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The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos

Brian Greene

4.09 · Rating details · 16,971 ratings · 718 reviews

From the best-selling author of The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos comes his most expansive and accessible book to datea book that takes on the grandest question: Is ours the only universe?

There was a time when universe meant all there is. Everything. Yet, in recent years discoveries in physics and cosmology have led a number of scientists to conclude that ...more

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Hardcover, 384 pages

Published January 25th 2011 by Knopf (first published January 1st 2011)

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Dec 14, 2010 Alex rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science, 2012, favorite-reviews

So my buddy Ryan introduced me and Jo to his new girlfriend this past weekend and she's a mathematician (who is clearly not very good at it, because Ryan with a girlfriend doesn't add up - ZING!), so I was like "Do you think we're all avatars in a big futuristic game of The Sims?" and her face just lit up, like "I've been waiting for someone to ask me this all my life!" She is adorable, and we geeked out about parallel universes for like half an hour while Ryan and Jo made big exaggerated So my buddy Ryan introduced me and Jo to his new girlfriend this past weekend and she's a mathematician (who is clearly not very good at it, because Ryan with a girlfriend doesn't add up - ZING!), so I was like "Do you think we're all avatars in a big futuristic game of The Sims?" and her face just lit up, like "I've been waiting for someone to ask me this all my life!" She is adorable, and we geeked out about parallel universes for like half an hour while Ryan and Jo made big exaggerated sighing noises. "Hey, just let us know when you want to talk about something that's not the nerdiest bullshit ever." "Okay, that will be never because we're best friends now." I said that. Ryan's girlfriend probably thinks I'm just okay.

And that's why this is a great book: because it's wicked fun to talk about all this shit. Whee, multiverse! says my avatar. You ever hear that theory that once computers get to the same complexity as human brains, they'll sortof automatically develop consciousness? Scientists think that because otherwise there's something we totally don't get about consciousness, and who needs that? Lame. So here's the thinking: if that's true, then we'll probably have it by around 2020. And once we have artificial intelligence, what are we going to do with it? Put it in video games, obviously. We know this because we are people, and that's the kind of shit people do. So we're going to have these virtual worlds, just like The Sims except the people in it will actually be aware, and we'll all play these virtual world games on our Playstations. And that means there'll be like thousands of virtual worlds with conscious inventions in them interacting with each other. And that means that only one of all the worlds featuring conscious beings is the real one; the rest are video games. And that means that odds are the world you're reading this in isn't the real one. Just statistically, it's more likely that you're a collection of sprites that some pimply teenager created near-arbitrary rules for.

That's nuts, right? Crazy nuts! Batty! Among other things, it means that there's a God after all, because whatever pimply teenager is playing this particular game that I'm in can delete this game whenever he wants, or make an asteroid hit Brazil, or make Kate Middleton show her boobs. For most intents and purposes, that is God.

Also, it raises this question: is Pimply God doing a good job? Is this particular world a good one? Or is he an asshole? If all the sim worlds were ranked from most pleasant to least, where would this one fall? If you set a bunch of AIs up in a fairly nice place, will they probably fight? Is there like an Aggression Slider so you can make us more or less likely to fight? What would this world be like if Pimply God was deep in the throes of puberty? Or is this it?

Ryan's girlfriend thinks we are most likely virtual - seriously, serious people think this whole thing makes perfect sense - but I think I lost her with the puberty bit.

This is the craziest and last theory in Hidden Reality. There are eight others, and they're not mutually exclusive. The least crazy theory is that space is infinite, and infinite is a lot, so somewhere beyond what we can ever see, given the speed of light, there will be a world just like ours, and infinite worlds just like ours, because infinite means everything, including a world where everything happens and will happen exactly like it has and will in this world you're in now with the sole exception that, instead of reading this review, you personally decided to make a sandwich.

Infinite is a lot.

Everything in Hidden Reality is theoretical, so there's no pressing reason for you to read this book. (Or any of the rest of the books, while we're on the subject. Pimply God read Shakespeare and was like "Ha, that's cool - it rhymes and everything, sometimes! I mean, it's terrible compared to real-life literature, but not bad for artificial intelligence.") But whee, multiverse! Four stars, says my avatar, as Pimply God happens to narrow his focus on my apartment just to see what's going on near Boston and says "That sim there just called me pimply! Here's a random asteroid, how ya like me n ...more

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Apr 27, 2011 Manny rated it really liked it

Recommended to Manny by: Mary

Shelves: science, multiverse

I've now read three books about the multiverse in rapid succession: the first two were Rees's Before The Beginning (1996) and Davies's The Goldilocks Enigma (2007). This one came out just a few months ago, so I'm hopefully up to date for the moment.

