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The questions that the author considers include the following: Are space and mind just mental constructions? Is there a fourth spatial dimension? Do parallel worlds exist? Could time run backwards? Might time travel be possible? Could space exist with nothing in it? Could there be space beyond the universe? and, Did time have a beginning?
Le Poidevin guides the reader through these puzzles with lots of wit in an engaging writing style. Best of all, he makes clear the limitations of our ordinary ideas of space and time and provides us with the tools to think about these problems with a broader brush. He does this by using only a modest amount of physics, so no prior knowledge of science or philosophy is required to enjoy the book.
He also deals with the Fine Tuning of the universe. Even slight differences in the fundamental physical features of the universe (such as in the forces that bind atoms together, the masses of particles, electromagnetic equations and the rate of expansion in the early universe) would have made it impossible for life as we know it to evolve in the universe.
Similar thought-provoking books include Small World by Mark Buchanan, Hidden Connections by Fritjof Capra, The Universe Next Door by Marcus Chown, Before The Beginning by Martin Rees, Time And Space by Barry Dainton and God's Equation by Amir Aczel.
But I always fired into the nearest hill or, failing that, into blackness.
I meant no harm; I just liked the explosions. And I was careful never to
kill more than I could eat.
-- Raoul Duke
A large spider in an old house built a beautiful web in which to catch flies.
Every time a fly landed on the web and was entangled in it the spider devoured
him, so that when another fly came along he would think the web was a safe and
quiet place in which to rest. One day a fairly intelligent fly buzzed around
above the web so long without lighting that the spider appeared and said,
"Come on down." But the fly was too clever for him and said, "I never light
where I don't see other flies and I don't see any other flies in your house."
So he flew away until he came to a place where there were a great many other
flies. He was about to settle down among them when a bee buzzed up and said,
"Hold it, stupid, that's flypaper. All those flies are trapped." "Don't be
silly," said the fly, "they're dancing." So he settled down and became stuck
to the flypaper with all the other flies.
Moral: There is no safety in numbers, or in anything else.
-- James Thurber, "The Fairly Intelligent Fly"
