Our Mathematical Universe

My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality

By: Max Tegmark

Narrated by: Rob Shapiro

Length: 15 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's Summary

Max Tegmark leads us on an astonishing journey through past, present and future, and through the physics, astronomy, and mathematics that are the foundation of his work, most particularly his hypothesis that our physical reality is a mathematical structure and his theory of the ultimate multiverse. In a dazzling combination of both popular and groundbreaking science, he not only helps us grasp his often mind-boggling theories, but he also shares with us some of the often surprising triumphs and disappointments that have shaped his life as a scientist. Fascinating from first to last - this is a book that has already prompted the attention and admiration of some of the most prominent scientists and mathematicians.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2014 Max Tegmark (P)2013 Random House Audio

Critic Reviews

“Tegmark offers a fascinating exploration of multiverse theories, each one offering new ways to explain ‘quantum weirdness’ and other mysteries that have plagued physicists, culminating in the idea that our physical world is ‘a giant mathematical object’ shaped by geometry and symmetry. Tegmark’s writing is lucid, enthusiastic, and outright entertaining, a thoroughly accessible discussion leavened with anecdotes and the pure joy of a scientist at work.” (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

“Lively and lucid, the narrative invites general readers into debates over computer models for brain function, over scientific explanations of consciousness, and over prospects for finding advanced life in other galaxies. Though he reflects soberly on the perils of nuclear war and of hostile artificial intelligence, Tegmark concludes with a bracingly upbeat call for scientifically minded activists who recognize a rare opportunity to make our special planet a force for cosmic progress. An exhilarating adventure for bold readers.” (Bryce Cristensen, Booklist, starred review)

“Our Mathematical Universe boldly confronts one of the deepest questions at the fertile interface of physics and philosophy: why is mathematics so spectacularly successful at describing the cosmos? Through lively writing and wonderfully accessible explanations, Max Tegmark—one of the world’s leading theoretical physicists—guides the reader to a possible answer, and reveals how, if it’s right, our understanding of reality itself would be radically altered.” (Brian Greene, physicist, author of The Elegant Universe and The Hidden Reality)  

Wow!

Great ideas and great narration makes this a great audio book. The last quarter of this book has some of the most interesting ideas in physics I have heard. I think these ideas are, by far, the most likely to lead to progress in physics. The first three-quarters is good, but is just a nice rehash similar to a bunch of other speculative physics books covering a brief history of cosmology leading to the theory of inflation and various levels of multiple universes, Boltzmann brains and such, finally culminating in the Measure Problem (one cannot assign consistent probabilities to infinite sets). Then the book gets really interesting! The author proposes that math does not model the universe, but that math IS the universe. The relations defined by a mathematical structure is all that is needed for us to believe all we see and feel is real. Nothing physical is needed. I really thought I was alone in being a strong proponent of this Mathematical Universe idea, so I have quite pleasantly surprised to find this excellent presentation. I was led to my conclusions by a much different path (Bell’s Theorem & Bell Test Experiments) and take these ideas to even greater extremes than Tegmark, but this is the best (the only?) popular presentations of these ideas I have seen.

It may just be awkward editing or just these ideas are heady stuff, but by the end of the book Tegmark seems a bit schizophrenic. He seems to reject continuums and infinities and randomness as unreal (which is what I think), but then he continues to refer to, and use, these as if they were real. Also a good new model in fundamental physics should address multiple issues in physics, but Tegmark does not use his ideas of the Mathematical Universe to clarify the understanding of quantum mechanics (particularly Bell’s Theorem) and the problem linking General Relativity and Quantum mechanics. I think Tegmark underestimated the depth of the Measure Problem. The underlying problem is in any reality, it is simply not possible to take a random sample from an infinite set. Thus any assignment of probability to such constructs is nonsense. Tegmark seems to still be hoping for a resolution of the Measure Problem.

The author has a really pleasant way of covering the history of cosmology, making the story like a mystery novel, using detective work to explain one mystery after another. Yet what makes this book really worth reading is the last quarter where the ideas about the Mathematical Universe are explored. I suspect that in a few hundred years the conception of the Mathematical Universe will be considered the great turning point leading to a final, simple and beautiful, Theory of Everything.