Well: I'm starting to feel quite familiar with the arguments, but each book has an interestingly different slant. Rees concentrates on presenting the experimental evidence for the existence of other universes - basically, the physical constants of I've now read three books about the multiverse in rapid succession: the first two were Rees's Before The Beginning (1996) and Davies's The Goldilocks Enigma (2007). This one came out just a few months ago, so I'm hopefully up to date for the moment.

Well: I'm starting to feel quite familiar with the arguments, but each book has an interestingly different slant. Rees concentrates on presenting the experimental evidence for the existence of other universes - basically, the physical constants of our own universe appear to be tuned exactly right for life to be possible, it's unlikely that this is just chance, so we're probably one of many universes - and explicitly avoids philosophical speculation. Davies recapitulates Rees's arguments, but then goes overboard on philosophy; whatever he says, it's clear that he very much wants there to be a spiritual dimension to the story. Greene is similar to Davies, but his obsession is with string theory. He's spent his life working on it, and he desperately wants it to be part of the final explanation.

Despite Greene's exaggerated love for all things stringy, I liked this book and found it well worth reading. The author presents nine different theories which in one way or another involve multiple versions of the universe. Most of these I had already seen in Davies, but I found Greene's exposition clearer and more detailed. In particular, I thought his chapter on "inflation" was the best account I had read of this mysterious process, which got our universe started by exponentially blowing it up, in a minute fraction of a second, from the size of a proton to a macroscopic scale. People now seem to understand inflation moderately well, and there are mathematical models which can be checked against the detailed maps of the cosmic background radiation which have been constructed over the last 10 years.

I also thought the chapter on the Many Worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics was excellent; I hadn't understood that it's just a historical accident that the Copenhagen interpretation is the mainstream one. As Greene points out, it's actually more conservative to think of quantum processes as continually splitting off new universes, each of which is equally "real". The Copenhagen interpretation, with its notion of the collapse of the wavefunction, is the one which involves hand-waving and mystical invocations of the privileged role of the "observer". If you just look at the underlying mathematics, the Schrödinger equation, the Many Worlds interpretation is the straightforward way to translate the numbers into words.

As already noted, Greene wants string theory to be in there, so there are chapters on "brane-worlds" (our universe is floating in a higher dimensional space), the "Cosmic Landscape" (there is a multitude of universes reflecting different flavors of string theory) and the Holographic Universe (we are the projection of a lower-dimensional process on a distant boundary surface). Like Davies, he also speculates about the possibility that our universe is a simulation running in some gigantic computer, or that we live in a "Platonic Universe", where mathematical theories exist simply by virtue of being consistent, and there is no other reality.

All of these ideas were fun to read about, but I felt they were somewhat beside the point; I was surprised not to see him focussing on what, at least to me, seems like the obvious account. As he says, the Many Worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics is perfectly respectable, and inflation has accumulated a great deal of credibility as a theory of how the universe got started. Inflation starts at a scale where quantum processes are all-important. We can actually see the fossils of those quantum processes in the unevenness of the background radiation.

Putting those two things together, we already have a multiverse theory that's mainstream to the point of being conservative. The quantum realities which split off during the very early history of the universe will be substantially different from each other. The question is whether they're going to be different enough, since we want them to differ with respect to things including settings of the physical constants. This part is still speculative. But you need it anyway in order to make most of the other theories work, and there seem to be moderately well-worked out accounts of how it could happen. I am sure people must be exploring in this direction.

It sounds incredible when you write it down, but we appear to be on the edge of constructing a coherent scientific theory of Life, The Universe and Everything. I'm really curious to see what happens next.
...more

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Oct 18, 2018 Manuel Antão rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2011

If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review.

Blood Farts: "The Hidden Reality - Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos" by Brian Greene

(Original review, 2011)

The Multiverse is awesome.

We all look, we find what we may, but we all have to choose what we look at more deeply than we will look at the rest of what there is. Yes, I refuse to spend much time on multiverse hypotheses; I used to spend a lot of time looking at quantum field theory instead (and doing QFT, ...more

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Aug 16, 2011 Jason Furman rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nonfiction, science, physics

Brian Greene really is one of the best popular science writers. His books give you a real sense of being guided by someone who genuinely knows what they're talking about, who uses metaphors effectively, and who effectively weaves the traditional material in with the new points he is making. He also approaches science with curiosity untainted by dogmatism. He is very much open to speculation, but equally open to the speculation not panning out.

This book is about different concepts of the Brian Greene really is one of the best popular science writers. His books give you a real sense of being guided by someone who genuinely knows what they're talking about, who uses metaphors effectively, and who effectively weaves the traditional material in with the new points he is making. He also approaches science with curiosity untainted by dogmatism. He is very much open to speculation, but equally open to the speculation not panning out.

