Physics of the Impossible

This is a pop science book about technology that’s currently the stuff of science fiction: faster-than-light travel, phasers and lasers, telepathy and telekinesis. It explores the theoretical physics that makes them impossible today, and what advances in future might one day make them a reality.

It groups impossibilities into three classes:

1. eminently possible with our current tech (Class I)
2. possible but only for a much more advanced civilisation (Class II)
3. impossible by our current laws of physics (Class III).

I find the framing useful, but otherwise I didn’t love this book. While reading it, I kept getting distracted to go off and do something else. I got more from the literary recommendations than the physics, which was a bit high-level – I think I’d have preferred something that went into more depth.

This has been sitting on the shelves in Mum and Dad’s house for years, so I’m glad to finally strike it off my TBR list.

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