Penrose: The Road to Reality

[Owen Densmore]

OK, I admit it .. I find the book kinda fascinating.  This review by  
Jaron Lanier, is quite enthusiastic:
   http://tinyurl.com/2kb5f8

Has anyone on the list actually read most of the critter?  It's a bit  
daunting at 1099 pages!

    -- Owen

[Günther Greindl]

Dear Owen,

I am actually reading it at the moment, I am at around page 300. It is
my second go, the first one was before I had CompSci Math under my belt
and I got lost.

This time is much better, although he of course employs a rather broad
sweep of mathematics, most of which you will only hear as a physics
student (like Riemannian geometry etc) But the going is quite nice,
though you have to  believe him some stuff.

I have also bought Needham's Visual Complex Analysis (excellent book!!),
and concepts somewhat thin in Penrose's book make sense after going
through a chapter in the Needham book. (Penrose loves complex analysis,
and I am beginning to share his fascination :-))
Also for the later math chapters some additional mathematical literature
is recommended.

I can really recommend this book - I have of course already made "sneak
reads" into the physical sections, and if you work through this book
(instead of reading it casually and ignoring the parts you don't
understand) I guess there is no quicker way to be informed about
modern/foundational physics at a considerably more than superficial
level (the next step is to study physics, really).

But it will take work - that is the question you have to ask yourself:
if you are willing to "tackle" the book instead of just "reading" it, I
give it a serious thumbs up :)

Cheers,
G?nther



Owen Densmore wrote:

> OK, I admit it .. I find the book kinda fascinating.  This review by  
> Jaron Lanier, is quite enthusiastic:
>    http://tinyurl.com/2kb5f8
>
> Has anyone on the list actually read most of the critter?  It's a bit  
> daunting at 1099 pages!
>
>     -- Owen
>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
>

--
G?nther Greindl
Department of Philosophy of Science
University of Vienna
guenther.greindl at univie.ac.at
http://www.univie.ac.at/Wissenschaftstheorie/

Blog: http://dao.complexitystudies.org/
Site: http://www.complexitystudies.org

[Owen Densmore]

On Dec 30, 2007, at 3:05 PM, G?nther Greindl wrote:

> Dear Owen,
>
> I am actually reading it at the moment, I am at around page 300. It is
> my second go, the first one was before I had CompSci Math under my  
> belt
> and I got lost.
>
> This time is much better, although he of course employs a rather broad
> sweep of mathematics, most of which you will only hear as a physics
> student (like Riemannian geometry etc) But the going is quite nice,
> though you have to  believe him some stuff.

The intro is certainly comfy!  And browsing through a few places of  
interest were satisfying.

> I have also bought Needham's Visual Complex Analysis (excellent  
> book!!),

Wow, what a coincidence!  So did I, due to some FRIAM conversations a  
while back but without knowing anything about the Penrose book, and  
its focus on complex numbers.

> and concepts somewhat thin in Penrose's book make sense after going
> through a chapter in the Needham book. (Penrose loves complex  
> analysis,
> and I am beginning to share his fascination :-))
> Also for the later math chapters some additional mathematical  
> literature
> is recommended.

Good to know.  I actually like that sort of read .. an "index" into  
the mathematics world and a good motivator.

> I can really recommend this book - I have of course already made  
> "sneak
> reads" into the physical sections, and if you work through this book
> (instead of reading it casually and ignoring the parts you don't
> understand) I guess there is no quicker way to be informed about
> modern/foundational physics at a considerably more than superficial
> level (the next step is to study physics, really).
>
> But it will take work - that is the question you have to ask yourself:
> if you are willing to "tackle" the book instead of just "reading"  
> it, I
> give it a serious thumbs up :)
>
> Cheers,
> G?nther

Thanks,

    -- Owen

[Günther Greindl]

Dear Owen,

> Good to know.  I actually like that sort of read .. an "index" into  
> the mathematics world and a good motivator.

Yes that is exactly how I view the book: an index and a motivator!

Cheers,
G?nther


--
G?nther Greindl
Department of Philosophy of Science
University of Vienna
guenther.greindl at univie.ac.at
http://www.univie.ac.at/Wissenschaftstheorie/

Blog: http://dao.complexitystudies.org/
Site: http://www.complexitystudies.org