Decoding the Universe

I've been trying to read less science books, particularly those about the universe...oops. Decoding the Universe, by Charles Seife, puts a different spin on things through the lens of information theory. I can't go too far into it, because it's the first book I've read, and there's still a lot I'm confused about. Basically, it's the theory that everything is essentially made up of "bits" of information. It's a very compelling and interesting idea, and Seife presents it in a way that is accessible to the curious non-physicist reader.

Seife does a decent job explaining his theory and provides a number of good illustrations and explanatory stories. At times, however, he goes off on long explanatory tangents that don't really add much to his case. While he presents a lot of interesting ideas, I never really felt as if they all wrapped up to make one compelling case that information theory is any more plausible than other existing theories, particularly string theory. I've read another book of his, Zero, and it suffered many of the same problems. He's not as talented a writer as Brian Greene, Michio Kaku, Paul Davies, or a number of other popular science writers.

He also seems to be a bit disconnected from popular theory in physics. He makes the claim that most scientists believe the universe is infinite. Wait - what??? There are a few scientists that believe this, but many more believe our known universe to be finite (but large).There were a couple of other moments like that, but they were less blatant errors.

There aren't a lot of books (yet) on information theory, and this is the first I've read, so it may very well be the best. This is a worthwhile read for the science enthusiast who is looking for something new and different. But don't expect anything spectacular or you will be disappointed.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars


completed 4/17...11 books, 48 days...at this rate I'll read 83 books