Secret of universe

Marcus Chown (Faber, £15.99)

Drawing on the latest in cutting-edge theoretical physics, science writer Marcus Chown here attempts to answer some of the bigger questions regarding life, the universe, and everything.

Encompassing problems with the big bang, quantum theory, relativity, and all the rest, this is one of those books you pick up expecting to be awe-inspired, and put down thinking what the hell was that all about?'.

The problem is that high-end physics, even in the hands of the most gifted communicators, is just too difficult' for us mere mortals.

But Chown does pose some interesting, if not always entirely new, questions. The one about Elvis still being alive somewhere in a universe of boundless proportions, I seem to recall from school, a quarter of a century ago (maybe he really was still alive then).

But omega, the infinitely long number holding the secret of everything, was a new one on me, and I was reassured to know that Douglas Adams was (almost) right all along.

Elsewhere, Chown characterises SETI - the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence - as a strategy for finding aliens unlikely to succeed, before shifting focus to computers. The assertion here is that, over time, computers will become so powerful that it will be possible to simulate consciousness and life itself.

Of course, this raises the question: "Are we really real at all, or already part of a simulation developed by advanced super-intelligent beings conducting some mysterious experiment?" (Adams again).

Continuing in the same vein, the book's intriguing title refers to the suggestion that, when we die, trillions of years pass in an instant and we wake up in a perfect computer simulation of - well, heaven.

If so, let's just hope the software doesn't crash somewhere along the way. I wonder if it's Windows compatible?