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The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos
by Brian Greene
by Brian Greene
The first half of this book is an expansion on some of the various multiverse concepts mentioned only briefly in Greene's earlier The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos (which overlap each other a little). I was an enthusiastic reader of those, and enjoyed this deeper look at what the scientific basis of those might be, in somewhat the same style. But for the second half of the book, I want to mention specific chapters, as I feel the value of the writing swings wildly.
7. Science and the Multiverse. This chapter for me raised some troubling issues as to what is actually science and what is interesting philosophical speculation. He goes a bit further out on the limb of the anthropic principle than I am usually comfortable with. Greene reasons about infinities of universes in the a number of different types of multiverse, based on a sample size of 1. It could be we are typical, and the exclusion of so many possibilities is valid, or it could be we are atypical. I mean, it's cool, you know, but not so reasonable. The cover article of the April 2011 issue of Scientific American concerns related issues in inflationary cosmology. See "Quantum Gaps in Big Bang Theory; Why our best explanation of how the universe evolved must be fixed or replaced" by Paul J. Steinhardt, Princeton.
8. The Many Worlds of Quantum Measurement. This is possibly the best explanation of the uncertainty principle I have ever read. It gave me new insights into the Schrodinger equations, and addressed some concerns that have bothered me for years. This chapter alone justified reading the book.
9. Black Holes and Holograms. I think I understand about information and the event horizon of black holes, but the holographic multiverse totally baffled me. Too many analogies and twists and turns in the explanation. I guess you have to do the math to get this one - or take it on faith, which I refuse to do.
10. Universes, Computers, and Mathematical Reality. This chapter concerns epistomology and information theory. What's it doing in a physics book?
Taken as a whole, the book was fascinating and worthwhile - but gets patchy in the second half.
7. Science and the Multiverse. This chapter for me raised some troubling issues as to what is actually science and what is interesting philosophical speculation. He goes a bit further out on the limb of the anthropic principle than I am usually comfortable with. Greene reasons about infinities of universes in the a number of different types of multiverse, based on a sample size of 1. It could be we are typical, and the exclusion of so many possibilities is valid, or it could be we are atypical. I mean, it's cool, you know, but not so reasonable. The cover article of the April 2011 issue of Scientific American concerns related issues in inflationary cosmology. See "Quantum Gaps in Big Bang Theory; Why our best explanation of how the universe evolved must be fixed or replaced" by Paul J. Steinhardt, Princeton.
8. The Many Worlds of Quantum Measurement. This is possibly the best explanation of the uncertainty principle I have ever read. It gave me new insights into the Schrodinger equations, and addressed some concerns that have bothered me for years. This chapter alone justified reading the book.
9. Black Holes and Holograms. I think I understand about information and the event horizon of black holes, but the holographic multiverse totally baffled me. Too many analogies and twists and turns in the explanation. I guess you have to do the math to get this one - or take it on faith, which I refuse to do.
10. Universes, Computers, and Mathematical Reality. This chapter concerns epistomology and information theory. What's it doing in a physics book?
Taken as a whole, the book was fascinating and worthwhile - but gets patchy in the second half.
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