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A Briefer History of Time
Stephen Hawking, Leonard Mlodinow Average Rating: 
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2008-10-18While this book is shorter and more intertaining than its not-as-brief precedessor, I found it still unable to make the very esoteric subjects of space-time curvature, quantum mechanics and the behavour of sub-atomic particals understandable to me (MS Computer Science). Hawking clearly has a great sense of humor, and his effort to explain some of the results of his life's work to the general public is laudable, but this book failed to do that, at least for this reader.
2008-10-10excelllent presentation of complex scientific theories. Stephen Hawking knows how to extract core pricipals and shape them into digestible morsels for his readers to consume and enjoy. The material is an update from his earlier Brief History of Time, and has the same cast of charachters.
If only he wrote fiction!
2008-10-08Even briefer, this material requires a few readings to wrap the brain around. Very good examples though.
2008-10-05As the almost forgotten Mr. Rumsfeld observed, there are known unknowns and then there are unknown unknowns. Some of us are curious enough to at least wonder about the former. Most of the rest of us lack the time or the dedication or, let's admit it, the intellectual capacity to take the hard journey to the frontiers between what we know or we beleive we know today and what's on the other side - and the frontiers are moving farther and farther away from us. It takes a down-to-Earth genius like Stephen Hawking to give us a guided tour to the current limits of human knowlege and back and we can even get a hint of what may be lying accross the border. It's a high altitude flight and very little experience is neccessary for us to follow our guide but, when it's over, most of us are likely to agree that we gained a better understanding of the world in which we live than we had before we started reading. Unless we are string theorists ourselves, of course :)
I found the book to be relativly easy to read, intresting and informative. Even the little digressions into Newton's 'real' character (not a very nice person) were welcome. It is, indeed, a history, in the sense that it maps the human understanding of reality as it grew and evolved in time.
In the end... I still have no idea what TIME really is (does anyone?) but I enjoyed reading the book because, many time, I had the feeling that 'aha, I DO understand this now'.
2008-09-28I have not read the earlier version of this book yet, but this one was great. I was able to read it in two sittings. He uses pictures and describes everything in detail to make it easier to understand. That being said, this book is not for the faint of heart, but he does an excelllent job over all.
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| Editorial Review |
This is the origin of and the reason for A Briefer History of Time: its author’s wish to make its content more accessible to readers—as well as to bring it up-to-date with the latest scientific observations and findings.
Although this book is literally somewhat “briefer,” it actually expands on the great subjects of the original. Purely technical concepts, such as the mathematics of chaotic boundary conditions, are gone. Conversely, subjects of wide interest that were difficult to follow because they were interspersed throughout the book have now been given entire chapters of their own, including relativity, curved space, and quantum theory.
This reorganization has allowed the authors to expand areas of special interest and recent progress, from the latest developments in string theory to exciting developments in the search for a complete unified theory of all the forces of physics. Like prior editions of the book—but even more so—A Briefer History of Time will guide nonscientists everywhere in the ongoing search for the tantalizing secrets at the heart of time and space.
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