I just finished “Parallel Worlds” by Michio Kaku [Amazon], and was amazed at where technology and science are at right now. I really enjoyed the style, the book was extremely easy to read. Michio makes some attempt to appeal to religion, much more so than Brian Greene, whose books are more detailed and technical, but also very good... Michio goes into a few surreal concepts:
* Kardashev scale - [wikipedia] general method of classifying how technologically advanced a civilization is, first proposed in 1964 by the Russian astronomer Nikolai Kardashev. We're currently about .71 on the Kardashev scale, estimated to be Type I around 2200, Type II around 5200, and Type III around 7800AD.
* Habitable Zones (“Goldilocks Zones“) - [wikipedia] the combination of things that need to be 'just right' to enable life.
How Advanced Can a Civilization Become?
... is a great interview with Michio that explains where we are as a civilization and where we're headed.
News and discussion in cosomology are taking new turns every day (moving as quickly as our technology moves us). Stay on top of it (at least catch the good headlines) at the blogs below.
Cosmology Blogs
* Cosmic Variance (previously: Preposterous Universe)
* Not Even Wrong
* Atdotde
* P.P Cook's Tangent Space
* Luboš Motl's reference frame
* Kasper Olsen
* Dialogos of Eide
Print | posted on Monday, October 31, 2005 11:31 PM