This book is about different concepts of the Multiverse. Greene devotes a chapter to each of what he defines as the major types and then has one or two additional chapters on questions like whether these theories are testable and broader implications.

The multiverse's he consider include the quilted multiverse (which is just our universe extending out infinitely, leaving the possibility of endless accidental repetition -- which follows from some cosmological theories that follow the big bang), the inflationary multiverse (a product of repeated episodes of inflationary expansion, which follows from the addition of inflation to the previous theories), three multiverses that come from different versions of string theory (brane, cyclic and landscape), a quantum multiverse (which is Everett's Many Worlds interpretation, and is more conceptual), a holographic multiverse (which comes from the study of black holes and string theory), and simulated and ultimate multiverses (the last two coming from computer simulations and a deeper mathematical world).

In every case, Greene does a good job of describing the physical theories that lead, usually by accident, to the implication that there is a particular type of multiverse, discusses the scientific status of those theories, and addresses issues around testing them. In the end, Greene has some sympathy with Steven Weinberg's adage that the problem with physics is that we do not take our theories/equations seriously enough as a real description of the world. The example he cites is the Positron, which was a byproduct of Dirac's solution of a math problem that turned out to be real. Greene clearly leans towards the view that the same is true of the multiverse, but he doesn't do much to tip his hand about which one. ...more

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Sep 18, 2012 Michael rated it it was amazing

Shelves: astronomy, physics, science, non-fiction

Outstanding update of the current status of modern physics and the projections of parallel universes from various advances. I would have loved to have Greene for a teacher in college. The tour is suitable for laymen with some understanding of physics, as he provides plenty of concrete examples to explain challenging concepts and gives an opportunity to skip more technical sections. For the more knowledgeable reader, a copious appendix is available, replete with the relevant math equations.

...more

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Jan 23, 2017 Annie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science

Brian = bae. Definitely one of the more accessible cosmology writers of today. Any book discussing quantum field theory and string theory is going to require your undivided attention, of course, but its much more readable than many others, especially if youre fond of analogies.

Turns out, theres lots of theories that give rise to the possibility of alternate realities:

Theory 1, aka Quilted Multiverse: If the universe is infinite (it might not be, but if it is) then at some point in the distant, ...more

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Oct 16, 2011 Mary Overton added it

It took me 8 months to read this book. My system is to read until my head is ready to explode, then stop for a month, then restart at the beginning. On the 4th attempt, I made it to the last page (or rather, Kindle location.) ...no guarantee of how much was actually understood. This is a book that pried open my mind. The brain is sore and ecstatic from the experience.

From the last chapter,
Table 11.1 Summary of Various Versions of Parallel Universes
1. Quilted Multiverse: Conditions in an infinite It took me 8 months to read this book. My system is to read until my head is ready to explode, then stop for a month, then restart at the beginning. On the 4th attempt, I made it to the last page (or rather, Kindle location.) ...no guarantee of how much was actually understood. This is a book that pried open my mind. The brain is sore and ecstatic from the experience.

From the last chapter,
Table 11.1 Summary of Various Versions of Parallel Universes
1. Quilted Multiverse: Conditions in an infinite universe necessarily repeat across space, yielding parallel worlds.
2. Inflationary Multiverse: Eternal cosmological inflation yields an enormous network of bubble universes, of which our universe would be one.
3. Brane Multiverse: In string/M-theory's braneworld scenario, our universe exists on one three-dimensional brane, which floats in a higher-dimensional expanse potentially populated by other branes - other parallel universes.
4. Cyclic Multiverse: Collisions between braneworlds can manifest as big bang-like beginnings, yielding universes that are parallel in time.
5. Landscape Multiverse: By combing inflationary cosmology and string theory, the many different shapes for string theory's extra dimensions give rise to many different bubble universes.
6. Quantum Multiverse: Quantum mechanics suggests that every possibility embodied in its probability waves is realized in one of a vast ensemble of parallel universes.
7. Holographic Multiverse: The holographic principle asserts that our universe is exactly mirrored by phenomena taking place on a distant bounding surface, a physically equivalent parallel universe.
8. Simulated Multiverse: Technological leaps suggest that simulated universes may one day be possible.
9. Ultimate Multiverse: The principle of fecundity asserts that every possible universe is a real universe, thereby obviating the question of why one possibility - ours - is special. These universes instantiate all possible mathematical equations.
Kindle location: 6079-6106

