Many Worlds in One: The Search for Other Universes

by Alex Vilenkin

Book Overview

A Leading Figure in the Development of the New Cosmology Explains What It All Means Among his peers, Alex Vilenkin is regarded as one of the most imaginative and creative cosmologists of our time. His... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0809095238
• ISBN13: 9780809095230
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: Hill & Wang
• Length: 235 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.7" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A fascinating and puzzling worldview of the universe

I am not a physicist, my background is chemistry, but I have been very much involved during the last ten years in reading a lot on cosmology and, of course, on particle physics. I have found that this is the first book, for laymen of course, that deals more thoroughly on the teory of the multiverse. Some chapters I had to read more than once, like, for example, those dealing with vacuum energy and false-vacuum, which are important for understanding the consequences of inflation in according to Vilenkin's view. In my opinion they were not sufficiently elaborated and could have been better connected within the book. Also some of the figures are a little bit confusing like those representing the inflating false-vacuum or the island universe spacetime. I think they could have been better planned. However, I have found the book fascinating and I believe it is a must for all laymen interested in cosmology. Thanks Vilenkin, I hope to read more from you.

readable and detailed

I found this book to be extremely readable and surprisingly well translated into language and ideas that could be understood by those with little or no background in cosmology. The writing style is very entertaining. But I caution curious readers that even though this book is so approachable it still covers a great deal of modern cosmology so it is by no means a light read. As was mentioned in another review one aspect of the writing style is confusing. Since so little of cosmology is experimentally proven there often exist conflicting views. Vilenkin does a good job of covering most of them, but for an unexperienced reader it can be confusing which theory he wants you to believe. Overall the book is a great read to qualitatively cover modern cosmology and if it is confusing at first it is well worth a re-read or closer inspection for those who want to understand the finer details.

Simply Superb

As the title of my review suggests, this is simply superb. Mr. Vilenkin SIMPLIFIES... and of the thirty or so books I've read on cosmology, this is at or near the top. The author covers much ground and does it efficiently. He lays the groundwork for his theories and takes us through the logic he employed in arriving at his 'quantum-tunneling out of nothing' theory to explain the origin of our 'local island universe'. Mr. Vilenkin ably covers vacuums, inflation, scalar fields, the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, the multiverse and even Euclidian time. If you don't understand all these concepts... DON'T WORRY. You will understand them after reading this delightful book.

Thought-provoking first-hand insights

There are not many popular science books that open up an entirely new world-view, one that is both fascinating and irritating. Although there are lots of good books about cosmology, quantum physics, and the (possible) beginning and end of the universe, this one is unique: It doesn't simply repeat the well-known facts and fictions, but explains the dramatic developments in theoretical cosmology during the last two decades, which are not covered elsewhere (or only briefly and often in a misleading way), including some of their eminent philosophical implications. Alex Vilenkin, one of the leading and most creative researchers of our time, delivers first-hand insights from his own work and that of his friends and colleagues (altogether a veritable Who Is Who in cosmology: Alan Guth, Stephen Hawking, Andrei Linde, Alexei Starobinsky, Paul Steinhardt, Steven Weinberg and many more). Vilenkins book covers topics like the scenario of cosmic inflation (an exponential expansion of space), the origin of matter and the seeds for galaxy formation at the end of inflation, our observable universe as a tiny part of a bigger universe which is only one of a myriad of other island universes within a still inflating "false vacuum", the possibility of different laws and constants of nature ruling those other universes, the disturbing implication of REAL "parallel universes" with all possible alternate histories and also infinite numbers of fully identical "copies" of each of us, the strange issue of the cosmological constant and its "anthropic" (i.e. life-friendly) value, the anthropic principle as observational selection, the principle of mediocrity as a new tool for cosmological predictions, the possibility of an origin of the whole cosmos "out of nothing" and without a cause due to quantum tunneling, and the danger of a "vacuum decay" in the far future which would destroy our observable universe completely. This splendid book is well understandable for laymen and also highly recommendable for more advanced readers. It is concise, very informative but not overloaded, challenging and thought-provoking, it is up-to-date, witty, has nice anecdotes, excellent illustrations and cartoons. I enjoyed reading every single page.

Wonderful introduction to current "how it all began" physics

I read lots of accessible physics and cosmology books, and this is one of the best. There is essentially no math to master, but the concepts will make your head hurt (at least philosophically) while you absorb it all. This book has done the best job I've seen yet at explaining inflation in simple terms and how it might have taken only a few grams of matter/energy to create everything. (for a more detailed look at inflation, see one of Alan Guth's books on the subject, since he invented it). I would recommend this book to adults who want to explore current cosmological thinking; I would strongly recommend this to advanced high school students (along with "Beyond Einstein" by Michio Kaku and Jennifer Trainer Thompson) as an adjunct to their physical science and AP Physics studies. It is readily understood and can awaking a lifelong quest to answer the question, "How did we get here?" The "Why are we here?" question I'll leave to philosophers and theologians. Ed