Table of Contents
Preface 1
Introduction: Walking Along the Shore 5
Part 1 Roots
1 Grains 15
Is there a Limit to Divisibility? 23
The Nature of Things 32
2 The Classics 41
ISAAC and the Little Moon 41
Michael: Fields and Light 53
Part 2 The Beginning of the Revolution
3 Albert 67
The Extended Present 69
The Most Beautiful of Theories 77
Mathematics or Physics? 91
The Cosmos 94
4 Quanta 109
Albert Again 110
Niels, Werner, and Paul 114
Fields and Particles are the Same Thing 126
Quanta 1 Information is Finite 130
Quanta 2 Indeterminacy 132
Quanta 3 Reality is Relational 134
But do we Really Understand? 137
Part 3 Quantum Space and Relational Time
5 Spacetime Is Quantum 147
Matvei 151
John 154
The Loops' First Steps 159
6 Quanta of Space 161
Spectra of Volume and Area 163
Atoms of Space 169
Spin Networks 171
7 Time Does Not Exist 175
Time is not What we Think it is 177
The Candle Chandelier and the Pulse 179
Spacetime Sushi 183
Spinfoams 186
What is the World Made of? 192
Part 4 Beyond Space and Time
8 Beyond the Big Bang 201
The Master 201
Quantum Cosmology 206
9 Empirical Confirmations? 210
Signs from Nature 214
A Window onto Quantum Gravity 218
10 Quantum Black Holes 222
11 The End of Infinity 230
12 Information 238
Thermal Time 249
Reality and Information 253
13 Mystery 258
Notes 266
Annotated Bibliography 270
Index 273