# Amanda Gefter

Amanda Gefter (born 16 August 1980) is an American journalist and science writer, specializing in fundamental physics, cosmology, and cognitive science. Her work has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Atlantic, Nautilus, Nature, New Scientist, Scientific American, Sky & Telescope, Astronomy, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. She has a master’s degree in the history and philosophy of science from the London School of Economics. Her 2014 book Trespassing on Einstein's Lawn won the 2015 book of the year award from Physics World.

## Quotes

* Studies of the quantum properties of black holes by Stephen Hawking and Jacob Bekenstein in the 1970s led to the development of the holographic principle, which makes the maximum amount of information that can fit into any volume of space-time proportional to roughly one quarter the area of its horizon. The largest number of informational bits a universe of our size can hold is about 10$^{122}$.
** (17 August 2013)"Mind-bending mathematics: Why infinity has to go. New Scientist". New Scientist 219 (2930): 32–35. DOI:10.1016/S0262-4079(13)62043-6.
* … The whole expanding universe was described by the equations of general relativity, Einstein's theory of space and time and gravity, but the singularity was the one place where the equations couldn't go. If general relativity provides a map of the universe, the singularity is the uncharted spot that the cartographers aren't sure how to draw. Here be dragons. Quantum dragons, most likely. The singularity suggested that general relativity would eventually give way to a more fundamental theory, but physicists already knew that Einstein's theory wasn't compatible with quantum mechanics, the theory that describes the behavior of matter at extremely small scales. In their day-to-day lives physicists could ignore the problem by keeping the two theories separate, using general relativity to describe how big things such as planets and galaxies distort spacetime and using quantum mechanics to describe the strange dice game subatomic particles play. But at the end of the day, the separation can't hold up.
** Trespassing on Einstein's Lawn: A Father, a Daughter, the Meaning of Nothing, and the Beginning of Everything (1st ed.). Random House Publishing Group. 2014. pp. 11–12. ISBN 034553963X.
* ... now I know that physics is about uncovering the reality behind appearances. It's about glimpsing this deep and hidden architecture of existence itself. It's about embracing that the world is not what it seems and that everything is stranger and simpler than we can imagine, and yet comprehensible.
** (December 9, 2014)"Trespassing on Einstein's Lawn | Amanda Gefter | Talks at Google". YouTube. (quote at 4:36 of 49:55)
* Putnam's insight was that quantum theory requires us to conceive of a world in which cognition is an active, participatory process — one that’s not mediated by internal representations. And so that’s what Putnam set out to do. He wanted to create a model of the brain and a philosophy of mind that replaced the old word “observer” with the new word “participator”.
** (April 23, 2021)"John Wheeler, Peter Putnam, and the Problem of Multiple Observers". Christopher Fuchs. (quote at 20:55 of 41:39; Amanda Gefter, UMass Boston Physics Colloquium, 13 April 2021)

## External links

* Encyclopedic article on Amanda Gefter on Wikipedia