A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
"An informed and entertaining guide to what science can and cannot tell
us." **--**The Wall Street Journal
"Stimulating . . . encourage[s] readers to push past well-trod
assumptions [...] and have fun doing so." --Science Magazine
From renowned physicist and creator of the YouTube series "Science
without the Gobbledygook," a book that takes a no-nonsense approach to
life's biggest questions, and wrestles with what physics really says
about the human condition
Not only can we not currently explain the origin of the universe, it is
questionable we will ever be able to explain it. The notion that there
are universes within particles, or that particles are conscious, is
ascientific, as is the hypothesis that our universe is a computer
simulation. On the other hand, the idea that the universe itself is
conscious is difficult to rule out entirely.
According to Sabine Hossenfelder, it is not a coincidence that quantum
entanglement and vacuum energy have become the go-to explanations of
alternative healers, or that people believe their deceased grandmother
is still alive because of quantum mechanics. Science and religion have
the same roots, and they still tackle some of the same questions: Where
do we come from? Where do we go to? How much can we know? The area of
science that is closest to answering these questions is physics. Over
the last century, physicists have learned a lot about which spiritual
ideas are still compatible with the laws of nature. Not always, though,
have they stayed on the scientific side of the debate.
In this lively, thought-provoking book, Hossenfelder takes on the
biggest questions in physics: Does the past still exist? Do particles
think? Was the universe made for us? Has physics ruled out free will?
Will we ever have a theory of everything? She lays out how far
physicists are on the way to answering these questions, where the
current limits are, and what questions might well remain unanswerable
forever. Her book offers a no-nonsense yet entertaining take on some of
the toughest riddles in existence, and will give the reader a solid
grasp on what we know--and what we don't know.
