Parallel Worlds

Parallel Worlds
The Science of Alternative Universes and Our Future in the Cosmos

by Michio Kaku

This is an absolutely mind-bending book. Michio Kaku does an excellent job explaining the current state of physics in language that even I could follow and understand. He does a much better job of it than even Brian Greene.

The book is interesting because Kaku approaches the subject from the point of view that life in the universe will one day cease to exist -- so what does my many-times great descendant do? It turns out, he could try to move to a separate, but parallel, universe where life could still exist.

Kaku goes through the physics of the big bang, and how the universe will end (in ice), and then moves on to parallel universes and worm-holes, all the while using pop culture and science fiction references.

Seriously, I'll never look at the world around me the same way. To think that electrons can be in more than one place at a time, that Shrödinger's cat can be alive and dead at the same time -- in two parallel universes -- is just wacky.

In addition, the book really makes you think about how fragile life on Earth actually is, while at the same time giving you hope that mankind will find away to muddle through. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and I highly recommend it as a summer read.

tags: book review  science  kaku