Friday, June 22, 2007

THE BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME BY STEPHEN HAWKING




This book review from my stable friends a bit from Science. Friends i personaly feel that reading should be diverse so a manager can't narrow his focus to only 1 or a few type of reading. This is an ocean, the ocean of knowledge the more u read the more is the benefit & yes stream doesnt matter in reading! Hey i am trying to review a work from the stable of a genius - so forgive me if its not up to the mark or doesnt give justice to the topic.




NOVICES:

This book is a tough one to get through because of the deep subject matter but it tells the fascinating story of important scientific advances during the last century. It chronicles the work of Einstein, Heisenburg, and Hawking. If you are looking for a good explanation why most scientists believe in the Big Bang this is your book. In addition, Hawking describes his no boundary proposal which attempts to do away with an absolute singularity in the beginning of time which reduces the role of God as the immediate cause of the universe. This book is very good and a must read if you are interested in origins



EXPERts / with science Background :


Stephen Hawking is known to the world for both what he can do and what he can't do. What he can't do is most of the things you can. He suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a nerve disease that has left him with little more motor function than a rag doll. He can move his hands a little and talk only with the aid of a voice synthesizer. His mind is apparently unimpaired--to put it mildly. Despite his handicaps he is considered one of the world's leading theoretical physicists. The man who can't use his body to scratch an itch uses his mind to explore time and space, to explore quantum mechanical particles and the shape of the universe, to see back to the Big Bang and forward to the death of the universe.


Well now coming to the point.

Its a small book.

Its comprehensibility is spotty.

It uses some questionable philosophical points. It seems he is building explanation for why you know universe might not have no boundry in space & time. The anecdotical references he gives complecate the stuff. It may well be that with the mathematics his heuristic arguments would be more convincing, but without it much of his reasoning is most unconvincing.

Seeing his genious & busy life some times i feel he might have delegated the job of bringing these theoritical perspectives to masses to someone like us.

The book has a useful glossary, though incomplete and also some definitions sound confusing.

Though i feel it s a readable book, but fundamentally it seems flawed. But we all know that people can only relate to what they understand & he also points that out in the book so still its a decent book if not great.


Ultimate Conclusion: A read once.

regards

RISHI KOTHARI

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What do you mean flawed? You think trying to simplify complicated theories is simple? Thats the point. He has tried to make this book as easy to read as possible. R U a science expert? How do you know its flawed. U can say its incomplete and should have been more comprehensive, but I think he has accomplished what he set out to do. Goos book, worth more than a read. I suggest you read the book again Rishi.

Vishal

ViruS said...

Vishal I think Rishi has done a pretty good reading of the book, seeing that he went thru the glossary. I know this is an all time great book, but I do think that Rishi's argument is relevant and even though Stephen Hawkings want to make this book simple, its still very complex. He should have tried to be more comprehensive.