Question regarding two books on quantum gravity

[tom.stoer]

Has anybody studied

Foundations of Space and Time
edited by George Ellis et al.
http://www.cambridge.org/gb/knowled...ndations of Space and Time/?site_locale=en_GB

or

Approaches to Quantum Gravity
edited by Daniele Oriti
http://www.cambridge.org/gb/knowledge/isbn/item1173492/?site_locale=en_GB

Any comments or recommendations?

 

[marcus]

Has anybody studied

Foundations of Space and Time
edited by George Ellis et al.
http://www.cambridge.org/gb/knowled...ndations of Space and Time/?site_locale=en_GB

or

Approaches to Quantum Gravity
edited by Daniele Oriti
http://www.cambridge.org/gb/knowledge/isbn/item1173492/?site_locale=en_GB

Any comments or recommendations?

Many of the articles which were collected (from various authors) in these books are available online at ARXIV dating from around 2006-2008 for the Oriti, and later (around 2009) for the Ellis. I haven't gotten my hands on a copy of either book partly because my curiosity was satisfied by reading preprints.

For me the books have a social and cultural importance because they are "ecumenical"---they represent an effort to get the different QG tribes and sects together listening to each other and sharing ideas.

George Ellis (a good and wise person) explicitly expressed this intent as his wish for a conference/workshop held in his honor on the occasion of his 70th birthday, in 2009.
However the Ellis book which resulted from this 2009 workshop did not perhaps have the strongest representation technically. It was not always the foremost people who were at the workshop, as I recall. I could be wrong but that's how I recall it. This doesn't matter since the value of the book is "ecumenical" as I see it. It might not be the best as an authoritative up-to-date presentation of the various QGs.

You can see the "ecumenical" trend continuing and strengthening. For example look at the makeup of the scientific advisory committee for Loops 2013. It has string folk, CDT, AsymSafe etc... broadly QG representative. That doesn't mean the conference itself will be (we don't know, there might be surprises) but at least the advisory committee is.

I see more mixing occurring at some smaller conferences too. Like this month's "Experimental Search for QG" conference and next month's "Perspectives on Fundamental Cosmology" workshop at NORDITA.

What parts of Oriti's book do you see as especially valuable? I like the Q&A feature at the end of sections. Also some of the articles. But it is a "mixed bag" so to speak. My two cents opinion anyway.