In Search of Ultimate Reality: Inside the Cosmologist’s Abyss

Description

Is there such a thing as a fundamental reality, something which was around before our universe came into existence and which will still remain when all matter, time, and space itself ultimately disappear? Something fundamental which, in turn, can make space and time and matter arise from seemingly nothing? Under most cosmological and physical models, the last known remnants of reality are the disembodied laws of mathematics―beyond which it is extremely difficult to probe further. Using contemporary physics, narrated at popular science level, Chris Ransford shows why full nothingness―a nothingness within which even the disembodied laws of mathematics would not exist―cannot possibly exist, and what most likely underpins and enables reality. This leads the author to a few thoughts as to how such knowledge may be verified and then deployed to achieve a better alignment with reality. Table of Contents Introduction 1—A Question of Ultimate Origins 2—Don't Bend Reality 3—Which Ultimate Reality? Mathematics? In a Finite Universe Other Contenders Space? Time? Relativity? Life? Mindstuff? Other views 4—How Our Reality Got Its Start 5—Mind Over Matter: Glimpses of Different Realities 6—In the Abyss 7—Experimental Objections 8—New Questions Epilogue: Aligning with Reality Index of Cited Names Further Reading