Reality Is Not What It Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity
Review of the book by Carlo Rovelli
To me, this book was clear and cogent for the first half, which was an historical review of major concepts of physics. Then it lost me.
Some of the generalizations were memorable and seemed important (e.g., “reality is relational”), but I couldn’t follow the argument. It wasn’t that I was unconvinced. It was that I had no idea what he was trying to convince me of and how that related to what I had previously believed.
The concluding chapters deal with “loop quantum gravity,” a theory that competes with “string theory” for explaining the nature of the universe or universes. String theory is currently out of favor for lack of confirming evidence, but it was cogently championed by Brian Greene in his books and was the theory endorsed by Sheldon in the Big Bang TV series. I would like to learn more about loop quantum gravity and had hoped this book would fill that gap. No such luck. Rovelli’s latest book, Helgoland, is much clearer and much more memorable, but avoids discussion of these two competing theories.
