I’ve heard about string theory for some time now, but I’ve never taken the time to learn more about it until now. I basically spent a good few hours watching free videos online, and now I’m telling you about what I did. You’re in for a treat.
First, you might find it interesting to watch these two YouTube videos on the first ten dimensions. They are great illustrations of the concepts found in the first chapter of Rob Bryanton‘s Imagining the Tenth Dimension (book, website). If you get lost after about the 5th or 6th dimension, don’t worry – I did too. Re-watching the later parts helps with understanding a little better, though.
Then comes the better part. If you have time to kill, watch NOVA’s 3-hour The Elegant Universe series on string theory and why it’s such an amazing prospect. There actually used to be only ten proposed dimensions, but after five different string theory ideas were introduced, all with very different math, Edward Witten came along and proposed an eleventh dimension to unite all these ideas.
It’s interesting to note how the strings in string theory actually closely resemble Laozi’s ancient idea of a Dao. If I didn’t hate math so much, I think I’d love to be a string theory physicist.
You might want me to start by explaining the motto at the top of the page. But I can’t start there, because it wouldn’t make sense to anyone, not without first discussing some fundamentals. What I can do is give some grammatical clues. Here’s the same thing again, ignoring grammatical capitalizations, where only proper nouns are capitalized:
real is Nothing
nothing is real
what’s real is what’s Not
Capitalized words include “Nothing” and “Not.” This site is based upon the idea of an “infinite zero.” ‘kay, enough of that for now — let’s move on.
What is this Dao that you hear about? 何謂道？ (For my spiel on my preference for “Dao” instead of “Taoism,” see the FAQs.) 老子 (Lao zi, also “Lao tze” or “Lao tse”) opens the 清靜經 (Qing jing jing) with:
大道無形，生育天地；
大道無情，運行日月；
大道無名，長養萬物。
吾不知其名，強名曰道。
The great Dao has no shape, yet gives birth and nourishes heaven and earth.
The great Dao has no emotion, yet moves all heavenly objects.
The great Dao has no name, yet cultivates all things.
I know not its name; I am forced to call it “Dao.”
and 道德經 (Dao de jing, Tao te ching) with the following:
道可道，非常道。名可名，非常名。
The Dao that can be put into language is not the enduring and unchanging Dao.
The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name.
Dao is in everything. It is the universal Truth. A waterbottle works because it has its own Dao. A knife and fork can coordinate together on your plate because of the Dao they share. You need to use the bathroom every few hours because of an intrinsic reason behind the way your body works, Dao. Some of us are attracted to movies and TV shows because of a Dao behind it all. Continue reading ‘So what’s this whole Dao (道) thing?’
Quote of the moment
"People find life entirely too time-consuming." — Stanislaw J. Lec
Latest comment