The Dancing Wu Li Masters
|
The Dancing Wu Li Masters (ISBN 055326382X) by Gary Zukav (pub. 1980) is one of the most popular new age books written on quantum physics interpretations. The subject is described in non-mathematical terms to enable the widest possible readership to grasp the trends in physics research and theory current as of the mid-1970's.
The phrase 'Wu Li' in the title refers to one possible Chinese translation of the word 'physics', as translated by the Tai Chi teacher Al Huang. The chapters of the book are each titled with other alternative translations of 'Wu Li', such as 'Nonsense' and 'I Clutch My Principles'.
The author participated in a physics conference of eastern and western scientists at Esalen Institute, California, in 1976 and used the occasion as material for his book. The physicist Jack Sarfatti contributed greatly to the content of the book, as well as the Tai Chi teacher and author Al Huang. Zukav renegged on his financial payments to Sarfatti without whom he never could have written the book.
The book came out in 1980, before many of the recent developments in String Theory, so it should not be considered as up-to-date with respect to physics, although it remains interesting with respect to the philosophical commonality between western science and eastern mysticism.
See also
The Fabric of Reality, David Deutsch ISBN 014027541X
The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels Between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism by Fritjof Capra ISBN 1570625190
Quantum Reality: Beyond the New Physics by Nick Herbert ISBN 0385235690
Taking the Quantum Leap by Fred Alan Wolf ISBN 0060963107
The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene for a more up-to-date discussion of physics and cosmology. ISBN 0375708111
'Science Synchronicity and Soul-Making' by physicist Victor Mansfield, for a more up-to-date discussion on the philosophical implications of quantum physics.
Space-Time and Beyond: Toward an Explanation of the Unexplainable, by Bob Toben, Jack Sarfatti, and Fred Alan Wolf, 1982, ISBN 0525473998. An accessible presentation of the Quantum Paradoxes done in comic book form.
Space-Time and Beyond II (2002), Jack Sarfatti, (His autobiography Destiny Matrix has supplementary material, including Sarfatti's theory that derived Einstein's gravity along with the repulsive "dark energy" from a modification on chaotic inflationary cosmology.)
"The Universe in a Nutshell", Stephen Hawking
"The Road to Reality", Roger Penrose