num_pages: 432
description: Our Mathematical Universe is a journey to explore the mysteries uncovered by cosmology and to discover the nature of reality. Our Big Bang our distant future parallel worlds the sub-atomic and intergalactic - none of them are what they seem. But there is a way to understand this immense strangeness - mathematics. Seeking an answer to the fundamental puzzle of why our universe seems so mathematical Tegmark proposes a radical idea: that our physical world not only is described by mathematics but that it is mathematics. This may offer answers to our deepest questions: How large is reality? What is everything made of? Why is our universe the way it is?Table of ContentsPreface 1 What Is Reality? Not What It Seems  Whats the Ultimate Question?  The Journey Begins Part One: Zooming Out 2 Our Place in Space Cosmic Questions  How Big Is Space?  The Size of Earth  Distance to the Moon  Distance to the Sun and the Planets  Distance to the Stars  Distance to the Galaxies  What Is Space? 3 Our Place in TimeWhere Did Our Solar System Come From?  Where Did theGalaxies Come From?  Where Did the Mysterious MicrowavesCome From?  Where Did the Atoms Come From? 4 Our Universe by NumbersWanted: Precision Cosmology  Precision Microwave-Background Fluctuations  Precision Galaxy Clustering  The Ultimate Map of Our Universe  Where Did Our Big Bang Come From? 5 Our Cosmic Origins Whats Wrong with Our Big Bang?  How Inflation Works  The Gift That Keeps on Giving  Eternal Inflation 6 Welcome to the Multiverse The Level I Multiverse  The Level II Multiverse  Multiverse Halftime Roundup Part Two: Zooming In 7 Cosmic Legos Atomic Legos  Nuclear Legos  Particle-Physics Legos  Mathematical Legos  Photon Legos  Above the Law?  Quanta and Rainbows  Making Waves  Quantum Weirdness  The Collapse of Consensus  The Weirdness Cant Be Confined  Quantum Confusion 8 The Level III Multiverse The Level III Multiverse  The Illusion of Randomness  Quantum Censorship  The Joys of Getting Scooped  Why Your Brain Isnt a Quantum Computer  Subject Object and Environment  Quantum Suicide  Quantum Immortality?  Multiverses Unified  Shifting Views: Many Worlds or Many Words? Part Three: Stepping Back 9 Internal Reality External Reality and Consensus Reality External Reality and Internal Reality  The Truth the Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth  Consensus Reality  Physics: Linking External to Consensus Reality 10 Physical Reality and Mathematical Reality Math Math Everywhere!  The Mathematical Universe Hypothesis  What Is a Mathematical Structure? 11 Is Time an Illusion? How Can Physical Reality Be Mathematical?  What Are You?  Where Are You? (And What Do You Perceive?)  When Are You? 12 The Level IV Multiverse Why I Believe in the Level IV Multiverse  Exploring the Level IV Multiverse: Whats Out There?  Implications of the Level IV Multiverse  Are We Living in a Simulation?  Relation Between the MUH the Level IV Multiverse and Other Hypotheses Testing the Level IV Multiverse 13 Life Our Universe and Everything How Big Is Our Physical Reality?  The Future of Physics  The Future of Our UniverseHow Will It End?  The Future of Life The Future of YouAre You Insignificant? Acknowledgments Suggestions for Further Reading Index
language: English
title: Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality
publisher: Allen Lane