New Theories of Everything

<p>Will we ever discover a single scientific theory that tells us everything that has happened and everything that will happen on every level in the Universe? The quest for the theory of everything - a single key that unlocks all the secrets of the Universe - is no longer a pipe-dream but the focus of some of our most exciting research about the structure of the cosmos. But what might such a theory look like? What would it mean? And how close are we to getting there?<br /> <br /> In <em>New Theories of Everything</em> John D. Barrow describes the ideas and controversies surrounding the ultimate explanation. Updating his earlier work <em>Theories of Everything </em>with the very latest theories and predictions he tells of the M-theory of superstrings and multiverses of speculations about the world as a computer program and of new ideas of computation and complexity. But this is not solely a book about modern ideas in physics - Barrow also considers and reflects on the philosophical and cultural consequences of those ideas and their implications for our own existence in the world.<br /> <br /> Far from there being a single theory uniquely specifying the constants and forces of nature the picture today is of a vast landscape of different logically possible laws and constants in many dimensions of which our own world is but a shadow: a tiny facet of a higher dimensional reality. But this is not to say we should give up in bewilderment: Barrow shows how many rich and illuminating theories and questions arise and what this may mean for our understanding of our own place in the cosmos.</p>