The Universe Next Door: A Journey Through 55 Alternative Realities, Parallel Worlds and Possible Futures

by New Scientist

It could have all been so different.

Join New Scientist (and Astronomer Royal Martin Rees) for an eye-opening journey through a series of alternative realities and forbidden experiments.

Imagine the dinosaurs had survived or the Russians had got to the moon first. What would Earth be like without us or chickens (two very different scenarios)? How about if the world stopped spinning? What would happen if we all turned vegetarian (not the happy story you might think)? How could we see the future or learn how to talk to animals?

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Physics, Space, Essays

262 pages, Paperback

Published October 5, 2017

Reviews

[James Hartley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Half-decent. Basically a collection of answers to more and less interesting science-based questions on multiple universes, the future of humanity and lots of ´what if´s´. There´s nothing new here and nothing you couldn´t find out with a quick Google search but as a toilet book or flight read (as it was for me), it´s adequate. Definitely an appetiser and not a main meal.

[Artur Coelho · Rating 3 out of 5]

Os cenários E Se... costumam ser característicos da ficção científica e especulativa, mas tem-se tornado moda a sua utilização noutro tipo de contextos. É o caso deste livro, onde analistas e cientistas são convidados pela New Scientist a fugir ao rigor científico e a especular sobre cenários prováveis. Começa de forma quase psicadélica, com o potencial mind-bending das teorias de multiversos, e segue depois pelos caminhos habituais da história das ciências, perguntando-se o que teria acontecido se quer factos pivot no desenvolvimento humano, quer tendências mais profundas, ou não tivessem acontecido ou tivessem sido ligeiramente diferentes.

É o que é, uma leitura especulativa leve em que provavelmente não teria pegado se não por impulso para aliviar o tédio de aeroportos. Pessoalmente, ainda estou a matutar na ideia que dentro da teoria dos multiversos é matematicamente possível sobreviver a um jogo de roleta russa, tornando-se o único eu sobrevivente de todos os diferentes eus dos outros universos.

[Avarla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I expected more parallel worlds, but instead got a lot of future possibilities. It was still interesting and worth reading, but I am a little disappointed. I'm not sure what I expected to read specifically, but it was more fantastical, I think?

[rowan]

Why I read it: Same reason as Frequently Asked Questions About the Universe! I like to know science-y stuff even if I don't really get it.

Thoughts: Another really quick review, because... to be honest, just don't have much to say about it. It was... fine, I guess. Some parts were interesting simply because I'm interested in the topics (time travel, alternate selves, paradoxes, the end of the universe, that sort of stuff). Others were less interesting because they were more on the technical side, listing stats and facts with no real hook. The real downside of the book was that each chapter/essay was written by a different author, so it was an anthology, in a sense, and some writing styles were cool, interesting, attention-grabbing, while others were very much not. So I struggled a lot with keeping up my level of interest, which is why it took me over a month to finish reading it. I told myself that I could just pick it up every so often and read a couple of essays, but every time I picked it up, I suddenly seemed to find something else to do with my time.

The other downside is that I expected a lot more about potential realities (maybe something like... "what would life look like if it was silicon-based instead of carbon-based?">, or even silly stuff like "what if the Earth really was hollow? how would we know? what would that mean for us?") but instead the book took a serious turn towards the future about halfway through, and it just wasn't... fun, or interesting.

Would I read more of this: Probably not. Probably wouldn't even recommend it to others unless I knew that they were interested in science in the same general sense I am, and they'd already exhausted other options.

[Katja Vartiainen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did it! I finished it! IT#s not a bad book, but has short essyas on topic of future and alternative worlds, in somekind aof scientific sense so I read it here and there. Some are more interesting than others.Some are a bit stupid mindgames, such as the isolated kids on an island.
The most mindblowing for me were the ones in the beginning. One was talking about a doorway into the multiverse in your backyard. The writer talks about' singularity, where the gravitational field is infintely strong'. I mean WHAT? This is wild! How can anybody know what does infinite density mean? Where does it exist? I mean, infinite!
So, yes, there were a few moments like that. And several depressing concerning the future of the world with ecological threats.