Main points are off the mark

The author really explains science very well. In the first half of the book when he's providing background and context he excels. He steps the listener through how we progressed through history from a village perspective to a multiverse. The author states elegantly, the reality of the multiverse is not a theory in of itself since it comes out of the best theory we have to describe our universe, Inflation Theory. If you accept that inflation describes the universe at a fundamental level, but don't like multiverses you need to first come up with a theory that can explain everything inflation does but take out the part where inflation creates other universes not an easy thing to do. Also, the book works well when he's explaining everything you every wanted to know about the Cosmic Microwave Background but were afraid to ask. It really does give good answers about flat space and dark energy and why it's so important to understand the CMB.

But, the author really didn't write the book to tell us those things. He wrote it for two main reasons. He wants to tell you why the Many World Hypothesis (Hugh Everett III) is the best explanation for the mysterious of physics and then goes on to tell you how our universe is mathematics.

I love math at least as much as the next geek and wish the universe was math, but I gave up those kind of thoughts a long time ago. As Confucius said (no, really he did!), he looked for truth in mathematics and studied it for five years before he realized truth laid elsewhere.

I'm not against using the Many World Hypothesis to explain the measurement problem but the approach the author used just was not convincing. I would strongly recommend the David Deutsch book, "The Beginning of Infinity" it covers the same kind of science but is much more coherent. I'll give a shout out to Tegmark, he quotes people like Deutsch and many others I have read and gives them kudos even though he doesn't agree with him throughout the book.

Another book, I would recommend instead is a science fiction book called "Thrice Upon a Time", by James P Hogan, he covers the Many World Hypothesis in a more consistent way than this book does. (Yes, it's fiction but uses science and speculation to explain).

Overall, the reason the author really wrote the book is the reasons I can't fully recommend this book.

Mind Expanding

Any additional comments?

Whether or not you believe the author's conclusions (he's not sure if he does so himself), you will be led on a road of exploration into the nature of the universe which will astonish you. The book is surprisingly easy to follow and immensely rewarding.

A brilliant book on physics

This book is just really brilliant. Such heavy science is explained with very simple words and metaphors. Highly recommended!

An interesting and thought provoking hypothesis.

Max Tegmark does a great job of explaining complex physics and mathematical concepts in simple language. Anyone who finds this kind of subject matter interesting will appreciate his hypothesis. Rob Shapiro narrated the book superbly.

it depends on who YOU are

What did you like best about Our Mathematical Universe? What did you like least?

I am not a physicist, just educated in another side of science (I am a psychiatrist) and very interested in understanding the nature of reality. I was very impressed by the passion of the writer and that was satisfying. Most of the material covered went above my head (e.g. the entire concept of "level 4 multiverse"). However I enjoyed the little that I actually understood here and there. I think I would have liked it more if I were a physicist.

What did you like best about this story?

Mostly the passion for pursuit of reality.

What about Rob Shapiro’s performance did you like?

Excellent job!

Did Our Mathematical Universe inspire you to do anything?

Yes! read more books!

Took a long time to get to the point

I found this book disappointing, mainly because the author does not even begin to address his supposedly ground-breaking, controversial new theory until about 3/4 through the book. Everything before that is review. If you've studied physics and cosmology, or read a lot of Hawking, Greene, Mlodinow, etc., you will be bored through this part (which, I repeat, is most of the book). If this is the first book you've read on the subject, you might not mind this.

I will also say that Mr. Tegmark dips into some pretty far-out ideas from time to time, and I felt like he was trying to defend as science, some ideas that were plainly not science. Of course, he says they are science, so maybe I'm just wrong about that.

When he does finally get to talking about "Our Mathematical Universe" (there's a chapter in the book where he clearly announces something like "now I'm going to start talking about my new theory...". Again, that's about halfway through the second part of the audiobook), it's pretty interesting for a while. But it seemed like it quickly became hard to hold my attention to the reading. This may have been my own fault, but it seemed like he was just getting too far into fringe science for me, and kind of rambling. It's not that I reject his theory. Actually, he may be on to something (his "new theory" was covered briefly in one of Brian Greene's books, by the way, so it's not that new -- or maybe Greene got it from him?)

Anyway, I did find Mr. Tegmark's many anecdotes about his life as a student, a scientist and a father interesting and it was cool how he integrated his own experiences with the science he was presenting. I did feel that I learned some things from this book, so I can't give it that bad of a review.

