Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Iain M. Banks

Quote by Iain M. Banks

Work

Surface Detail

In this novel, the author delves into the complexities of virtual worlds and the ethical implications of artificial life, offering a thought-provoking narrative that challenges readers' perceptions of reality and consciousness. more

Author

Iain M. Banks

Browse famous quotes and profile details for Iain M. Banks. more

You May Also Like

“If the total energy of the universe must always remain zero, and it costs energy to create a body, how can a whole universe be created from nothing? That is why there must be a law like gravity. Because gravity is attractive, gravitational energy is negative: One has to do work to separate a gravitationally bound system, such as the earth and moon. This negative energy can balance the positive energy needed to create matter, but it’s not quite that simple. The negative gravitational energy of the earth, for example, is less than a billionth of the positive energy of the matter particles the earth is made of. A body such as a star will have more negative gravitational energy, and the smaller it is (the closer the different parts of it are to each other), the greater this negative gravitational energy will be. But before it can become greater than the positive energy of the matter, the star will collapse to a black hole, and black holes have positive energy. That’s why empty space is stable. Bodies such as stars or black holes cannot just appear out of nothing. But a whole universe can. Because gravity shapes space and time, it allows space-time to be locally stable but globally unstable. On the scale of the entire universe, the positive energy of the matter can be balanced by the negative gravitational energy, and so there is no restriction on the creation of whole universes. Because there is a law like gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing in the manner described in Chapter 6. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.”

LifeUniverseEnergyNothingBlack Holes
Book:The Grand Design
Create image

“Why are the fundamental laws as we have described them? The ultimate theory must be consistent and must predict finite results for quantities that we can measure. We’ve seen that there must be a law like gravity, and we saw in Chapter 5 that for a theory of gravity to predict finite quantities, the theory must have what is called supersymmetry between the forces of nature and the matter on which they act. M-theory is the most general supersymmetric theory of gravity. For these reasons M-theory is the only candidate for a complete theory of the universe. If it is finite—and this has yet to be proved—it will be a model of a universe that creates itself. We must be part of this universe, because there is no other consistent model. M-theory is the unified theory Einstein was hoping to find. The fact that we human beings—who are ourselves mere collections of fundamental particles of nature—have been able to come this close to an understanding of the laws governing us and our universe is a great triumph. But perhaps the true miracle is that abstract considerations of logic lead to a unique theory that predicts and describes a vast universe full of the amazing variety that we see. If the theory is confirmed by observation, it will be the successful conclusion of a search going back more than 3,000 years. We will have found the grand design.”

LifeUniverseBig QuestionsGrand Design
Book:The Grand Design
Create image

“When I deal with smart IT programmers, I have a strong impression that their job has much in common with the phenomenon of how the Lord arranged the Universe and created genetics (cells, DNA, molecules, etc.). Both genetics and computer programming create their magic by performing highly intelligent coding work.”

UniverseGeneticsUniverse QuotesUniverse QuotationsUniversal TruthsProgramming QuotesUniverse Quote
Book:Indigo Diaries: A Series of Novels
Create image

“Today, according to NASA's satellite estimates it [the universe] consists of the following: Dark Energy 72%, Dark Matter 23%, the matter we know, including light, 4.6%. The total does not add up to 100% because there are always some uncertainties in the numbers obtained. Everything you've seen so far throughout your journeys correspondes to only 4.6% of the total content of our universe. The rest...is unknown.”

Universe
Book:The Universe in Your Hand: A Journey Through Space, Time, and Beyond
Create image

“The universe is just one big happy tapestry of tangled relationships that can never be unraveled. There is no chair here, butterfly there; particle here, void there; time here, gravity there. There is only the picture that emerges from all pulling together, a great mosaic that seems unrecognizable close up, but comes into focus as we stand back and observe from a more distant, and broader, perspective.”

Universe
Book:The Hole in the Universe
Create image