Brian Greene's The Hidden Reality keeps the multiverse alive and growing

Brian Greene's The Hidden Reality keeps the multiverse alive and growing

Brian Greene's The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos explores our current scientific understanding of the universe, the string theory that might hold the key to unifying nature's laws, and the continuing quest to know more. There was a time when "universe" meant all there is. Greene's work quietly dismantles that comfort, suggesting ours may be just one universe among many — like endless reflections in a mirror. He is also the author of The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos, and has taught at Harvard, Cornell, and Columbia University since 1996.

Gobble's Take: "Universe" used to mean everything. Now it's starting to sound like a neighbourhood. Source: Perplexity Search

The multiverse is the idea physics can't quit

We are obsessed with the multiverse — the idea that there could be an infinite number of universes holding an infinite number of possibilities. This is not a new condition. In The Allure of the Multiverse, physicist Paul Halpern traces the fascination all the way back to the philosophers of ancient Greece, through Friedrich Nietzsche, through Albert Einstein's special and general theories of relativity opening the door to the fourth dimension, and finally to Princeton graduate student Hugh Everett's "Many Words Interpretation," in which all possibilities of existence simultaneously exist. From there: "bubble universes," bouncing universes, multiple dimensions — a maddening labyrinth with no clear exit.

Gobble's Take: Physics keeps expanding reality and then acts surprised when nobody can find the edge. Source: Princeton Public Library

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