"....scientific discovery has shifted humankind's perspective on its place in the cosmic order. Over the course of nearly five centuries, the Copernican progression has been a dominant theme.... experience abounds with clues suggesting that we're a central hub around which the cosmos revolves. But the objective methods of scientific discovery have steadily corrected this perspective. At nearly every turn, we've found that were we not here, the cosmic order would hardly differ. We've had to give up our belief in earth's centrality among our cosmic neighbors, the sun's centrality in the galaxy, the Milky Way's centrality among the galaxies, and even the centrality of protons, neutrons, and electrons - the stuff of which we're made - in the cosmic recipe. There was a time when evidence contrary to long-held collective delusions of grandeur was viewed as a frontal assault on human worth. With practice, we've gotten better at valuing enlightenment.
"The trek in this book has been toward what may be the capstone Copernican correction. Our universe itself may not be central to any cosmic order.... The idea that reality based on a multiverse extends the Copernican pattern and perhaps completes it is cause for curiosity. But what elevates the multiverse concept above idle speculation is a key fact that we've now repeatedly encountered. Scientists have not been on a hunt for ways to extend the Copernican revolution.... Instead, scientists have been doing what they always do: using data and observations as a guide, they've been formulating mathematical theories to describe the fundamental constituents of matter and the forces that govern how those constituents behave, interact, and evolve. Remarkably, when diligently following the trail these theories blaze, scientists have run smack into one potential multiverse after another."
Kindle location: 6109-6128 ...more

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Mar 03, 2011 Keith Akers rated it really liked it

This was a good book. For a popularization, this had some pretty heavy science in it. I'm a pretty smart guy and will have to re-read it to really have a better understanding. Greene really is a good writer, because even when you don't quite understand what he's talking about, he gives you enough of the broad overview so that you can go to the next section and feel that you haven't missed anything critical.

The section on "quilted multiverses" was pretty straightforward and I can claim to have This was a good book. For a popularization, this had some pretty heavy science in it. I'm a pretty smart guy and will have to re-read it to really have a better understanding. Greene really is a good writer, because even when you don't quite understand what he's talking about, he gives you enough of the broad overview so that you can go to the next section and feel that you haven't missed anything critical.

The section on "quilted multiverses" was pretty straightforward and I can claim to have understood it. The next few parallel universes were a bit trickier, but I was with the program. When I got to multiple dimensions and the "landscape multiverse" with so many possible shapes to the extra dimensions that "kazillions" doesn't even begin to cover the number, this was something I wasn't quite so sure that I could explain to my wife.

I'm not sure I want to challenge Brian Greene on any scientific question, but the one point I would have some questions about were the simulated multiverses (as in the movie "The Matrix"). I think he may be shortchanging Goedel and Turing. I'm not convinced that a simulated multiverse sufficient to model all the creatures on our planet would not consume so much energy that it would be in effect less probable than an actual universe. My experience as a programmer is that the complexity of programs and the resources needed to design them go up exponentially with the size of the program. If that is the case, creating a universe might actually take less energy than modeling one. We would need to automate the process of computer design, but this essentially can't be done, and that's the point of Turing's thesis. There may be a practical upper limit on the size of simulated universes that we (or future super-intelligent beings in our universe) could ever design. This may be my confusion, but I'd like just a little more explanation here.

So, this book is recommended, and I hope to come back to it.

One final thing: though the book never utters a word about it, Brian Greene is a vegan. That anybody this smart is a vegan says something, I think, about where we should be headed as a species.
...more

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Jan 04, 2012 Mike (the Paladin) rated it liked it

The first book I had by Brian Greene was The Fabric of the Cosmos. I got it not long after it was releases and a friend asked me if he could borrow it not long after I received it in the mail, before I'd read it.

I said yes.

I didn't get the book back for several years, Dr. Greene had written more by then. Oh well.

This book (as is Dr. Greene's wont) is an attempt to take highly technical and advanced ideas and make them understandable to "us", "we", "the great unwashed", "the masses". I suppose ...more

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Jan 13, 2012 R.L. rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, science, cosmology, kindle

This is a pretty dense book. Some of the footnotes have footnotes!

I'm sure it must be very difficult for an author of a popular science book to walk the line between, on the one hand, providing enough technical information to make the arguments cogent, and on the other, miring the reader in a bog of difficult concepts and facts. My hat's off to Dr. Greene for giving it a try on some of the most out-there ideas that can be imagined.

