Review of The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos by Brian Greene
I stopped reading this book on page 87, and I'm going to have to put it in my Goodreads category of books-I-gave-up-reading. Here's why:
Up to this point the author is starting with his conclusions, which is, in his term, that reality is a Quilted Multiverse. (This is the Many Worlds hypothesis.) In an infinite space, he writes, there are an infinite number of universes, and the particles that formed one (ours) are in every other one. In other words: you exist an infinite amount of times somewhere "out there." To this point in the text he's provided no proof of his claim, only his description that this is so. And I really appreciate his descriptions and explanations. Some really bring them to life; like his describing the multiverse bubbles as the air pockets in a block of Swiss cheese. Neat, but he presents it as a logical conclusion. It's anything but that. It's illogical.
How is this science?
Disappointed, I put the book down. I read several other reviews on Amazon and found one of three other 1-star reviews that provided confirmation of my suspicions. String theory is untestable, and so it is a metaphysical belief, not actual science. (I had no idea there was such a war going on within physics today; some googling led me to several Wikipedia pages of various authors, blogs, and articles; wow.)
Such a shame, I was really looking forward to reading this book.
Did not like it
2/5 Amazon
1/5 Goodreads
Up to this point the author is starting with his conclusions, which is, in his term, that reality is a Quilted Multiverse. (This is the Many Worlds hypothesis.) In an infinite space, he writes, there are an infinite number of universes, and the particles that formed one (ours) are in every other one. In other words: you exist an infinite amount of times somewhere "out there." To this point in the text he's provided no proof of his claim, only his description that this is so. And I really appreciate his descriptions and explanations. Some really bring them to life; like his describing the multiverse bubbles as the air pockets in a block of Swiss cheese. Neat, but he presents it as a logical conclusion. It's anything but that. It's illogical.
How is this science?
Disappointed, I put the book down. I read several other reviews on Amazon and found one of three other 1-star reviews that provided confirmation of my suspicions. String theory is untestable, and so it is a metaphysical belief, not actual science. (I had no idea there was such a war going on within physics today; some googling led me to several Wikipedia pages of various authors, blogs, and articles; wow.)
Such a shame, I was really looking forward to reading this book.
Did not like it
2/5 Amazon
1/5 Goodreads
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