Will we ever discover a single scientific theory that tells us everything that has happened, and everything that will happen, on every level in the Universe? The quest for the theory of everything - a single key that unlocks all the secrets of the Universe - is no longer a pipe-dream, but the focus of some of our most exciting research about the structure of the cosmos. But what might such a theory look like? What would it mean? And how close are we to getting there? In New Theories of Everything, John D. Barrow describes the ideas and controversies surrounding the ultimate explanation. Updating his earlier work Theories of Everything with the very latest theories and predictions, he tells of the M-theory of superstrings and multiverses, of speculations about the world as a computer program, and of new ideas of computation and complexity. But this is not solely a book about modern ideas in physics -- Barrow also considers and reflects on the philosophical and cultural consequences of those ideas, and their implications for our own existence in the world. Far from there being a single theory uniquely specifying the constants and forces of nature, the picture today is of a vast landscape of different logically possible laws and constants in many dimensions, of which our own world is but a shadow: a tiny facet of a higher dimensional reality. But this is not to say we should give up in bewilderment: Barrow shows how many rich and illuminating theories and questions arise, and what this may mean for our understanding of our own place in the cosmos.
Author(s): John D. Barrow
Series: Gifford Lectures
Edition: [2nd ed., New ed.]
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2007
Language: English
Commentary: 104704
Pages: 272
City: Oxford; New York
Contents......Page 10
An eightfold way......Page 14
Myths......Page 17
Creation myths......Page 21
Algorithmic compressibility......Page 23
The legacy of law......Page 27
The quest for unity......Page 30
Roger Boscovich......Page 32
Symmetries......Page 35
Infinities—to be or not to be?......Page 39
From strings to ‘M’......Page 45
A flight of rationalistic fancy......Page 49
Goodbye to all that......Page 56
At the edge of things......Page 57
Axioms......Page 58
Mathematical Jujitsu......Page 64
Initial conditions and time symmetry......Page 74
Time without time......Page 75
Cosmological time......Page 79
The problem of time......Page 89
Absolute space and time......Page 91
How far is far enough?......Page 96
The quantum mystery of time......Page 98
Quantum initial conditions......Page 101
The great divide......Page 103
The stuff of the Universe......Page 106
The copy-cat principle......Page 108
Elementarity......Page 113
The atom and the vortex......Page 115
A world beside itself......Page 117
The importance of being constant......Page 123
Fundamentalism......Page 125
What do constants tell us?......Page 130
Varying constants......Page 137
The cosmological constant......Page 141
The never-ending story......Page 149
Broken symmetry......Page 151
Natural theology: A tale of two tales......Page 153
The flaws of nature......Page 156
Chaos......Page 158
Chance......Page 161
The unpredictability of sex......Page 165
Symmetry-breaking in the Universe......Page 167
Where the wild things are......Page 173
Big AL......Page 182
Time......Page 186
Being and becoming organized......Page 189
The arrow of time......Page 193
Far from equilibrium......Page 195
The sands of time......Page 198
The way of the world......Page 201
Ubiquitous bias......Page 205
In the centre of immensities......Page 215
The number of the rose......Page 217
Philosophies of mathematics......Page 219
What is mathematics?......Page 225
Mathematics and physics: An eternal golden braid......Page 232
The intelligibility of the world......Page 237
Algorithmic compressibility rides again......Page 244
Continuity—a bridge too far?......Page 246
The secret of the Universe......Page 249
Is the Universe a computer?......Page 251
The unknowable......Page 255
Select Bibliography......Page 260
C......Page 269
G......Page 270
N......Page 271
S......Page 272
Z......Page 273
