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meekoh's review
3.0
On the Origin of Time was written to explain the evolution of Hawkins thinking since the publication of his famous book, [b:A Brief History of Time|3869|A Brief History of Time|Stephen Hawking|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1333578746l/3869._SX50_.jpg|2192250]. Hertog measures Hawkins’ academic journey as travelling the distance from Einstein to Lemaître (who famously despised each other). The chips started to fall once the steady state universe theory was disproven by the discovery of CMB. This begged the question; does this mean the universe had to have a beginning?
*Longer review ➼
The predictive power of physics is a source of pride to cosmologists as it distinguishes theoretical physics from your great aunt Tessy and her tea leaves. The combination of evolutionary laws, expressed by mathematical formulas, and boundary conditions weave the framework for these predictions. As a PhD student, Hawkins described the Big Bang as an event without explanation because the singularity at the bottom of it signals the breakdown of time, space, and causality all together. This poses a problem of boundary conditions, which Hawkins describes in his PhD paper as follows,
Thus began Hawkins’ quest to find a theory of everything that encompasses both a theory of dynamics and provides boundary conditions. The fact that vibrating quantum strings generate gravity made string theory appear to be the perfect co-conspirator for discovering one supremo theory of the universe. However, as string theory began to increasingly explore anthropic multiverse cosmology, it ran into survivorship bias (biophilic properties) to drive statistical probabilities. These subjective parameters can be reframed to conform to a vast number of outcomes. Defined as the “measure problem”, Hawkins realized we better start hoping for a physical theory that makes unambiguous predictions so that further observations and experiments can strengthen our confidence in it. Lest theoretical physics devolve into the dodgy territory of crystal ball gazing.
Once string theory started looking like a less attractive dance partner, Hawkins decided to flip his perspective.
Hawkins' shift in perspective alters the narrative of physical laws as a kind of existential truth, to being merely properties of the universe that are compressed into computational algorithms. This post platonic cosmology points to a succession of theories rather than the original shining hope of one unifying theory of everything.
In Hertog’s words, “Hawkins cosmological finale bridges Isaac Newtons mathematical rigour with Charles Darwin’s profound insight that in a deeper sense – we are one.”
*Longer review ➼
Spoiler
The predictive power of physics is a source of pride to cosmologists as it distinguishes theoretical physics from your great aunt Tessy and her tea leaves. The combination of evolutionary laws, expressed by mathematical formulas, and boundary conditions weave the framework for these predictions. As a PhD student, Hawkins described the Big Bang as an event without explanation because the singularity at the bottom of it signals the breakdown of time, space, and causality all together. This poses a problem of boundary conditions, which Hawkins describes in his PhD paper as follows,
“It is one of the weaknesses of Einstein’s theory of relativity that although it furnishes dynamic field equations, it does not provide boundary conditions for them. Thus, Einstein’s theory does not give a unique model for the universe.”
Thus began Hawkins’ quest to find a theory of everything that encompasses both a theory of dynamics and provides boundary conditions. The fact that vibrating quantum strings generate gravity made string theory appear to be the perfect co-conspirator for discovering one supremo theory of the universe. However, as string theory began to increasingly explore anthropic multiverse cosmology, it ran into survivorship bias (biophilic properties) to drive statistical probabilities. These subjective parameters can be reframed to conform to a vast number of outcomes. Defined as the “measure problem”, Hawkins realized we better start hoping for a physical theory that makes unambiguous predictions so that further observations and experiments can strengthen our confidence in it. Lest theoretical physics devolve into the dodgy territory of crystal ball gazing.
Once string theory started looking like a less attractive dance partner, Hawkins decided to flip his perspective.
“Our top-down perspective reverses the hierarchy between laws and reality in physics. It leads to a new philosophy in physics that rejects the idea that the universe is a machine governed by unconditional laws with a prior existence and replaces it with the view that the universe is kind of self organizing entity in which all sort of emergent patterns appear, the most general of which we call the laws of physics.”
Hawkins' shift in perspective alters the narrative of physical laws as a kind of existential truth, to being merely properties of the universe that are compressed into computational algorithms. This post platonic cosmology points to a succession of theories rather than the original shining hope of one unifying theory of everything.
In Hertog’s words, “Hawkins cosmological finale bridges Isaac Newtons mathematical rigour with Charles Darwin’s profound insight that in a deeper sense – we are one.”
wylovat's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
3.75