Some very interesting ideas, but ultimately, for me this was ...more

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Feb 08, 2011 Cassandra Kay Silva rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science, all-time-favorites

Finally! Brian Greene you are the master at delivering exactly what I have naturally been pondering and lack the scientific mind to undertake. Thank heavens it wasn't another science book that I had to sit through the whole of physics from Einstein onward. Way to know your audience. We are sick of the constant repeating of every major scientific breakthrough of modern times. We have heard it all a dozen times, we know the history and want to know what is going on now! Yet again you deliver in ...more

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Oct 06, 2011 David rated it liked it

Shelves: science, physics, astronomy, audiobook

Much of this book describes speculative hypotheses about parallel universes. Some of the explanations--for example, the bubble universes--really made my head hurt. The explanation for why string theory requires ten space-time dimensions seems a bit glib to me. Some of the analogies--imagine a bunch of clones of Cartman from South Park standing atop mountain peaks--are just too silly to take seriously. The description of black holes and entropy is fascinating. Some parts of the book are rather ...more

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Dec 11, 2011 Sara rated it it was ok

Shelves: non-fiction

I wanted to get a glimpse of the current state of physics' understanding and theories about our universe and possible multiverses, mostly after an interesting piece on Radiolab a few months ago. I felt like this book got bogged down in string theory, and I have to admit the mechanics of the holographic universe escaped me. Still, I feel like I understand more about how theories of multiverses originate, and where they might be going. Not the most fun read, and I was expecting less theoretical ...more

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Apr 16, 2011 Tomislav rated it really liked it

Shelves: science

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 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. ...more

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Feb 14, 2011 Kathleen rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: Anyone who likes physics or science fiction

Shelves: math-science, read-in-2011, non-fiction

I always enjoy looking at scientific concepts through the lens of the fantastic or peculiar, so this exploration of parallel universes by popular physicist Brian Greene is perfect for me. Written in his usual clear, funny style, Greene naturally discusses string theory, relativity, number theory with respect to infinities, quantum theory, and numerous other scientific concepts. Instead of simply discussing these theories, however, we get to look at various proposals of multiple universes. From ...more

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Jan 28, 2011 Laurie rated it did not like it · review of another edition

I really am a huge fan of Brian Greene. I've read both "The Elegant Universe" and "The Fabric of the Cosmos" and find his writing simply astonishing. With complete sympathy for readers without mathematical acumen, he explains concepts like quantum physics, the theory of relativity, the four major forces including gravity with such precision, and wit, that I found myself gasping for breath as I felt like I was reaching groundbreaking depths of understanding of how the universe works on almost ...more

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Nov 15, 2011 Nicholas rated it liked it

Shelves: physics

I purchased this on the strength of Brian Greene's past works and find him to be consistent in his clarity of explanation.Although I had a few sticky moments with some elements of string theory and the explanation of the concept of infinity, on the whole it went well.I didn't get the same revelatory experience I got from "Fabric of the Cosmos",as most of the multiverse theories are extensions of areas he has covered previously and as the book is written with the assumption of little or no prior ...more

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Apr 19, 2017 Zaid rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favourites, non-fiction

I am sold to Brian Greene after reading this one.I am fond of his simplicity for writing such a book.I was looking for such a book for quite sometime and when I learned about it I instantly decided to read it. It took me quite a time to read this book,to process it.It is a good book for the people who have little knowledge in this field.Want to broaden your knowledge on the topics like Multiverse,string theory? Read this book.

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Sep 18, 2015 The Pirate Ghost (Formerly known as the Curmudgeon) rated it liked it

Shelves: reference-material, non-fictoin, audio-book

Needed more "Schrodinger's Cat and less Matrix."

Okay, I liked the first 66% of the book. Greene takes the time to go over, and over..(and over).... (and over) some of the same mathmatical points. It could get monotonous but in the first half to 2/3rds of the book he managed to add a little bit more "new stuff" to each repitition.

It did help me understand string theory and that there is at least mathamatical (theoretical?) support for multiple universes and the book did a good job of explaining Needed more "Schrodinger's Cat and less Matrix."

Okay, I liked the first 66% of the book. Greene takes the time to go over, and over..(and over).... (and over) some of the same mathmatical points. It could get monotonous but in the first half to 2/3rds of the book he managed to add a little bit more "new stuff" to each repitition.

It did help me understand string theory and that there is at least mathamatical (theoretical?) support for multiple universes and the book did a good job of explaining that. I know I heard about Skip Drives from John Scalzi and support for variations of the same universe (widely used in sci-fi and other fiction for centuryies now) as well as warp drives and worm holes...hell he practiclaly beat the fun out of "Black Holes."

Then he started a long repetitive explaination of simulated universes that had a more existential philosophical lean to it than the hard math and science in earlier chapters. At several points I wanted to role down my window and shout, "Come on buddy, take the damned blue pill will you?"

To add to my consternation and confusion he ends the debate he was having (mostly with himself) with statements about how he doesn't really buy the simulated universe bunk?

What, was he paid by the word?

I don't want to go too deep into things, but when a guy like me is known for beating a dead horse thinks it's a little "too much matter and not enough art" then it might be worth taking some scissors to the manuscript. (Oh come on!...It's figurative... no horses, alive or dead, have ever been harmed by, or in the making of, one of my reviews... well Sea Buiscuit didn't like one, but that's a halucination of a different colour...)

