SF Signal: Those Krazy Physicists

Those Krazy Physicists

Official Theoretical Physicist of SFSignal, Michio Kaku, has an interesting article in the U.K.'s Prospect Magazine about how a civilization could escape the death of the universe by fleeing to another dimension. He touches on an earlier article about the types of civilizations that may be achieved, given enough time and tenacity.

This is some heavy duty stuff here. I like the suggestions for how to actually achieve the dimensional migration. I was reminded of Twistor and a book by Bear or Benford (can't remember which) where a baby universe is created in the lab and it proceeds to start expanding into ours. Lots of cool ideas here. Any other books that you can think of that deal with the subject of leaving this dimension/universe for another? They don't have to be good, but please note if they are!

Are you thinking of Stephen Baxter's "Manifold: Time"? (rather than Bear or Benford)

Posted by Mervius on Friday January 21, 2005 at 2:19 PM

Ahh, the M-theory to the rescue! There was a recent episode of Nova that talked all about M-theory (and string theory, for that matter, no pun intended). For those of you with TiVo, you might wanna see if it will have a rerun in the near future. In the meantime, you can read more about it here.

Posted by Peter on Friday January 21, 2005 at 3:48 PM

Mervius,

Actually, I just read Manifold: Time and that's not what I'm thinking of. I'm leaning toward Benford for some reason or other. I seem to recall a scene near the end where the protagonists take the 'bubble' to the desert southwest. Or they end up there for some reason.

It bugs me that I can't remember.

Posted by jp on Friday January 21, 2005 at 4:38 PM

Maybe if you reviewed more of books you read, it would jog your memory?

Posted by John on Friday January 21, 2005 at 8:20 PM

Yeah, take that JP - John so slammed you... Oh wait, I am probably guilty of this as well - aw crud... But on another topic, has anybody actually informed Mr. Kaku of his title with us? He might be honored to know he has obtained such a lofty title from a bunch of krazed SF folks

Posted by Tim on Friday January 21, 2005 at 8:50 PM

The Benford book is "Cosm". Features a black female physicist, a rarity in reality, let alone SF.

Excellent book by Benford, one of his that portarys scientists realistically (e.g., Timescape).

Posted by Fred Kiesche on Friday January 21, 2005 at 9:35 PM

I believe Fred is right, Cosm is the book I remember!

Thanks Fred, I can sleep easy tonight.

And for John, I read Cosm awhile ago before we started the blog. So, now review for you, come back one year.

Posted by jp on Friday January 21, 2005 at 9:48 PM

If anybody is interested in a little more rational discussion of the latest thinking on cosmology, read the book that spawned the Nova documentary that Pete referenced titled Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution. I read it recently (got it as a Christmas gift) and thought it was awesome.

Posted by Scott on Saturday January 22, 2005 at 10:56 PM