October 2023 - End of Everything

[Betsy, co-mod]

For October 2023, we will be reading The End of Everything by Katie Mack.

Please use this thread to post questions, comments, or reviews, at any time.

[David]

I started reading The End of Everything. It's a short, pleasant book. Katie Mack writes an engaging, easily-accessible book that is not very technical. There are lots of footnotes that add informative and amusing twists. The style is light, with pleasant humor sprinkled throughout.

As an example, she writes, "I dabbled in experimental particle physics in my misspent youth, playing with lasers in a nuclear physics lab (despite what the records might say, the fire was not my fault) ..."

[Yemner]

For those planning to read this, the audiobook is available on CloudLibrary, at least through my library system. I've been an avid reader in the past, and I'm trying to gradually work my back into reading. Audiobooks are very helpful as I otherwise waste a lot of time driving. I have no shame that some of the books I've "read", I've actually only listened to. Listening is still reading! No shame!

[Nancy]

Agree! Double tasking in smart!

[Mike]

David wrote: " The style is light, with pleasant humor sprinkled throughout.
As an example, she writes, "I dabbled in experimental particle physics in my misspent youth, playing with lasers in a nuclear physics lab (despite what the records might say, the fire was not my fault) ...""

Based on that I had to read the book and was not willing to wait until October. Mack is an astute observer. She writes that the standard model “cannot be the whole story.” And in fact, a recent opinion piece in The New York Times discusses how the James Webb Space Telescope has discovered large, mature galaxies farther back in time where the standard model says they should not yet exist.

My review:
https://mypointbeing.com/2023/09/26/t...

[David]

Mike wrote: "... a recent opinion piece in The New York Times discusses how the James Webb Space Telescope has discovered large, mature galaxies farther back in time where the standard model says they should not yet exist.

Yes, this is a fun time for cosmology! The question is whether the standard cosmology model has to be revised, or the model of galaxy formation. See:
https://www.wired.com/story/no-the-ja...

Anyway, I finished the book, so here is my review.

[Jessica]

I just started this book and I'm loving the author's sense of humor. I'm happy we voted for an astronomy book this month.

[Jessica]

I finished this book and I loved it. The idea that the Higgs field might be in a false vacuum state doesn't bother me at all. Flashing out of existence (painlessly) at the same time as all my family, friends and dog sounds ok to me. Perhaps that's because I believe in the existence of God in another dimension and the persistence of our conscious after death. I don't need the idea that some part of humanity must survive because that's all there is. The more I read about the vastness of the universe, the more I believe there must be something more out there than just us. And though my belief in a higher power is faith based rather than science based, I do love that some scientists fool around with the idea of another dimension.

[Steve]

As I was reading the Epilogue I began imagining that someone like the author was on a planet orbiting the last shining star and had witnessed the disappearance of the only other visible star in the cold, empty, heat dead universe. What would it be like knowing you were likely in the last remaining solar system?

[David]

Steve wrote: "As I was reading the Epilogue I began imagining that someone like the author was on a planet orbiting the last shining star and had witnessed the disappearance of the only other visible star in the..."

Since the disappearance of other galaxies and stars would have occurred slowly, over eons, my guess is that people would have forgotten about them. You might not know that other stars ever existed.