A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME BY STEPHEN HAWKING, BOOK REVIEW
Hey guys today We are talking about a brief history of time by Stephen Hawking this book is almost 30 years old it- when it first came out it sat on bestseller lists for 237 weeks that's almost five years So what is this book about? It's more complicated than what I'm going to say But in a nutshell there were two main branches of physics being developed in the 20th century One of which is the theory of general relativity and the other one being quantum mechanics So the theory of general relativity deals with the laws that govern very very large structures like planets stars galaxies very very large cosmological structures and quantum mechanics deals with the very very small Laws that govern atoms and subatomic Particles and in a brief history of time Stephen Hawking discusses a grand unified theory the idea behind a grand unified Theory, is that there are laws that can connect general relativity and quantum mechanics This is also sometimes called the theory of everything so if you saw that movie you're totally already familiar with this This book is supposed to be geared towards the layperson you are not supposed to need any kind of background in Theoretical astrophysics to be able to find this book accessible scrolling through the reviews on Goodreads Clearly that was you know more true for some people and less true for others I know for me personally I found Hawking's discussion on thermodynamics to be especially strong and accessible Basically an explanation of why chaos is increasing in the same direction that the universe is expanding? And I found Hawking's explanation of strong nuclear force basically why- Laws that hold protons and neutrons in an atomic nuclei together. I was a little bit like yeah I don't I don't know what you're saying Stevie but this book is one of the books most likely to be purchased and then never actually read so if you are even giving this book a try you should give yourself a Pat on the back for reading it and I do think there will be something in that That you will be able to benefit from and something I did really like is that you get a very good overview of kind of Who's who the on the scene of astrophysics During the time that this book was written. Hawking does let us into his personal thoughts a little bit Just is just a tiny window not too much, but he talks about this kind of special connection he feels what Sir Isaac Newton which I thought was really interesting so Sir Isaac Newton held the exact same mathematics chair position at Cambridge University That Hawking held almost 300 years later, and I would actually say probably more than anyone else Hawking seems to see himself Standing on the shoulders of Albert Einstein and really building off of the legacy that Einstein's life work left behind. He does talk about His thoughts on God and the creation of the universe in this book And he kind of tempers his own thoughts with Einsteins.
He kind of presents- You know - several views so Hawking's thoughts on this has kind of seemed to have waffled a bit throughout the years This book is thirty years old at this point, but in this book The position that he landed on honest frankly I didn't understand it He what he says is that the universe is finite? But had no beginning. He thinks that it always was kind of moving away from the big bang theory And the reason I don't understand that is because in my brain which greated Hawking is smarter than me But it seems like if there's no beginning. It should be infinite so I think it's a semantics issue I'm not sure what exactly he means by finite, but he does have a quote here Okay, so he says if the universe is really completely self-contained Having no boundary or edge. It would have neither beginning nor end.
It would simply be What place then for creator? And he does seem to land in a spot where he doesn't think that there was a moment of creation. But he tempers that he says he's not ruling out intelligent design I don't feel like he was belittling it and he includes a statement from Albert Einstein that says Einstein never accepted that the universe was governed by chance his feelings were summed up in his famous statement God does not play dice Hawking is pretty upfront with the fact that even if a grand unified theory a theory of everything Does pan out and is discovered if there's not necessarily a benefit to humanity. It won't necessarily improve our lifestyle or quality of life and especially In in sections of the book where he is discussing like later stages of the universe What might happen what might happen if the universe begins to collapse? He's like yeah, or the Sun will be long gone people will be extinct for tens of millions of years And this will have no possible consequence to get to anyone But I thought his his Justification for his research and his life's work was really lovely. I have a quote.
