The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos Hardcover – Jan 25 2011

Brian Greene starts off this book introducing the concept of multiple universes. According to Greene (I'm not a physicist) many, if not most, physics theories lead to some kind of multiple universe solution. They don't all agree on exactly what kind of multiple, parallel, alternate, string, infinite universes exist, but they do suggest that such universes do in fact exist. This forces us to change our concept of universe from everything we could possibly measure to everything that could possibly exist. The book presents eight chapters that focus on explaining different potential multiverses along with two chapters that focus on explaining how we can use math and science to learn about these multiverses and what some limitations might be for our learning about them. Including the introduction, it makes for around 320 pages plus references, but it's actually relatively light reading.

Relatively being the key. This isn't "See Spot Run". This is a discussion of the nature of, well, everything. I must admit that I was initially a little disappointed that there isn't an easy, simple solution to the nature of everything. Then I realized that would probably be a little boring and almost certainly wouldn't be true. Fortunately, Greene does a good job making hard topics easy to understand. This is partly due to the fact that complex phenomena must often be reduced to something simpler for even physicists to wrap their heads around them, and partly due to the fact that Greene is very good at making tough concepts easy to get. Most chapters start of with a review of the prerequisite physics for a particular multiverse view. This introduction can be skipped by advanced readers, but more casual science readers (like myself) will find it a very helpful primer or reminder (e.g., of S. Hawking's books). The next part of the chapter delves into the particular theory in question and what kind of universe(s) that theory predicts. The last part of each chapter is more theoretical, asking more complex questions, suggesting future directions, and/or offering extensions of the theory in question.

Overall, it makes for good reading as the reader is handily moved from easier to more complicated material. I tend towards biological science reading, but I'd heard such good things about Greene's writing that I thought I'd give this book a shot. I'm glad I did. The only downside is that I now find myself daydreaming about possible universes when I should be thinking about other things. But that's hardly a serious fault for the book. Just the opposite in fact. The idea that there are likely multiple universes, some potentially just like ours, with an exact copy of me typing this exact review or an exact copy of you reading it, is just really, really cool. And that kind of cool is just what good science reading should be all about!

A superb book. Greene is one of the few scientists of our time who can write both clearly and engagingly about esoteric, bleeding-edge physics. Too many books turn out to be about scientists, rather than about science. Many make the mistake of talking down to the audience. Greene avoids both pitfalls, feeding you the maximum amount of raw information with the least amount of fuss and affectation.

So outdated now, but was great at the time and still a fun read.

bought as a gift

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"The subject of parallel universes [also known as parallel worlds, multiple universes, alternate universes, metaverse, megaverse, or multiverse] is highly speculative. No experiment or observation has established that any version of the idea is realized in nature. So my point in writing this book is not to convince you that we're part of a multiverse. I'm not convinced--and, speaking generally, no one should be convinced--of anything not supported by hard data. That said, I find it both curious and compelling that numerous developments in physics, if followed sufficiently, bump into some variation on the parallel-universe theme...all of the parallel-universe proposals that we will take seriously emerge...from the mathematics of theories developed to explain conventional data and observations.

My intention, then, is to lay out clearly and concisely the intellectual steps and the chain of theoretical insights that have led physicists, from a range of perspectives, to consider the possibility that ours is one of many universes [that is, the possibility that our universe is part of a multiverse]...My aim is that when you leave this book, your sense of what might be--your perspective on how the boundaries of reality may one day be redrawn by scientific developments now under way--will be far more rich and vivid."

The above comes from the beginning of this book by Brian Greene. Greene is a theoretical physicist and now a professor of physics & mathematics at Columbia University. He has made a number of discoveries in Superstring Theory. Two of his previous books, "The Elegant Universe" and "The Fabric of the Cosmos" were bestsellers in the U.S.

What Greene does is take us through nine variations of the multiverse theme. The various versions have the following names:

(1) Quilted Multiverse
(2) Inflationary Multiverse
(3) Brane Mutiverse
(4) Cyclic Multiverse
(5) Landscape Multiverse
(6) Quantum Multiverse
(7) Holographic Multiverse
(8) Simulated Multiverse
(9) Ultimate Multiverse

Keeping the above quotation that begins this review in mind, any reader of this book should find it quite interesting, especially those with a physical science background.

I did find parts of this book not as accessible as the two bestsellers mentioned above. But there are still plenty of analogies with good, helpful illustrations throughout. I especially liked how everything was put into a historical context.

Finally, many readers may ask (including myself) if this topic that Greene is discussing true science? Greene does an excellent job of answering this question in the chapter entitled "Science and the Multiverse." This chapter is near the end of the book. I feel it should have been more at the beginning.

In conclusion, this book presents a remarkable journey to the very edge of reality--a journey grounded in science and limited only by human...imagination!!

(first published 2011; preface; 11 chapters; main narrative 320 pages; notes; suggestions for further reading; index)

<<Stephen Pletko, London, Ontario, Canada>>

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I bought this book for my father's birthday. He's really into popular science and he had already read a lot of books from many different authors. My family first language is french and most of the books he already had were from french-speaking authors (they were not translations). I heard about Brian Greene on the american sitcom "The Big Bang Theory" and I thought that it could be nice for him to read a book in english for a change. It turned out it was perfect for him; even if he speaks and reads mainly in french, the explanations given in the book and the metaphors were explained in a way he could understand them easily and still learn. My point is that the book is really adapted for people who craves for science but are not necessarily experts on the matter. The book is also really up-to-date and describes really interesting concepts and theories we sometimes talk about without really knowing what they really are. In my opinion, this book can be offered to people who are 17 and over.