Universe or Multiverse?

By Steven Weinberg, Leonard Susskind, Craig J. Hogan, et al.

Book Overview

Recent developments in cosmology and particle physics, such as the string landscape picture, have led to the remarkable realization that our universe - rather than being unique - could be just one of many universes. The multiverse proposal helps to explain the origin of the universe and some of its observational features. Since the physical constants can be different in other universes, the fine-tunings which appear necessary for the emergence of life may also be explained. Nevertheless, many physicists remain uncomfortable with the multiverse proposal, since it is highly speculative and perhaps untestable. In this volume, a number of active and eminent researchers in the field - mainly cosmologists and particle physicists but also some philosophers - address these issues and describe recent developments. The articles represent the full spectrum of views, providing for the first time an overview of the subject. They are written at different academic levels, engaging lay-readers and researchers alike.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521140692
• ISBN13: 9780521140690
• Release Date: February 2010
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 536 Pages
• Weight: 2.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.8" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

The state of knowledge as it stands now

One answer to the question about us being the only intelligent life in the cosmos is answered by the multiverse theory of multiple universes. This is a subject that has received a lot of thinking and mathematical analysis in recent years. Recent developments in cosmology and particle physics, such as the string landscape picture, have led to some serious thinking that ours is not the only universe. This book has papers from...

An excellent book on a very interesting topic

This is a wonderful and highly readable book about the question of whether or not our universe is part of a multiverse. The more than two dozen contributors all do a fine job. We see plenty about the Anthropic Principle and about the Copernican Principle (also known as the Principle of Mediocrity). The Anthropic Principle merely points out that given that we exist in this universe, our universe must be habitable. But this...