Stephen Hawking¡¯s phenomenal, multimillion-copy bestseller, A Brief History of Time, introduced the ideas of this brilliant theoretical physicist to readers all over the world.
Now, in a major publishing event, Hawking returns with a lavishly illustrated sequel that unravels the mysteries of the major breakthroughs that have occurred in the years since the release of his acclaimed first book.
Stephen William Hawking was an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author who was director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge. Between 1979 and 2009, he was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, widely viewed as one of the most prestigious academic posts in the world. Hawking was born in Oxford into a family of physicians. In October 1959, at the age of 17, he began his university education at University College, Oxford, where he received a first-class BA degree in physics. In October 1962, he began his graduate work at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where, in March 1966, he obtained his PhD degree in applied mathematics and theoretical physics, specialising in general relativity and cosmology. In 1963, at age 21, Hawking was diagnosed with an early-onset slow-progressing form of motor neurone disease that gradually, over decades, paralysed him. After the loss of his speech, he communicated through a speech-generating device initially through use of a handheld switch, and eventually by using a single cheek muscle. Hawking's scientific works included a collaboration with Roger Penrose on gravitational singularity theorems in the framework of general relativity, and the theoretical prediction that black holes emit radiation, often called Hawking radiation. Initially, Hawking radiation was controversial. By the late 1970s, and following the publication of further research, the discovery was widely accepted as a major breakthrough in theoretical physics. Hawking was the first to set out a theory of cosmology explained by a union of the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. He was a vigorous supporter of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. Hawking achieved commercial success with several works of popular science in which he discussed his theories and cosmology in general. His book A Brief History of Time appeared on the Sunday Times bestseller list for a record-breaking 237 weeks. Hawking was a Fellow of the Royal Society, a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. In 2002, Hawking was ranked number 25 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. He died in 2018 at the age of 76, having lived more than 50 years following his diagnosis of motor neurone disease.
The Universe in a Nutshell is a 2001 book about theoretical physics by Stephen Hawking. It is generally considered a sequel and was created to update the public concerning developments since the multi-million-copy bestseller A Brief History of Time published in 1988. In it Hawking explains to a general audience various matters relating to the Lucasian professor's work, such as G?del's Incompleteness Theorem and P-branes (part of superstring theory in quantum mechanics). He tells the history and principles of modern physics. He seeks to "combine Einstein's General Theory of Relativity and Richard Feynman's idea of multiple histories into one complete unified theory that will describe everything that happens in the universe."
Now I read this book cover to cover, line-by-line, methodically going back over passages that were "challenging", line-by-line, got to the last page, closed the book and said out loud; "Nope, sorry Steve, you lost me there".
Un libro muy dif¨ªcil pero delicioso. Hawking muy Hawking, fiel a su estilo, con una narrativa no demasiado did¨¢ctica, con sus toques exc¨¦ntricos que me disgustan pero hablando de temas de los que solo ¨¦l y muy pocos m¨¢s, contados con los dedos de la mano, pueden hablar. Que una mente as¨ª se abra para acercar temas tan controvertidos, interesantes y avanzados como los que trata es para agradecerlo. Este es de esos libros que cambian vidas. As¨ª que Hawking, muchas gracias. De verdad.
Contrary to Einstein's opinion that God doesn't play the dice, Hawking asserts that God is actually a decent gambler. Funny enough, none of them refer to any particular deity when they use the word "God".
The first chapter is dedicated to explaining Einstein's special and general theorem along with some of the events of Einstein's life. Hawking usually explains scientific issues in their historical context and combines some biographies of scientists with scientific explanations. Not only do they provide more comprehensive writing, but this method helps to remember the discussed material better, at least in my case. The connections between theories of relativity with singularity and M-theory are discussed in chapters two and three. Then, with the help of imaginary time, it demonstrates how quantum theory shapes time and space. As usual, Richard Feynman's name came up, and his theory of multiple histories left me in awe.
I want to highlight that many of the topics described by Hawking in this book¡ªsuch as the Doppler effect, Hubble's constant, Maxwell's field, and anthropic principle¡ªhave already been covered by him in his earlier works and that the repetition is quite clever. Providing a different explanation of these theories and discoveries increases the chances that the casual reader will understand quantum physics. Like learning at school, when a particular subject may have been studied in detail over several years from various perspectives.
