Cover Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Preface to the Second Edition -- Preface to the First Edition -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- 1 Ultimate explanation -- An eightfold way -- Myths -- Creation myths -- Algorithmic compressibility -- 2 Laws -- The legacy of law -- The quest for unity -- Roger Boscovich -- Symmetries -- Infinities-to be or not to be? -- From strings to 'M' -- A flight of rationalistic fancy -- Goodbye to all that -- 3 Initial conditions -- At the edge of things -- Axioms -- Mathematical Jujitsu -- Initial conditions and time symmetry -- Time without time -- Cosmological time -- The problem of time -- Absolute space and time -- How far is far enough? -- The quantum mystery of time -- Quantum initial conditions -- The great divide -- 4 Forces and particles -- The stuff of the Universe -- The copy-cat principle -- Elementarity -- The atom and the vortex -- A world beside itself -- 5 Constants of Nature -- The importance of being constant -- Fundamentalism -- What do constants tell us? -- Varying constants -- The cosmological constant -- 6 Broken symmetries -- The never-ending story -- Broken symmetry -- Natural theology: A tale of two tales -- The flaws of nature -- Chaos -- Chance -- The unpredictability of sex -- Symmetry-breaking in the Universe -- 7 Organizing principles -- Where the wild things are -- Big AL -- Time -- Being and becoming organized -- The arrow of time -- Far from equilibrium -- The sands of time -- The way of the world -- 8 Selection effects -- Ubiquitous bias -- 9 Is 'pi' really in the sky? -- In the centre of immensities -- The number of the rose -- Philosophies of mathematics -- What is mathematics? -- Mathematics and physics: An eternal golden braid -- The intelligibility of the world -- Algorithmic compressibility rides again -- Continuity-a bridge too far?.

The secret of the Universe -- Is the Universe a computer? -- The unknowable -- Select Bibliography -- Index -- Footnotes -- 2 Laws -- ch02_fn1 -- ch02_fn2 -- 3 Initial conditions -- ch03_fn1 -- ch03_fn2 -- ch03_fn3 -- ch03_fn4 -- 5 Constants of Nature -- ch05fn01 -- 6 Broken symmetries -- ch06_fn1 -- ch06_fn2 -- ch06_fn3 -- 7 Organizing principles -- ch07_fn1 -- ch07_fn2 -- 8 Selection effects -- ch08_fn1 -- 9 Is 'pi' really in the sky? -- ch09_fn1.