Roger Penrose
Author of The Emperor's New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds, and the Laws of Physics
About the Author
Born in England, the son of a geneticist, Roger Penrose received a Ph.D. in 1957 from Cambridge University. Penrose then became a professor of applied mathematics at Birkbeck College in 1966 and a Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University in 1973. Penrose, a mathematician and show more theoretical physicist, has done much to elucidate the fundamental properties of black holes. With Stephen Hawking, Penrose proved a theorem of Albert Einstein's general relativity, asserting that at the center of a black hole there must evolve a "space-time singularity" of zero volume and infinite density, in which the current laws of physics do not apply. He also proposed the hypothesis of "cosmic censorship," which claims that such singularities must possess an event horizon. In 1969 Penrose described a process for the extraction of energy from a black hole, as well as how rotational energy of the black hole is transferred to a particle outside the hole. In addition, Penrose has done much to develop the mathematics needed to unite general relativity, which deals with the gravitational interactions of matter, and quantum mechanics, which describes all other interactions. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Roger Penrose at Festival della Scienza Oct 29 2011
Series
Works by Roger Penrose
Consciousness and the Universe: Quantum Physics, Evolution, Brain & Mind (2011) — Editor — 25 copies
Cuestiones cuanticas y cosmologicas/ Quantum and Cosmologic questions (Spanish Edition) (1995) 8 copies
I BUCHI NERI 3 copies
Kralın yeni usu II : Fiziğin Gizemi 2 copies
Spinors and Space-Time 2 copies
Space-time and Cosmology 1 copy
Relativity 1 copy
Associated Works
What Is Life? : With Mind and Matter and Autobiographical Sketches (1992) — Foreword, some editions — 858 copies
'Nature and the Greeks' and 'Science and Humanism' (Canto original series) (1996) — Foreword, some editions — 90 copies
The Future of Theoretical Physics and Cosmology: Celebrating Stephen Hawking's 60th Birthday (2002) — Contributor — 51 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1931-08-08
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- Colchester, England, UK
- Places of residence
- Colchester, England, UK
London, England, UK
Cambridge, England, UK - Education
- University College London
University of Cambridge (St. John's College ∙ Ph.D ∙ Mathematics | 1958) - Occupations
- mathematician
philosopher of science
professor - Relationships
- Penrose, Lionel S. (father)
Penrose, Roland (uncle)
Rindler, Wolfgang (colleague) - Organizations
- British Humanist Association
University of Oxford - Awards and honors
- Order of Merit (2000)
Fellow, Royal Society (1972)
Dirac Medal (1989)
Copley Medal (2008)
De Morgan Medal (2004)
Knight Bachelor (1994) (show all 15)
Royal Society Royal Medal (1985)
Albert Einstein Medal (1990)
Naylor Prize (1991)
Wolf Prize (1988)
Dannie Heineman Prize (1971)
Fonseca Prize (2011)
Richard R. Ernst Medal (2012)
James Scott Prize Lectureship (1997-2000)
Eddington Medal (1975)
Members
Reviews
I enjoyed the first few chapters on computation/algorithms. The physics chapters however moved way too quickly for my comprehension. The last two chapters where he finally gets around to drawing everything together into his thesis are pretty unconvincing.
A really excellent book, explaining how conscious understanding is beyond something that is computable, and exploring how this might arise from the physical world of atoms, electrons and quantum mechanics, and whether there may be some link with the so-called “measurement problem”. Just brilliant.
I managed to understand (mostly) approximately the first half of the book, but couldn't keep up when Penrose dipped into conformal space-time diagrams. I really liked the opening discussion on entropy and the explanation that early entropy was very special. In a sense the entropy was very low, which is why it can keep increasing, but also that as the universe was very hot at first that the entropy was as high as it could be. Only recommended for students of general relativity and cosmology!
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Statistics
- Works
- 38
- Also by
- 11
- Members
- 8,886
- Popularity
- #2,702
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 100
- ISBNs
- 206
- Languages
- 18
- Favorited
- 16
Chapter 3. Numbers in the physical world. Only in the last century is it evident that the set of integers, including negative numbers, have direct physical relevance, with discovery that protons made up of 3 quarks, one of which has negative charge. Unclear if system of rational numbers has any physical relevance; perhaps in quantum mechanical probabilities, where there's a finite number of possibilities.
Chapter 2. Hyperbolic geometry, illustrated by Escher in this conformal representation in Euclidean perspective. Is the shape of the universe hyperbolic rather than flat (Euclidean), such that a familiar square does not exist on the cosmological scale? Penrose suspects so. He's wrong; according to more recent (2013) discoveries, the universe is indeed flat. A massive cosmological sized square could be drawn through our universe with 4 parallel sides and 4 right angles. Whew.
Chapter 1. The author's prejudices. A portion of each world encompasses the entirety of another world. Most importantly for this book, not all mathematics is relevant to the physical world, but all action in the physical world is governed by mathematical law.… (more)