A Brief History of Time (Hardcover) by Stephen W. Hawking - Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists

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Sep 09, 2008

Bill rated it:

(review of isbn 0553380168)

bookshelves: cosmology, physics

This book puts me in mind of the story about how a Harvard number theorist, through some malfunction of the scheduling computer, got assigned to teach an introductory course in pre-calculus. Being one of those individuals to whom math came so easily that they couldn't grasp how difficult others found it, the professor had no idea what to cover in such a course.

So, he went to the chair of the department, who told him: "You'll want to start with the real number-line and then prog...more

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Aug 30, 2007

Matthew rated it:

(review of isbn 0553380168)

Hawking is a brilliant physicist and a true expert in explaining highly complex aspects of our physical universe in terms that can be understood by most lay people.

Where Hawking fails, in my opinion, is his hubris. He proceeds in to the realm of metaphysics and religion in several portions of this book. For instance, in his chapter on the "arrow of time", he states that, essentially, the universe can only move in one direction of time. It cannot go backwards. He also st...more

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Sep 22, 2007

Daniel rated it:

(review of isbn 0553380168)

bookshelves: general-nonfiction

Read in September, 2007

It is not clear to me who is in the target audience for this book. At times it tries to explain basic concepts of modern physics in simple language, and at other times it assumes a familiarity with the same subject. For the first time I think I "understand" why absolute time is not consistent with relativity theory or that space-time curvature supplants the notion of gravity, and for that I thank the author. There are a few other things I believe I have a glimpse of having (finally) sl...more It is not clear to me who is in the target audience for this book. At times it tries to explain basic concepts of modern physics in simple language, and at other times it assumes a familiarity with the same subject. For the first time I think I "understand" why absolute time is not consistent with relativity theory or that space-time curvature supplants the notion of gravity, and for that I thank the author. There are a few other things I believe I have a glimpse of having (finally) slogged through the book.
On the other hand, there are many places where he writes as if it were clear what he is talking about even though it would require a good deal of background knowledge. To give but one example, he starts talking about summing up over possible world histories (I cannot locate the quotation) without explaining what that would mean. Trained in statistics, I have some idea that he is talking about mathematical expectation in the context of quantum mechanics, but I don't know how another reader might make any sense of it (and I certainly don't have more than a vague notion).
There are irritating writing practices that could have used some editing, e.g., the use of the naked pronominal adjective "this" when in the middle of a dense explanation of an abstruse concept(e.g., "This had serious implications for the ultimate fate of massive stars.").
My biggest complaints, however, are about his philosophical opinions. Obviously he is entitled to think as he wishes about the ultimate questions, but his assertion that his hypothesis of a finite world without beginning or end would leave no place for God seems beside the point. The classic divide has not changed: some folks look around and say stuff just is, and other folks say there's a power behind the stuff that has at least as much going for it as we do. That argument hasn't changed with his theories. At one point in the book he claims that the late John Paul II told gathered scientists that they mustn't inquire into the Big Bang because that was God's territory. I would wager with anyone reading this comment that such an assertion is just plain false. JPII was a flawed mortal, to be sure, but he was no dope; it certainly sounds to me like someone hearing what he thinks the pope would say. (And the Galileo jokes are pretty dumb -- does anyone think that JPII, who apologized for the embarrassing Galileo fiasco, would go after this guy? It must be all that influence the Vatican has had in Britain over the last 400 years that has him scared.)
Other philosophical complaints involve his use of entropy (he defines it first within closed systems and then uses it to explain why the "thermodynamic arrow of time" and the "personal arrow of time" must run in the same direction -- leaping from a box of molecules to the entire universe!), his droning on about what black holes are like when he doesn't know for sure they exist, his statements about "random" and being 95% certain a theory is true (does that mean about 95 out of 100 theories like that are true??). His opinions may be very rich, deep, though-provoking, but how would I (or most general readers) know? You can't really evaluate a judgment unless you know something in the field.
And so that is why I ultimately cannot recommend this book: if you know physics inside and out, you might find his opinions interesting. If you don't, you can only walk around parroting what he says about black holes as if you had a clue what you were talking about. What we all really need is a remedial course in physics!(less)

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Dec 08, 2007

Trevor rated it:

(review of isbn 0553380168)

Read in January, 1986

The main idea to take away from this book is that time has a clear direction. Entropy is the idea that the universe moves from highly ordered states to less ordered states. If you take the lid off a bottle of perfume, and leave it off for a few days the perfume will go from being highly ordered (all in the bottle) to highly disordered (all over the room).

