I am going to see Michio Kaku talk about his new book, Physics of the Impossible, at a local Borders on thursday. I haven't read the book yet but I plan to buy it at the store. From what i understand, the book is him discussing what technologies that we now consider impossible may be a reality in the future and what may never actually be possible. I don't know if he claims that certain things are impossible but if he does, I may be inclined to disagree. The reason for that is, there is no 100% concrete, indisputable evidence of something being impossible. I'm not sure that I can even imagine how to prove something to be impossible like that without having a Hawking-like Theory of Everything to go by. I don't know, did I skip something in my line of reasoning? Let me know what you think.

Words used in titles of books should not be taken so seriously. Michio, like Carl Sagan before him, is good at presenting science to a general audience. "Impossible" in this context only means currently impossible or improbable in the near future, but in the more distant future that could change.

you get to see michio kaku? lucky! ive always wanted to go see him. id probably try to talk with him also. i also agree with the fact thats its impossible to prove somethings impossible. maybe with science nothing is impossible, wich ive thought about quite a bit, and havent been able to come up with anything that science in some way couldnt do. i could be wrong though.

yeah, im a fan of sagan and michio kaku. seeing him talk and having him sign a book will be cool and once i read the book i'll ponder this some more

Its a good book. He really doesn't say things are impossiable but that you need to be what he calls a "type I, II, III, " civilization to accpomplish what we "type 0" civilization would concider impossiable. Either way he's a great speaker, enjoyable and enthusiatic to listen to. Enjoy

Could you suply a summery of the civilization types?

Alan - You may look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale

Thanks :¬) I shall look later. My browser is telling me clearly incorectly that wiki is down atm.

I've read the book fairly recently, and I have to say. Worth it 100%!

I've always had a love for the future, and particularly physics. Michio is the best author I have found (so far) on these topics. I own most of his books as a matter of fact.

 

Michio, though, never says anything is "impossible" in his book, he simply puts them into classes of IMPROBABILITY Class I being possible and close to reality, Class II being possible but not within out reach, and class III being impossible according to our CURRENT understanding of the universe, and if proven workable, would shake the foundations of modern physics.

I just got home from his talk with my autographed copy of Physics of the Impossible. Hearing him speak in person was a very interesting experience and he made everything extremely easy to grasp. After I read this book I do plan on reading his others. I also hope to hear Dr. Kaku speak in some lectures, possibly as a student. That would be incredible.