my thoughts and books notes for fabric of reality by david deutsch
This is one of those books that is taking me quite a while to finish because i’ve been intentional about how I read it. I am taking the time to re-read, take notes, and connect with the ideas (As you can see in the photo, it’s well-loved by me lol). I decided to read Fabric of Reality by David Deutsch because I wanted to understand how everything in the world connects. Also, it was a nice change from what I usually read.
FYI - I am not done reading it yet. I still have a couple of chapters left. (I’m currently digesting the chapter about time-travel. Yes, you read that right.. time traveling). I’m just excited to share how much I learned from this book and how it has shaped the way I think. This book had me really questioning, do I really understand how things work?
This book takes system thinking to another level…all the way down to the quantum computation. What I enjoyed most about reading this book is that many of the questions Deutsch asks sound so simple, yet they’re surprisingly hard to explain. For example, what is time and why do we say that time flow? What is common sense, and how did we all agree on something that doesn’t really have a definite answer?
Now how exactly did it change the way I think? Like the examples I mentioned above, I realized I don’t understand a lot of things that I thought I knew: a lot of people don’t either. ..
It’s also made me more curious than I already am, and reminded me to continue challenge ideas, especially ones that are different from. I mean look at Galileo, he defended the idea that Earth moves around the sun (heliocentric theory) which went against the common belief at his time, and ended up under house arrest. Just because something is different doesn’t mean it’s wrong. It’s an opportunity to investigate and find the truth …(hehe with math and science). It’s human nature to find the path of least resistance, and believe what we want to see. After all, our understanding of reality is shaped by our perspective.
It also made me realize why I often enjoy things like baking, programming, and art. At the end of the day, they all involve smaller pieces coming together to create something bigger. In programming, it’s code and logic. In baking, it’s ingredients, ratios, and chemical reactions. In art, it’s color, shape, and technique. Even we’re made up of atoms interacting according to the rules of physics.
I think I just really like understanding how the smaller pieces work together to make the whole thing possible.
Book Notes (Spoiler) of The Fabric of Reality.
David Deutsch is a British physicist at University of Oxford and author of The Fabric of Reality and The Beginning of Infinity. Oxford says he laid the foundations of quantum computation and describes him as a Visiting Professor of Physics whose work includes quantum computation/information and constructor theory. The Fabric of Reality explores the biggest theories we use to explain the world and how Deutsch realized that none of them can fully explain reality on its own. Instead, the four theories are interconnected, woven together to create what he calls the “fabric of reality.”
The Four Strands Used to Explain the World
The theory of Evolution - Darwin/Dawkins
The theory of Universal Computation - Alan Turing
The theory of Knowledge (Epistemology), Explanation, and Understanding - Karl Popper
Quantum Mechanics - Hugh Everrett
One of the things I liked about Deutsch’s approach is he took a problem he had and broke it down to the simplest form — where is this information coming from? What’s considered an explanation, a theory? How do you know if you actually understand something?
He begins with the most simplest thing..an atom, a particle, a photon, light. Light is a form of energy that helps us see the world, and what we see is our brain’s interpretation of what our eyes pick up. But what about shadows and where they come in?
It all starts with the double slit experiment that put generations of physicist in a frenzy. In the early 1800s, scientist Thomas Young had a hunch light moved as a wave, not as particles, which was the popular belief at the time. So he ran an experiment: he took a screen with two-slits and shone a light through, onto a surface behind it. The assumption was two slits means two beams of light right? Nope, Young’s experiment showed light created an interference patterns; where a photon interacts with it own “shadow” counterpart.
Then comes Deutsch’s interpretation: if individual photons are still producing interference, what exactly are they interacting with? He uses Everett’s many-worlds interpretation to argue that the “shadow” photons interfering with them exist in other branches of the multiverse.
Notes: Circling back to an epistemological problem: if something we cannot directly observe affects something we can observe, what are we justified in saying exists?
** to be continued (i promise! life has been busy!)