To quote Margo Hemingway's character in "The Meaning of Life" (Peter O'Toole) "Why don't you start by thinking you don't exist and see where that gets you."

Bottom line, first half good but the math's complicated. It does a good job of explaining the relationship between string theory, Quantum Theory and the Theory of Relativity.

Then, it's time to check the ship movments to "Fantasy Island." Worth reading if you are a functional mathamatical idiot who likes to read sci-fi (and maybe write one day) like me. It's not exactly a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy...though it does help explain how Adams is not completely crazy.

...more

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Dec 11, 2011 bup rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science, 2012, trying-to-get-theoretical-physics

This book wouldn't be great without his first two. Or maybe it would, but it would seem like a fantasy ride in some bologna-artist's woo-science book. It's basically a survey of the different multiverse ideas out there - all the different ways people have dreamed up multiple universes.

Given the scientific gravitas Brian Greene is able to bring, though, one has to take these ideas seriously. At least, as seriously as one can. I'm not a physicist, but I have taken a statistics course or two, and This book wouldn't be great without his first two. Or maybe it would, but it would seem like a fantasy ride in some bologna-artist's woo-science book. It's basically a survey of the different multiverse ideas out there - all the different ways people have dreamed up multiple universes.

Given the scientific gravitas Brian Greene is able to bring, though, one has to take these ideas seriously. At least, as seriously as one can. I'm not a physicist, but I have taken a statistics course or two, and the thinking about how we can test some ideas of multiple universes by looking at our own universe make absolutely no sense to me. Our universe is one data point. It gives you zero degrees of freedom. There is no hypothesis one could reject by theorizing, as Greene seems to do, that multiverses where a universe like ours would be more likely, and then turning around and looking at the data from our universe.

Whether or not he's right about testability, though, even constructing hypotheses is a portion of science. Science is the process of developing and testing hypotheses. There's nothing wrong with developing hypotheses you have no idea how to test, and calling it a scientific step. OK, so we have no idea how to test, or if we can. Don't let that limit the process of developing hypotheses.

Two more nitpicks (I gave this 5 stars, too - why am I only complaining? I guess I found the book so intriguing and engaging that I want to talk back to it):

1) He never talked about the fact that many of these multiverse theories are not mutually exclusive - bubbles in the expansion of space and simulated multiverses could obviously coexist, as could many of the others.

2) In the ultimate universe model, the universe with nothing in it obviously exists - inasmuch as it needs to. We have to accept that one, just like we have to accept the empty set in every set of subsets ever.

Anyway, good book. I recommend "The Elegant Universe" and "Fabric of the Cosmos" before this, but I guess it would work on its own, too. ...more

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Sep 05, 2016 Ericka Clouther rated it it was amazing

Shelves: author-male, own-nonfiction, nonfiction, philosophy, 0-own, book-club-dad, own-read, 2010s, physics, science

This was a great follow-up to The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality. It didn't repeat a lot of material from the first one, it explained the progression in physics since then. It was pretty mind-blowing. I did get a little stuck in some sections, but I decided that a perfect understanding of the topic wasn't strictly necessary for my purposes.

I do think Greene protests too much that every aspect of physics isn't a *miracle.* I've never heard of so many miracles I ...more

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Sep 02, 2014 Lee (Rocky) rated it it was ok

Shelves: non-fiction, read-in-2014

I think I may just be too dumb for books like this. There are parts I understand and that intrigue me, but then suddenly things get too complicated for me to wrap my head around. This is mostly, but not exclusively, true of the sections that delve deeply into math (though the author, thankfully, relegates a lot of the math to notes), but there are plenty of non-math sections that were equally incomprehensible to me. Some of the notes are useful for clarification, but others just muddy the waters ...more

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May 18, 2011 notgettingenough added it

Shelves: haven-t-read-but

Not enough Simpsons in it.

Written after Manny's here http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/..., because somebody has to stand tall and write the tough reviews.

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Feb 24, 2015 Ami Iida rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: interested in quantum

Shelves: physics

This book has been covering the important items of quantum mechanics.
essential reading quantum book.

In the text　it has been described the basics of quantum mechanics.

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Feb 13, 2018 Santiago Ortiz rated it really liked it

Shelves: work, space, science, philosophy, physics

This is a fascinating book that explains with great clarity no less than 9 versions of multiverses. Each of these are mind-expanding (or mind-folding, mind-bending, mind-exploding, mind-blowing, mind-wrinkling depending of the multiverse version). And, in many of the cases, the alternative to the existence of a multiverse is at least as anti-intuitive and/or unbelievable. So be reassured that reading this book will give you a sense that reality is much more than what our senses, or even our This is a fascinating book that explains with great clarity no less than 9 versions of multiverses. Each of these are mind-expanding (or mind-folding, mind-bending, mind-exploding, mind-blowing, mind-wrinkling… depending of the multiverse version). And, in many of the cases, the alternative to the existence of a multiverse is at least as anti-intuitive and/or unbelievable. So be reassured that reading this book will give you a sense that reality is much more than what our senses, or even our expanded senses (technology) can grasp. This book navigates the frontiers of science and it's honest about it, presenting the many –and dramatically clashing–point of views (the multiscience).

