The Possibilities of the Impossible

Physics of the Impossible: What has been Perceived as Impossible finally has an Explanation

Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku

       What is possible? What is impossible? Technologies that we see again and again in science fiction and even some concepts that we hear about in non-fiction articles, frequently spark these questions in us. We sometimes feel like we know what is possible and whats not automatically, and don't think about how these things might actually work given the rules of physics that we know about today.

      Michio Kaku has done the complete opposite. He begins his book by explaining his categorization of common 'wild ideas' of science fiction by how possible each thing actually is. His first category, is what he calls 'Class I Impossibilities'.  These are technologies that are impossible today, but that do not violate the known laws of physics. Some examples of these are teleportation, phasers/lasers, invisibility, and more. His second, is what he calls 'Class II Impossibilities'. Opposed to the other, these are technologies that sit just outside of our current area of understanding. These would include time machines, hyperspace travel, and travel through wormholes.  So unfortunately, for all my fellow Back to the Future and Star Trek/Wars fans, we are so far out of luck. You've probably guessed what the last one is.  'Class III Impossibilities', are technologies that violate the known physics of today. We are lucky because there aren't many of these.  A couple are perpetual motion machines, and Precognition. Wow! Lucky common SciFi doesn't include many of these!

      A few of my favorites are teleportation phasers/lasers, and shields. The great thing about this book is that Dr. Kaku uses common day pop culture such as Star Trek and Back to the Future, to describe what he is talking about. So, when he discusses the possibility of shields, he mentions the USS Enterprise's shields and describes how they actually might work!

Dr. Kaku Explaining Teleportation

      To give a better example of his writing, I have re-written a part from his description of Lasers. Lasers, are not as simple as they seem to be. In order to create a laser that is lethal, like those in Star Trek and Star Wars, you would need the power of 10 power plants all in a convenient area. That's not so easy to come by, especially with current day technologies. But he did classify them as a Class I, so we know that it could in theory, work soon. So, as mentioned, you would need an insane amount of power create a lethal laser correctly. The idea is very simple, but the act required would take a lot of power too. The way it works, is it super freezes elements so that they conduct huge amounts of electricity. That sounds great! We have built these types of conductors. But unfortunatly the things needed to freeze them are so large, that they take up the size of a small factory. So in conclusion, we need to figure out how to shrink this process to make any such technology possible.

      So what does this all boil down to? In general, I would rate the book a 9/10. The content is so rich and really does a good job explaining to the common day mind how feats in physics could actually work. But because of the richness of the book, it can also confuse the common day mind which is sort of a paradox. So before you delve in, you need to be ready to read back to fully understand what he is talking about. Otherwise, I would highly recommend it, and think its a great read for anyone into the world of Physics.

About the Author:

Dr. Michio Kaku

From his website: 

"Dr. Michio Kaku — theoretical physicist, bestselling author, acclaimed public speaker, renowned futurist, and popularizer of science. As co-founder of String Field Theory, Dr. Kaku carries on Einstein’s quest to unite the four fundamental forces of nature into a single grand unified theory of everything."

To get more lectures and for more information, delve into his website, or check out this cool YouTube channel which has a bunch of videos of his explaining really cool things in physics!