A Brief History of Time
by Stephen Hawking · first published 1988
45% recommend49% neutral5% critical
Why HN recommends it
An accessible big-picture tour of cosmology, space and time, readable without a physics background. It first sparked curiosity about how the universe works in many who came to it as kids or teens.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Stephen Hawking's ‘A Brief History of Time has become an international publishing phenomenon. Translated into thirty languages, it has sold over ten million copies worldwide and lives on as a science book that continues to captivate and inspire new readers each year. When it was first published in 1988 the ideas discussed in it were at the cutting edge of what was then known about the universe. In the intervening twenty years there have been extraordinary advances in the technology of observing both the micro- and macro-cosmic world. Indeed, during that time cosmology and the theoretical scie
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…concept to grasp, but many people resist considering an event to have not yet happened when it has not yet crossed our lightcone. If you are really interested, then I suggest Stephen Hawking's book A Brief History of Time.
on “A Binary Star Is About to Go Supernova and Could Produce a Gamma-Ray Burst” ↗…Hawking's book got published, it was the only thing available like that anywhere around. Remember, this is before you could get any book in existence within one month via Amazon. There was no Amazon. I got A Brief History of Time and read it, and it's almost cliche to say so, but it changed the course of my life. It's not the only book that affected me, but it was pivotal. George Gamow's little book also was available, and some…
on “Stephen Hawking has died” ↗…would be nice is a simple theory that covers it all. Nothing we currently have is able to stretch to be useful in all situations. Sean Carroll's _The Big Picture_ was useful for me, as was the older _A Brief History Of Time_ by Stephen Hawking
on “Einstein's description of gravity just got much harder to beat” ↗…answering a number of points: - I'm familiar with Eddington's "arrow of time" and the concept's fascinated me since I first encountered it listening to a lecture by Stephen Hawking, and reading his own A Brief History of Time. (The lecture was effectively a chapter from the book.) - The question of whether or not all clocks are entropic has bothered me ever since. - It's relatively recent delvings into origins of technology,…
on “The New Thermodynamic Understanding of Clocks” ↗…indirectly related to religion in the sense that it makes you think about your world, about yourself. Buddhism / Religion / ... : - Siddartha - Hermann Hesse - The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho Science: - A brief history of time - Stephen Hawking (space, time) - The Blind Watchmaker - Richard Dawkins (evolution) - Le cerveau intime - Marc Jeannerod (in french only) Science-fiction: - The Road - Cormack Mc Carthy - City -…
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite books? I'm bored” ↗A Brief History of Time is the book by Stephen Hawking. It's really approachable and easy to read. I also liked The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene. That was the first book I read where the author was able to explain both the…
on “The Oldest Galaxies in the Universe” ↗…to be the only “difficult” book that many of my friends bothered to read, and that predisposed me negatively towards it. Also, my family hadn't read it, and there was no copy of it in our house.) • “Brief History of Time” (Stephen Hawking): mind-boggling introduction to (astro-)physics, modern cosmogony, etc.
on “Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?” ↗…stuff like "You should not buy homeopathic cures because it's exactly the same as water." I'm OK with science being the arbiter of truth when it has evidences. Edit: Also, in my opinion, Hawking's A Brief History of Time is one of the best books that explained basic ideas of cosmology (and how it is worked on) in terms that laypeople can understand. If that makes him worthy of a special mention of criticism, I don't…
on “The mind of God? The problem with deifying Stephen Hawking” ↗Physics was like that as well, and from my limited experience chemistry too. The history of physics and the theory of it is great. A Brief History of Time is an awesome read. Studying physics is not like that. Studying formulas, applying them to situations, and of course very math heavy. One thing I regret is the experiments as well. In physics and chemistry…
on “I should have loved biology” ↗On my desk: Getting Real (37Signals), Hardball (Chris Mathews), Prioritizing Web Usability (Jakob Nielsen) Nearby shelf: The Design of Everyday Things, Maverick, Founders at work, A Brief History of Time, A Pattern Language, Peopleware, Made to stick, Web Standards Solutions, Designing Interactions, The Pragmatic Programmer, The Mythical Man-Month, Oh, the Places You'll Go! Other good reads: Blink, Tipping…
on “Ask YC (and PG): What books do you have on your bookshelf? ” ↗…and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason - for then we would truly know the mind of God." -- Stephen Hawking, concluding passage of "A Brief History of Time". A remarkable book, I recommend it.
on “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences” ↗…philosophy, science books. You can of course recommend him some books, genre or author, but it should be his decision wether to read them or not. You could recommend him some divulgation books like "A brief history of Time" by Stephen Hawking, "Parallel Universes" by Michio Kaku, or "The Dragons of Eden" by Carl Sagan, they're all quite enjoyable.
on “Ask HN: Great books for teenager age 15” ↗_A Brief History of Time_ by Stephen Hawking _The Way to Wealth_ by Benjamin Franklin _The Book of Job_ by Job, from The Bible _Meditations_ by Marcus Aurelius _The Prince_ by Niccolo Machiavelli _The Bill of Rights_ by…
on “Ask HN: What books have helped make who you are today?” ↗A Brief History of Time http://www.amazon.com/Brief-History-Time-Stephen-Hawking/dp/...
on “What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?” ↗Gödel, Escher, Bach Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Enders Game Speaker for the Dead A Brief History of Time I Am a Strange Loop Lila: An Inquiry Into Morals The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (5 or 6 book trilogy) Dune
on “Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?” ↗