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A review by jarusesky
Parallel Worlds: A Journey Through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos by Michio Kaku
4.0
I am not a physicist or scientist and I never made it terribly far in the STEM world.
This has not stopped me from being perpetually curious about the scientific and natural world and our place in the universe. Kaku's book does a good job of explaining the history and ideas of cosmology and physics to a layperson - the phrase "in other words" does a lot of heavy lifting here. Some details still sailed over my head, but I was able to hold onto enough to make the audio book well worth the experience.
Reading Parallel Worlds - or any other good book about the universe - is a bit like micro-dosing Psilocybin. The world of quantum theory is so bonkers and the realities of our universe so astounding that the absorption of their ideas necessarily shifts my day-to-day perception of just about everything. The constant readjustment of what feels possible in our universe (and the potential infinity of worlds hiding perhaps just a millimeter from ours) forces me to shift also what is possible in my own life. It is impossible to study the universe without studying ourselves. To say that Parallel Worlds gave me an "understanding" of things like string theory, M-theory, wave functions, parallel universes, and super symmetry would be a stretch. But it did give me the best understanding that I've had so far, and it stretched my brain in fascinating ways.
The concluding moments of Kaku's book frames this moment (yes, this one right now) as the most exciting time yet for the history of humanity. The generations alive now, he suggests, will be the ones to facilitate our transition to a Type 1 civilization - or die trying. The future of our species and planet hinge on the choices we make now. Let's try not to fuck it up.
This has not stopped me from being perpetually curious about the scientific and natural world and our place in the universe. Kaku's book does a good job of explaining the history and ideas of cosmology and physics to a layperson - the phrase "in other words" does a lot of heavy lifting here. Some details still sailed over my head, but I was able to hold onto enough to make the audio book well worth the experience.
Reading Parallel Worlds - or any other good book about the universe - is a bit like micro-dosing Psilocybin. The world of quantum theory is so bonkers and the realities of our universe so astounding that the absorption of their ideas necessarily shifts my day-to-day perception of just about everything. The constant readjustment of what feels possible in our universe (and the potential infinity of worlds hiding perhaps just a millimeter from ours) forces me to shift also what is possible in my own life. It is impossible to study the universe without studying ourselves. To say that Parallel Worlds gave me an "understanding" of things like string theory, M-theory, wave functions, parallel universes, and super symmetry would be a stretch. But it did give me the best understanding that I've had so far, and it stretched my brain in fascinating ways.
The concluding moments of Kaku's book frames this moment (yes, this one right now) as the most exciting time yet for the history of humanity. The generations alive now, he suggests, will be the ones to facilitate our transition to a Type 1 civilization - or die trying. The future of our species and planet hinge on the choices we make now. Let's try not to fuck it up.