Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe by Brian Greene

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Brian Greene is a terrific science writer. We armchair science explorers owe him a debt of gratitude for sitting down and working out his thoughts and observations in terms laymen can understand.

I bought the recently published book based on my interest in consciousness and free will. This work presents a head scratching paradox: it delves deeply into both subjects while starting with the premise that they don’t exist. Greene is an ardent material reductionist. He claims that belief right up front and expresses a deep commitment to the concept. Most physicists are material reductionists, whether they know it or not. For a material reductionist everything is explained by physical particles. Greene’s position is a modern version of Laplace’s “Demon” written in 1814. Laplace supposed the world was a giant machine where if someone (the demon) knows the precise location and momentum of every atom in the universe the future can be predicted. Like balls on billiard table, knowing where and how fast the cue ball is going can be used to predict where the other balls will all end up. In that sense, as Greene takes it, free will is nonexistent, everything that ever happened and is going to happen was determined at the big bang. Free will is just a sensation we have. As he is fond of saying, we are merely a bag of material particles. Explore the particles at a deep enough level and he is certain that everything will be explained.