Cosmological Koans

Anthony Aguirre is not only a well-known physicist, cosmologist, and mathematician, but also a science popularizer who has appeared as an expert in several documentary films. In his "Cosmological Koans," he decided to explain the structure of our world specifically... as a physicist and resorted to the practice of Zen Buddhist koans for this purpose. Koans are a kind of parable that contains teachings about reality as understood by the adepts of Zen Buddhism. There are several dozen such koans in the book, and each one touches on a specific theme (classical and quantum mechanics, computational theory, entropy, etc.). It is not easy to speak about such complex subjects clearly and engagingly, but the author succeeded: a thoughtful reader is once again convinced that our Universe is a rather mysterious place and that there is a connection between its properties and the existence of humans.