Cosmological Koans: A Journey to the Heart of Physical Reality

Description

Through more than fifty Koans—pleasingly paradoxical vignettes following the ancient Zen tradition—leading physicist Anthony Aguirre takes the reader across the world from West to East, and through ideas spanning the age, breadth, and depth of the Universe. Using these beguiling Koans (Could there be a civilization on a mote of dust? How much of your fate have you made? Who cleans the universe?) and a flair for explaining complex science, Aguirre covers cosmic questions that scientific giants from Aristotle to Galileo to Heisenberg have grappled with, from the meaning of quantum theory and the nature of time to the origin of multiple universes. A playful and enlightening book,Cosmological Koansexplores the strange hinterland between the deep structure of the physical world and our personal experience of it, giving readers what Einstein himself called “the most beautiful and deepest experience” anyone can have: a sense of the mysterious. Title......Page 2 Contents......Page 5 A Map of the Journey......Page 8 Introduction......Page 10 Part 1: The Path Laid Out before Us......Page 15 1. The Arrow (1630)......Page 16 2. Setting Sail (1610)......Page 22 3. Being Time (1630)......Page 26 4. The Tower (1608)......Page 32 5. A Perfect Map (1617)......Page 39 6. The Cosmic Now (now)......Page 45 7. Drifting Dreams of Venice (1609)......Page 50 8. Choose Your Path (1612)......Page 57 9. Taking the Leap (1612)......Page 63 Part 2: An Uncertain Trail through Treacherous Terrain......Page 70 10. Releasing the Djinn (1610)......Page 71 11. Many Paths Make the Road (1617)......Page 78 12. Sufficient Reason for a Roll of the Dice (1611)......Page 83 13. Through the Gates (1612)......Page 93 14. Splitting the World (1624)......Page 100 15. What Cannot Be Known (1627)......Page 108 16. What We Talk about When We Talk about Free Will (1610)......Page 113 17. The Mind of Ming (1618)......Page 121 18. A Halting Problem (1610)......Page 128 Part 3: Torn Apart and Reassembled......Page 132 19. Instructions from the Cook (1625)......Page 134 20. Nothing Is Lost (now and then)......Page 141 21. Being and Knowingness (1610)......Page 149 22. Each Morning Is the Universe (1612)......Page 154 23. Wandering in the Desert (1610)......Page 160 24. A Hundred Thousand Million Kalpas (1612)......Page 165 25. Mountains and Mist (1612)......Page 170 26. Hazy Bifurcations in Decohered Histories (1610)......Page 175 Part 4: Lofty Peaks with Endless Views......Page 176 27. Beneath the Firmament (1608)......Page 177 28. Celestial Spheres (1611)......Page 183 29. Through the Looking Glass (1608)......Page 189 30. Theodicy (1610)......Page 193 31. The Floating Gardens (1611)......Page 198 32. The Painting in the Cave (1613)......Page 204 33. A Dialogue concerning Infinitely Many Things (1608)......Page 210 34. Sickness unto Death (1615)......Page 215 35. An Honored Guest (1611)......Page 220 Part 5: Who Am I? Don’t Know!......Page 224 36. Who Sleeps, Perchance to Dream? (unknown)......Page 225 37. A Simple Arrangement of Some Bits (1610)......Page 229 38. What Survives (1627)......Page 234 39. The Ice Garden (1621)......Page 241 40. An Unfettered Mind (1612)......Page 245 41. The Simulation Argument (unknown)......Page 249 42. Time and Free Will (1624)......Page 253 43. An Arc of Recohering Trajectories (1610–1641)......Page 260 Part 6: Form Is Emptiness; Emptiness Is Form......Page 262 44. What Is It You Sail In? (1620)......Page 263 45. The Clear Blue Sky (1614)......Page 267 46. At the Foundation (1620)......Page 275 47. The Great Inheritance (1611)......Page 280 48. A Long Hidden Game (1629)......Page 285 49. The Mind-Only School (1619)......Page 290 50. East and West (1630)......Page 295 51. The Arrow (1630)......Page 300 Acknowledgments......Page 301 Notes......Page 303 Copyright......Page 311