Hawking uses this idea to explain why travelling back in time is impossible. It requires very little energy to knock a glass over...more

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Sep 29, 2009

Annalisa rated it:

(review of isbn 1558008985)

bookshelves: audiobook, non-fiction

Read in October, 2009

Disclaimer: I love math and physics and books that make me feel stupid, as in they are that intelligent. It was interesting learning about the development of science as it refers to the way we think about the universe and how scientific discoveries have been influenced and influence the way people think about God. My favorite section was the discussion of black holes and antimatter.

At times Hawking lost me. He wants to explain theory to the masses, but as he draws near to his own th...more

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Oct 05, 2009

Laurel rated it:

(review of isbn 159777068X)

bookshelves: nonfiction

Read in October, 2009

If I had a slightly more evolved brain than I do, or were as brilliantly smart as, say, Stephen Hawking (or my equally brilliant science-minded fiance), I may give this book 4 or 5 stars. I'm pretty certain it deserves 4 or 5 stars. But my brain is only (I like to think) a bit above average. And so, yes, I admit it -- much of this (especially when delving into his own theories) was over my head. And while I found what I did understand absolutely fascinating, I can't really give it more than 3 s...more

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Jun 26, 2008

Molly Des Jardin rated it:

(review of isbn 0553380168)

bookshelves: science

Read in July, 2008

It was while reading this that I finally had an "aha" moment about why it is that observation can change what you're trying to observe. I was always kind of skeptical of this, because I was wondering "what is it that our eyes do that could possibly affect things?" Stephen Hawking set me straight: it's the tiny speck of light that you have to shoot at what you're trying to observe that affects it. Light bulb is on!

I have an interest in physics, and I have read q...more It was while reading this that I finally had an "aha" moment about why it is that observation can change what you're trying to observe. I was always kind of skeptical of this, because I was wondering "what is it that our eyes do that could possibly affect things?" Stephen Hawking set me straight: it's the tiny speck of light that you have to shoot at what you're trying to observe that affects it. Light bulb is on!

I have an interest in physics, and I have read quite a few books for the layman about recent physics and cosmology - string theory, the big bang, hyperspace. So I wasn't sure whether I would end up learning something new when I finally got the chance to read this. But it was full of light-bulb moments like the one above - things that I had been wondering about but had never been described in a low-level, concrete sort of way that would make sense for me.

Hawking's writing style made this book a wonderful experience, with a friendly, interested tone that brings the reader in while also expressing his own excitement about the topics. It's a good mix of historical notes, explanations of what exactly went on in the experimental work of science, and also what the implications of those developments are in the big picture - not just the big picture of physics and science, but what developments in physics mean for us as human beings and our understanding of the world around us.

The only weak part of this book, that left me scratching my head and unable to visualize instead of visualizing and getting it for the first time, were the chapters on subatomic particles. Concepts like spin and what exactly antiparticles ARE in a concrete sense (and how they interact with the particles we are familiar with), are still beyond me after this book, but I'm not sure if that's a weakness in Hawking's great power of explanation, or if it's inherent in those ideas themselves to be difficult!

I would recommend this book to absolutely everyone with an interest in the world - you don't have to be a science specialist (I sure am not) or mathematically-inclined to follow it, and it is full of ideas that will make you think (and also understand a lot more of what people are talking about when they reference scientists and concepts from the past).(less)

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Jun 22, 2007

Khalid rated it:

(review of isbn 0553380168)

bookshelves: already-read

Read in May, 2004

This book discusses the origin of the universe, its future, and the way it could have developed to its current state, and bases all that on physics. It dives into the part of physics whose sole aim is to devise a unified theory that describes everything in the universe, or at least do that as much as possible.

The book starts out by discussing theories as they developed, beginning with theories we all are familiar with and consider trivial, and then showing how they have proven to be ...more This book discusses the origin of the universe, its future, and the way it could have developed to its current state, and bases all that on physics. It dives into the part of physics whose sole aim is to devise a unified theory that describes everything in the universe, or at least do that as much as possible.

