http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/magazine/19FOB-Q4-t.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=interview%20physics%20dr.&st=cse
This interview is for our annual Ideas Issue, and because you’re a physicist at Columbia University who specializes in string theory and the secret life of invisible particles, let mestart by asking you this:
Do you think the fieldof physics is continuing to provide the world with big, important, Einstein-level ideas?
Absolutely. Physics grapples with the largest questions the universe presents. Wheredid the totality of reality come from? Did time have a beginning?
More Questions For Columns
Wasn’t that already answered by the Big Bang theory? Is that outdated now?
I wouldn’t say it’s outdated. It’s been enhanced into another version called inflationary cosmology, which has a bang that is bigger than the originalBig Bang’s. In fact, there may have been many big bangs, one of which created our universe.The other bangs created other universes.
Right. In your forthcoming book, “The Hidden Reality,” you ponder the possibility of a “multiverse” composed of many universes.But what kind of worlds are we talking about? Clumps of subatomic particles in space?Or universes with restaurants and museums?
Some might have museums and restaurants. Some might have copies of you and me havinga conversation similar to this one. Yet other universes would be vastly different. They could involve a gigantic expansive space that might be filled with other forms of matter governed by other kinds of physical laws. In one such universe, when the apple is released by a tree, it might go up instead of down.
All of this speculation seems so devoid of practical application. Why not just use your time to try to improve life on earth by coming up with a new source of fuel?
Which is vital,but I think that these ideas are just as vital in a different sense, because it’s these kinds of pursuits that ultimately allow us to understand how we fit into the cosmic scheme.
You grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, across the street from the Museum of Natural History.
I still live on the UpperWest Side. I’ve moved 40 blocks in 40 years.
What did your dad do for a living?
He was mainly a composer. To make money he played the bass fiddle at weddings and bar mitzvahs. He co-wrote a song called “Turn Around” with Harry Belafonte. He dropped out of high school to be a performer. He liked to say he was anS.Ph.D. — Seward Park High School Dropout — although he was passionately self-schooled in the big ideas of the universe.
And what about your mom? Does she expect you to win a Nobel Prize soon?
My mother worked on 74th Street for Dr. Stern, the veterinarian, and has since become something of a real estate mogul. She is still not over me not being a doctor. I tell her I am a doctor. And she says, “Well, not that kind of doctor.” With mybook, “The Elegant Universe,” she got as faras the dedication, which is to her and my father.She tried to read on but told me that it gaveher a headache.
Do you think SAT scores define intelligence?
No. They define the capacity to answer questions on an SAT test.
How would you define intelligence?
Intelligence is the ability to take in information from the world and to find patterns in that information that allow you to organize your perceptions and understand the external world.
What is your goal in life?
I would say in one sentence my goal is to at least be part of the journey to find the unified theory that Einstein himself was really the first to look for. He didn’t find it, but we think we’re hot on the trail.
Why is that so hard? Here’s a unified theory: Everything in the world will get worse.
That may well be true, but our goal is to find theories that make precise numerical predictions that we can test, and that’s a hard theory to test precisely.
Do you think physicists have been unfairly maligned as eggheads?
Is it maligning to be called an egghead? I strive for it. We’re on this planet for the briefest of moments in cosmic terms, and I want to spend that time thinking about what I consider the deepest questions.
INTERVIEW HAS BEEN CONDENSED AND EDITED.
- posted on 01/13/2011
Thanks for this zt. Green is just amazing, cutting edge researcher, but also a popular science book writer. Always wonder how he finds the extra time to write such books beyond serious research.
This interview is inevitably superficial. But I look forward to his new book. I collect his books, without understanding most of topics. Just keep myself updated regarding the TOE.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/magazine/19FOB-Q4-t.html - Re: ZT QUESTIONS FOR BRIAN GREENE 请对新的物理理论感兴趣的朋友进来posted on 01/13/2011
good read.
How would you define intelligence?
Intelligence is the ability to take in information from the world and to find patterns in that information that allow you to organize your perceptions and understand the external world.
- Re: ZT QUESTIONS FOR BRIAN GREENE 请对新的物理理论感兴趣的朋友进来posted on 01/13/2011
Brian Greene早年在做丘成桐博士后时做过很好的工作,但这种工作基本上是不严格的数学,是不是物理现在看来相当渺茫,而数学上除非有突破性进展,否则他的工作也很难变成数学。
从这些早年的工作之后,他就没有做过太多工作了,基本上成了一个媒体明星。他因为早年学过表演,所以在镜头面前侃侃而谈,非常自如,没有其他物理学家比得上他,所以媒体明星很适合他,但对物理学,他的说法只代表一部分人,不代表物理学界。
这里的朋友连无穷级数的收敛性和发散性都弄不清楚,还是不要看他的东东了。 - Re: ZT QUESTIONS FOR BRIAN GREENE 请对新的物理理论感兴趣的朋友进来posted on 01/13/2011
I just received my amazon book orders yesterday.
One is Shing-tung, Yau's" The Shape of inner space"
another is " quantum physics for poets" by Leon M. Lederman.
I have nor started reading them yet, but very interested to find out other people's views.
- Re: ZT QUESTIONS FOR BRIAN GREENE 请对新的物理理论感兴趣的朋友进来posted on 01/13/2011
这里的朋友连无穷级数的收敛性和发散性都弄不清楚,还是不要看他的东东了。
理工人士都该知道这个基本概念,而人文社科人士,不知级数的收敛或发散理所当然。有什么可奇怪的吗?
Greene 的书是科普类,popular science, 不懂级数未必不能看。真要弄懂弦,还得懂M理论,天下又有几个人懂呢? - Re: ZT QUESTIONS FOR BRIAN GREENE 请对新的物理理论感兴趣的朋友进来posted on 01/16/2011
看好戏 wrote:
所以媒体明星很适合他,但对物理学,他的说法只代表一部分人,不代表物理学界。
Yes.
And where is the beef in the interview? - posted on 01/16/2011
Wow, a doc never stops amazing me with the wide interests. Interesting titles! My only wish is that at the end of the day tears and poetry didn't get the upper hand of these authors.
草叶 wrote:
I just received my amazon book orders yesterday.
One is Shing-tung, Yau's" The Shape of inner space"
another is " quantum physics for poets" by Leon M. Lederman.
I have nor started reading them yet, but very interested to find out other people's views.
- Re: ZT QUESTIONS FOR BRIAN GREENE 请对新的物理理论感兴趣的朋友进来posted on 01/16/2011
Well, I am not sure I could understand those book well, I 'll see. Actually I wanted my son who is a freshman in high school to read it.
My truth interest is hiking:) and there are quiet a few physicists in the hiking group, I would try to find out their opinions.
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