Book review - Until the End of Time, by Brian Greene
Here is my book review of Until The End of Time, by Briane Greene:
I've always been a big fan of Brian Greene, having read two of his previous books, The Elegant Universe, and Fabric of the Cosmos, which are great "pop science" books on subjects such as string theory and theoretical physics. (Although calling these books just "popular science" would be selling them short, as they go into a lot of depth and detail without diving into the complex math)
I became interested in this book when I saw Joe Rogan's recent interview with Brian on Youtube. This book ventures into territory previously uncovered by Brian's previous books. While previous books were solely focused on the physical aspects of reality, this book falls more into the "Theory of Everything" realm by exploring topics outside physics, such as the humanities and spirituality.
From the physicists standpoint, a theory of everything is an attempt to find a single unified theory to explain the four fundamental forces. However, this wouldn't be an actual "Theory of Everything" because it fails to explain everything outside of the physical realm. Questions such as "Where does life come from?", "What is consciousness?", "What is the connection between the physical realm and higher level concepts such as spirituality?" are questions that are currently unanswerable using the theoretical framework provided by physics.
Therefore, in this book, Brian zooms out and provides a more comprehensive view of the history of our universe. He starts with the well known history of our universe, from the Big Bang, to the formation of stars and planets, to Darwinian Evolution, finally to the origins and evolution of humans. The then touches upon new topics, such as the nature of thought and consciousness, the purpose of seemingly "frivolous" things such as art and music, and how spirituality and religion fits within our society. Finally, he extends out 10^100 years into future, to the end of our universe, when black holes evaporate and particles are pulled apart back to their fundamental constituents due to the ever expanding nature of the universe.
This type of subject matter has always been interesting to me. I am the type of person that has a natural inclination towards the scientific and logical realm (INTP/INTJ personality type). However, when you look at human society as a whole, you realize that the majority of humans are little to no interest in science. They are preoccupied with other matters/disciplines such as the arts, sports, business, politics, and other more abstract things.
Here is one point of view: Given the nature of our universe, aren't all of these pursuits ultimately meaningless? From the reductionist point of view, you could answer yes. From the reductionist point of view, we could explain away all abstract phenomena as a byproduct of particle interactions. Currently, we don't know how certain things such as thought and consciousness arise, but a few hundred years from now, science might arrive at the conclusion that thought and conscious are just byproducts of particles being configured in a certain way and moving in a certain way. If this is the case, then you could say that the ultimate source of knowledge comes from logic and science, and that scientists are the ultimate authority. Furthermore, you could conclude that life has no meaning, since everything we know is just a byproduct of physical interactions and we are essentially living in a simulation.
Here's another point of view: Life has meaning beyond what can be explained by science and physics. When you feel an emotion such as love or happiness, are those just neuro-chemicals flowing through your brain which produces an emotion? or is there "meaning" behind all of it. When you hang out with your best friend or a loved one, are the emotions that you feel genuine? Or are we just living in a simulation? Furthermore, are human concepts such a "morality" explained away by Nash Equilibrium / Pareto Optimal behaviors, or are humans intrinsically "good", and want society to evolve towards a better future? From the "spiritual" or "religious" standpoint, you would argue for the latter. From the "spiritualist" standpoint, life does have a "meaning" beyond what can be explained from the scientific/reductionist point of view.
Predictably, I am of the opinion that the truth is somewhere in between. In order to truly understand life, you much combine both the logical and rational side with the romantic/abstract side. I am going to degress here but for example, I play ping pong at a pretty high level (2000+ USATT rating), and very little science/physics goes into my understanding of the game. If I were to try to understand ping pong from the reductionist point of view, every time I hit the ping pong ball, I would be thinking about the atoms of my arm moving through space-time, and when the spinning ball hits the racquet, Newton's laws of Physics are at play. If I were to think about ping pong from this framework, I would never become a great ping pong player. It would be more effective for me to think about the game at a more abstract level, in terms of concepts such as "technique" and "game psychology." To continue along this analogy, I think a "top-down" view of the world is needed in order to truly understand the nature of life and consciousness.
Anyways, I might have gone on a tangent from what the book is about to a bunch of personal thoughts about life, but regardless I would definitely recommend this great book by Briane Greene!