The book starts out by discussing theories as they developed, beginning with theories we all are familiar with and consider trivial, and then showing how they have proven to be wrong in describing special events. After that it dives into the theory of relativity, and shows how this theory fails at a certain point. Following that, it discusses quantum mechanics, which seems to become important at the point where the theory of relativity failed.

Then, the book goes on trying to combine these theories along with other ideas to reach the unified theory. It does not exactly get there by the end of the book, but this does not make the book any less wonderful.

A Brief History of Time is not a source of information as much as a mind opener. It provides a new vision of the world, in a form of an interesting model. It does not delve into the physics part of these theories as much as the philosophical part. It shows how human thought tries to solve the problems they have, and more importantly, that we always do not know the full truth, even when we think we do.

Theories discussed in this book all had problems. Many of them we could not even find observations for that match the predictions. However, they are the result of thoughts. They are sometimes merely put based on what we observe, and one more observation simply destroys them.

According to [Stephen Hawking], it has not been proven that time travel is impossible. It has not been done, and it is not likely that it would, but he provides an explanation on how this could be made, if the universe matched some certain models.

This book also shows one very interesting thing. It shows that a big part of science is an attempt to prove the inexistence of God. They keep trying, and it gets harder every time they go further. And even at the end, when Stephen Hawking could get to describe a self-contained boundary-less universe, there was the question of how this universe came to be.

Even if we try to model a perfectly self-contained universe in which no supreme intervention is needed, this does not mean that 1) supreme intervention is not possible, and 2) this universe created its own. The fact that the universe is very sophisticated only suggests that thought should have been put into it, and that it is not created by random.

There is a theory called the anthropic theory, which I understand as: The universe is the way it is because this is the only way there could have been intelligent beings who would at the end ask "How did the universe come to be that way?" and question their very own existence. I personally find this theory very cyclic, and see that it simply calls for the thought of the existence of God anyway.

Another way to get away from the idea of God was to suggest that an infinite number of universes exist, and that we live in this one because it is the one whose properties are suitable for our life. Nice explanation, but why is it more 'sensible' than the idea of a supreme being? It is so simply because it does not expect you to believe in a supreme being, I suppose. I do not deny the thought that God could have created various universes, but that is beside the point.

At any rate, I am just simply providing some of the thoughts that result from reading this book. I enjoyed it to the fullest, and I intend to read its sequel, The Universe In a Nutshell sometime in the future.
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Aug 03, 2008

Greg rated it:

(review of isbn 0553103741)

Read in February, 2009

I read the Illustrated Brief History of Time because I was hoping it would have helpful visual depictions of the complex theories and concepts that Hawking describes - and it did.

Overall, this book was pretty good, but I guess the biggest problem I had with it was that Hawking never really came out and declared which of the current theories he most subscribes to. He does a great job presenting a mostly unbiased view on the differing theories, but doesn't take a stance on which he th...more

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Jul 08, 2008

Michael Lawrence rated it:

(review of isbn 0553380168)

bookshelves: space--science--philosophy

Read in January, 2002

recommended to Michael by: Stephen Hawking
recommends it for: Plato

Copy from a briefer history review since very similar books.

It surprises me how disinterested we are today about things like physics, space, the universe and philosophy of our existence, our purpose, our final destination.

That was somehow lost in our information generation. So like I said, if this tiny take on life and physics gets into more hands then horray. Its a crazy world out there. Be curious.

This book takes topics like general relativity, quantum theo...more

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May 29, 2008

Nate Jordon rated it:

(review of isbn 0553380168)

Read in June, 2008

Hawking presents a scientific and philosophical view of the universe via the most complicated theories of mathematics and science in layman's terms. That said, the book requires a second reading. There's so much intriguing information in the book's 191 pages that on a first reading, I believe it would be difficult for anyone (without advanced knowledge of astrophysics, quantum mechanics, etc.) to conceptualize all the book contains and postulates. Nonetheless, an incredible book for anyone as...more

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Jan 13, 2010

Jayesh Naithani rated it:

(review of isbn 0553346148)

Read in January, 2010

Stephen Hawking's book is about space and time. The questions he attempts to answer in this book are where did the universe come from, how and why did it begin, will it come to an end and when.