[Miguel Pinto · Rating 4 out of 5]

well written,
its a nice thought experiment on the what if...
If you're into science and history this would be a good read.

[Jon Officer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite interesting and certainly amusing as a thought experiment. Lots of entertaining ideas of what kind of life parallel universes might hold but none that haven't been explored previously by B-movie science fiction pulp and have since become clichés.
Don't expect any new ideas within this book but it's interesting to follow one or two of the referenced articles for further reading to learn more of the research that backs up these theories. Not to be taken too seriously but entertaining never the less.

[Luana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can we rewrite the laws of physics without destroying the universe?
What if earth didn't have a moon?
What if we find ET?
....And what if we couldn't?
What if we could start over?
Could the climate be controlled?
AD 100,000: Journey to the Deep Future - Will we still be here?
Are all societies doomed to collapse?

Each of these questions, from a fundamental exploration of the properties of our universe and potential multiverse through to the 'journeys end' of the universe, explore a myriad of intriguing scenarios. Tackling science, and also history, New Scientist contributors, writers, and scientists have been let loose in a grand game of 'what if' and the results are varied but overall intriguing, informative and occasionally challenging.

The main important mindset to have when reading this book is the willingness to go on to do further research if anything sparks your interest. Because of its nature and format, as a series of essays in a relatively concise book covering a wide scope of thereotical possibilities, there was not as much space for each author as there might have been otherwise. However, there was enough to engage the brain nodules, introduce a few new elements of interest and send me happily haring off to find more information. For this reason I give this book a 4 even if it cannot always go into greater depths the way other books, with fewer permutations of thoughts and voices, can.

Definitely for me the most daunting part was the first section 'Playing dice with the universe'. Physics has never been my forte, I was that kid in school who read novels hidden behind her physics textbooks and I have to admit I was quite tempted to skip this part of the book. But I am glad I didn't. Not only does 'Playing dice with the universe' set the stage for the sequential entries but I discovered that the writing, while more challenging than my standard fare, was not too esoteric (though I did mentally gulp a couple of times) and the reward was finding some theory nuggets of goodness. I think what really helped here was just how approachable, conversational, plain and occasionally tongue in cheek the writing was. Plus the use of good imagery. One that I particularly liked was how time was described:
...It's true we can only remember the past, but the laws of physics don't much care which way time flows: any physical process run backwards still makes sense to those laws. 'There's no such thing, at a very deep level, that causes [must] precede effects,' says Carroll. ...
In the absence of other laws to set the direction of time, physicists have settled on entropy - basically, a measure of messiness. As entropy grows, time ticks forward. For example, you can stir milk into coffee but you can't stir it back out again - so neatly separated black coffee and milk always comes first.pg29

The rest of the book then goes on to continue to offer a rich array of views as to where different paths or choices may lead - some are pure amusement while others offer speculations more topical to current and future issues and others give possible future scenarios and they may mean for our psyches. Across all of these, the treatment is scientifically and often socially thoughtful, full and often with a bit of a sense of humour. One of the articles here on the topical issues for instance was Bob Holmes 'Could we save the world by becoming vegetarians' - the answer was no but not a clear cut no, one that is tied to a call for reduced meat consumption and how we farm. The link below is subscription but your local library should have access to it through either their emagazines or pressreader.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/...

Other entries ranged from the proposition found in 'What if we'd never stopped travelling to the moon?' (which read like enjoyable science fiction but with scientific and historical data in place of plots and protagonists) to 'What would the world be like without fossil fuel' (which ended up being a truly fascinating essay on the history of British coal use and the geographical reasons for its prominence). This was quite typical of the book, subjects I would normally have little interest in I found myself immersed in reading because of the talents of the writing - I also found the short essay format worked extremely well for this as it gave a variety of items and you were never too long in any of them.

Occasionally though I would find myself not quite ready to let go of a topic that an essay writer had introduce (luckily there is google). One such one was Graham Lawton in his essay 'What will future humans be like?' when he introduces the fact that 14,000 years ago the human brain started to develop a new mutation, the microcephalin, which is carried now by 70% of the population. As of yet there is no idea what it does.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/...
http://johnhawks.net/weblog/reviews/g...

