This is a book review of Before the Big Bang: Our Origins in the Multiverse by Laura Mersini-Houghton.
Before the Big Bang: Our Origins in the Multiverse, by Laura Mersini-Houghton (Vintage), 2023 (first published 2022). Pp. 248, 19.7 × 13 cm. Price £10.99 (paperback, 978 1 784 70934 1).
The book starts out asking whether our Universe is special, particularly with respect to the low entropy at the beginning. Following that is a standard discussion of inflation and the early Universe and then an overview of quantum mechanics. The next three chapters discuss fine-tuning, the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, and the string-theory landscape. Those first six chapters (of eleven altogether) are necessary background for the introduction of her own idea: "quantum mechanics on the landscape of string theory". Despite a few qualms, I found the book to be an interesting read, both with respect to her work and to her personal odyssey, though in both cases I wouldn't draw the same conclusions in all cases.