[HN Gopher] Review of "The Fabric of Reality" by David Deutsch (...
___________________________________________________________________
Review of "The Fabric of Reality" by David Deutsch (2001) [pdf]
Author : Kaibeezy
Score : 47 points
Date : 2021-09-27 09:44 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (web.mit.edu)
(TXT) w3m dump (web.mit.edu)
| jessenichols wrote:
| It's an amazing book. Best popular science book next to his other
| book, The Beginning of Infinity.
|
| Naval's, Ravikant Capital's Technical Advisor Brett Hall does an
| amazing unpacking of the book on his youtube/podcast:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_2C21gIgzY&list=PLsE51P_yPQ...
| anonymousDan wrote:
| I read one of his books a few years ago (might not have been this
| one), and it was awesome. While not for the faint hearted, some
| of the ideas were truly mind bending. Edit: I just checked again
| and I think the one I read was the beginning of infinity. Would
| be really interested to hear other people's thoughts on it - I've
| never met anyone else who has read it! For those who don't know
| David Deutsch, he is one of the biggest names in the field of
| quantum computing. The beginning of infinity is not just about
| physics though, it also takes in topics in philosophy, literature
| etc, and tries to put them in a unified framework.
| pdonis wrote:
| If you accept the Many Worlds Interpretation of QM, then
| Deutsch's book will indeed seem "amazing". If you don't,
| though, then much of what Deutsch says is simply wrong, since
| it depends on that particular interpretation.
| anonymousDan wrote:
| It's been a while since I read it, and I am not a physicist,
| so I can't remember the details of his arguments to be
| honest. But it would be interesting yo reread it with your
| comment in mind, thanks.
| pdonis wrote:
| The key points I see that imply the Many Worlds
| interpretation are Deutsch's clear position that no
| "collapse of the wave function" takes place, and his use of
| terms like "parallel universes".
| tenaciousDaniel wrote:
| I never got through the beginning of infinity, but I did read
| the first few sections of the book. The argument about removing
| ourselves from observation in order to achieve better
| observation was a pretty astounding revelation for me; I'd
| never thought about science in that way. He's a brilliant dude.
| abecedarius wrote:
| Maybe only because of when I read it (when it came out), this
| first book was a lot more interesting to me than his second.
| Has anyone here read them both in quick succession?
| PotatoPancakes wrote:
| The Beginning of Infinity is one of my favourite books of all
| time! Highly recommend for anyone interested in the philosophy
| of science.
| eggoa wrote:
| Seeing that the author of this review was an undergrad at the
| time, I tried googling for him to see what he is up to now. It
| seems he has died after a short but outstanding career.
|
| https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/science/story/2020...
| smeyer wrote:
| Wow, what a shock today. I happened to read some of the
| comments before the top level post and clicked this link. Andy
| was a grad student in the small lab (just a handful of people)
| I joined as a freshman in college. He was helpful, thoughtful,
| and kinder than he needed to be to a not very productive frosh.
|
| We hadn't talked since he graduated, and I had no idea he'd
| passed. Thank you for sharing this.
| darkstarsys wrote:
| BoI was a bit off the deep end, but FoR is absolutely one of the
| most important science books of the 20th century. Up there with
| Hofstadter's Godel, Escher, Bach. It fully converted me to a MWI
| adherent, as well as being beautifully crafted.
| zone411 wrote:
| I haven't read "The Fabric of Reality" but "Something Deeply
| Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime" by Sean
| Carroll is 22 years newer and presents a good overview of the
| Many World Theory for laymen.
| spywaregorilla wrote:
| > Playstation 9... capable of perfectly simulating physical
| reality
|
| > A possible headline of the future? David Deutsch thinks so
|
| I would pretty annoyed if someone extrapolated that judgement to
| me
| rhyn00 wrote:
| I've been getting into his later work with Chiara Carletto:
| Constructor theory of information. It's an interesting way of
| looking at the world. Rather than using dynamical equations to
| describe the world, in constructor theory it is about looking at
| what things are possible and impossible with respect to
| information exchange. A constructor is something that can apply a
| transformation to something without itself changing (kinda like a
| catalyst in chemistry).
|
| Here is the home page if you want to learn more:
|
| [paper] https://www.constructortheory.org/wp-
| content/uploads/2016/03...
|
| [homepage] https://www.constructortheory.org/
| vixen99 wrote:
| As the reviewer says - it's not an unbiased review. 'This book
| was amazing'.
| rsynnott wrote:
| While I have no view on the book itself... What on earth would
| an unbiased review be? "This book has 471 pages, A5, 80g/sqm
| paper. The word 'vole' appears eight times. Its ISBN is
| 12345678. 0/0 stars, as stars would indicate bias"
|
| Like, the reviewer is expected to read the book and give a
| subjective opinion on it; that is what book reviews are.
| discreteevent wrote:
| Well, I have to say the same: "It was amazing". This book
| changed my understanding of things when I read it.
| Koshkin wrote:
| It was a good, thought provoking read. (It did not change my
| understanding of things.)
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2021-09-28 23:01 UTC)