Despite Hawking's outstanding efforts to simplify things, these topics' complexity makes comprehension difficult. To better understand challenging ideas in some cases, I used YouTube videos with visual explanations, especially the fourth chapter, which was the most difficult one as I couldn¡¯t understand all the concepts regarding black holes and event horizons. Chapter six is about the future and makes many predictions that after 20 years of publication, we can see they are not far from what we are heading to. For example, neural implants, genetic engineering, parallel processing in CPU, growing babies outside the human body, etc.
In the final chapter, he addresses dimensions other than four ordinary dimensions. He offers a fresh take on string theory and a description of the holographic representation of the world. Let me borrow his words: ¡°According to the idea of holography, information about what happens in a region of spacetime can be encoded on its boundary. So maybe we think we live in a four-dimensional world because we are shadows cast on the brane by what is happening in the interior of the bubble. However, from a positivist viewpoint, one cannot ask: Which is reality, brane or bubble? They are both mathematical models that describe the observations. One is free to use whichever model is most convenient.¡±
Hawking is an exceedingly clear and occasionally quite funny writer, not easy when the topic is quantum physics, etc. I would be lying if I claimed to understand much of this book, especially in the audiobook format in which an exceedingly pleasant British voice hurls a flood of Hawking's words and concepts, one more challenging than the previous one. It might, repeat: might, have been possible to understand this material on a printed page, which in this case included a lot of nifty diagrams, on the presumption that repetition might have helped. But probably not. I did enjoy and generally understand the opening chapter in which Hawking explained the history of physics and our conception of the universe, with a beautiful presentation of the life and work of Einstein, and to a lesser extent his contemporaries and immediate intellectual followers. But after that, when Hawking moved into contemporary physics and the exploration of the cosmos (where he made his own contributions, mind you), I was mostly gasping for air, down for the count, you get the idea. Once I let go of the expectation that I could actually master the material, I kind of enjoyed the periodic appearance of concepts and phrases I had sort-of known about arrive in their natural and proper context, things like string theory, black holes, quanta, Heisenberg principle, nebula, etc. Perhaps more than anything, I enjoyed the ebulliance and delight with which Hawking presents his material, as if it is the simplest and most fun thing ever... which to him, it probably is.
I was listening to the audiobook while I was doing another task and only stopped when I finished it. So I read it all in one sitting. It's one of those few books that I feel I might read it again someday. I like Stephen's writing, but for some reason I ended up liking '' A brief history of time'' better.
Stephen Hawking, stated in, " The Universe in a Nutshell" that our history is filled with infinite potentiality and what we "got¡± was due to disturbing the quantum field by our "observations." Profound, I thought, and pondered about his theory for months.
To better understand Dr. Hawking's theory, I read everything on quantum physics I could understand and a pile of books on the brain, Bruce Hood's "The Self Illusion" was the most helpful. Below is what I believe correlates with Hawking's theory, It is from the book, The Nature of Personal Reality, by Jane Roberts, (Seth Material) I have included a quote and then how I am seeing life now through a magical lens.
"An examination of your conscious thoughts will tell you much about the state of your inner mind, your intentions and expectations, and will often lead you to a direct confrontation with challenges and problems. Your thoughts, studied , will let you see where you are going. They point clearly to the nature of physical events. What exists physically existed first in thought and feeling. There is no other rule.
What if our "observations" were first feeling-tone shared by all consciousness focused in physical reality. The cells and organs have their own awarenesses, and a gestalt one. So the race of man also has individual consciousness and a gestalt or mass consciousness of which makes up our physical reality. While physical we follow physical laws, or assumptions. These form the framework for corporeal expression. Within this framework you have full freedom to create your experience, your personal life in all of its aspects; the living picture of the world, your personal life, and to some extent your individual living experience, helped create the world as it is known in your time.
