A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

4th September, 2009 4 Comments

The problem with a book that has the word “brief” in the title is just that. Brief. Brevity may be the wit of the soul, but when reading about physics theories, I want more. MORE!

A Brief History of Time is a great book. I enjoyed it immensely and it helped me to understand all those chapters about black holes and string theory that seemed to pop up in other books. But with each explanation, I wanted to delve further into theories or history to understand what exactly Hawking is talking about, question upon question piling up and no one around to explain it.

Now Hawking, besides being a physics genius, is a bit of a writing genius as well. Tangent time to explain: When I was a kid, my dad would sometimes help with my math homework. He’d get exasperated that I wasn’t understanding a concept. Things would often end in tears. The problem–he understands precisely what he’s saying and explaining, but he lacks the words to explain things to the lay person who doesn’t know.

Hawking, however, manages to explain singularities and how time evolved for the lay person. He breaks it down and gives the super-basic overview without being patronizing or assuming we know what he’s talking about. However, Joe Schmoe who is happy with the super-basic overview of things isn’t the type of person who’s that interested in actually knowing what E=MC^2 actually means. The people who are going to pick up this book, who are interested in learning more–we’re not going to be satisfied. And like me they want more; the super-basic explanation is not enough.

As I went along reading, it took awhile to realize that time is sort of the protagonist of this particular story. Time as a character, not a concept. And time is entwined with the birth and death of our universe as well as physical space and how it all works and why we’re here. Truly mind-boggling. The more I type, the more I want to just talk about what I read.

At the end of the book (and when he says brief, he means brief), Hawking mentions that it is possible for there to be no answer, just a never-ending series of things to figure out. Granted, he believes there is an answer and that one day in the near-ish future we’ll figure it out. I don’t believe physicists would be happy if that’s the case; it would be the cool guy who figures it all out, but then what is left to keep exploring?

It reminds me of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and a very specific quote that seems to aptly apply to everything Hawking talks about:

There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.

There is another theory which states that this has already happened.

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