Parallel Worlds
A Journey through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos
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Is our universe dying? Could there be other universes?In Parallel Worlds, world-renowned physicist and bestselling author Michio Kaku--an author who "has a knack for bringing the most ethereal ideas down to earth" (Wall Street Journal)--takes readers on a fascinating tour of cosmology, M-theory, and its implications for the fate of the universe.In his first book of physics since Hyperspace, Michio Kaku begins by describing the extraordinary advances that have transformed cosmology over the last century, and particularly over the last decade, forcing scientists around the world to rethink our understanding of the birth of the universe, and its ultimate fate. In Dr. Kaku's eyes, we are living in a golden age of physics, as new discoveries from the WMAP and COBE satellites and the Hubble space telescope have given us unprecedented pictures of our universe in its infancy.As astronomers wade through the avalanche of data from the WMAP satellite, a new cosmological picture is emerging. So far, the leading theory about the birth of the universe is the "inflationary universe theory," a major refinement on the big bang theory. In this theory, our universe may be but one in a multiverse, floating like a bubble in an infinite sea of bubble universes, with new universes being created all the time. A parallel universe may well hover a mere millimeter from our own. The very idea of parallel universes and the string theory that can explain their existence was once viewed with suspicion by scientists, seen as the province of mystics, charlatans, and cranks. But today, physicists overwhelmingly support string-theory, and its latest iteration, M-theory, as it is this one theory that, if proven correct, would reconcile the four forces of the universe simply and elegantly, and answer the question "What happened before the big bang?"Already, Kaku explains, the world's foremost physicists and astronomers are searching for ways to test the theory of the multiverse using highly sophisticated wave detectors, gravity lenses, satellites, and telescopes. The implications of M-theory are fascinating and endless. If parallel worlds do exist, Kaku speculates, in time, perhaps a trillion years or more from now, as appears likely, when our universe grows cold and dark in what scientists describe as a big freeze, advanced civilizations may well find a way to escape our universe in a kind of "inter-dimensional lifeboat." An unforgettable journey into black holes and time machines, alternate universes, and multidimensional space, Parallel Worlds gives us a compelling portrait of the revolution sweeping the world of cosmology.
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This was a great tour through the strange nature of possible parallel universes and other theoretical concepts at the edge of science. I love this stuff, and Michio Kaku does a great job of explaining everything, along with the backstory and in a way that I found very approachable.
পপ সায়েন্স লেখকদের মধ্যে যাদের নামডাক শুনি মিশিও কাকু তাদের শীর্ষস্থানীয়দের একজন। পুরো বইটির কথা বলতে গেলে লেখা সচ্ছল, সুপাঠ্য। পপুলার সায়েন্সের বইয়ের জন্য যা অবশ্যই দরকারি। তা না হলে আমার মত অভাজনেরা বিপদে পড়ে যায়। লেখার ধরণ খানিকটা সেগানের অনুগামী মনে হয়েছে, চ্যাপ্টারের শুরুতে ক্যোটেশন, দার্শনিক কথাবার্তা সব মিলিয়ে।
বইটাতে কোয়ান্টাম ফিজিক্স ও স্ট্রিং থিওরির বেশকিছু ব্যাপারে আলোচনা আছে, অবশ্যই তা গণিতবিবর্জিত, সহজবোধ্যরূপে। তার যথাযথতার বিচার করার মত ক্ষমতা আমার নেই, তবে আমার মনে হয়, মূল ব্যাপারটা খানিকটা বুঝতে পেরেছি।
এগুলো ছাড়াও বইটির বিষয়ের মধ্যে ছিল সৃষ্টিতত্ত্ব, প্যারালাল ইউনিভার্স এবং উচ্চতর ডাইমেনশনগুলো নিয়ে কথাবার্তা।
বেশকিছু ব্যাপারে যদিও আমার দ্বিধা আছে। অবশ্য কোয়ান্টাম ফিজিক্স কমনসেন্সের ধার ধারে না। ব্যাপারটার বৈজ্ঞানিক অংশ আমি কমই বুঝি, দার্শনিক অংশটাই বেশি চোখে পড়লো। এর সাবজেক্টিভ নেচার নিয়ে আমি খানিকটা দ্বিধান্বিত, সন্দিহান এর যথাযথতা নিয়ে। যেমন ধরুন, আদ্রেই লিন্ডের এই কথাগুলো:
For me as a human being, I do not know any sense in which I could claim that the universe is here in the absence of observers. We are together, the universe and us. The moment you say that the universe exists without any observers, I cannot make any sense out of that. I cannot imagine a consistent theory of everything that ignores consciousness. A recording device cannot play the role of an observer, because who will read what is written on this recording device. In order for us to see that something happens, and say to one another that something happens, you need to have a universe, you need to have a recording device, and you need to have us... In the absence of observers, our universe is dead.
A man said to the universe:
“Sir, I exist!”
“However,” replied the universe,
“The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation.” — Stephen Crane
Although Einstein was shocked by this result, it was too good to be true. Over the years, problems were discovered that rendered Kaluza's idea useless. First, the theory was riddled with divergences and anomalies, which is typical of quantum gravity theories. Second, there was the much more disturbing physical question: why don't we see the fifth dimension? When we shoot arrows into the sky, we don't see them disappear into another dimension. Think of smoke, which slowly permeates every region of space. Since smoke is never observed to disappear into a higher dimension, physicists realized that higher dimensions, if they exist at all, must be smaller than an atom. For the past century, mystics and mathematicians have entertained the idea of higher dimensions, but physicists scoffed at the idea, since no one had ever seen objects enter a higher dimension.
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