It is important before we continue that you realize that consciousness is within all physical phenomena, however. It is vital that you realize your position within nature. Nature is created from within. The personal life that you know rises up from within you, yet is given. period. Since you are part of Being, then in a certain fashion you give yourself the life that is being lived through you." ~ Jane Roberts, Seth Material.
¡°Although I cannot move and I have to speak through a computer, in my mind I am free.¡± ¨D Stephen Hawking
When I fully realized my entire reality was created by me, and global consciousness, I could chose what to give my attention to for the change I wanted to see. The more you examine your thoughts and feelings the more excited you'll get when what you were thinking about appears. You'll notice "integrity" plays a role as well, (even when no one but you knows what good things you've done), because it's "liking yourself" that is most important in your ability to thrive without limitations. It only works if you truly believe.
Just like Yoda said, ¡°there is no try, only do.¡±
Whatever you hold in your consciousness you put in your reality. If you are thinking about something, it will appear in a similar form. Don't get scared when you notice you have a lot of negative thoughts, about yourself and the world. These types of "thoughts" are your current vibration, giving you the reality you have now. Any change towards better inner-feelings about yourself and your surroundings will show up immediately in a in an event confirming your power to create your reality. I am now excited about cleaning up my thoughts -especially my deep inner feelings that were not as great as I wanted them to be.
Below are examples of limiting beliefs you may want to remove.
Example of limiting thoughts: 1. My behavior is hidden in my subconsciousness. 2. My life is a result of my childhood, or Karma, 3. Old age causes illness and regression. 4. People are out to screw me. Or People don't like me. 5. I am not smart enough, good enough, someone is better than me. 6. My religion is the right one, and so are my beliefs. 7. I have no control over the events in my life. 8. I am fat. 9. There is something wrong with money. People who have it are greedy, less spiritual than those who are poor. They are unhappier, and snobs.
These are all beliefs held by many people. Those who have them will meet them in experience. Physical data will always seem to reinforce the beliefs, therefore, but the beliefs formed the reality.
"The ego, which is ever changing based on a flow of new experiences looks out upon physical reality and surveys it in relation to those characteristics of which it is composed at any given time. It makes its judgments according to its own idea of itself." ~Jane Roberts
I try to catch myself in conversation making jokes about myself, and stop it. )
When science has proven "consciousness creates everything in our reality" our focus will turn to beautiful stories, ideas and breathtaking environments. We will spot giving our attention to garbage news stories filled with violence and fear; because we don't believe what we hold these emotions in our consciousness mind.
If I could ask Dr. Hawking one question it would be this: You said that we collapse waves when we observe an event. But what if-- our expectation collapsed the wave, our belief before the form existed. If this is true, consciousness is creating the collapsing of the field based on our inner-emotions, which would make the unpopular words, like "emotions, feelings and insights" the most valuable of all our senses.
I learned most of my beliefs were secondhand and limiting, so I jumped those fences! I documented my journey in my memoir, "From Hollywood to God," by Kelly Granite Enck
I am leaving the link for those, like me, who love to explore the Inner Journey of the Mind!
Thanks Stephen for all your years of passion! Love Kelly!
-Intenta divulgar y, en cierto grado, hasta lo consigue.-
G¨¦nero. Ensayo.
Lo que nos cuenta. El libro El universo en una c¨¢scara de nuez (publicaci¨®n original: The Universe in a Nutshell, 2001) es un vistazo a los campos de investigaci¨®n en f¨ªsica te¨®rica m¨¢s activos y atractivos para el autor (en el momento de la redacci¨®n del libro, claro), con especial inter¨¦s en hablar sobre el tiempo en varios aspectos.
?Quiere saber m¨¢s de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
I¡¯m not going to pretend that I understood most of it but he does raise a few thought-provoking points about the future of the human race. Plus it¡¯s very well written.
The purpose of science is not only to answer the most perplexing questions, but also to arouse curiosity in the mind of the readers about the universe. While many books on science do give valuable information, they fail to achieve the latter purpose, as mentioned earlier. This book however succeeds in achieving both.
The Universe in a Nutshell is considered as a sequel to Hawking's previous bestseller, A Brief History of Time. The book, as the title suggests, discusses about the history and principles of the physical universe, in a nutshell. The topics are discussed in just the fair amount of detail and simplicity, although there are some topics which are just too advanced to understand.
