Marletto's book is, probably, the first popular book about the new physics frontier. The target audience is a reader with at least some college education and some knowledge about physics. For such a reader, this book is a gem.
Yet, it is not the book for which you could say, "I could not put it down." You have to put it down from time to time because you have to think about what you read. And that is good. For me, it is one of the best books about a physical picture of the world I ever read.
It is not a piece of common knowledge yet, but we are, probably, witnesses to the great new revolution in physics, and not just physics. A new "constructor theory" was born in 2012 with the works of David Deutsch. Chiara started to work on it a few months later. In her book, Chiara called it "a science of can and can't."
Conventional physics includes classical physics, quantum physics, and general relativity. The point of view of this new physics theory is different from conventional physics. "A science of can and can't" does not replace conventional physics as quantum physics did not replace classical physics. "Constructor theory" and conventional physics have different domains of applicability. A huge advantage of this new theory is that it dramatically expands the applicability of no-design physics laws to such domains as information, biology, and more.
"A science of can and can't" points out a possibility of life from no-design physics laws. That, probably, would raise philosophical and religious discussions about life designers to a whole new level. Typically life looks to us as an output of somebody's design. Science did not have a solid ground to prove that no-designed life is possible directly from physics laws. The situation is different now.
So far, knowledge about "a science of can and can't" did not become a piece of common knowledge among physicists, biologists, philosophers, and engineers. The knowledge about the new theory is pretty much limited to a narrow circle of physicists working on that theory. Chiara's book is helping to spread out that knowledge. Yet, much more is needed.
-- Victor Torvich, an author of "Subsurface History of Humanity: Direction of History."
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The Science of Can and Can't: A Physicist's Journey Through the Land of Counterfactuals
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Reviews with images
A Must Read for Anyone Interested in Foundational Science
Quantum mechanics and general relativity, the last two foundational breakthroughs in science, are a century old. Since then we have made tons of progress in more applied science, such as learning to decode and manipulate DNA and RNA, but we have been in a rut when it comes to developing a deeper understanding of such fundamental phenomena as information and heat.In her amazing book Chiara Marletto takes us on a journey into understanding how the structure of most existing scientific theories, which are expressed as states of the world in combination with laws of motion, has contributed to this stalling of progress. As an alternative approach she introduces the reader to Constructor Theory, a fundamental rethinking based on making counterfactuals first class elements. Instead of states and laws of motion. Constructor Theory builds up from possible and impossible transformations (hence the title).What is highly unusual about this book is that it provides an introduction accessible to lay readers to a theory that is currently under active development. This is a bit akin to being able to look over the shoulder of someone like Bohr or Einstein while they were working on their breakthroughs.
Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2021
Reviewed in the United States on May 16, 2021
In her amazing book Chiara Marletto takes us on a journey into understanding how the structure of most existing scientific theories, which are expressed as states of the world in combination with laws of motion, has contributed to this stalling of progress. As an alternative approach she introduces the reader to Constructor Theory, a fundamental rethinking based on making counterfactuals first class elements. Instead of states and laws of motion. Constructor Theory builds up from possible and impossible transformations (hence the title).
What is highly unusual about this book is that it provides an introduction accessible to lay readers to a theory that is currently under active development. This is a bit akin to being able to look over the shoulder of someone like Bohr or Einstein while they were working on their breakthroughs.
A Must Read for Anyone Interested in Foundational Science
Reviewed in the United States on May 16, 2021
Quantum mechanics and general relativity, the last two foundational breakthroughs in science, are a century old. Since then we have made tons of progress in more applied science, such as learning to decode and manipulate DNA and RNA, but we have been in a rut when it comes to developing a deeper understanding of such fundamental phenomena as information and heat.Reviewed in the United States on May 16, 2021
In her amazing book Chiara Marletto takes us on a journey into understanding how the structure of most existing scientific theories, which are expressed as states of the world in combination with laws of motion, has contributed to this stalling of progress. As an alternative approach she introduces the reader to Constructor Theory, a fundamental rethinking based on making counterfactuals first class elements. Instead of states and laws of motion. Constructor Theory builds up from possible and impossible transformations (hence the title).
What is highly unusual about this book is that it provides an introduction accessible to lay readers to a theory that is currently under active development. This is a bit akin to being able to look over the shoulder of someone like Bohr or Einstein while they were working on their breakthroughs.
Images in this review
Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2021
Reviewed in the United States on July 1, 2022
Top reviews from other countries
Formig
Vulgarisation de certaines limites des fondamentaux de la physique selon un angle original
Reviewed in France on March 4, 2024
davide
A deep and insightful view on what reality is
Reviewed in Italy on May 28, 2022
D. C. Goldsmith
Beautifully written description of a new way of looking at Physics
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 3, 2021