Hawking discusses the origins of the universe in terms of several laws of physics: the laws of motion and gravity, the theory of general relativity, the laws of conservation of energy, and quantum mechanics. As we read through the book, he explains spatial phenomena such as the big bang event, ...more

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Oct 26, 2009

Tazar oo rated it:

(review of isbn 0553176986)

bookshelves: currently-reading

“အခ်ိန္၏ သမိုင္းအက်ဥ္း” ဆိုတဲ့ စာအုပ္နာမည္ကကို ကၽြန္ေတာ့္အတြက္ အရမ္းစိတ္၀င္စားစရာေကာင္းေနတယ္။ အခ်ိန္အေၾကာင္းကို ငယ္စဥ္ကတည္းက စိတ္၀င္စားခဲ့တယ္။ ဒါေပမဲ့ ဖတ္ရႈေလ့လာႏိုင္တဲ့ စာအု...more “အခ်ိန္၏ သမိုင္းအက်ဥ္း” ဆိုတဲ့ စာအုပ္နာမည္ကကို ကၽြန္ေတာ့္အတြက္ အရမ္းစိတ္၀င္စားစရာေကာင္းေနတယ္။ အခ်ိန္အေၾကာင္းကို ငယ္စဥ္ကတည္းက စိတ္၀င္စားခဲ့တယ္။ ဒါေပမဲ့ ဖတ္ရႈေလ့လာႏိုင္တဲ့ စာအုပ္စာေပကို မေတြ႕ခဲ့ရဘူး။ “အခ်ိန္ႏွင့္ဒီေရသည္လူကိုမေစာင့္” ဆိုတာေတြနဲ႔ မဆိုင္ဘူးေပါ့။ အခုဟာက အခ်ိန္ရဲ႕ သေဘာသဘာ၀ကို ဆိုလိုခ်င္တာပါ။ အခ်ိန္ဟာဘာလို႔ ေနာက္ျပန္မစီးဘဲ အဆံုးကိုသာ စီးတာလဲ။ အခ်ိန္ရဲ႕ အစဦးဆံုး သံုးမိနစ္ဟာဘာလဲ။

ဇီ၀ရုပ္ကိုျဖစ္ေပၚေစတဲ့ ေနေရာင္ျခည္ကို ထုတ္လႊတ္ေပးတဲ့ စက္မႈေဗဒရဲ႕ သေဘာ၊ ၿပီးေတာ့ ကမၻာေျမႀကီးမွာ ကၽြန္ေတာ္တို႔ကို ေျမႀကီးမွာေကာ္နဲ႔ကပ္ထားတဲ့ ေျမဆြဲအား (Gravity) ရဲ႕သေဘာ...၊ ကၽြန္ေတာ္တို႔ကို တည္ေဆာက္ထားတဲ့ အက္တမ္ေတြအေၾကာင္း။ ဒီအေၾကာင္းေတြကို လူအေတာ္မ်ားမ်ားက ေမးခြန္းမထုတ္ၾကဘူး။ ဒီထဲမွာ ကေလးေတြကေတာ့ ျခြင္းခ်က္လုိ႔ဆိုတယ္။ ကေလးေတြဟာ အေရးႀကီးတဲ့ေမးခြန္းေတြကို မေမးရဘူးဆိုတာကို လံုေလာက္ေအာင္ နားမလည္ေသးလို႔ပါတဲ့။

စာအုပ္ကေတာ့ ခ်ီးမြမ္းသံေတြ ပြက္ေလာရိုက္ေနတဲ့ နာမည္ႀကီးစာအုပ္ပဲ။ သိပၸံညီမွ်ျခင္းဆိုလို႔ E=mc2 ဆိုတဲ့ အိန္းစတိန္းႀကီးရဲ႕ ညီမွ်ျခင္းတစ္ခုပဲ ပါပါတယ္။ အရပ္သားနားလည္ေအာင္ ရွင္းထားတဲ့စာအုပ္။ ျမန္မာျပန္ၿပီးသား ရွိတယ္လို႔ ထင္မိသလိုပဲ။ ေသေတာ့မေသခ်ာ။ စာေရးသူ သိပၸံပညာရွင္ႀကီး ေဟာကင္းဟာ စကားမေျပာႏိုင္၊ လမ္းမေလွ်ာက္ႏိုင္ဘဲ ဒုကၡိတျဖစ္ေနတဲ့ Wheel-chair ေပၚက ဘီးက်ဲႀကီးပါ။ လက္လွမ္းမီသူမ်ား မပ်က္မကြက္ဖတ္႐ႈသင့္သည့္ စာအုပ္...။(less)

