Vacuosity

Chaos and Harmony
That's the book that Julia bought me recently. I've been looking forward to it, but now I'm even more excited about it since I began reading.

Author Trinh Xuan Thuan, a Vietnamese physicist dedicates the book to his father, but also to all in search of beauty and harmony. I count myself in that number. In the very first chapter he strikes a chord with me as he talks about the beauty the universe holds. How infinitely complex, yet beautiful in simplicity it can be. Thuan echoes my own feelings as he describes how awesome and incredible the universe truly is. He speaks, too, of the beauty in science and formulae: "If nature is so beautiful, why should the theories that describe it not be so too?"

Huh? Aren't scientists soulless geeks who have no appreciation for aesthetics? French mathematician Henri Poincaré answered it well when he wrote that it is because Nature is so beautiful that scientists are motivated to study it. His words: "I speak of an inner beauty that stems from the harmonious order of the parts." I like to think of it all as one giant design project executed with incredible sophistication and unprecedented production values. Einstein called it magic.

The thing about it though is this: as scientists uncover more details, theories are proven to be fact, and a marvelous clarity dawns on one area, then another, and another. And all these previously unrelated areas of science prove themselves to be, in fact, inextricable from one another; that these strands are woven together into the fabric of our reality. The universe operates under such utter precision, and what appears chaotic turns out to be part of a higher order. As I read the book, I feel that it points to one increasingly inarguable conclusion: the universe is a product of design, and I keep expecting that Thuan will echo my sentiment; but he doesn't. He claims that it is the product of chance, which to me is inexcusable. He does hint at the "theological implications" of all of this, so I'll be interested to see where that leads us. I find it difficult to fathom when the very tone of his writing implies a consciousness as he decribes "the Creative Universe", anthropomorphising it to the point where it seemingly has a will.

That's all I can write right now. I'm falling asleep and my head hurts from thinking about it.

posted by David @ 10:23 p.m.