The Fabric of the Cosmos

[Telos]

The overarching lesson that has emerged from scientific inquiry over the last century is that human experience is often a misleading guide to the true nature of reality. Lying just beneath the surface of the everyday is a world we'd hardly recognize. Followers of the occult, devotees of astrology, and those who hold to religious principles that speak to a reality beyond experience have, from widely varying perspectives, long since arrived at a similar conclusion. But that's not what I have in mind. I'm referring to the work of ingenious innovators and tireless researchers – the men and women of science – who have peeled back layer after layer of the cosmic onion, enigma by enigma, and revealed a universe that is at once surprising, unfamiliar, exciting, elegant, and thoroughly unlike what anyone ever expected.

Many of you know Brian Greene as the author of "The Elegant Universe," and host of the NOVA television mini-series of the same name. You know him because of his affiliation with string theory, a theory that supposedly confirms our extra-dimensional spirituality by its predictions of extra spatial dimensions. However, you don't know him for his affiliation in discoveries about space itself. That Brian Greene claims to entertain questions beyond the ken of spirituality, even beyond the scope of imagination itself. And that is the Brian Greene who has written this book.

Other reviews have mentioned the topic of this next paragraph, but I will as well, because it really does set the tone for the book. And it is especially important for us new age types, as Greene places the meaning of life in firm context. In the introduction, Greene recounts an experience he had as teenager reading a book in his father's bookcase. It read, "There is but one truly philosophical problem, and that is suicide." And it continued, "Whether or not the world has three dimensions or the mind as nine or twelve categories comes afterward." It was the "Myth of Sysiphus," written by the existentialist Albert Camus, and it had a somewhat profound effect on Greene's life, for he decided that you cannot answer the question of the meaning of life without understanding the arena in which life takes place. As new age-types, we tend to answer it the other way around, don't we?

This book is a very clear and lucid read with absolutely no math (except for the interested reader who will find some in the notes). And it is filled with questions. Prepare yourself for a complete reorientation to how you think about space. No longer can you think of it as just possibly having extra dimensions or integration with time, but extra properties as a "thing."

Admittedly, I downloaded the first portion of the audio book (illegally) so I have a huge head start in reading it. However, the audio version just made the book sound so understandable and engaging that I had to delete it and buy a copy. I apologize and beg forgiveness from whomever will give it.

This book will spark your curiosity about space as an entity, even if you are a Hindu monk and think you already know. :)

[Quantitativefool]

That was a phenomenal book, thanks for suggesting.

-Stu

[Nick]

Brian Greene was a guest on the David Letterman show the night before last, that is, March 22, '05. He was only on about 10 minutes towards the end of the show, however it was the best part of the show. He talked on  several areas from his book. Well worth it. I'll have to read his book.