2 posts tagged “stephen hawking”
this is a book that i have always been intrigued by.. starting it numerous times and then losing interest or for some other reason putting it down and delaying my plan to end it.. i kept hearing how it was not an ordinary book.. richard branson saying he never finished the book and that doing so is an achievement within itself.. wikipedia saying that its "an unread bestseller; a book many people own but few have finished"
i thought what the heck.. after all, even my sister finished it a long time ago..
now, i can finally say that i have finished it properly.. reading this after the module of metaphysics in the philosophy course made it all the more interesting since it has alot of implications for the very materialists who say that everything can be knowable through science because quantum mechanics itself disproves this; something that hawking discusses in great detail in this book..
one wonderful book.. if you have any interest in philosophy whatsoever, do read this book.. more so than the scientific arguments, his philosophical arguments are all the more compelling; something that i had continued to overlook whenever i had previously tried to finish this book..
a must read!
"There are other models to explain Cygnus X-1 that do not include a black hole, but they are all rather farfetched. A black hole seems to be the only really natural explanation of the observations. Despite this, I have a bet with Kip Thorne of the California Institute of Technology that in fact Cygnus X-1 does not contain a black hole! This is a form of insurance policy for me. I have done alot of work on black holes, and it would all be wasted if it turned out that black holes do not exist. But in that case, I would have the consolation of winning my bet, which would bring me four years of the magazine 'Private Eye'. If black holes do exist, Kip will get one year of 'Penthouse'" - 'A brief history of time' - Dr. Stephen Hawking
hahah.. class =D
