Hawking, The Universe in a Nutshell

Author: Stephen Hawking
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-02-01
Features: Synchronized with European release, worldwide attention. The world's most influential thinker, Stephen Hawking, presents another sacred masterpiece following his globally acclaimed A Brief History of Time! In this new publishing event, Hawking delivers a richly illustrated sequel. This new book will unveil the mysteries of the most significant breakthroughs since the first edition of the highly praised A Brief History of Time. Relativity and quantum theory are the greatest scientific achievements of the 20th century. Especially the former, it is a magnificent construction of human wisdom. Therefore, in the chapter of A Brief History of Time, it is mainly about the life of Einstein. Quantum theory is a passive product of experimental observation, and its meaning remains unclear to this day. In general relativity, space and time are no longer a passive background but active participants in the evolution of the universe. The distribution of matter curves space-time. Now to talk about space and time outside the universe and speculate on these concepts is merely to regress to the time before St. Augustine. Newton's concept of space and time is an illusion, and the only function of illusion is to comfort the weak. Einstein's theory of gravity reduces gravity to the curvature of space-time. Then can space-time be curved so much that people can return to the past and change history? Rigorous scientific calculations show that this is impossible. So what about the ability to predict the future? It appears to be limited at least at three levels. , the chaotic behavior of dynamical systems makes Laplace's determinism practically unachievable. Second, in quantum mechanics, the state is described by a wave function, and Heisenberg's uncertainty