will understand it; it's a memorable and well-written way to learn about the hidden world of particle physics.
• A few short chapters of standard introductory historical material rapidly turns to nonsense. One example follows. The author asserts that the dual wave-particle property of single photons implies that the photons know the alternative pathways where they might go ahead of time and thereby can be said to have a conscience. "Conscience", being undefined by the author, fits well as an explanation for these data, since...uhhh...wouldn't any undefined word fit well here?
• I first read this book more than twenty years ago, and I found both its explanation of quantum physics understandable for the first time in my life (after many tries), and its conclusions about the nature of the world around us totally profound.
  
  I took it up again this year after reading *Surfaces and Essences Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking*, by one of my intellectual heroes, Douglas Hofstadter, and his colleague, Emmanuel Sander. They presented the compelling argument that
  we can only form thoughts via analogies. From these we create the categories by which we organize our lives. The problem is that whenever we finally settle on a set of categories that we are comfortable with, it turns out that those categories don’t really explain as much as we thought they did. Our youth consists of successively having to recognize the inadequacy of the categories we have so laboriously developed--only to discover, once we've finally developed some categories that seem to work, that those categories are wrong, too!
  
  What was profound about that book was their recognition that great scientific discoveries may be expressed in mathematical terms, but the insights came from skilled expansion of each genius' analogies/categories. Einstein's recognition that the speed of light was the only constant, when everything else is relative, and that gravity is equivalent to acceleration represented creative extension of analogies, were a total disruption of the way people had categorized things in the past.
  
  In short, the combined conclusion that we can only make sense out of the world via analogies--and the analogies we've come up with are probably wrong--was disturbing.
  
  After that, I read much of *The Age of Entanglement*, by Louisa Guilder. Her position is that physics is not the tidy finished product that those of us who don’t really know much about it believe it to be. Modern physics is a process that entails brilliant observations and conclusions, but very painful ones, with different physicists having very different views on what is “truth”. Basically, Einstein's tidy categories got upset when the quantum physicists claimed that in the world of sub-atomic particles there is no underlying reality that we can perceive. That is there is no underlying reality that we can perceive without changing it. The best we can do is to identify probabilities that events happen. There is no "particle" in sub-atomic particles. Einstein died being convinced that somewhere out there was a theory that could unite the perceptions of reality we have when we look at the outside world and the probabilistic understanding of sub-atomic physics. He was absolutely convinced that "God does not play dice".
  
  The problem with that book is that in focusing on the disagreements between the physicists, it made use of extensive (and, yes, verbose) communications among them. This tended to confuse the underlying arguments.
  
  So, I dusted off *The Dancing Wu Li Masters". (OK, I couldn't find my copy, so I bought the edition.) And yes, it is much clearer both in describing the subject matter, and in driving home the problem we have with the analogies (categories) we have for looking at the world.
  
  The last three hundred years of (at least western) civilization have been unusual in history. Discoveries by Galileo and Newton that the physical world follows natural "laws" that can be identified and catalogued, have given us the illusion that we understand what is "reality". In the limited perspective of us walking around, this is true, and the insights have changed all of our lives. From nuclear energy to the space program, the world we understand is vastly different from what it was at the beginning of the 14th Century.
  
  But in the Twentieth Century, the quantum physicists have returned us to the era of Eastern Mysticism. The universe is energy, that occasionally (sort of) coagulates into what we see as matter. But this is all an illusion, based on the limitations of our ability to see inside what's going on. And we are limited in our ability to see what's going on.
  
  In Chinese, one word for physics, "wu li" means Patterns of Organic Energy. But the same syllables pronounced differently in Chinese can mean "My way", "Nonsense", or "I clutch my ideas". There is definitely something to think about, here.
  
  At the risk of extending another analogy that occurred to me the first time I read it. We are each actually part of an incredibly realistic video game.
• I first read this when I was a teenager, and fell in love with it. Quantum mechanics are translated into English for the lay reader, and it's an eye opener. Although the writer didn't specifically make the argument, this is the first book I read where I started to connect the dots between science and spirituality.
  
  When I saw it in ebook format, I couldn't resist revisiting this old favorite.
• This book has led me down a path of completely new explorations of my mind. I can’t think of things as I did before.
• Still the very best introduction to the mysteries of quantum physics. As Sir James Jeans said, "not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine. Gary Zukav brings that strangeness home in mathematics-free, clear language, and he does it like no one else. This book is a must read for anyone who claims to be educated.
• An excellent book on quantum physics treating this very difficult to understand subject, that is from my point of view being not so knowledgeable about the deeper understanding of quantum theory. The book is very readable and puts the reader in touch with the way the physicists have arrived at their various theories. Quantum theory seems to be a never ending quest to discover the meaning of the grand design, the ultimate building blocks of life itself. Gary Zukav has written a very good book for the laymen.