The Picnic at the Edge of the Universe

This book explores how to look at the universe, its origins, its development, and its possible fate, in a way that goes beyond current models, including the Big Bang, that depend on complex mathematics and multiple dimensions, that leave many questions unanswered, among them the assumption that "everything came from nothing." The author traces the history of cosmology and what is currently known, explaining with the help of stories and humor where current thinking may have gone astray and become too complex, while leaving huge gaps in the narrative. Along the way he poses and explores a new conceptual model of how the universe came about, what fuels its expansion, and how the world actually works at all levels. The model is grounded in the science of the physical world and astronomy, but provides a new and simpler conceptual framework which could lead to a new understanding of time, black holes, magnetism, and other areas of ambiguity in current theories of the cosmos.