In general, I would just warn the reader: if you're not new to physics and cosmology, be ready to wade through a LOT of review before getting to anything new.

beautiful!

If Sean Carroll, Vlatko Vedral, and Richard Feynman morphed into one person and wrote a book, I think it might look something like this book. I loved every page. Without question, this was one of my favorite books about the universe.

Lately I have been interested in information theory. Reading multiple books on the same subject, there is always the danger of becoming bored. After reading other books on the subject, I read this book and Island of Knowledge by Gleiser at the same time. Both of these books were excellent. Both books had a good deal of overlap but were markedly different in important ways. Rather than being repetitive, they served more to reinforce important ideas. The time I spent getting familiar with these books (often reading chapters over and over again) was deeply, deeply enjoyable.

Tegmark's sprinkling of biographical information along side his tutorials on basic and complex concepts in physics reminded me a lot of Feynman, if Feynman had been humble. Tegmark's gift for making the complex accessible to non-physicists reminded me of Carroll's gift in relating to all types of audiences. The subject matter in this book reminded me of Vedral's decoding reality, but it delved in a bit more at times and provided a richer over all experience, which felt more satisfying.

Tegmark provides one of the simplest and most beautiful descriptions of how each thing (be it atom, star, person, etc) is merely a compilation of smaller things that can ultimately be thought about ( and indeed do exist) as tiny bits of information. For sure, this argument has been made many times before, but I enjoyed Tegmark's argument to a surprising degree.

This was one of the most satisfying reading experiences I have had in a long time. When Tegmark related his Jekyll and Hyde story and then got into the meat of his argument, my brain was in a constant state of euphoria. Braingasm, braingasm, braingasm! I could feel the dopamine rush as he flooded my brain with idea after idea. While at university, I used to sit and talk with two of my best friends, and intellectual soulmates, about the ultimate nature of the universe. These times are some of my most treasured memories in life. Reading this book was like being back in those conversations.

Making Reality Real

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Definitely if they have an interest in both physics and philosophy and how they intersect.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I especially liked the chapter concerning: Internal Reality, External Reality and Consensus Reality. I also liked the way the author summarized his main concepts at the end of each chapter.

Any additional comments?

This book isn't for everyone, but is ideal for someone who wants to seriously explore some of the ultimate questions. Although it is technical in content, with some effort it can be understood by a non-science type such as myself. Although I don't usually do so, this book may get a second listen from me.

I need to listen to this or read this again

The exploration of very small & very large spaces, and the nature of time, is outside of practical concerns - I don't need these thoughts to survive. As a math teacher, selfishly, I was looking for ways to sell mathematics as relevant to middle school students. While I am inclined to view all reality as inherently mathematical, I did not expect to consider the proposition that an acceptance of an outside reality requires a mathematical universe. Given the conclusion that math may be the beating heart of reality, perhaps I can win over reluctant learners with a newfound enthusiasm.

Test Your Little Grey Cells

What made the experience of listening to Our Mathematical Universe the most enjoyable?

The first half of the book gives you a history of cosmology and its associated mathematics. The second half is Max Tegmark's theory of the Big Bang and what came after.

What did you like best about this story?

A very clear explanation of the theorys of the cosmos and the problems of interpreting what is observed and calculated.

What does Rob Shapiro bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

Rob Shapiro, the voice actor, gives a very well paced and clear performance of the text.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Max Tegmark can be profound, humourus and very honest.

Any additional comments?

A great book that furthers the understanding of the origin and future of our cosmos.

I'd pay extra for Shapiro

The narrator Rob is absolutely excellent and has clearly read through the material first. I hope he carries on doing more. It would actually sway my decision to purchase another title.

I haven't finished the book yet so will update when I do - but at chapter 4 I am enthralled and engaged and thoroughly enjoying.

I usually bombard myself with lectures (yes, self inflicted - I am old enough to have left school with O levels and not bothered with much more that wasn't earning money.)

This narrative is kind of personal and he makes no apologies for that. Not in rude way but sets out his stall early doors that he is not going to try to "balance" his theories by reciting 10 others. It's actually quite refreshing.

Well written and well read.

An entertaining explanation of fascinating ideas.

Any additional comments?

