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Title: Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces That Shape the Universe by Martin J. Rees ISBN: 0-465-03673-2 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 08 May, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.31 (26 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Very Interesting
Comment: The Astronomer Royal (the Queen's own?) seems to take seriously Linde's chaotic inflation and the idea that our universe is just one among countless others in a "multiverse." I find it significant that even so great an authority as Steve Weinberg does not dismiss it out of hand.
The notion that our universe is finite and has a beginning in time is of course no longer speculation. But the idea that there are other universes out there with totally different fundamental constants and probably different number (some many more than ours) of dimensions as well is just so hard to fathom. It's mind-boggling to me how anyone can prove or disprove it; yet here it is and it's not a crackpot idea from some harebrained science-fiction writers. Sir Martin is a very eminent astronomer - far more credible than Carl Sagan even.
But if you look back on the astronomical discoveries in the past two millennia, clearly our place in the universe/multiverse has been found to be less and less unique. First we were found to be no longer the only planet, then no longer the planet in the center of the solar system, then no longer the only solar system, then no longer the solar system in the center, then no longer the only galaxy, then no longer the galaxy in the center (because the universe has no center).....and now, perhaps, no longer the only universe. It's all so logical.
Sir Martin seems to think, surprisingly given what he now believes, that intelligent life may be rare in the universe. I for one cannot believe that life, intelligent or not, is rare in our universe, and if there are other universes out there, the odds are considerably higher still. (The Drake Equation suggests there are billions of planets in our universe alone with intelligent lifeforms, and many millions in our galaxy alone.) Perhaps he doesn't want to be taken for a mad scientist encouraging "raelians", ufologists, X-file enthusiasts, "abductees" and other such idiots. The damage it can do to his career is all too real. But all he has to do is to draw a clear distinction between the odds for life, and in particular intelligent life, in other worlds on the one hand, and the odds that any of them have visited us on the other. Again, I think the odds are very high for the former, but almost certainly nil for the latter. In any case, the possibility of our finding these lifeforms is not very high, since considering the distances involved our space technology is still in the Stone Age.
Interestingly, the religious implications are profound if we are indeed living in a multiverse in which our own universe is merely one among countless others, all very different from one another. It may be impossible to prove the origin of such a multiverse, if in fact it even has a beginning. Perhaps the multiverse has always been there, more or less unchanging except at local levels. Or perhaps the multiverse itself has a beginning, and is again only one among countless others. Either way, the role of a Creator cannot be proven - perhaps never can be.
No math is needed to read this book, but it can still be heavy going for the uninitiated, despite its deceptive shortness. Have an astronomy dictionary handy, or else be very patient and careful when following his arguments. Referring back to his earlier book "Before the Beginning" may be a good idea, as is looking things up in an introductory astronomy textbook. If you're still stuck, skip & move on to other interesting topics. Eventually the pieces will fall into place. If not, it may not be your fault, but you're out of luck because Martin John Rees is one of the clearest & most admired educators in astronomy and astrophysics for laypeople.
Rating: 3
Summary: Jottings of an old hand
Comment: I was disappointed by this book. I realised that Martin Rees is an experienced distinguished scientist and I hoped that his insight and experience would shine thru in Six Numbers. I feel it doesn't. The book feels like something written quickly to satisfy a publication deadline...written without passion...perhaps dictated in the shower with the details being filled in afterwards. I didn't find the central argument, that the numbers are too fortunate to have come about by chance, convincing.
Rating: 4
Summary: The Number of our Universe
Comment: It has long been debated in science and philosophy as to whether pure mathematics underlies the functioning of our universe. Mr. Rees does not really address this question in his book. What he does, however, is show how our understanding of the universe is based on numbers that have to be very finely tuned indeed for our universe to be the way it is. Just six numbers, in fact.
This is a very intriguing book. Rees gives a good introduction to many of the most fundamental things in science--forces like gravity and electromagnetism, the formation and structure of matter, cosmic expansion and many other things. Moreover, he is not afraid to give these concepts symbol and number and show how these values are determined by theory and observation. Most importantly, he then goes on to discuss how variations in these numbers by even very slight amounts in most cases would lead to a very different universe from the one in which we currently find ourselves. This does much to strengthen many of the arguments he makes concerning those parts of modern scientific theory that is mainly speculation.
If there is a weakness in this book, it is in the author's decision to frame his discussion around symbols and numbers. As a physicist and mathematician, I myself am quite comfortable with it but some readers might be frightened off by these Greek letters and numbers that are often so large or small as to be effectively meaningless. Even more so since these symbols and numbers are so far from what even a high school educated reader might come across in a math or physics class. It might have been more effective to link these ideas up to some concepts a high school educated person might have seen before.
Still, it is part of Rees' purpose, I think, to take us to the cutting edge of physics and cosmology without trudging through every detail. He wants to give us a taste of what are some of the most exciting and thought-provoking things happening today. This is a fair purpose and one that he achieves very well in only 161 pages. It is certainly worth a read.
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Title: Our Final Hour: A Scientist's Warning: How Terror, Error, and Environmental Disaster Threaten Humankind's Future In This Century--On Earth and Beyond by Martin J. Rees ISBN: 0465068626 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 18 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: Before the Beginning: Our Universe and Others (Helix Books) by Martin J. Rees ISBN: 0738200336 Publisher: Perseus Publishing Pub. Date: October, 1998 List Price(USD): $16.50 |
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Title: Our Cosmic Habitat by Martin Rees ISBN: 0691114773 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 03 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Constants of Nature : From Alpha to Omega--the Numbers That Encode the Deepest Secrets of the Universe by JOHN BARROW ISBN: 0375422218 Publisher: Pantheon Books Pub. Date: 14 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: The Inflationary Universe: The Quest for a New Theory of Cosmic Origins by Alan H. Guth, Alan P. Lightman ISBN: 0201328402 Publisher: Perseus Publishing Pub. Date: March, 1998 List Price(USD): $18.50 |
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