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Jul 07, 2009

Robert rated it:

(review of isbn 0553380168)

bookshelves: non-fiction

Buku ini saya baca dari perpustakaan sekolah SMA dulu. Diterbitkan di Indonesia pada tahun 1994 dengan judul saduran, "Riwayat Sang Kala". Di buku ini, Stephen Hawking menuliskan banyak pemikiran-pemikirannya mengenai Teori Dentuman Besar (Big Bang Theory) hingga Lubang Hitam (Black Hole) dengan bahasa yang cukup bisa dipahami karena memang buku ini ditujukan untuk kalangan awam.

Banyak sekali hal-hal yang mencengangkan mengenai jagat raya yang saya temukan di dalam buku ini...more Buku ini saya baca dari perpustakaan sekolah SMA dulu. Diterbitkan di Indonesia pada tahun 1994 dengan judul saduran, "Riwayat Sang Kala". Di buku ini, Stephen Hawking menuliskan banyak pemikiran-pemikirannya mengenai Teori Dentuman Besar (Big Bang Theory) hingga Lubang Hitam (Black Hole) dengan bahasa yang cukup bisa dipahami karena memang buku ini ditujukan untuk kalangan awam.

Banyak sekali hal-hal yang mencengangkan mengenai jagat raya yang saya temukan di dalam buku ini. Misalnya saja, bahwa kecepatan cahaya yang di pelajaran Fisika selalu tetap (C=3x10 pangkat 8 m/s2) ternyata semakin menurun. Jagat raya kita ini juga bukanlah sesuatu yang statis, melainkan terus mengembang sejak awal mula Dentuman Besar dengan skala yang matematis, bukan acak. Hawking menganalogikan ini dengan adonan yang mengembang. Ada pula teori-teorinya mengenai Lubang Cacing (Worm Hole) yang konon bisa dijadikan sebagai portal menuju dimensi lain secara fisika. Bagaimana sebuah Bintang Neutron ternyata mengeluarkan pulse dengan ritme teratur yang sempat disangka sebagai kontak dari para alien. Hawking bahkan terobsesi untuk menemukan TOE (Theory of Everything) yang bisa digunakan untuk memahami konsep dasar jagat raya dan bisa diaplikasikan ke dalam hal apa pun.

Yang paling berkesan buat saya adalah teori matematisnya Hawking mengenai usia seseorang dalam ruang dan waktu. Intinya kalau kita terus bergerak (baik dalam ruang dan waktu), usia kita secara matematis akan lebih muda daripada seseorang yang lebih banyak diam dalam terminologi ruang. Ini bisa menjadi alasan yang intelektual untuk menghindari kemalasan :-)

Disinggung pula sedikit biografi mengenai Stephen Hawking. Sejak kecil, ia selalu skeptis dengan fenomena ESP (Extrasensory Perception). Pertama kali lulus SMA, ia tertarik dengan Biologi, tetapi karena tidak berbakat menggambar, ia membelok ke Fisika. Saat kuliah di Oxford, ia sudah menunjukkan bakat jeniusnya dengan menyelesaikan take-home test hanya dalam 3 hari, yang mana teman-temannya membutuhkan waktu sampai 1 minggu untuk menyelesaikannya. Dan bagaimana awal mula frustasinya muncul saat ia divonis menderita penyakit langka ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) yang melumpuhkan sistem motorik tubuhnya.

Sekilas seperti: membaca pelajaran Fisika dengan bahasa novel.(less)

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Jun 14, 2009

Alex rated it:

(review of isbn 0553380168)

Read in June, 2009

This is a review of the unabridged audiobook of "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking.

I've always been the type of person who likes to daydream about the origin of the universe--(when I was younger, this was more like an obsession than a daydream)--so it was inevitable that I eventually would attempt to finish this book.

