Author Topic: Anyone here read Michio Kaku's literature?  (Read 4506 times)

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Offline Pixel_Outlaw

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Anyone here read Michio Kaku's literature?
« on: November 21, 2007 »

I'm just wondering if any of his books are appropriate for the common man such as myself. Any entry level stuff? I've really enjoyed his radio show and television specials.
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Offline Shockwave

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Re: Anyone here read Michio Kaku's literature?
« Reply #1 on: November 24, 2007 »
I haven't ever heard of the guy.

What does he do? (apart from write books and broadcast).
Shockwave ^ Codigos
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Offline Pixel_Outlaw

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Re: Anyone here read Michio Kaku's literature?
« Reply #2 on: November 24, 2007 »
I think he is currently working on string theory. His is considered one of the most prominent theoretical physicists.
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Offline Shockwave

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Re: Anyone here read Michio Kaku's literature?
« Reply #3 on: November 25, 2007 »
People around here usually just ask Jim if they need to know anything about physics or anything to do with code at all.... Jim knows a lot of stuff.

Seriously though I will google this guy, I probably won't understand what he writes but I'll google him.
Shockwave ^ Codigos
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Offline Jim

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Re: Anyone here read Michio Kaku's literature?
« Reply #4 on: November 25, 2007 »
I keep telling you, the universe is made from confetti and bits of coloured string. ;D

Jim
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Offline relsoft

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Re: Anyone here read Michio Kaku's literature?
« Reply #5 on: November 29, 2007 »
Pretty cool guy with Richard Gere type hair. :)

Used to watch him on the discovery channel.
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Offline Pixel_Outlaw

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Re: Anyone here read Michio Kaku's literature?
« Reply #6 on: December 23, 2007 »
I just picked up his book Hyperspace today. Really interesting so far! The book deals with many complex subjects like the fourth spatial dimension (not time). Apparently Kaku thinks that the four universal forces can be unified through higher dimensions. He has a way of explaining hard concepts really well. Of course this is all theory but theory drives exploration and discovery. He mentions some intriguing things that light may be a wave in the fourth dimension allowing it to travel through the vacuum of D space. I don't think everything he says as law but it is fun to think about and they could be possible. I'm thinking about getting more of his work. Again these are just theory but even so they are intriguing. Also, his radio show is great but his callers are often daft. He has quiz questions that people can call in and attempt to answer sometimes winning books and other things. His approach is very original creating metaphors for advanced principals. Wormholes were explained as worms living on a 2d plain then one called Columbus discovered that their universe was curved in a 3rd spatial dimension. After that a wormhole could be bored through the center of the 2d plain and travel between points in a quick manner. It really frustrates me that there could be 10 dimensions and we can only visually understand three of them. Could 4d objects exist in our world as their 3D projections? There is some hocus pocus but I see nothing wrong with making educated guess as to what the universe might be like in hyperspace.
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Offline rain_storm

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Re: Anyone here read Michio Kaku's literature?
« Reply #7 on: December 23, 2007 »
This guy sounds like Carl Sagan who wrote the famous book Cosmos. That book was the first scientific book I read (and re-read) I suggest you look into Sagans Book as well, its mostly outdated now but 99% of what he talked about still holds true.
String theory is a very difficult concept to grasp most theoretician dont even fully understand it and those that do advocate it as the way to unifying gravity with the other fundamental forces. The problem is that string theory has not yet been proven but dont let this dismay you as it has not yet been disproved either.
It all gets kinda wacky and I gave up on string theory because most of the time its like they're describing another universe. I just couldnt get my head around it.
The whole worm hole thing is actually not a part of string theory per se. Einstein and Rosen dreamed them up long before string theory ever existed. I fits einsteins model of the universe and this model is widely accepted and works only if space is not flat. Science today believes that space is only slightly curved but this slight curvature is enough to allow worm holes to exist.
The problem is that string theory pushes the boundaries beyond what we can study. It talks about exotic matter and energy that we cannot detect. It may take centuries to prove or disprove. There must be another way to explain why gravity is so week at microscopic distances without conjuring up extra dimensions that gravity can pass through an thus lose energy. after all if there are 10 extra dimensions it is required that they only exist on a microscopic scale. Otherwise the amount of energy lost to those dimensions would require gravity to be incredibly powerful. Even if there were only one extra spatial dimension it could not be bigger than 1mm (or was that nm?) otherwise we would have already discovered its existence. Reason why gravity cannot be incredibly powerful ... the big bang could not have happened and the whole universe would still be a singularity.
« Last Edit: December 23, 2007 by rain_storm »

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Offline rain_storm

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Re: Anyone here read Michio Kaku's literature?
« Reply #8 on: December 23, 2007 »
Iv checked out the author and I recognise him from documentaries on discovery. In fact he seems to be all over the place these days. I enjoy listening to what he has to say. Hyperspace you say? I might just pick up a copy myself to read over the holidays :D

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Offline Pixel_Outlaw

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Re: Anyone here read Michio Kaku's literature?
« Reply #9 on: December 23, 2007 »
You should be able to snag a copy for cheap on ebay of amazon. :cheers:
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Offline relsoft

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Re: Anyone here read Michio Kaku's literature?
« Reply #10 on: December 29, 2007 »
Carl Sagan Yay!!! "Frontiers of Science" Awesome book.
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