Review - Physics of the Impossible, by Michio Kaku
Michio Kaku
Normally I'm a little wary of pop-science writers. Maybe it's because they’re sometimes full of quack-science whose sole purpose is to move sales. Other times, I get the feeling that when they're condensing difficult topics down to the essentials that they're missing the true nature of the subject-matter -- or giving me a Coles Notes version of something requiring voluminous tomes full of charts and statistics and diagrams that barely skim the surface. Writing popular science books does not make you a scientist -- and yet there are a lot of writers out there churning out popular science books that can easily become best-sellers. Strolling through the “Science” section at your local Chapters or Barnes and Noble will give you a sample of the sensationalist quasi-science that often passes for top-flight research if only its subject is only controversial enough. But Michio Kaku is one of those rare pop-science writers that can take a dense, theory-driven and abstract subject like quantum physics and truly give you absolutely necessary explanations, analogies and imagery without any gimmicks or portions of doomsday.
Main Thesis / Main Idea:
Given what we now understand in fields like theoretical physics, quantum mechanics, electromagnetism, thermodynamics, etc – how many fantastical science fiction gadgets and technology could potentially be created?
Ideas Addressed:
--Could we potentially create force fields?
--Could we potentially create teleporters?
--Could we potentially create a levitation device?
--Can we ever make someone invisible?
--Are laser guns possible?
--Could we harness the power of anti-matter for explosives or engines?
--How possible is long-term space travel in a starship?
--Could we create sentient robots?
--Is it possible to travel faster than light via hyperspace?
--Could we potentially utilize wormholes in space for slipspace/time travel?
--Are there alternate universes?
--Is it possible to create a perpetual motion machine?
--Is precognition possible?
Despite its theoretical nature, the science is often bulletproof.
Kaku looks rationally at the evidence without pulling many punches.
Stories of theories are interwoven with entertaining anecdotes about their founders.
Very complex theories are explained simply and elegantly.
The desire to write a good book does sometimes translate into optimism about our chances of success at creating these fantastical devices.
Promissory materialism is rampant.
Kaku outlines exactly how and why light sabers (as we know them) are impractical and unlikely to be created...effectively ruining my last childhood dream.
Are we really that close to making people invisible? Creeeepy.
The idea behind "Physics of the Impossible" is simple: let’s take a look at all the fantastical and imaginative science fiction technology from the last several decades in film and fiction to see just how possible they might be, given what we now understand in fields like quantum mechanics, thermodynamics, electromagnetism, and so on. My heart literally skipped a beat when I first considered the possibilities of a Mythbusters-meets-quantum-physics expose on the likelihood of strapping on a handheld laser-cannon within my lifetime.
Remember those anti-matter engines from Star Trek? Or the laser-pistol phasers they used on the show? What about the Delorean from Back to the Future -- could it ever be possible to travel back in time? Perhaps. But only after reaching 88 miles per hour.
Could time travel be possible?
Kaku delves deep into sci-fi lore in search of those seemingly impossible technologies that range from the preposterous -- to a handful that are already within reach inside Caltech labs in the US. He arranges these gadgets into three different classes, based on their level of "impossibility". Class 1 technologies are those that are not only possible, but may be in production or testing phases already. Class 2 represents those technologies which do not quite violate the laws of physics, but are many (probably hundreds of) years away; currently quite far out of reach for our civilization. The final class is devoted to those technologies within science fiction that, alas, have gone straight to the fringe of science and violated the laws of physics as we currently understand them.
You might be surprised which technologies fit into each category.
Technologies that are feasible for research either right now or in the near-future include the likes of force-fields, teleportation devices, anti-matter engines, laser guns, starships, levitation devices and invisibility cloaks.
For the devices which seem hundreds (thousands?) of years away, due to their logistical and scientific obscurity -- although not in violation of the laws of physics -- include time machines, sentient robots, hyperspace travel, interplay of parallel universes and all the concepts surrounding the use of wormholes in space. Class 2 technologies seem very distantly possible simply because we can imagine how, in some ways, devices like those might one day function.
This does not hold for Class 3 technologies, which violate the laws of physics as we know them now. These are things like perpetual motion machines and precognition. But regardless of their classification, Kaku's real message here is that even if things seem impossible today -- don't think that they'll be impossible forever. It must have seemed an impossibility to those in the Middle Ages that we might have radio, television, cell phones, even automobiles at this point. So let’s keep an open mind.
First, we can start with something as seemingly ridiculous as invisibility. Often the favorite perk of the cheapest videogamers and a guarantee of omnipotence for anyone who possesses it, invisibility has been the lore of legend in many a sci-fi flick and fantasy tale. Some of the most popular fantasy legends play off its allure, perhaps most famously right now within Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series, or previously in stories like The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells.
As an aside, you might be interested to know that the cornerstone idea behind Lord of the Rings was quite potentially adapted from a story originally written by Plato. The ring of Gyges was allegorically accounted-for within Plato's Republic – where the poor Gyges discovers a ring in a cave which grants the power of invisibility for anyone who wears it. Sure enough, Gyges soon runs afoul of the townsfolk and uses the power for his own gain, becoming obsessed with gaining more riches and power until he's seduced the country's Queen and killed the King to become his successor. The story is a philosophical riddle posed to the reader so Plato could provide evidence that humanity must be kept moral, not relied on to simply be moral. Given a complete lack of repercussion and punishment, Plato proposes that many would simply give in to their vices and, as such, need to be kept in check by an outside power.
But anyway.
The potential for invisibility comes from our newfound ability to manipulate the properties of optics. Dating back to the work of James Clerk Maxwell and his work moving electromagnetism into the realm of light -- playing off of Michael Faraday's work in electromagnetic fields. Given that magnetic fields can turn into electric fields and vice versa, Maxwell wondered what might be concluded if they were transforming back and forth continuously. The resulting equations illustrated that these transformations occurred at the speed of light, leading Maxwell to propose that light itself may be an electromagnetic disturbance. Ever since this breakthrough, we've seen light as an area of the electromagnetic spectrum and something that we perceive only in given lengths and amounts of a greater continuum.
The electromagnetic spectrum of light.
Because the wavelengths of light we see are those that refract from certain surfaces, scientists are (at this very moment) attempting to develop surfaces that do not reflect wavelengths of light within the visible spectrum. This is by no means a total cloak-of-self, but might serve to offer a chameleon effect.
Metamaterial prototypes.
Another option is one being developed by the American military -- which constitutes a screen one might have in front of oneself with a hi-def camera capturing everything behind you to project onto the screen up front. Moving slowly, and with a constantly-updated video-feed, one might blend enough into their background to be considered nearly invisible (or at the very least, less obvious).
Ultimately, Kaku proceeds into the details of how scientists may develop metamaterials with the properties of nonrefraction we need for an optic camouflage suit -- and covers the physics of how they might render one almost impossible to see.