I missed three things in this book:

- Any mention to quantum computation, specially when dealing with the Many-Worlds quantum interpretation. These two are eventually related by the fascinating fact that multiple computers (and people around them), from different universes, are working in parallel to get an operation done way faster to what can be done in a single universe. Multiverse collaboration.

- Relations between different multiverses. It’s not discussed in the book wether the multiverse versions could co-exist, interfere with each other, or eventually, as my intuition says, two version could actually be two approaches for the same (the infinite Universe and the Many-world interpretation, for instance, could be the same since both contain the same information).

- Borges is properly mentioned when dealing with two of the multiverse versions. He created prodigious analogies for the total multiverse and the many-worlds interpretation. But he’s forgotten in the infinite multiverse chapter, for which Borges do not created an analogy, but an exact description (perhaps by changing “time” by “space”). So I'll quote him here:

"The number of all the atoms that compose the world is immense but finite, and as such only capable of a finite (though also immense) number of permutations. In an infinite stretch of time, the number of possible permutations must be run through, and the universe has to repeat itself. Once again you will be born from a belly, once again your skeleton will grow, once again this same page will reach your identical hands, once again you will follow the course of all the hours of your life until that of your incredible death.", from The Doctryne of the Cycles, written in 1936.
...more

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Aug 23, 2017 Shayla rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science, nonfiction

Really enjoyed this, especially since it introduced me to string theory which I always thought would be so much more complicated! But it turns out to be such a beautiful concept.

Parallel universes will always be one of those things that interest people I think, and I'm glad that I can now sort of talk about them intelligently. My favorite theories are the simulation one, the cyclic multiverse, and quilted multiverse, with maybe brane worlds thrown in there.

My only problems with this book were ...more

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Oct 30, 2018 Douglas Cosby rated it really liked it

Great book on multi-verse ideas. Brian Greene is one of the best explainers of complicated physics topics alive today. He is even better in person, but this book does a good job laying out the different possible types of multi-verses. While a lot of the ideas represented in the book seem speculative, even fanciful, to me, that is what I thought when I first read Hawking's "A Brief History Of Time". In my opinion, the only current writer that can hold a candle to Greene is Sean Carroll. I can't ...more

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Feb 20, 2013 Umair Khan rated it really liked it

In The Hidden Reality, celebrated theoretical physicist Brian Greene explains the mind-boggling idea of a Multiverse (plural of universe). A professor of physics at Columbia University, Greene is well-known for his two earlier works on popular science, The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos which sought to explain, among other things, the very nature of space-time. But The Hidden Reality, in explicating the idea of multiple realities, shows the layperson something that has never In The Hidden Reality, celebrated theoretical physicist Brian Greene explains the mind-boggling idea of a ‘Multiverse’ (plural of universe). A professor of physics at Columbia University, Greene is well-known for his two earlier works on popular science, The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos which sought to explain, among other things, the very nature of space-time. But The Hidden Reality, in explicating the idea of multiple realities, shows the layperson something that has never before been presented by a popular physicist.

The Big Bang Theory, which suggests the origin of the universe some 14 billion years ago gives rise to several other theories which require our universe not to be the only one. Most readers of popular science are familiar with the many worlds interpretation of quantum physics and M-theory’s “braneworld”. Multiverses, Greene writes in this book, are “harder to avoid than they are to find” and he discusses nine theories in their support.

From the plain old “Quilted Multiverse theory” that postulates that in this infinite universe, there is bound to be repetition of the order of things to the “Inflation theory” that suggests that our universe began as a rapidly expanding bubble of empty space, Greene discusses the all. “String theory” gained popularity because it successfully unifies General Relativity and Quantum Theory and verification is expected from the experiments currently being run at the Large Hadron Collider. Greene also ponders over the possibility of a “Simulated Multiverse”, theorising that we may all be part of a simulation, like that in The Matrix. Extending this supposition further, the creators of our simulation might themselves be part of another simulation and the final wonderland is the “Ultimate Multiverse” in which everything that can exist and is mathematically consistent actually exists ‘somewhere’.

