<< 
 Lee Smolin's book on budding universes turns out to have something of the
 same metaphysical (Leibnizean) tendency [luckily, about a zillion times
 more rigorous than poor Talbot], but alas he finished it before M-theory
 really kicked in.  In utter ignorance of the fine-grain detail, I note that
 it looks to me as if Smolin's loopy space and brane theory might converge
 in a geometrodynamical TOE.
  >>
Well.....now I don't feel so bad...I bought the book ""The Holographic
Universe" and read some of it....the further I got the less it made
sense....eventually it fuzzed out in a wash of static.
EvMick
DesMoines Iowa