The Elegant Universe

Depending on where you come from and where you are going to, there is something for everyone. There are people that keep up with the latest information on the universe; for those people, this is a great program to show where the public is. It also is nice to have what you already know restated so you can look at it from a different angle. For people that slept through school or attended the Stone Age, this is maybe a shocker for the last time you looked. Then there are people that see this as a wakeup call for the first time.

The program is designed to give you basic information about the latest theories on how the universe works and goes beyond Einstein to attempt to tie all the theories up into a single elegant bundle (Superstrings.)

The visuals help and having a different media allows one to retain information better. However, the format leaves something to be desired. Redundancy goes beyond reinforcing to boredom. The sound byte format leaping from one person to another, when it is just as possible to stay with one person for a completed thought, is like watching a used car commercial. Anyone concept could be a whole program in itself (and probably is.) They show formula and say here it is two seconds later it is gone, and they are off on another subject.

In any event, you will not look at the universe in the same old way.

The Elegant Universe brings to light many ideas of the universe and existence. After watching this documentary, one can't help but take a step back and rethink their view on the existence of everything. There is a large cast of scientists, mathematicians and others on both sides of String Theory. It is continually brought into question as untested, untestable, and possibly dead wrong. The closest to proselytizing that anyone does is to explain that Quantum Physics, the set of mathematical ideas that give extremely good approximations of what happens to sub-atomic particles, has never made an incorrect prediction. Not so with String Theory; no one is willing to say, on-camera, that String Theory is the truth, and in so doing, the piece retains a certain respectful distance from the subject.

This program was quite interesting. The way the program was displayed made it all the more interesting. String Theory is also very interesting to listen too. The whole three hours in my opinion were well worth it. I enjoyed listening to the ideas given by the physicists. Extra dimensions really boggle the mind. If you have the chance, watch this amazing documentary.

The main question the documentary is asking itself (and the user) is "are we discussing science or philosophy?". I am inclined to choose the last option since almost none of the presented statements have been or ever can be verified.

The documentary consist of a lot of talking, mostly sharing opinions.

An opinion is nice, but please keep it real and on track with facts. In addition, the documentary tents to repeat it self, not once but numerous times, which I found a bit annoying and cheap.

Also the discussion of the string theory kicks of after lets say 2 hours, so be prepared to sit out the first 2 hours seeing through the birth of the string theory and the history of Albert Einstein's career.

Overall conclusion: it is a boring documentary, it provides you with a lot of opinions. I did not learn much and left with a feeling of dissatisfaction, though it did succeed to make me more skeptical regarding the so called string theory and its 11 dimensions.

I rated it a six, barely.

I read the book related to the series and was utterly confused when extra dimensions and membranes came into play. This series provides some clear visuals and animations which gives me sort of and overall picture of the theory. But unless you are a mathematician or a physicist most of these theoretical aspects will go way over your head.

I hope this String Theory or M-Theory will be practically proven in the future which will unlock whole new aspects of the universe. I guess we have to wait and as we are currently limited by the level of technology.