Then there were the articles that just left me feeling utterly disconcerted on a very mid churning level, like Steve Fuller's essay What is the Nazi's had won World War II? that revealed exactly how staunchly conservationist the Nazis were and what this would have meant for our environment today. Luckily, a nice wee talk with a colleague reminding that the world will recover even if we doom ourselves helped with the emotional equilibrium.

The book itself speculated on what Earth would be like without us and will we still be here in the deep future and in one entry on all the ways we could could be wiped out but likely won't - which was both disconcerting and reassuring at the same time (I did like the stats, the stats were very reassuring..mostly). Its good to know for example that it would be much more difficult for a supervolcano to wipe out a few billion people than say it would have been in Sumatra 74,000 years ago. pg196

On a related note, regarding the speculation of the world without humans, I would thoroughly recommend the book 'The world without us' and the documentary series 'Life after people'. They both explore what would happen if people suddenly disappeared. The book is especially good in that it uses real life cases of where humans are no longer present, like Chernobyl, and a range of experts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQOAh...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

'The Universe Next Door' and 'The World Without Us' are both fantastic reads for anyone who enjoys their science with a good dose of play :)

[Genetic Cuckoo · Rating 2 out of 5]

*Disclaimer: I was provided with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

I was not sure what to expect with this book. It was similar to other new Scientist books, like ‘why don't penguins feet freeze’ which is probably the best known, so lots of little stories and anecdotes. I preferred ‘why don't penguins feet freeze’ more than this book, partly because I have a greater interest in biology than physics. I think another factor what that other books have explained biological processes, but this book is all theoretical. I do understand that this is the premise of the book, to look at alternative worlds, and theories are backed by science and research, but it just feels like educated guesses and when on a timescale of millions of years it does feel like a waste of time, because there are just too many variables.
I think this book would be ideal for teenagers interested in physics, science fiction or alternative reality.

[Rhi · Rating 3 out of 5]

[I should probably say that I was given this book in a Goodreads giveaway. I was not required to give a review and my opinion is my own. Just like to be upfront about these things.]

This is a book of articles all pondering "what would happen if x". It is, therefore, quite diverse in topics, and obviously not intended to be in-depth at all. However I did find that some of the articles were too short to really be of any interest, while some felt too long and repetitive of ideas that had previously been covered.
The final third of the book (dealing with the far future) I found dull and out of place. Although the far future is almost as much guesswork as anything else presented here, it is a when, not an if. Ifs are whimsical and intriguing. Whens are depressing.

Overall I'd say that it's not a book that I can imagine anyone would want to buy for themselves, but if it's something you are gifting or gifted then it's a solid choice.

[Wendelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

i felt this was a very good book that has more meat and info and thought put into it than the average popular science book. For instance, I learned about the history of the use of coal, and an intricate exploration of how the world would have developed if we went straight from biomass to hydroelectric power without relying on fossil fuels-- Canada and Scandinavia would have been prosperous, but no imperial powers could be dominant in a world without the endless expansion afforded by fossil fueled energy. However, the responders think we would never be able to have the planet-wide technological civilization we currently "enjoy" without fossil fuels. So many interesting concepts akin to 'What if' by Randall Munroe, with the responses carrying the expertise of aggregated thoughts of leading historians and scientists. This was the kind of book that would have brought me so much joy and wonder when I was a kid, weaving speculation and weird physics frontier concepts and the history of science in confident measure.

[Peter Ellwood · Rating 2 out of 5]

There’s a lot that’s good about this collection of articles daydreaming about the outer reaches of current scientific thinking, but it leaves you wanting more.

For starters, the title The Universe Next Door is slightly misleading, especially when you bear in mind the sub-title of A journey through 55 parallel worlds and possible futures. It’s true, in the sense that everything can be defined as being possible in a multiverse somewhere or other: but otherwise, it all comes across as a bit random now and then.

There’s not much connection between the articles, though they are grouped in broadly homogenous clusters: what a multiverse might look like, what AI might become, how the solar system might end, is there life out there – and so on. But my main, killer reservation is that each article is very short. Many are little more than a single printed page long, and they tend to get no further than an outline of the idea, when they slither to a halt. In almost every case I wished they’d developed it a little more.

