The Elegant Universe

by Brian Greene

things are the way they are in our universe because if they weren't, we wouldn't be here to notice.

Like the winners of a mass game of Russian roulette, whose surprise at surviving is tempered by the realization that had they not won, they wouldn't have been able not to feel surprised, the multiverse hypothesis has the capacity to lessen our insistence on explaining why our universe appears as it does.

the concept of the multiverse does at least alert us to the possibility that we may be asking too much of an ultimate theory.

inspired by the similarity between conditions at the big bang and at the centers of black holes—each being characterized by a colossal density of crushed matter—has suggested that every black hole is the seed for a new universe that erupts into existence through a big bang–like explosion, but is forever hidden from our view by the black hole's event horizon.

just as we should allow our artist to work from a blank canvas, we should allow string theory to create its own spacetime arena by starting in a spaceless and timeless configuration.

why there is something rather than nothing.

Einstein said some time ago, "The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible."

The astonishment at our ability to understand the universe at all is easily lost sight of in an age of rapid and impressive progress. However, maybe there is a limit to comprehensibility. Maybe we have to accept that after reaching the deepest possible level of understanding science can offer, there will nevertheless be aspects of the universe that remain unexplained. Maybe we will have to accept that certain features of the universe are the way they are because of happenstance, accident, or divine choice.