Book Review: The God Equation: The Quest for a Theory of Everything by Michio Kaku
The God Equation is Michio Kaku’s term for the ultimate theory, “the holy grail of physics, a single formula from which, in principle, one could derive all other equations, starting from the Big Bang and moving to the end of the universe.” In this book, Kaku traces the history of the search for this equation, beginning with Isaac Newton’s discovery of the laws of motion and gravity, and moving onward through Einstein’s theory of relativity, Michael Faraday and James Maxwell’s explanation of electricity and magnetism, and the contributions of Schrodinger, Heisenberg, Planck, Hawking, and others to the development of quantum theory and string theory. Kaku’s own area of expertise is string theory, one of the latest iterations in the quest for the ultimate explanation.
According to Kaku, an essential aspect of the God equation is symmetry. “To a physicist, beauty is symmetry. Equations are beautiful because they have a symmetry – that is, if you rearrange or reshuffle the components, the equation remains the same.” Through the development of the theory of gravitation, the theory of relativity, quantum theory, and string theory, physicists have always sought symmetry in their answers to the mysteries of the universe. You don’t have to worry, though, if, like me, you have not studied much advanced mathematics or physics. There are very few equations presented in the body of the text, but if you are interested you can find a few in the notes. Kaku is intent upon providing a general overview of the research in this area for those who have not had much training in it. Even so, I have to confess that I did not understand everything in The God Equation. Kaku is summarizing a vast amount of research history in just a few hundred pages, and sometimes he lost me as he jumped from one topic to the next.
The value I derive from this book is in its clarification of the logical leaps from Newton to Einstein to quantum theory, string theory, and beyond. It is also fascinating as Kaku delves into brief explanations of black holes, wormholes, dark matter, time travel, the creation of the universe, and the blackness of the night sky. I had never considered this last topic before. As Kaku writes, “If we start with a universe that is infinite and uniform, then everywhere we look into space our gaze will eventually hit a star. But since there are an infinite number of stars, there must be an infinite amount of light entering our eyes from all directions. The night sky should be white, not black.” The answer was finally provided by Edgar Allen Poe, of all people, who besides writing mystery and horror stories was also an amateur astronomer. He posited that “the night sky is black because the universe has a finite age.” Kaku adds that “telescopes peering at the farthest stars will eventually reach the blackness of the Big Bang itself.”
The book ends in uncertainty. Unfortunately, the God equation has not yet been discovered and experimentally proved. In fact, as Kaku explains it, the closer physicists seem to get to the answer, the more they uncover amazing new truths that add to the complexity of the conundrum. Who knows? Maybe the universe (or the multiverse) is set up as a never-ending puzzle, an entertaining and amusing diversion that will fascinate physicists for millennia to come. For those of you who are interested in assessing the current level of progress, this book is highly recommended.
