This review refers to the 1998 edition of the book, ISBN 0 521 63167 X hardback.



I had originally gotten excited when I found this book. However:



I think the author summed it up best with the final sentence of his book (P282). I quote him thanking "E.M.Wright, for bringing to my attention many aspects of modern quantum theory, especially its wonderful mysteries and paradoxes, bringing me up to date on the subject of measurement theory, and (hopefully) constraining my enthusiastic forays of theory to stay within physical bounds".



In this book - I cant help wonder at the relevance of including sketches of photographs of famous people such as: J.A. Wheeler (P2), R.A. Fisher (P23), L. Brillouin (P66) and finally the author himself (P73). Are the photos a lead up to justify the inclusion of his own portrait ?



I started getting a bit concerned for the veracity of the author's "science" when he began to use an anthropic type of argument, (P218). For example, he states "Thus, the values of (universal) constants are somehow scaled to accommodate the presence of human beings. This is flattering if true: it means that our presence has a profound - if indirect - effect upon physical laws and, hence, the Universe!", (his exclamation mark, not mine).



On a more basic level, there was no nomenclature list for the variables used in the equations throughout the text. This made it a little difficult to follow the meaning of some equations. However, the maths was presented at a good level.



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