Erwin Schrödinger (1887–1961)

هل حقا كل المعارف قائمة على الإدراك الحسي و هل كلها قائمة على قواعد المنطق ، إن كانت تلك الجمل حقيقية فما تفسير قوانين الفيزياء الكمية و الإلتباس القائم بسببها و هل هناك حقا دورا للعقل والوعي في تشكيل المادة و وجودها ، حتى لو كان دورا جزئيا ثانويا و هذا يأخذنا للسؤال الأكثر show more صعوبة ما هو العقل و ما هو الوعي و هل هو وهما خلقته المادة أم أنه شيء مستقل بذاته.
بالنسبة للجزء المتناول للسيرة الذاتية في نهاية الكتاب فقد كان من الممكن أن يكون أكثر تنظيما و كنت أتمني أن يتحدث شرودنجر عن مغامراته النسائية و لكنه فضل عدم ذكرها في الكتاب. show less

Schrodinger was a very clever physicist, and he applied his intelligence and knowledge to the question of the title. His book first appeared in 1944, but Schrodinger's reasoning shows what kind of structure DNA must be, decades before its structure was discovered or observed. He wrote very clearly for non-scientists, but did not shy away from complex subjects. He does answer the question, in physical terms. He believes the genetic machinery is based on the physics which appears to operate in show more the rest of the universe, which is a fair assumption. He comes to some surprising conclusions about the individual and their relationship to each other and the universe. Very thought-provoking and still very readable and relevant today. show less

"We must therefore not be discouraged by the difficulty of interpreting life by the ordinary laws of physics." Such an understatement. And what an intellect!

Schrödinger's book made the New Scientist's top 25 most influential popular science books, (some of which I've already read but I intend to read all 25 in the next year or so) and I was amazed at his understanding of a field so different from quantum physics. But then, he argues that things are really not so different. I think this show more book, short though it is, may take another read before I can fully grasp what he was getting at. If I do, it will have to be after I read the rest of the list. show less

I had been meaning to read this for a long time. The book is not nearly as exciting as it must have been in the 1940s, many of the ideas are reasonably familiar. And some of the interest one gets is watching Schrodinger grope around the concept of Gene's and digital, discrete information without the benefit of knowing about DNA and how it functions. But other than mistaking the source of gene's for a protein, he did not miss much and another 60 years of molecular biology would have added show more relatively little to his analysis.

All that said, the careful, methodical reasoning from first principles about how biology should ultimately be explicable from first principles was still very exciting. That and learning that some restaurants in the 30s and 40s actually printed calories on the menu. Which Schrodinger objects to, pointing out that our existence is premised not on the consumption of calories but the absorption of negative entropy. show less