The Hidden Reality_ Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos - Brian Greene [0]
Icarus at the Edge of Time
The Fabric of the Cosmos
The Elegant Universe
THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK
PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF
Copyright © 2011 Brian Greene
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
www.aaknopf.com
Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Greene, B. (Brian), [date]
The hidden reality parallel universes and the deep laws of the cosmos /
by Brian Greene.—1st ed.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-59525-6
1. Physics—Philosophy. 2. Quantum theory.
3. General relativity (Physics) 4. Cosmology. I. Title.
QC6.G6885 2011
530.12—dc22 2010042710
Jacket design by Peter Mendelsund
v3.1
To Alec and Sophia
Contents
Cover
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Preface
1. The Bounds of Reality
On Parallel Worlds
2. Endless Doppelgängers
The Quilted Multiverse
3. Eternity and Infinity
The Inflationary Multiverse
4. Unifying Nature’s Laws
On the Road to String Theory
5. Hovering Universes in Nearby Dimensions
The Brane and Cyclic Multiverses
6. New Thinking About an Old Constant
The Landscape Multiverse
7. Science and the Multiverse
On Inference, Explanation, and Prediction
8. The Many Worlds of Quantum Measurement
The Quantum Multiverse
9. Black Holes and Holograms
The Holographic Multiverse
10. Universes, Computers, and Mathematical Reality
The Simulated and Ultimate Multiverses
11. The Limits of Inquiry
Multiverses and the Future
Notes
Suggestions for Further Reading
About the Author
Preface
If there was any doubt at the turn of the twentieth century, by the turn of the twenty-first, it was a foregone conclusion: when it comes to revealing the true nature of reality, common experience is deceptive. On reflection, that’s not particularly surprising. As our forebears gathered in forests and hunted on the savannas, an ability to calculate the quantum behavior of electrons or determine the cosmological implications of black holes would have provided little in the way of survival advantage. But an edge was surely offered by having a larger brain, and as our intellectual faculties grew, so, too, did our capacity to probe our surroundings more deeply. Some of our species built equipment to extend the reach of our senses; others became facile with a systematic method for detecting and expressing pattern—mathematics. With these tools, we began to peer behind everyday appearances.
What we’ve found has already required sweeping changes to our picture of the cosmos. Through physical insight and mathematical rigor, guided and confirmed by experimentation and observation, we’ve established that space, time, matter, and energy engage a behavioral repertoire unlike anything any of us have ever directly witnessed. And now, penetrating analyses of these and related discoveries are leading us to what may be the next upheaval in understanding: the possibility that our universe is not the only universe. The Hidden Reality explores this possibility.
In writing The Hidden Reality, I’ve presumed no expertise in physics or mathematics on the part of the reader. Instead, as in my previous books, I’ve used metaphor and analogy, interspersed with historical episodes, to give a broadly accessible account of some of the strangest and, should they prove correct, most revealing insights of modern physics. Many of the concepts covered require the reader to abandon comfortable modes of thought and to embrace unanticipated realms of reality. It’s a journey that’s all the more exciting, and understandable, for the scientific twists and turns that have blazed the trail. I’ve judiciously chosen from these to fill out a landscape of ideas that peak by valley stretches from the everyday to the wholly unfamiliar.
A difference in approach from my previous books is that I’ve not included preliminary chapters that systematically develop