Despite being nearly 2 decades old, the book still holds it value, and readers can give it go if they are curious to know about the universe, but lack lots of free time.
First of all, I expected the Hawking's electronic voice for narrating the audiobook. Though it might sound silly, I'm more fond of his unique voice.
After his international bestseller, A Brief History of Time in 80s, he wanted to propagandize the current frontier we're encountering but this time in a more brief way. The First two chapters serve as a prerequisite for proper understanding. Short but very well explained introductory concepts of Einstein-Relativity stuffs; Maybe because i used to read a lot of books in that subject (I've read more books on relativity than automobile engineering in which I've got a bachelor's recently).
Weirdness of Quantum Mechanics and its unification attempts with relativity at the initial conditions of the universe. Time and extra dimensions for the maintenance of consistencies. Some little dip in the chaos theory but too much idea regarding it in this book.
Some chapters on his (and his colleagues) attempts on the formulations of the Quantum Gravity theory, then evolving into Super Gravity, then String theories and eventually m-theory atleast for now (Eventually is not the correct usage).
Blackhole information paradox and the concepts of imaginary time are correlated to hinder the optimistic possibilities of Time Travel atleast for now. The Paradox is a puzzle resulting from the combination of quantum mechanics and general relativity. I feel personally that this Part needs revisiting again. Even the simple terms and explanations, these are much more complex topics undergoing tedious *theoritical* research currently. He also reassures the readers sarcastically that this might be a part of government cover up for Time Travel Conspiracy; You get to know only when you get to meet one like HG Wells.
What I can assure is, that one could get a better view on string theory based M-theory which currently has the higher chance to become the Theory of Everything and the concepts of brane worlds.
I really enjoyed and so was looking forward to and its updated material. I was hoping it would be a "dumbed down" version of some of the high-end theoretical physics ideas that I haven't had the time or brain cells to keep up with.
While I'm sure the content is dumbed down from 's level, most of it is covered at a level and speed that kept it out of my comprehension. To be honest I find a lot of modern theories and ideas very skeptical - it almost seems to me that the theories are created and given weight because they might be possible... and that's good enough because to prove otherwise is incredibly difficult. A part of me (no doubt remnants of thinking left there by my college professors) downplays my pessimism and wants to believe them at face value. In this book I was looking to confirm that part, but it just didn't happen.
There didn't seem to be any real explanations or support (or maybe it was above my head and I zoned out). It was simply describing the theories (e.g., M Theory) and presenting them as fact. (We used to call this "hand waving" in my Physics classes in college - like a magician's hand waving as misdirection.)
There were a lot of good parts that were interesting and engaging. Near the end there was a part on the evolution of life on Earth and humans that was really intriguing. It had to do with DNA as a form of evolutionary method of saving data which has now been augmented by humans' ability to store information outside of our DNA now. And I do now have a better understanding of the framework on some modern theories (like multi-dimensions) that I didn't have before. I particularly liked coming to a better understanding of the theory of our perception of reality being a mere projection of 4 dimensions (3d + time) that derives from a "real" existence that exists in a 5 dimensional "membrane" universe (much like a 3d object casts a 2d shadow). Cool stuff.
Yes, I'm a dork, and in addition to reading grammar books for fun, I also read science books. I've been told that Stephen Hawking is not as complicated to read as one might assume. While I did learn a lot from this book, I also was left with a lot more questions. Furthermore, the illustrations were either confusing or totally unnecessary.
I really liked "A Brief History of Time" much more.
While it isn't that bad (it's actually very good), in comparison with Brief History, it seems only to have many more illustrations and fewer thorough explanations.
I understand that Hawking tried to write a popular science book with a branching non-linear structure without depending heavily on what has been said in the previous chapters, but I don't think that's actually possible. At least I honestly doubt it could be done without losing a significant portion of quality and precision.
I don't know, I read too much about these kinds of things anyway so I guess I might not be right, it could be just what an intelligent layman without too much time needs. But that's a big maybe. Try it, after all, I put 4 stars up there for a reason.