I thought maybe the format of a book on tape would be ideal for this famous treatise on physics--which I've always been told was very acc...more This is a review of the unabridged audiobook of "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking.

I've always been the type of person who likes to daydream about the origin of the universe--(when I was younger, this was more like an obsession than a daydream)--so it was inevitable that I eventually would attempt to finish this book.

I thought maybe the format of a book on tape would be ideal for this famous treatise on physics--which I've always been told was very accessible--but honestly, I found myself rewinding constantly, and sometimes accepting that chapters were beyond my reach. At least, beyond the type of reach you can get while riding on the R5 on the way to Fort Totten. I understood maybe about half of the book. There's a lot of talk about relativity, quantum mechanics, the uncertainty principles, space-time, black holes, and the like. I finally accepted that concepts like the Theory of Relativity are just to counter-intuitive for uneducated folks like me to understand. Maybe even the educated folks really can't understand it--at least, not the same way that they understand what a ball does when you kick it.

Occassionally, in between lessons on quarks, Hawking does try to mix in thoughts about how these rules shed light on the meaning of the universe--as he states, "Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing?" Turns out, there's an answer to one of the main arguments I've made in favor of the (possible!) existence of God--that so much matter couldn't have come into existence, given the Law of Conservation of Matter. The answer is that because matter = energy, and because all of the positive energy in the universe is matched with negative energy, it makes perfect sense that the universe just popped out of nowhere. (But who made that rule....)

There's also an interesting discussion about what Hawkings terms the "Anthropic Principle." The principle is the answer to the question--why is the universe uniform and in a nature which supports the development of intelligent life. Is it proof of a divine being? Or is it because there are plenty of different universes out there, and it only happens that we're in the one which has nice uniform laws (because that's the only universe which would create life). There's a bit of poignancy when Hawking briefly describes his diagnoses with Lou Gehrig's disease--with very little emotion, but you wonder if his fascination with the universe is tied in with the thoughts (incorrect, as it turned out) that his life was going to be short.

And I'd even have a quibble (actually, more like a question) for Prof. Hawkings. In one chapter, he discusses time and our perception of it, and he defines universal time as the direction in which things tend to get more disordered. But isn't the concept of order and disorder just a human creation? He's right that pieces of glass don't pick themselves up and create drinking cups (his example), but atoms create molecules, stars and planets form solar systems, and dust particles create dust bunnies--what's the difference? I'm sure there's an answer for this, just as there was an answer for my Conservation of Matter question. (But lets assume my notion is right that order and disorder exist equally in both directions of time--then why do humans tend to create things which break down as time passes, unless we fix them?)

All in all, I'd recommend this book, but it didn't quite ignite my imagination the way I'd thought it would. If anything, it dampened it--if it turns out that physicians have mapped out the nature and meaning of the universe so far beyond my comprehension, then what good are my musings on it? But I guess that situation isn't Hawkings' fault, and I shouldn't fault him for trying to map out how our knowledge of universe has expanded since Aristolte reflected on the subject--with about as much success as I had.

A NOTE ABOUT THE AUDIO EDITION:

The narration by Michael Jackson--(no, not that Michael Jackson)--was competent, but interesting in the way the very British Jackson read the book like it was a physics lecture. Laughing at his own jokes and occassionally interjecting "uhs" when he was "recalling" the names of his subjects were subtle ways to evoke the image of a Cambridge lecture hall. clever, but I would have preferred a more informal and direct approach, to go along with the supposed accessibility of the book. And is the history of time ever brief! Most unabridged audio books last more than ten hours, but this one lasted only five hours and forty-five minutes. Although you should allow for some time for rewinding.(less)

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Jun 07, 2009

Sara Kearns rated it:

(review of isbn 0553346148)

bookshelves: philosophy, read-again, science

Read in January, 1999

I don't know that I'm qualified to rate this book, in the sense that since I have hardly any foundation in theoretical physics, especially at the time i read it, I had a difficult time understanding much of it, so I really couldn't get a good grasp on what I thought of the book, except that it was frustrating, but that I'm sure is because I lacked the premise of knowledge necessary to read this without struggling so much. I'm more well versed in physics now, so someday I'll try to get through it...more

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Dec 01, 2009

Bob Nichols rated it:

(review of isbn 1558001131)