As a teenager I read scientists like Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking on the queer nature of black holes, the philosophical dilemmas of time travel, and the creationist implications of the big bang theory. But compared to this, these problems seem mundanely simple. Some people call these theories scientific blasphemy, but in the words of George Bernard Shaw, “all great truths begin as blasphemies”. The Hidden Reality both popularizes scientific ideas and shines a light on the path that will be explored by future physicists.

These theories are challenging simplistic notions about science by ‘enhancement’ of mathematical and scientific standards. In order to resolve the deepest mysteries and the greatest dilemmas of modern science, modern scientists are willing to accept these bizarre-looking properties of the natural world. We have reached the point where we need to re-examine what is and is not science and how theories can be verified and accepted as scientific.

Greene has selected an apt title for this book because nothing can be more hidden than a reality which is neither accessible physically nor conceivable mentally. The insightful and engaging narrative makes this complex tour of state-of-the art theoretical physics much more exhilarating and informative. Greene’s
greatest achievement is that even as you grapple with these allusive concepts, you start falling in love with these mysteries.

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, May 1st, 2011

http://tribune.com.pk/story/157862/th... ...more

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Feb 02, 2011 Gendou rated it really liked it

Shelves: cosmology, quantum-physics, non-fiction, physics, string-theory

This is a pretty good read.
Greene does digress into silly analogies and painfully remedial mathematical lessons from time to time.
Nevertheless, the many flavors of conceivable "multiverses" are an interesting and quite modern topic.
Greene acts like a used car salesman at times, using syrupy language to give speculation more than it's due.

Worst of all is his "giving equal time" to the anthropic principle!
Anthropic arguments are nothing more than an "I give up" approach to explaining the This is a pretty good read.
Greene does digress into silly analogies and painfully remedial mathematical lessons from time to time.
Nevertheless, the many flavors of conceivable "multiverses" are an interesting and quite modern topic.
Greene acts like a used car salesman at times, using syrupy language to give speculation more than it's due.

Worst of all is his "giving equal time" to the anthropic principle!
Anthropic arguments are nothing more than an "I give up" approach to explaining the yet-to-be-explained.
ANY FREE PARAMETER can be pointed at with an up-turned nose, and labeled a "problem with the theory".
The free parameter can then easily, and without fail, be "explained" using an anthropic argument.
Why does [insert any free parameter of any theory here] have the value that it does? Maybe we're just lucky!
You've solved nothing. No possible unique prediction can be made by anthropic reasoning alone.
Any unique prediction can be made WITHOUT anthropic reasoning. It's useless. Worse than useless. It's wrong!

The description of the measurement problem was good.
The description of the holographic principle was good.

I was really surprised by one assertion: Copenhagen and Many Worlds have different predictions. Greene argues that in Many Worlds, the wave-function have multiple spikes, corresponding to different possible outcomes. He reasons that these "spiked waves" might interfere, causing an observable interference pattern, which would disagree with Copenhagen wave function collapse. He admits that decoherence makes this "an extraordinarily formidable task", but I'm not sure what he means by this! Is it formidable to do the calculations, or formidable to measure them? He states his clear belief that Copenhagen and Many Worlds are, in fact, distinct theories, but doesn't at ALL explain how he reached this conclusion. Every source I've ever read treats them as interpretations which make the SAME predictions. In this case, I certainly do NOT take his word for it, and neither should you, fellow reader...

The end of the book devolves quickly into child-like nonsense philosophy like the "ultimate multiverse" where "math is reality" and every possible equation gets it's own universe... Honestly, I don't know why the publisher let Greene put this frivolity in an otherwise serious book. ...more

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Jan 02, 2012 Jerry rated it really liked it

Shelves: science

This book presents nine different theories supporting the idea of parallel universes. These are consistent with current physics theory and observational data. At this time there is not enough data to discern which one if any might in fact be a true representation of reality.
One of the more interesting theories to me is the Quilted Multiverse.
An infinite universe can be divided into a series of spherical patches each the size of the cosmic horizon. The cosmic horizon is the distance that light ...more

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About Brian Greene

Brian Greene

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Brian Greene is an American theoretical physicist and one of the best-known string theorists. He has been a professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University since 1996. He has become known to a wider audience through his books for the general public and a related PBS television special.

Books by Brian Greene

The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory

The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality

Light Falls: Space, Time, and an Obsession of Einstein

Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe

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“When you realize that quantum mechanics underlies all physical processes, from the fusing of atoms in the sun to the neural firings that constitutes the stuff of thought, the far-reaching implications of the proposal become apparent. It says that there’s no such thing as a road untraveled. Yet each such road—each reality—is hidden from all others.” — 10 likes

“If there is a lot of matter, gravity will cause space to curve back on itself, yielding the spherical shape. If there is little matter, space is free to flare outward in the Pringles shape. And if there is just the right amount of matter, space will have zero curvature.*” — 7 likes

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