02817cam a2200289 i 4500 1041335682 TxAuBib 20240212120000.0 231003s2024||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 2023019652 9781541602175 HRD 30.00 154160217X HRD 30.00 TxAuBib rda Halpern, Paul, 1961-, author. The allure of the multiverse [BOOK] : extra dimensions, other worlds, and parallel universes / Paul Halpern. New York : Basic Books, 2024. 308 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier Includes bibliographical references and index. Introduction: When one universe is not enough -- Eternity through the stars : Louis-Auguste Blanqui, Friedrich Nietzsche, and the quest for replica worlds -- Theories from another dimension : Albert Einstein's ground-shattering revolution and Theodor Kaluza's radical response -- Showdown in Hilbert's Hotel : the competing quantum visions of Niels Bohr, Hugh Everett, and others -- Order from chaos : Charles Misner's mixmaster model versus Brandon Carter's anthropic principle -- Burgeoning truths : Alan Guth, Andrei Linde and the inflationary universe -- Tangled up in strings : Ed Witten, Steven Weinberg, and the higher dimensional landscape -- Seasons of rebirth : the vying cyclic cosmologies of Paul Steinhardt and Roger Penrose -- The time travelers party: Kip Thorne, Steven Hawking, and the prospects for temporal voyages -- Conclusion: The reflecting pool and the sea : contemplating the meaning and purpose of the multiverse. "In The Allure of the Multiverse, physicist Paul Halpern tells the epic story of how science became besotted with the multiverse, and the controversies that ensued. The questions that brought scientists to this point are big and deep: Is reality such that anything can happen, must happen? How does quantum mechanics “choose” the outcomes of its apparently random processes? And why is the universe habitable? Each question quickly leads to the multiverse. Drawing on centuries of disputation and deep vision, from luminaries like Nietzsche, Einstein, and the creators of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Halpern reveals the multiplicity of multiverses that scientists have imagined to make sense of our reality. Whether we live in one of many different possible universes, or simply the only one there is, might never be certain. But Halpern shows one thing for sure: how stimulating it can be to try to find out. 20240212. Multiverse. Cosmology.