The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos [Hardcover]

Brian Green's fascinating book "The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep laws of the Cosmos" is about a growing body of work that is steadily converging around a proposal that our universe is actually one of many universes. He admits that the subject of parallel universes is highly speculative. No experimentation or observation has been established. The point of the book is not to convince us. Its intention is to lay out the intellectual steps and the chain of theoretical insights that led physicists from a range of perspectives to consider the possibility that ours is one of many universes.
He says some people recoil at the notion of parallel worlds. They feel it marginalizes our place and importance in the cosmos. Green's take is different. What matters is whether there exists exciting realms that challenge convention by suggesting what we thought to be the universe is only one component of a far grander mostly hidden reality. The journey so far takes us through nine variations of the multiverse theme - the Quilted, Inflationary, Brane, Cyclic, Landscape, Quantum, Simulated and Ultimate. Each envisions our universe as part of an unexpectedly larger whole, but the complexion of the whole and the nature of the member universes differ sharply. Some are separated by enormous stretches of space and time, other hover millimeters away, in others the very notion of their location proves parochial, devoid of meaning.
Over the course of five centuries we've had to give up our belief in the earth's centrality among our cosmic neighbors, the sun's centrality in the galaxy, the Milky Way's centrality among the galaxies, and even the centrality of protons, neurons and electron in the cosmic recipe.
Greene says, "It's at once humbling and stirring to imagine just how expansive reality may be. If we're part of a multiverse, at best we can learn about our universe, our corner of the cosmos...I don't know how it will turn out. But it's only through fearless engagement that we can learn our own limits."

The quote on the back of the book lauds Greene as "The new Hawking, only better", aside from his being American this is fairly accurate, if you consider "better" to mean `a more accessible and enjoyable read'. Greene brings cutting-edge physics and cosmology to life and his previous two efforts have been highly enjoyable.

Perhaps what I took pleasure from most about Elegant and Cosmos was the intertwining explanations of established physics through to the more cutting-edge (and dare I say 'speculative') areas of the field: primarily String and M-Theory. As I've worked my way through explanations of the Uncertainty Principle, Super-Symmetry, and Relativity I've really felt a sense of achievement, learning of something considered fairly immutable - at least in my lifetime. The Hidden Reality does not follow this pattern, nods are given to The Double Slit Experiment and some other fundamental areas and questions (counting infinity anyone?) that will always remain as they are; but in percentage terms the mass majority of the book remains very hypothetical - it postulates nine distinct theories of the multiverse. I did enjoy the explanation of the Many Worlds theory which helped to explain a phrase I'd heard in pop culture and other literature - and for many of us is the best explanation we will ever receive on this.

Rightly or wrongly I cannot bring myself to give 5 stars to a book that could ultimately prove (or more likely we'll never truly know) to be totally incorrect. The content, at times, requires some very abstract thinking and towards the end it descends into drunken conversation you had with a friend after the first time you both watched The Matrix - "what if we're all in a computer man?". I do appreciate that the reader may not want further `reference' material and in this respect this really does feel like a book that brings the layman right up to the forefront of current cosmological and scientific endeavour. However, it offers no concrete assertions and each multiverse option appears equally as likely as the next.

In short, I think my problem with this book is that it's so cutting edge that it could all be wrong, none of the nine multiverses could be right, hell, we may not even live in a multiverse. This sounds fickle on my behalf, it is fickle, "so what if it's not right, you read fiction books and they aren't real, you watch Sci-Fi and that's not life as we know it". Exactly. This is where the book redeems itself. No matter how you read it, one of things I enjoy most about Greene's books is they are so easy to read that I don't think you really need to understand everything fully to get sucked into the grandeur. You can almost read it as a work of Sci-Fi, fiction, or general reference. No matter what level of understanding you possess you can still romanticise the contents and have your mind blown by the concepts involved. Undeniably there are some areas that you will understand, you will follow, and you will subsequently think about for days. Conversely, some areas of this book are more challenging than others; brane multiverses for example lost me for the most part, but comprehending the principle of inflationary universes is a lot easier and more rewarding.

Greene clearly signposts his prose (including the more complex areas), if you've read his other two books the same analogies and explanations are there, explaining things more clearly than any other author covering this material the guy could probably convince me to hand my wallet over to him with a series of logical and well founded arguments. A particular favourite of mine was the `Cartman' analogy from South Park - although I'm not quite sure what percentage of readers would have got that one (I'd love to know).

This is fascinating and intriguing stuff to anyone with even a passing interest in the subject matter. I will look forward to his next offering: perhaps something a little more tangible Brian.

"When we hand over the steering wheel to the mathematical underpinnings of the major proposed physical laws, we're driven time and again to some version of parallel worlds." - from THE HIDDEN REALITY

When I entered college and foolishly took over the wheel of the vessel "Engineering Major" that would presumably steer me towards my life's profession and gainful employment, I soon ran hard aground on the reef of Differential Calculus. It wasn't until I abandoned the wreck and transferred to the good ship "Life Sciences Major" that I safely arrived at where I am today. I've never gotten over that perilous time on the rocks. So, it was with some trepidation that I picked up THE HIDDEN REALITY by physicist Brian Greene. As an occasional buff of sci-fi lit, the concept of parallel worlds has always been of casual interest, but perhaps, with Greene's book, I was setting sail into dodgy waters once again.

Over the course of his discourse, the author discusses nine parallel universe, or "multiverse", concepts derived from the mathematics (as opposed to direct observations) of the Relativity, Quantum and String Theories: Quilted, Inflationary, Brane, Cyclic, Landscape, Quantum, Holographic, Simulated, and Ultimate. I'm not even going to attempt a further summary of the material as it would only invite ridicule and cause my subsequent humiliation.

The surprising fact is that I managed to make it through to the end, albeit clinging desperately by my fingernails to the edge of an event horizon such that I didn't fall screaming into the Black Hole of Total Bewilderment. This ultimate survival I attribute solely to Greene's skill at conveying the concepts without resorting to descriptive (to some) mathematical formulae. (Ok, ok, he threw out an E = mc2 equation once or twice, but anything heavier he relegated to the Notes at the end for interested numbers geeks. Suffice it to say, I didn't even glance at that section.) Rather, he illustrated key points with drawings and examples that can likely be appreciated by math-challenged readers such as me. Perhaps this is what makes him a best-selling author.

Now that I've finished THE HIDDEN REALITY, to say that I've a comprehensive grasp of the topic would be a mind-boggling overstatement. Were I to take a test on the volume's contents, I might manage a C-, and that's if it was multiple choice format and not essay. I consider this passing grade, rather than an F, to be a solid accomplishment attributable mostly to Greene's teaching skills. And though I've not read any other expert on the subject to whom I can make comparison, I suspect he's a much better teacher than most. Therefore, five stars for the didactic quality of his book. Don't look for any cheeky humor, though; Greene is no Bill Bryson of A Short History Of Nearly Everything.

Now, if I go outside and gaze at the night sky perhaps visible through the Greater Los Angeles light reflected off the haze and/or smoke, I'll most certainly think to myself, "Wow, could there be more than one those?" One must always be open to a sense of wonderment.

And, in case you're curious, a "flop singularity" is a spherical portion of space compressed to an infinitesimal size.