Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, thought provoking look at some very big questions, 24 Oct 2006
This book is a review of cosmology and particle physics during the past fifty years - surely one of the most exciting periods for the two subjects. Davies offers his personal interpretation of the current position - the hope that "mind" will turn out to be a crucial part of the universe and not just a minor, un-important side-effect of creation.
New instruments and fresh ideas have produced a wealth of interesting ideas. Some theories might, in earlier times, have been regarded as merely speculative or over ambitious. However, improvements in observational methods and technology have given us clear windows into some surprising areas. Davies looks at some huge questions about very small things, such as how many fundamental particles make up the world? He also examines the very large: is there just one universe, or a huge number of parallel creations, a multiverse?
At every turn he explains things clearly and non-mathematically. This does mean that the reader sometimes has to take things on trust, but one of the great strengths of his book is that Paul Davies is careful to point out which ideas are controversial or tentative, and which are firmly established. He presents us with results from physics and discusses the implications for theology, mathematics and philosophy. He tells the story of a very busy period in science and guides the reader through complex, unresolved debates. For those who want to look deeper, he includes many detailed notes, but grouped at the end of his book to avoid breaking the flow of his narrative.
I found this an exciting and challenging book to read. I heartily recommend it to anyone who is interested in big questions and is willing to live with the fact that many of the answers can't be summed up in a tabloid headline.
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47 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A deep book on a deep subject., 7 Nov 2006
In his latest book Paul Davies explores rather than definitively answers the deep questions of existance. Why are we here? Why is the universe fine tuned for life and what relationship does consciousness have to the universe at large? The reader is taken on a truly cosmic tour of physics in the attempt to answer some of these fascinating questions.
The first part of the book seeks to explain why the universe possesses certain characteristics and explores various theories such as inflation theory, the big bang,quantum fluctuations and the four fundamental forces,gravitation,electromagnetism,and the weak and strong nuclear forces. He then explains how physicist are seeking to unify these forces of nature into one Grand unified Theory which leads onto String theory and its further development M theory. At this point the reader will feel that they have left the familiar world of common sense. Davies explores the implications of String theory and M theory which posits a number of unobserved dimensions. This eventually leads to the idea that we are living in a multiverse, the concept that trillions of other universes exist and this is why we are so fortuitous in this one.We have won the cosmic lottery and although our universe is fit for life, trillions of others are sterile. If this mind blowing idea is not enough, the possibility is also explored that we are living in a fake universe. An infinity of other universes greatly increases the chances that an intellect could have evolved way beyond anything that we could possibly comprehend. Further it is argued this intellect could have the capability to simulate a universe,ideas that were explored in the film The Matrix. Davies quotes the cosmologist Martin Rees at this point who states,
" All these multiverse ideas lead to a remarkable synthesis between cosmology and physics...But they also lead to the extraordinary consequence that we may not be the deepest reality,we may be a simulation.The possibility that we are creations of some supreme,or super being, blurs the boundary between physics and idealist philosophy,between the natural and the supernatural,and between the relation of mind and multiverse and the possibility that we're in the matrix rather than the physics itself"
At this point we are clearly in the realm of metaphysics and Davies does relate how some physicist are deeply unhappy with the whole multiverse hypothesis. Nevertheless it does indicate that modern science in some instances does seem to converge onto almost theological ground. Overall this is a fascinating book,it will make the reader reflect on the profound nature of reality and will only reiterate the sentiment of T.H.Huxley when he stated,
"The known is finite,the unknown infinite,intellectually we stand on an islet in the midst of an illimitable ocean of inexplicability.Our business in every generation is to reclaim a little more land."
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30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Searching for the ultimate answers, 6 Dec 2006
This is one of Davies'bes t books, clear, informative, and profound. It give us the state of the art of modern cosmology, and of the current theories about the Universe (or Multiverse) origins and evolution, in the light of a puzzling series of coincidences: this Universe seems fine-tuned to permit life, the most intriguing case the helium-beryllium resonance, that permits the synthesis of carbon, the basic element of life. A small difference in the nuclear particle's masses or in the relative strenght of the forces and life simply couldn't be. Davies examines thoroughly a range of possible answers,from the Multiverse Theory, to the Theory of Everything-single -Universe-Theory, to Intelligent design,to String Theory to the Matrix hypothesis-we could live in a simulation!, to Davies' favourite, the self-organizing universe.
A fascinating insight on human speculation on Life, the Universe and Everything.
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