Read in December, 2009

This audio edition of Hawking's well-known book is a challenge for those not well-versed in the subject matter. A main Hawking argument is that the general theory of relativity conflicts with quantum theory. His book then describes how these two theories can be united in a quantum theory of gravity. In singularity events where matter collapses into ultimate densities(black holes; the "time" before the Big Bang), Hawking says that the known quantum interactions involving micro events...more This audio edition of Hawking's well-known book is a challenge for those not well-versed in the subject matter. A main Hawking argument is that the general theory of relativity conflicts with quantum theory. His book then describes how these two theories can be united in a quantum theory of gravity. In singularity events where matter collapses into ultimate densities(black holes; the "time" before the Big Bang), Hawking says that the known quantum interactions involving micro events (how matter adheres or decays) are overwhelmed (overcome) by the force of gravity that pulls all matter toward a center and becomes a "singularity."

Hawking makes numerous interesting observations in what appears to be his history of quantum physics. This includes - if he is understood accurately - his notion that black holes emit energy. This triggers a question whether, at the other end of the E=M equation, pure energy (light) has mass and, thereby, is subject to gravitational force. Here Hawking may be saying that light has no mass, but rather moves through (and on?) space that contains "hidden" mass and it is this (space plus time) that is subject to gravity's effects.

Regarding the book's title, Hawking's account of the history of time is not so clear. Hawking ties time to entropy, the increase of disorder in the cosmos. His puzzle analogy is good. There is only one way for the puzzle to be put together (ordered), whereas there is a multiplicity of ways about how it might be disordered and, hence, the propensity to move toward disorder. With the Big Bang, Hawking's argument is (or may be) that this primary cosmic event started in a highly ordered state and has moved since then over the eons toward increasingly an entropic or disordered state. Prior to the Big Bang, energy is locked up in mass and, when that occurs, time (as sequenced motion) does not exist. After the Big Bang, in the move from order to disorder, there is a progressive loss of heat, dissipation of energy and motion and, therefore, a slowing of time. Within this dense argument, Hawking concludes that intelligent life is able to carve out order in this increasingly disordered state (mind converts matter to food, food to energy and heat, even though such heat eventually dissipates into space). In the overall movement toward disorder, the question for the reader is whether time slows down to a stop and then contracts and reverses (i.e., is time cyclic in this way?).

It can be freely conceded that this review of "A Brief History of Time" may not be at all accurate. Clearly, there is benefit to reading Hawking a second or third time. One senses a good story here, though the author is not a good story teller. Toward the end of his book, Hawking observes that philosophers can't keep up with the technical sophistication of cosmic science and, thereby, by default, cede the hold on truth about reality to scientists like himself. Probably the better idea is for philosophers to breach the wall between science and philosophy and find a way to integrate the two. (less)

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Sep 08, 2009

Thomas Freeman rated it:

(review of isbn 0553380168)

Read in January, 2003

Hawking has an absolutely amazing mind. However, he also has an ability to explain things at very basic levels. Occasionally he simply cannot avoid some mathematical information that might blur the understanding for those with less education.

It is amazing the amount of theory and just plain thinking that has gone into these areas of study. I found it amazing that Hawking would almost build a complete case for why the Big Bank could not have occurred and why there must be an intell...more

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May 03, 2009

Jack rated it:

(review of isbn 0553380168)

bookshelves: reviews

Read in May, 2009

Although the information and subject matter was very interesting, A Brief History of Time may stick out more as something to show how insanely smart Stephen Hawking and other famous scientists and mathematicians are. Often while reading, one gets lost in the ideas presented and the possibilities they create. In this novel, Stephen Hawking explores the past and present facts, theories, and ideas about topics such as the universe, space, time, black holes, and time travel. Hawking, Albert Einst...more

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Apr 14, 2009

Aerin rated it:

(review of isbn 0553380168)

bookshelves: nonfiction

Read in April, 2009

In one of those nice little bits of serendipity that life sometimes throws at you, I bought this book just before Netflix sent me a documentary on string theory. I'd added it to my queue months ago and forgotten about it, so it was a nice surprise. Astrophysics is something I've always been interested in but haven't spent a whole lot of time reading up on.

Physics has come a very long way in the twenty years since this book was written. Watching the documentary really highlighted h...more