Quote on Pandeism (泛自然神論 ...很怪的譯名)

Since God is not a being, he is therefore not intelligible... This means not only that we cannot understand him, but also that he cannot understand himself. Creation (of the Universe) is a kind of divine effort by God to understand himself, to see himself in a mirror. - Jeremiah Genest, John Scottus Eriugena: Life and Works

Book Report: Consciousness Explained by Daniel Dennett

Not too recommended. Although he has some very valid arguments, quoting very valid experiments and thought experiments, he had delivered his points with a drag-on factor of larger than 2.0 (my meaning of saying that he could have written the book in 200 pages while he did it in 400).

His thesis (of his so-called Heterophenomenology view of consciousness) is too controversial to have it concluded in so briefly written chapters in the end of the book. But his references to other subjects (of which he believed were supporting his argument) (such as his evolutionary view of consciousness and meme’s evolution) are quite satisfactory in summarizing the entire field of study.

But I assume there should have books that are a lot more concise in summarizing the field, while the nature of the consciousness is still seems to be in a battlefield of discussion.

Book Report: The Quantum World by Kenneth W. Ford

This book, The Quantum World by Kenneth W. Ford, had a subtitle: Quantum Physics for Everyone. Apparently it lives up to this phase… to a certain extent. If one had Physics 101 in university, one should have no problem understanding the material. One with high school physics, I am not too sure, but can give it a try. Yes, it is a popular science book, so no technical math required, but it still needs critical and abstract thoughts, plus interest in the subject, in order to finish it.

For familiar readers on this kind of books, this is a good all rounder that rounds up everything on the field of quantum physics… without too much of deep touch. A good summary book.

For people who haven’t read anything on this kind of books, of course, I truly recommend people, who considered themselves enthusiast of advance thoughts, to try to acquire the basic concepts of the following terms (from any source possible):-

- Probability wave (that is how particle exists)

- General relativity (some of the greatest thought human is capable of conceiving)

- The uncertainty principle (and try to learn that people are mis-using it in other fields all the time)

- Mass-energy equivalence (that famous equation)

- String (the rubber band)

Once you know all these advance concepts, you will start to appreciate how Fung Shui and Fortune Telling really works, haha.