Rate this book

Dekodiranje Stvarnosti - Univerzum Kao Kvantna Informacija (2014)

by Vlatko Vedral(Favorite Author)

4.3 of 5 Votes: 4

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Laguna

review 1: "Why is there something rather than nothing?" – wonders Kraus too, and he argues existence arose from nothingness, attributing this mysterious behavior to quantum fluctuations of the void. Profesor Vedral’s Decoding Reality is arguing that the Creation Ex-nihilo and Destruction Ab Toto, all from nothing and nothing from all is the “flip-flop”/ flip-flop is the 1 and 0, the ON and OFF, 2B and NOT 2B, the + and the – etc/ way of our perceiving information, processing information and creating reality. Professor Vedral will postulate the premise that the entire reality is just a flow of information exchange between the void, the darkness, where the void is a source, and the realm is that we create by processing information the void is emitting to us. (Wooow sounds go... moreod, but not sure if my definition is purely covering the essence of Author’s speculations. Don’t take me wrong, I did really enjoy these speculations. I just couldn't not to recall Tesla’s claim when he said something like – “I’m just a receiver of information Universe is emitting to me!”Professor Vedral will invite the reader to join the table of Calvino’s card game. The moment the reader arrives to the big table of Nature, he /she/ becomes the vital part of the game. She /He/ will actually as the scientific part of the humanity during the history will be facing Nature’s main players, the basic aspects, the 7 pillars of our reality: Biology; Thermodynamics; Economics; Sociology; Quantum physics; Computer science; and Philosophy. No doubt, the Author is confident in presenting the main principle from Creation Ex Nihilo and I was delighted the way he touches humanities main concerns through the 7 pillars lined up. I personally enjoyed the lectures from Thermodynamics explaining global warming. Few understand really, the 1st and the essence of 2nd laws. I know, openly claiming that it is not the 2nd law that will kills us then this will be the 1st, is a bit grotesque and weird and perhaps I’ll sound like some serial killer, but can’t not to think of many of nowadays kids when stating they just can’t find purpose of their life while by the 1st conservation law we are running out of, NOT of energy, but just forms the energy of the planet is stored and available for our use. A few know, the Nature’s tendency to ruin our reality into a chaos and disorder is damn dangerous, but while we have available energy to use for keeping ourselves in high order, the Entropy is not the first concern. I enjoyed DNA class, the lecture of the way Nature is coding DNA… we use binary, and Nature could do so, but Nature will never ever allow anything to be left to the mercy of Randomness. To ensure the DNA integrity is fully preserved, Nature uses 4 bit coding… but, the Reader will say, Okay, but this is all known. Yes, it is, but this time all the knowledge we are getting is, in information-centric way, that is presenting the two-way communication between Nature and us. Aaand that's the essence of what is Professor Vedral conveying to us.If trying to put this way, no need to bother with law without law, then the issue with infinite regression is avoided. However, there is a Void, the Darkness we claim information are arriving from to us, and we, by processing these information using inductive method as the basis of constructing physical theories. And I can't stop wondering and pretending the source where the information are arriving from is Nothing, 0 bit in terms of informatics. Sorry, I just can't do that. :) However, I can accept that saying NO, saying something is NOT is the key to building better and better models of the world. Physical laws are usually more fundamental the more they rule out: ‘no such process exists, where so and so would happen’ is a typical way of formulating it. (Two examples are the Cappadocian Fathers in early Christianity and Advaita Vedanta in Hinduism. /My personal note: I wish Christianity remained on Cappadocian level of thinking about the Creator.)I really enjoyed professor Vedral’s way of thinking of explaining the general way how we actually create our reality from the information the Nature is sending to us. But, still we need events first that will enable us deriving laws. I still found the dilemma of it was first the Event or it was first the Law, remained provoking me:“The Universe starts empty but potentially with a huge amount of information. The key event that gives the Universe some direction is the first act of ‘Symmetry Breaking’, the First Cut of the Sculptor. This act, which we consider as completely random, i.e. without any prior cause, just decides on why one tiny aspect in the Universe is one way rather than another. This first event sets in motion a chain reaction in which, once one rule has been decided, the rest of the Universe needs to proceed in a consistent manner. Just like in Calvino’s card game, the next piece of the story must be consistent with the previous.”I think of Symmetry as of the state of singularity, nothingness, but as still of the potential for everything (creation Ex Nihilo). All I can accept including the end, the Destruction ab toto, but not before the Symmetry breaking, the First cut, the Prior Cause is explained. Staggering and beautiful book, Sir! I love it!
review 2: This book is mostly about application of Shannon's information theory in a variety of areas.It also includes a layman's introduction to:√ Shannon's information theory√ Self-replication and genetics√ Boltzmann's entropy formula√ Maxwell's Demon√ Laplace's demon√ Quantum computing √ Quantum cryptography√ Holographic principleI have a HUGE problem with the discussion on Global Warming!!!Vedral argues all activities that use energy to do work produce waste heat.This is true, but he implies this causes (anthropogenic) Global Warming!Global Warming is caused by gasses emitted into the Earth's atmosphere.Greenhouse heat forcing from the emissions of burning fossil fuel TREMENDOUSLY dwarfs the associated waste heat.I really liked his introduction to the holographic principle.He tied it into quantum information theory quite well.Though I was very skeptical of his attempt to explain gravity using quantum mechanics plus the holographic principle... seemed like hand-waving to me.Vedral tends to wander in his argument, which is distracting.His conclusions are sometimes non sequitur to the topic of discussion.The last chapter is the worst...He argues that where we (the observer) create our own reality.I don't have a problem with his rejection of realism.However, the metaphysical garbage mixed with references to eastern religion really is disgusting!I almost filed this book under "fiction"... less

Download links for: Dekodiranje stvarnosti - univerzum kao kvantna informacija

Advertising