Link to original review on Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3230859189?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1
I've always been a big fan of Brian Greene, having read two of his previous books, The Elegant Universe, and Fabric of the Cosmos, which are great "pop science" books on subjects such as string theory and theoretical physics. (Although calling these books just "popular science" would be selling them short, as they go into a lot of depth and detail without diving into the complex math)
I became interested in this book when I saw Joe Rogan's recent interview with Brian on Youtube. This book ventures into territory previously uncovered by Brian's previous books. While previous books were solely focused on the physical aspects of reality, this book falls more into the "Theory of Everything" realm by exploring topics outside physics, such as the humanities and spirituality.
From the physicists standpoint, a theory of everything is an attempt to find a single unified theory to explain the four fundamental forces. However, this wouldn't be an actual "Theory of Everything" because it fails to explain everything outside of the physical realm. Questions such as "Where does life come from?", "What is consciousness?", "What is the connection between the physical realm and higher level concepts such as spirituality?" are questions that are currently unanswerable using the theoretical framework provided by physics.
Therefore, in this book, Brian zooms out and provides a more comprehensive view of the history of our universe. He starts with the well known history of our universe, from the Big Bang, to the formation of stars and planets, to Darwinian Evolution, finally to the origins and evolution of humans. The then touches upon new topics, such as the nature of thought and consciousness, the purpose of seemingly "frivolous" things such as art and music, and how spirituality and religion fits within our society. Finally, he extends out 10^100 years into future, to the end of our universe, when black holes evaporate and particles are pulled apart back to their fundamental constituents due to the ever expanding nature of the universe.
This type of subject matter has always been interesting to me. I am the type of person that has a natural inclination towards the scientific and logical realm (INTP/INTJ personality type). However, when you look at human society as a whole, you realize that the majority of humans are little to no interest in science. They are preoccupied with other matters/disciplines such as the arts, sports, business, politics, and other more abstract things.
Here is one point of view: Given the nature of our universe, aren't all of these pursuits ultimately meaningless? From the reductionist point of view, you could answer yes. From the reductionist point of view, we could explain away all abstract phenomena as a byproduct of particle interactions. Currently, we don't know how certain things such as thought and consciousness arise, but a few hundred years from now, science might arrive at the conclusion that thought and conscious are just byproducts of particles being configured in a certain way and moving in a certain way. If this is the case, then you could say that the ultimate source of knowledge comes from logic and science, and that scientists are the ultimate authority. Furthermore, you could conclude that life has no meaning, since everything we know is just a byproduct of physical interactions and we are essentially living in a simulation.
Here's another point of view: Life has meaning beyond what can be explained by science and physics. When you feel an emotion such as love or happiness, are those just neuro-chemicals flowing through your brain which produces an emotion? or is there "meaning" behind all of it. When you hang out with your best friend or a loved one, are the emotions that you feel genuine? Or are we just living in a simulation? Furthermore, are human concepts such a "morality" explained away by Nash Equilibrium / Pareto Optimal behaviors, or are humans intrinsically "good", and want society to evolve towards a better future? From the "spiritual" or "religious" standpoint, you would argue for the latter. From the "spiritualist" standpoint, life does have a "meaning" beyond what can be explained from the scientific/reductionist point of view.
Predictably, I am of the opinion that the truth is somewhere in between. In order to truly understand life, you much combine both the logical and rational side with the romantic/abstract side. I am going to degress here but for example, I play ping pong at a pretty high level (2000+ USATT rating), and very little science/physics goes into my understanding of the game. If I were to try to understand ping pong from the reductionist point of view, every time I hit the ping pong ball, I would be thinking about the atoms of my arm moving through space-time, and when the spinning ball hits the racquet, Newton's laws of Physics are at play. If I were to think about ping pong from this framework, I would never become a great ping pong player. It would be more effective for me to think about the game at a more abstract level, in terms of concepts such as "technique" and "game psychology." To continue along this analogy, I think a "top-down" view of the world is needed in order to truly understand the nature of life and consciousness.
Anyways, I might have gone on a tangent from what the book is about to a bunch of personal thoughts about life, but regardless I would definitely recommend this great book by Briane Greene!
Link to original review on Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3230859189?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1
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