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Loading... THE DANCING WU LI MASTERS - AN OVERVIEW OF THE NEW PHYSICSby Gary Zukav
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. I can't even dignify this book with an inclusion on my 'science' bookshelf. Surely, the most dangerous rhetoric is that which sounds plausible. 'Dancing Wu Li Masters' does the whole "Ancient Chinese Secret" treatment of particle physics that was so popular during the 1970s. Unfortunately, I worry that too many who read this bestseller were irrevocably taken with an esoteric, transcendental, and ultimately fallacious interpretation of contemporary science. (  ) lanewilkinson | Dec 4, 2009 |  This book was designed to help curious people with no scientific background to understand the new discoveries in physics that were affecting how we view our universe. From the review: “The Wu Li Master does not teach; he ‘dances’ with his student as he knows the universe dances with itself.... Still more amazingly, we find that we are able to dance too—that we have always been part of the dance….” I wonder if Martha Grimes read this book before she wrote The Old Wine Shades. The debate between Jury and Harry about Schrödinger’s Cat could come from Zukav. I love Zukav’s comment “quantum physics is stranger than science fiction.” I also loved this book when I read it in the early '80s. (  ) MusicMom41 | Jan 9, 2009 | Zukav rushes in where (most) physicists fear to tread. The philosophical implications of quantum theory are heady stuff. Strict empiricists concern themselves with tracking down the latest particle - nowadays, the Higgs boson. Zukav respects that endeavor. But his quest leads in a different direction. While giving a superb introduction to quantum physics as of 1979, he draws comparisons to Buddhist and Hindu metaphysics, sweeping away time and space to reveal a world of "a pure, undifferentiated reality." (  ) danielclark | Aug 31, 2008 | Silly Drivel; Welcome to the world of pseudo scientists claiming that quantum physics can prove any theory. Deepak Chopra would be proud. If this book were what it claimed to be, a sort of physics for the layperson, I could get behind that. But its not- it's more about Zukav trying to use physics to prove his favorite flavor of eastern philosophy. Anyone who thinks by reading this book they can hold their own in an actual scientific conversation will be sorely embarrassed. You will be pegged as a new age nut job in the first 5 minutes. 1  bdopkins | Jul 14, 2008 | There is a joke exam question: "Do you understand Einstein's Theory of Relativity? Yes/No". After reading this book, I could answer "Yes". At least, temporarily. If I needed to, I would be confident that if I went back to this book, I could understand it again. (  ) RobertDay | Jun 16, 2008 |  no reviews | add a review
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The Wu Li Master dances with his student. The Wu Li Master does not teach, but the student learns. The Wu Li Master always begins at the center, the heart of the matter.... This book deals not with knowledge, which is always past tense anyway, but with imagination, which is physics come alive, which is Wu Li.... Most people believe that physicists are explaining the world. Some physicists even believe that, but the Wu Li Masters know that they are only dancing with it.
The "new physics" of Zukav's 1979 book comprises quantum theory, particle physics, and relativity. Even as these theories age they haven't percolated all that far into the collective consciousness; they're too far removed from mundane human experience not to need introduction. The Dancing Wu Li Masters remains an engaging, accessible way to meet the most profound and mind-altering insights of 20th-century science. --Mary Ellen Curtin
(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:22 -0400)
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