Our Mathematical Universe
Hardcover edition
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| Author | Max Tegmark |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Physics |
| Genre | Non-fiction |
| Publisher | Knopf |
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Publication date
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January 7, 2014 |
| Media type | Print (hardback) |
| Pages | 432 |
| ISBN | |
Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality is a 2014 nonfiction book by the Swedish-American cosmologist Max Tegmark. Written in popular science format, the book interweaves what a New York Times reviewer called "an informative survey of exciting recent developments in astrophysics and quantum theory" with Tegmark's mathematical universe hypothesis, which posits that reality is a mathematical structure. This mathematical nature of the universe, Tegmark argues, has important consequences for the way researchers should approach many questions of physics.
Tegmark, whose background and scientific research have been in the fields of theoretical astrophysics and cosmology, mixes autobiography and humor into his analysis of the universe. The book begins with an account of a bicycle accident in Stockholm in which Tegmark was killed… in some theoretical parallel universes, though not in our own.
The rest of the book is divided into three parts. Part one, "Zooming Out," deals with locating ourselves in the cosmos and/or multiverse. Part two, "Zooming In," looks for added perspective from quantum mechanics and particle physics. Part three, "Stepping Back," interweaves a scientific viewpoint with Tegmark's speculative ideas about the mathematical nature of reality. By the end of the book, Tegmark has hypothesized four different levels of multiverse.
According to Andrew Liddle, reviewing the book for Nature:
The culmination that Tegmark seeks to lead us to is the “Level IV multiverse”. This level contends that the Universe is not just well described by mathematics, but, in fact, is mathematics. All possible mathematical structures have a physical existence, and collectively, give a multiverse that subsumes all others. Here, Tegmark is taking us well beyond accepted viewpoints, advocating his personal vision for explaining the Universe.
Reviews of the book are generally enthusiastic about Tegmark's ability to make scientific topics enjoyable and intelligible. For example, according to a reviewer for The Guardian:
Tegmark, a professor of physics at MIT, writes at the cutting edge of cosmology and quantum theory in friendly and relaxed prose, full of entertaining anecdotes and down-to-earth analogies.
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