The Hidden Reality

Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos

By: Brian Greene

Narrated by: Brian Greene

Length: 13 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

There was a time when “universe” meant all there is. Everything. Yet, in recent years discoveries in physics and cosmology have led a number of scientists to conclude that our universe may be one among many. With crystal-clear prose and inspired use of analogy, Brian Greene shows how a range of different “multiverse” proposals emerges from theories developed to explain the most refined observations of both subatomic particles and the dark depths of space: a multiverse in which you have an infinite number of doppelgängers, each reading this sentence in a distant universe; a multiverse comprising a vast ocean of bubble universes, of which ours is but one; a multiverse that endlessly cycles through time, or one that might be hovering millimeters away yet remains invisible; another in which every possibility allowed by quantum physics is brought to life. Or, perhaps strangest of all, a multiverse made purely of mathematics.

Greene, one of our foremost physicists and science writers, takes us on a captivating exploration of these parallel worlds and reveals how much of reality’s true nature may be deeply hidden within them.

©2011 Brian Greene (P)2011 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“If extraterrestrials landed tomorrow and demanded to know what the human mind is capable of accomplishing, we could do worse than to hand them a copy of this book.” (Timothy Ferris, The New York Times Book Review)

“Few living writers write so lucidly about such complicated stuff. In Greene’s prose, cutting-edge cosmology and particle physics become something a plucky and well-rested reader can apprehend...Greene might be the best intermediary I’ve found between the sparkling, absolute zero world of mathematics and the warm, clumsy world of human language.” (Anthony Doerr, Boston Globe)

“Mr. Greene has a gift for elucidating big ideas...Exciting and rewarding...[The Hidden Reality] captures and engages the imagination.” (Janet Maslin, The New York Times)

Brian Greene always keeps me listening for more.

Very interesting lectures as usual. Brian Greene can break anything down and make you understand enough to be dangerous. On to his next book we go!

Twice. Or three times...

Just a Simple orthopod. Have to read it twice, or three times. Worth it, though..

Beautiful and Elegant

Greene does a great job of making highly complex topics into a digestible format for a layman. Stick through the book even in the dense portions, it’s highly rewarding with the closure provided.

Painful to Listen to

What did you like best about The Hidden Reality? What did you like least?

Let me first say, I love Brian Greene. I have The Elegant Universe DVD series, have attended his presentations, and even have two books signed by him. So I wanted to love this book. The problem is that here, Greene reads at a pace so slow and expressive, it sounds as though he's reading to kindergarteners. I'm not exaggerating. It was nothing like how he speaks in his series. It was painful to listen to. Speeding it up did not help. Much worse was the constant name dropping. While it is understandable that some concepts require an explanation of the physicist that discovered it, there seemed to be mini-bios and accolades for every colleague, i.e. the "brilliant" so-and-so, and references to who wrote what scientific paper, when all he needed to do was describe the theory or concept. Finally, he lost me when he began using pop culture (Cartman from Southpark, of all things) as illustrative reference points for physical science. While what he was describing was fascinating on its own, he would suddenly stop to use simplistic explanations, such as imagining Cartmen getting fatter. The combination of all of those things ruined it for me. It was an overwhelming disappointment.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Never got to the ending. As noted above, it was simply too painful to listen to.

What didn’t you like about Brian Greene’s performance?

Not much else I can add to what I already wrote.

Could you see The Hidden Reality being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

A PBS series, yes.

Any additional comments?

It was my free trial Audible book, so I wish I'd chosen a better one.

Greene is a great writer, but not a great reader

I have read several physics books (including some written by Greene) so I have some background in the topic, but I am far from understanding it all. Greene does a very good job of making insanely complicated concepts (like multiple, folded, hidden dimensions) accessible to someone who doesn't have a Ph.D in math. He frequently uses real world analogies to bridge this gap, and even though the concepts are still daunting for a lay person, Greene makes them a little more accessible.

However, whatever his talents as a writer, Greene should leave it to professional readers to read his material. I found his voice and presentation very irritable, especially over the course of a long unabridged audio book. I almost stopped listening, it grated on me that much. Listen to a sample before downloading, and you may decide to read it instead of listening.

Way too technical for my tastes.

Would you try another book from Brian Greene and/or Brian Greene?

Probably not.

What other book might you compare The Hidden Reality to and why?

College physics book.

Did The Hidden Reality inspire you to do anything?

I was inspired to stop listening about the time I got to chapter 7.

Any additional comments?

First, I love Brian Greene. I've seen his documentaries and have always found the fascinating. His views on parallel dimensions are inspiring and entertaining, especially when he gets into debates with other physicists. I just don't think I'm smart enough for this book. It's a subject I really enjoy learning about, but it is presented in some very complicated ways in this book. I do realize that this is a complicated subject, by the way. It just lost me and never really came back around. If you are more experienced with the math and harder to understand concepts, you would really enjoy this book. I just don't feel like he dumbed it down enough for me. I'll keep it on file just in case I get smarter one day.

Fantastic story, great science history!

narrator is great, it's the author. extra carry on sentence to meet the review minimum.

Heeeeey Macarena

This one felt a bit more dense than Greene’s other works, but it was still very enjoyable to read! I particularly enjoyed his admission to doing the Macarena at an event he spoke at. Humor, wit, and offering the subject matter in as simple a way as possible for plebeians like myself, this was another amazing book by a brilliant physicist.

STRINGSSSS

The metaphors are quite handy but the demensional application seems to be a stumbling block since space intuitivily feels 3D but could be described as 1D with connections to various sized knots described by the 4 forces. Each knot with mass would be a point and share a line of 1D space with an emergent network from the web... the overlap in strings would be a quantifible knot with more knots around larger mass knots for the first knot and an expression of the graviton with decreet knotings increasing the density of the knot at a point. The other demensions could be permutations of strings in terms of time, electrotism, magnitism, frequency, time... anyway. He does an amazing job covering a variety of topics with the multiverse but string theory could untie it's gordean knot by weaving a better metiphor based on the way it weaves it's forces and knots differnt fabrics in ratios for the standard model and beyond. Good book!

The writing style of Brian Greene is almost perfect.

The writing style of Brian Greene is perfect for those of us whom are very familiar with theoretical physics and those who are new to the subject. Hands down. my favorite living physicist.