Specify Books To Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality
| ISBN: | 1846144760 (ISBN13: 9781846144769) |
| Edition Language: | English URL http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9781846144769,00.html |
Max Tegmark
Hardcover | Pages: 432 pages Rating: 4.17 | 4818 Users | 489 Reviews
Interpretation Supposing Books Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality
Our Mathematical Universe is a journey to explore the mysteries uncovered by cosmology and to discover the nature of reality. Our Big Bang, our distant future, parallel worlds, the sub-atomic and intergalactic - none of them are what they seem. But there is a way to understand this immense strangeness - mathematics. Seeking an answer to the fundamental puzzle of why our universe seems so mathematical, Tegmark proposes a radical idea: that our physical world not only is described by mathematics, but that it is mathematics. This may offer answers to our deepest questions: How large is reality? What is everything made of? Why is our universe the way it is?Table of Contents
Preface
1 What Is Reality?
Not What It Seems • What’s the Ultimate Question? • The Journey Begins
Part One: Zooming Out
2 Our Place in Space
Cosmic Questions • How Big Is Space? • The Size of Earth • Distance to the Moon • Distance to the Sun and the Planets • Distance to the Stars • Distance to the Galaxies • What Is Space?
3 Our Place in Time
Where Did Our Solar System Come From? • Where Did the
Galaxies Come From? • Where Did the Mysterious Microwaves
Come From? • Where Did the Atoms Come From?
4 Our Universe by Numbers
Wanted: Precision Cosmology • Precision Microwave-Background Fluctuations • Precision Galaxy Clustering • The Ultimate Map of Our Universe • Where Did Our Big Bang Come From?
5 Our Cosmic Origins
What’s Wrong with Our Big Bang? • How Inflation Works • The Gift That Keeps on Giving • Eternal Inflation
6 Welcome to the Multiverse
The Level I Multiverse • The Level II Multiverse • Multiverse Halftime Roundup
Part Two: Zooming In
7 Cosmic Legos
Atomic Legos • Nuclear Legos • Particle-Physics Legos • Mathematical Legos • Photon Legos • Above the Law? • Quanta and Rainbows • Making Waves • Quantum Weirdness • The Collapse of Consensus • The Weirdness Can’t Be Confined • Quantum Confusion
8 The Level III Multiverse
The Level III Multiverse • The Illusion of Randomness • Quantum Censorship • The Joys of Getting Scooped • Why Your Brain Isn’t a Quantum Computer • Subject, Object and Environment • Quantum Suicide • Quantum Immortality? • Multiverses Unified • Shifting Views: Many Worlds or Many Words?
Part Three: Stepping Back
9 Internal Reality, External Reality and Consensus Reality
External Reality and Internal Reality • The Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth • Consensus Reality • Physics: Linking External to Consensus Reality
10 Physical Reality and Mathematical Reality
Math, Math Everywhere! • The Mathematical Universe Hypothesis • What Is a Mathematical Structure?
11 Is Time an Illusion?
How Can Physical Reality Be Mathematical? • What Are You? • Where Are You? (And What Do You Perceive?) • When Are You?
12 The Level IV Multiverse
Why I Believe in the Level IV Multiverse • Exploring the Level IV Multiverse: What’s Out There? • Implications of the Level IV Multiverse • Are We Living in a Simulation? • Relation Between the MUH, the Level IV Multiverse and Other Hypotheses •Testing the Level IV Multiverse
13 Life, Our Universe and Everything
How Big Is Our Physical Reality? • The Future of Physics • The Future of Our Universe—How Will It End? • The Future of Life •The Future of You—Are You Insignificant?
Acknowledgments
Suggestions for Further Reading
Index
Mention Based On Books Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality
| Title | : | Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality |
| Author | : | Max Tegmark |
| Book Format | : | Hardcover |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 432 pages |
| Published | : | January 7th 2014 by Allen Lane (first published January 7th 2012) |
| Categories | : | Science. Nonfiction. Physics. Mathematics. Philosophy |
Rating Based On Books Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality
Ratings: 4.17 From 4818 Users | 489 ReviewsAppraise Based On Books Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality
The first half of this book is a review of modern physics on the macro and micro scales. The second half of this book is a discussion of the author's speculation, that the universe is a mathematical structure. Max Tegmark is quite clear--he is not saying that the universe is described by mathematics, but that the universe is mathematics. He calls this the "Mathematical Universe Hypothesis", or "MUH" for short.Tegmark asserts that this idea is a testable, falsifiable hypothesis. I did not findThis is going to be a looooong review.First of all, I liked this book (obvious from the rating, right?) But it got me very annoyed a few times. The right mindset to read this book is to imagine that you met a very cool, very talkative and apparently very smart physicist in a bar. You had a few beers and then dared to say: "Well, tell me about physics... what's that? why do you like it?" Since bar conversations are not super structured, he started with history. "Man, imagine how other guys
All bad books are alike , each good book is good in its ways (I think Tolstoy will forgive me for stealing his most famous quote.As the rating indicates, we are in the second state, good book, or rather a fucking unbelievable amazing good and fresh book.Max Tegmark is(as I see him) the Pythagorean of our era.Pythagoras and his students were interested in the mysticism of numbers, realizing that when odd numbers starting from one are added together, the sum is always a square number. From here,
Who doesnt like a good controversy in their popular science books? Whats a philosophical theory about the nature of the universe if it doesnt ruffle some feathers? No one wants to write a book and then have everyone turn around and shrug at you. That doesnt sell! So its not really surprising that Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality is a controversial book by a somewhat controversial physicist. I received this as a Christmas gift a few years ago, and that was
This book covers quite a bit of material, topics ranging from astronomy, cosmology, and quantum physics, to far more precarious stuff such as the level IV multiverse and the Mathematical Universe Hypothesis, which Tegmark champions rather emphatically. In the beginning of the book (page 13), he includes a helpful diagram that clearly states which chapters are considered mainstream, controversial and even extremely controversial. Hes very upfront about which parts of his book fall into which
The thesis of this book is nothing but a giant exercise in circular reasoning.Max Tegmark calls his idea the Mathematical Universe Hypothesis, that the external physical reality described by the Theory of Everything is a mathematical structure. He starts off by, I kid you not, assuming that the external physical reality is a mathematical structure.This radical idea, that reality is "made of math" is embodied in the title of the book, but nowhere within the pages is there any logical argument in
Before I begin, a brief word about physics from a ninja.This is a book of speculative physics. At the same time it is a mostly lucid walkthrough of the latest theories in physics. It's important to distinguish between theories and speculation. Theories are directly testable. Results of the theories are repeatable. Special and General Relativity are examples of theories that have been demonstrated over and over again. A result is calculated from the theory, an experiment is performed...the
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