The Billiard Ball Universe

This book argues for a picture of the universe that is mechanical all the way down — and that has no down: layers beneath layers, without a bottom, each one made of ordinary pushing and colliding, like billiard balls.

The claim is deliberately modest. The book does not claim to explain why anything exists; no picture does. It claims something smaller and, I think, defensible: that of all the pictures on offer, this one is less arbitrary — it leaves one mystery where the alternatives leave many. Every serious objection to it is stated in the book at full strength, and the concessions stay on the page.

The book

First edition published August 2026 — a short illustrated volume, including a real dialogue in which an AI argues back; the concessions, in both directions, actually happened.

Paperback, 206 pages, ISBN 978-87-977519-1-6: Amazon.com ($14.99) · Amazon.de (€12.99, ships to Denmark) · other Amazon marketplaces carry it under the same ISBN.

Sources, corrections, errata

This address is printed in the book as the home of its manuscript sources and its full correction record — every correction made during writing, kept verbatim. Both live in the book's public repository: github.com/nielsbj/billiard-ball-universe. The tag first-edition-1.0 is the book you are holding, down to the byte — the release is anchored in the Bitcoin blockchain via OpenTimestamps, and the proofs are in the repository. Errata for the printed edition live in its ERRATA file, dated against that tag; there are none yet.

The letterbox is open: contact@billiardballuniverse.com — corrections, objections, questions.