[Robert Day · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted more science fiction. I recognise that now. I wanted the drama and the swoop and flutter of lives lived and lost. Instead, I got science. It's probably unfair to give this book only three stars on the basis of my thwarted expectations, but the cover and the blurb egged me on, so what can I say?

This us actually quite a decent tour of possible worlds. It covers pretty much anything you might think of (albeit without the melodrama) and so you should be happy. I should be happy. I live the final thought, that we're living in someone else's version of alternative. That opens my mind nicely. But it's not really enough.

Read this if you have low expectations of a science book. Avoid it if you're not easily satisfied.

[Usmanajmal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good enough for the science nerds and geeks , it discusses different topics ranging from past era to future,for me it answers most of questions elaborately and in a concise way for a general reader to easily consume,Some very interesting scenarios are discussed but some answers are lacking in a sense that it doesn't convey that matter truly,also because of shortness and difficulties in some topics that the reader won't find any conclusion in that,otherwise still a satisfactory read for general reader.

[Mememomo · Rating 1 out of 5]

I stopped reading because the author makes the statement that if Hitler conquered the Middle East instead of attempting to invade Russia during the second world war (which lead to the Nazis losing the world war and the holocaust) it would have prevented the holocaust and lead to “redeemable” outcomes. So the lives of people in the Middle East who would have died aren’t worth thinking about. They’re definitely worth less than European Jews according to this author.

The dehumanization of Arabs needs to stop.

[YHC · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a very beginner's level of popular science.
I like the part of "multidimensional the most.
It described what will happen happens, the bad thing happens in this universe, we just expect that the other way around (good result) happens in another parallel universe.
There are not dry and difficult words or equations in this book, simply offer you more angles to think about life.

[Carmilla Voiez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came for parallel worlds, but left with a wide array of thought experiments about energy sources, alternate futures and what ifs? I enjoyed it, but the articles were too short to get to anywhere truly fascinating. Instead of this I'd recommend Michio Kaku's "Parallel Worlds" if you're considering this from the same point of interest.

[Jason Newman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this thinking that it was based on quantum mechanics but it wasn't. What I saw instead was very intriguing. It's all about speculation of what could have been and you get many history lessons and I learnt a lot of random facts in the process. A book full of fascinating what ifs that will blow your mind.

[Lady · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book. I loved every second of it. It was well written and highly interesting. It was so shocking learning about how our planet could change. It was brilliant to find out what could happen if certain things in the past had been different.
I can't recommend this book enough. Many thanks to the author and publishers for bringing us such an amazing book.

[Ryan Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

scientists speculate. what will the world be like in 60 years or 100,000 years. what if some of the most bizarre scientific theories are true? to me it was a bit like a sci fi novel without a plot...

easy and fun, also my birthday present from my son.

[Ghada]

DNF

The whole what if thing really got to me it's so annoying. I thought I'd learn about math and formulas, proof about other universes. The first chapter was like that but afterwards it's just a bunch of what-ifs that will benefit me in no way whatsoever.

[Harikrishnan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a good compendium on intriguing 'what if' scenarios based on the alternate universe theory. For any physics, science or space aficionados this book will be a fascinating read. For others, this still makes for an interesting and thought provoking read.

[Katerina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating and eye-opening.

[Karim Nas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great topics. Would definitely gave it four stars if it wasn't an anthology of articles.

[Kym Masera Taborn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun read that makes you think.

[Shelby Miles · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very, very interesting read. Completely opened my mind to new theories and “what if” explorations. A great first “New Scientist” experience for me!

[Regina Cattus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not enough parallel universes, too much looking into the future. Don't get me wrong, those parts were interesting, just not what I was there for.

[Martin Willoughby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating, and written in way that most people can understand the science.

[Hugo Brouwer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some bold questions but the answers and insights given are usually quite open-ended and sometimes they even try to avoid the question. Not mind-blowing but a fun read nevertheless.

[Lex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned me some science, I did.