I just finished reading Gary Zukav‘s The Dancing Wu Li Masters. It’s a book about the “new physics”, meaning Quantum Physics, and it’s similarities to eastern mysticism and religions. It’s a fascinating read and covers everything starting with Newton and his discoveries in physics, all the way through to Bell’s Theorem and Quantum Particle Theory. It stays pretty light with the math (thank goodness) but discusses alot of the theories and how they were discovered. Some of it seems pretty preposterous by modern comparison, like the “Ether” experiments and such, but alot of it is truly eye-opening.

Perhaps the biggest thing to take away from the book is how physics is becoming less and less like how we are traditionally taught it. Things like The Law of Conservation don’t really apply as rigidly as we once thought, and have now been replaced by 12 laws that apply to various aspects of reactions, and even they don’t apply all the time. The other thing to realize is that Quantum Physics is not an absolute explanation of processes like Newtonian physics, but rather a way to explain the results. What actually happens in the middle is a mystery, quantum physics just gives you a way to predict the result (in a large statistical sort of way). Overall, the final thrust of the book is that human logic and language are incapable of describing the way the universe works, but are capable of an inner experience of how it works. At a glance, it’s very similar to the “enlightenment” of eastern religions, and perhaps that’s no coincidence. It’s a fascinating read, and has definately got me wanting to read more.

Which is a good thing, since this book was published based on a talk in 1976, and is therefore missing all the latest advances like String Theory. I’m definately going to have to look around and try to find a newer book, and the Wikipedia entry has some good suggestions.
[tag:quantumphysics][tag:physics][tag:book][tag:dancingwulimasters][tag:zukav]

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