I've been troubled by super positioning, boson fields and the time space continuum for quite a while now. Max Tegmark describes all of this eloquently and explains his thoughts on matters that I had not yet considered. During the read I experienced very brief moments of absolute clarity. So much so that I was able to expand some of the hypothesis into unchartered dimensions with my own original concepts. Of course I have forgotten all of them now, but the thought that I might be a Boltzmann brain remains disturbing. Top marks for Rob Shapiro the narrator as well. I will certainly revisit all 15 hours of this book again.

Enjoyable trip through spacetime - no maths needed

I'm about 2/3rds through and am enjoying this book greatly. It provides a clear and accessible account of modern cosmology. Finally I understand why some people are very excited by measurements of cosmic microwave background radiation. The title may make you wonder whether this book will be hard work, but I didn't think so. You certainly don't have to do equations. Even though the subject matter (multiverses, general relativity & similar) may seem heavy going, the writing style of the book is quite chatty and enthusiastic, so it doesn't feel like work. And the narrator has a lovely smooth voice and reads with nice emphasis.

Max Tegmarks style is wonderful

If you know of Max Tegmark he has always been a bit of a black sheep in the worlkd of theoretical physics. Here he uses math to provide concepts of how our universe really is. A lot of the bok talks about the differing types of multiverse and whilst there is a fair amount of supposition in the book it really works. Tegmark is childlike in his joy about physics and its infectious. A great read and very funny too. Great Performance by Rob Shapiro too! spot on....

Incredible - and not just for mathematicians

I came to Our Mathematical Universe from another Tegmark work, Life 3.0 (which I also highly recommend). The title of this book had me a little worried at first - because I've always struggled with mathematics. But I needn't have worried. This isn't a book of equations - but rather perhaps a book about equations. As a non-scientist, and non-mathematician, I found the material to be well explained. I feel I now understand concepts like quantum superposition reasonably well. And really, when you arrive at the final section, where Tegmark argues (spoiler) that education will save us all, that's probably the purpose of the book. I've been thinking about a lot of the problems described in this book since I was a child - and for the first time I feel like I might have gotten close to some answers. What are the limits of our universe? How far does it extend, and how fine does its resolution go? It's really inspiring stuff. And because it's written by Tegmark, there's an enjoyable drama here too. I found myself getting genuinely angry while the author described the treatment of Hugh Everett III by his fellow physicists. As someone who left academia rather disillusioned myself, this struck a personal chord for me. If you're interested in the big questions, then I wholeheartedly recommend Our Mathematical Universe. Some of the ideas here sound pretty crazy at first, but then again, so is our existence itself (as the book will tell you). I'll be revisiting this one for sure - as well as seeking out a lot of the other books Tegmark recommends here. I didn't find this quite as easy to follow as Life 3.0, and there was a point where I really struggled to keep up (about 75% of the way through). I don't know how many times I hit rewind so that I could get a better understanding of something. But it was very much worth it - I enjoyed every minute. 9/10. Very, very good stuff.

I’m not an academic by any means

I *think* I understood most of this book, which is to say that I felt like my brain was in a pub fight whilst getting a careful manicure. Weirdly would thoroughly recommend

A beautiful journey from start to end

This is a fascinating take on modern physics and it's application to our existence. Expert or not, this is an important work for everyone with even the slightest interest in the subject. Difficult concepts are explained well enough for even a non expert like me to gain a rough grasp.

Narration was faultless and added a friendly quality to the piece. Truly excellent in every respect.

Stretch your mind into multidimensional realities.

Would you consider the audio edition of Our Mathematical Universe to be better than the print version?

It is certainly better in case the reader is blind. I generally prefer audio editions because I'm slightly dyslexic and it takes me ages to read a book. But in this case I think I will take a look at the printed version too.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Our Mathematical Universe?

At the end of the last chapter when it says that us, fellow travelers of the blue planet spaceship can make a difference if we put our resources into the right direction.

What about Rob Shapiro’s performance did you like?

It was impeccable and so brilliantly capable to deliver onto an emotional level highly complex abstract constructs of ideas.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Yes both. I've found hilarious many episode narrated and very emotional the end of the book.

Any additional comments?

This is a book that opens the door to a vast 'youniverse'. It's the beginning of a fascinating series of readings and research that will expand not only my knowledge but also my ability to look at the incredible potential of human awareness.

Great journey...

Way more in-depth than Pop science media. Probably understood 1% of it but still a fascinating subject.