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A review by hilaritas
Trespassing on Einstein's Lawn: A Father, a Daughter, the Meaning of Nothing, and the Beginning of Everything by Amanda Gefter
4.0
The framing of this book is fantastic. Fittingly, Gefter writes not from the objective, god's eye perspective of most physics books, but instead has written this as a memoir of personal intellectual exploration. She chronicles her lifelong quest for knowledge of ultimate reality, starting with a conversation with her father about nothingness in a Chinese restaurant at age 15. The story of their relationship as partners in crime to discover the riddle of existence is beautiful, inspiring, and wonderfully heartwarming. Her dad sounds amazing.
Gefter does a pretty good job of walking the reader through some of the most complex concepts of modern physics, and her irreverent, slightly punky tone is a refreshing approach. That said, she is a bit of a wild-eyed guide, and at times, I lost the thread as her excitement overwhelms her clarity. Nonetheless, that passion is a lot of fun to read. I found myself ultimately more sympathetic to the Zen and intellectual hunger of her father, and she pays him tribute more than any parent could ever hope for.
The ultimate conclusions of their quest are essentially the radical observer-dependence of reality (i.e., the failure of any invariant or absolute objective perspective to accurately and completely describe the universe), and that all this "something" is really still nothing (what they cutely call the H-state: an infinitely homogeneous state) considered from within a bounded, observer frame of reference. Her end position, that of one universe for every observer, each a solipsistic whole unto itself with no possibility of a unifying outside perspective encompassing and stitching them all together, is both fascinating and horrifying from a metaphysical perspective.
My problem with these answers is that Gefter doesn't do much beyond that to question "why is reality so seemingly observer-dependent? Why does the qualia of existence seem so much like there is something to the universe?" One of the reasons I ended up wishing to spend more time with her father is that he seemed to ponder those questions a little more slowly and reflectively, while Amanda's perspective is a manic, mad dash for The Answer. Warren seemed like he was approaching the question of existence from a point of existential need, while Amanda is more goal-oriented.
Overall though, a very unusual and interesting science book and one that gives a much different flavor than the usual proceedings. If nothing else, the inspiration of their father-daughter relationship will stay with me a long time.
Gefter does a pretty good job of walking the reader through some of the most complex concepts of modern physics, and her irreverent, slightly punky tone is a refreshing approach. That said, she is a bit of a wild-eyed guide, and at times, I lost the thread as her excitement overwhelms her clarity. Nonetheless, that passion is a lot of fun to read. I found myself ultimately more sympathetic to the Zen and intellectual hunger of her father, and she pays him tribute more than any parent could ever hope for.
The ultimate conclusions of their quest are essentially the radical observer-dependence of reality (i.e., the failure of any invariant or absolute objective perspective to accurately and completely describe the universe), and that all this "something" is really still nothing (what they cutely call the H-state: an infinitely homogeneous state) considered from within a bounded, observer frame of reference. Her end position, that of one universe for every observer, each a solipsistic whole unto itself with no possibility of a unifying outside perspective encompassing and stitching them all together, is both fascinating and horrifying from a metaphysical perspective.
My problem with these answers is that Gefter doesn't do much beyond that to question "why is reality so seemingly observer-dependent? Why does the qualia of existence seem so much like there is something to the universe?" One of the reasons I ended up wishing to spend more time with her father is that he seemed to ponder those questions a little more slowly and reflectively, while Amanda's perspective is a manic, mad dash for The Answer. Warren seemed like he was approaching the question of existence from a point of existential need, while Amanda is more goal-oriented.
Overall though, a very unusual and interesting science book and one that gives a much different flavor than the usual proceedings. If nothing else, the inspiration of their father-daughter relationship will stay with me a long time.