I wanted to share with you He says ever since the dawn of civilization People have not been content to see events as unconnected and inexplicable They have craved an understanding of the underlying order in the world today We still yearn to know why we are here and where we came from Humanity's deepest desire for knowledge is justification enough for our continuing quest and our goal is nothing less than A complete description of the universe we live in so essentially he's saying knowledge and understanding have innate value in their own right. And that there's something about human nature that we Want to know we want to learn so I thought that was really lovely and the last thing that I wanted to mention is just a piece of pop culture So John Green's latest book, Turtles All the Way Down the explanation behind That title is in this book a brief history of time, and I think it's kind of hilarious So I wanted to share it with you So it is says a well-known scientist some say it was Bertrand Russell once gave a public lecture on astronomy He described how the earth orbits around the Sun and how the Sun in turn orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy at the end of the lecture a little old lady at the Back of the room got up and said you have told us is rubbish The world is really a flat plate Supported on the back of a giant tortoise. The scientist gave her a superior smile before replying. What is the tortoise standing on? You're very clever young man very clever said the old lady, but it's Turtles all the way down So I thought that was really funny I just like I just read the book it by Stephen King and there's a celestial turtle in that book It's actually the the celestial turtles in a few of Stephen King's books, and I thought it was really weird But I guess celestial turtles are a thing they're thing that I did not realize were a thing.
Did you realize that her thing? Leave your thoughts down below Stephen Hawking a brief history of time celestial Turtles as always thanks so much for watching, and I will see you in the next one You.
He kind of presents- You know - several views so Hawking's thoughts on this has kind of seemed to have waffled a bit throughout the years This book is thirty years old at this point, but in this book The position that he landed on honest frankly I didn't understand it He what he says is that the universe is finite? But had no beginning. He thinks that it always was kind of moving away from the big bang theory And the reason I don't understand that is because in my brain which greated Hawking is smarter than me But it seems like if there's no beginning. It should be infinite so I think it's a semantics issue I'm not sure what exactly he means by finite, but he does have a quote here Okay, so he says if the universe is really completely self-contained Having no boundary or edge. It would have neither beginning nor end.
It would simply be What place then for creator? And he does seem to land in a spot where he doesn't think that there was a moment of creation. But he tempers that he says he's not ruling out intelligent design I don't feel like he was belittling it and he includes a statement from Albert Einstein that says Einstein never accepted that the universe was governed by chance his feelings were summed up in his famous statement God does not play dice Hawking is pretty upfront with the fact that even if a grand unified theory a theory of everything Does pan out and is discovered if there's not necessarily a benefit to humanity. It won't necessarily improve our lifestyle or quality of life and especially In in sections of the book where he is discussing like later stages of the universe What might happen what might happen if the universe begins to collapse? He's like yeah, or the Sun will be long gone people will be extinct for tens of millions of years And this will have no possible consequence to get to anyone But I thought his his Justification for his research and his life's work was really lovely. I have a quote.
I wanted to share with you He says ever since the dawn of civilization People have not been content to see events as unconnected and inexplicable They have craved an understanding of the underlying order in the world today We still yearn to know why we are here and where we came from Humanity's deepest desire for knowledge is justification enough for our continuing quest and our goal is nothing less than A complete description of the universe we live in so essentially he's saying knowledge and understanding have innate value in their own right. And that there's something about human nature that we Want to know we want to learn so I thought that was really lovely and the last thing that I wanted to mention is just a piece of pop culture So John Green's latest book, Turtles All the Way Down the explanation behind That title is in this book a brief history of time, and I think it's kind of hilarious So I wanted to share it with you So it is says a well-known scientist some say it was Bertrand Russell once gave a public lecture on astronomy He described how the earth orbits around the Sun and how the Sun in turn orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy at the end of the lecture a little old lady at the Back of the room got up and said you have told us is rubbish The world is really a flat plate Supported on the back of a giant tortoise. The scientist gave her a superior smile before replying. What is the tortoise standing on? You're very clever young man very clever said the old lady, but it's Turtles all the way down So I thought that was really funny I just like I just read the book it by Stephen King and there's a celestial turtle in that book It's actually the the celestial turtles in a few of Stephen King's books, and I thought it was really weird But I guess celestial turtles are a thing they're thing that I did not realize were a thing.
Did you realize that her thing? Leave your thoughts down below Stephen Hawking a brief history of time celestial Turtles as always thanks so much for watching, and I will see you in the next one You.
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