391:? In a word: no. I don't see how they could. Sometimes physicists pretend that they are addressing these questions, which is too bad, because they are just being lazy and not thinking carefully about the problem. You might hear, for example, claims to the effect that our laws of physics could turn out to be the only conceivable laws, or the simplest possible laws. But that seems manifestly false. Just within the framework of quantum mechanics, there are an infinite number of possible Hilbert spaces, and an infinite number of possible Hamiltonians, each of which defines a perfectly legitimate set of physical laws. And only one of them can be right, so it's absurd to claim that our laws might be the only possible ones.
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Likewise, appeals of the form "maybe all possible laws are real somewhere" fail to address the question. Why are all possible laws real? And sometimes, on the other hand, modern cosmologists talk about different laws of physics in the context of a multiverse, and suggest that we see one set of laws
394:
Invocations of "simplicity" are likewise of no help here. The universe could be just a single point, not evolving in time. Or it could be a single oscillator, rocking back and forth in perpetuity. Those would be very simple. There might turn out to be some definition of "simplicity" under which our
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that Krauss "delivers a spirited, fast-paced romp through modern cosmology and its strong underpinnings in astronomical observations and particle physics theory" and that he "makes a persuasive case that the ultimate question of cosmic origin – how something, namely the universe, could arise from
324:, said that "Krauss does not address why the laws of physics exist, why they have the form they have, or in what kind of manifestation they existed before the universe existed (which he must believe if he believes they brought the universe into existence). Who or what dreamt up
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rather than some other set for fundamentally anthropic reasons. But again, that's just being sloppy. We're talking here about the low-energy manifestation of the underlying laws, but those underlying laws are exactly the same everywhere throughout the multiverse.
27:
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wrote, "Krauss will be preaching only to the converted. That said, we should be happy to be preached to so intelligently. The same can't be said about the
Dawkins afterword, which is both superfluous and silly."
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had agreed to write a foreword for the book prior to his death but was too ill to complete it. To write the book, Krauss expanded material from a lecture on the cosmological implications of a
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375:"Do advances in modern physics and cosmology help us address these underlying questions, of why there is something called the universe at all, and why there are things called '
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itself and—which may one day return to nothing via processes that may not only be comprehensible but also processes that do not require any external control or direction."
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laws are the simplest, but there will always be others in which they are not. And in any case, we would then have the question of why the laws are supposed to be simple?
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336:, and so on? He does not begin to answer these questions." He criticized the philosophical viewpoint of the book, saying "It's very ironic when he says philosophy is
205:. The main theme of the book is the claim that "we have discovered that all signs suggest a universe that could and plausibly did arise from a deeper
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said the book failed to live up to its title; he said Krauss dismissed concerns about what Albert calls his misuse of the term
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We are still left with the question of there are those deep-down laws that create a multiverse in the first place."
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nothing – belongs in the realm of science rather than theology or philosophy".
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Commenting on the philosophical debate sparked by the book, the physicist
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525:"Afterword from Lawrence Krauss' New Book – A Universe From Nothing"
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A Universe from
Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing
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A Universe from
Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing
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A Universe from
Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing
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and then himself engages in this kind of attempt at philosophy."
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Brooks, Michael (14 January 2012). "The paradox of nothing".
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633:Jayawardhana, Ray (17 February 2012).
711:The New York Times Sunday Book Review
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594:"Cosmology: Plucked from the vacuum"
531:. richarddawkins.net. Archived from
221:The book ends with an afterword by
175:The Greatest Story Ever Told—So Far
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592:Scharf, Caleb (25 January 2012).
247:conference. The book appeared on
225:in which he compares the book to
686:Scientific American Blog Network
472:. New York: Free Press. p.
705:Albert, David (25 March 2012).
553:Lawrence Krauss's 2009 lecture
245:Atheist Alliance International
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707:"On the Origin of Everything"
497:Andersen, Ross (2012-04-23).
438:Reynosa, Peter (2016-04-12).
361:, since if matter comes from
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464:Krauss, Lawrence M. (2012).
332:, specific symmetry groups,
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363:relativistic quantum fields
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567:"Non Fiction Best Sellers"
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241:Richard Dawkins Foundation
209:—involving the absence of
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228:On the Origin of Species
555:A Universe from Nothing
237:flat expanding universe
16:Book by Lawrence Krauss
773:2012 non-fiction books
351:philosopher of science
197:. It discusses modern
778:Popular physics books
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254:on January 29, 2012.
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610:2012Natur.481..440S
535:on 21 February 2013
420:Quantum fluctuation
377:the laws of physics
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788:Physical cosmology
639:The Globe and Mail
573:. January 29, 2012
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289:The Globe and Mail
249:The New York Times
191:Lawrence M. Krauss
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736:Discover magazine
501:. theatlantic.com
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381:quantum mechanics
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426:References
195:Free Press
73:Free Press
803:Cosmogony
449:April 13,
258:Reception
199:cosmogony
108:), e-book
106:Softcover
102:Hardcover
69:Publisher
63:Cosmology
716:25 April
409:See also
372:asked:
311:Critique
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669:(2847).
644:21 June
606:Bibcode
529:excerpt
505:4 March
359:nothing
207:nothing
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598:Nature
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116:224 pp
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718:2012
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