The Grand Design
by Stephen Hawking, Leonard Mlodinow · first published 1998
28% recommend56% neutral17% critical
Why HN recommends it
A popular science book on cosmology and physics written as a fun, accessible entry point. It has sparked interest in science in many young readers and helped shape their career choices.
Common criticism: Some find it a watered-down, popularized treatment of physics and philosophy.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
When and how did the universe begin? Why are we here? What is the nature of reality? Is the apparent grand design of our universe evidence for a benevolent creator who set things in motion? Or does science offer another explanation? In The Grand Design, the most recent scientific thinking about the mysteries of the universe is presented, in language marked by both brilliance and simplicity. The Grand Design explains the latest thoughts about model-dependent realism (the idea that there is no one version of reality), and about the multiverse concept of reality in which there are many universes
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The debate as to whether the Earth or sun is the center of the universe was silly. It's all about frames of reference and simplicity of calculations in predicting observations. See "The Grand Design" by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow.
on “Wrong scientific beliefs that were held for long periods” ↗I Am That, by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj Freedom from the Known, by Jiddu Krishnamurti Think on These Things, by Jiddu Krishnamurti The Bhagavad Gita The Grand Design, by Stephen Hawking
on “Ask HN: Book Recommendations?” ↗…even if initially I didn't quite understand the details. Most of my physics reading came from random sources on the early internet. As a 12-13 year old, Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time and The Grand Design were by far my most memorable reads, although I already had my developing interest in physics by then.
on “Peter Higgs, physicist who discovered Higgs boson, has died” ↗…shorter list: "Breaking the spell" by Daniel Dennett "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkings "God is not great" by Christopher Hitchens "End of Faith" by Sam Harris But books by Steven Hawking "The Grand Design", "Universe from Nothing" by Lawrence Krauss and "Your Inner Fish - A Journey into the 3.5 billion year history of the human body" by Neil Shubin, are also great although somewhat more technical. All…
on “"Sometimes science must give way to religion"” ↗As an early teen I begged my parents for both A Brief History of Time and The Grand Design. Read both several times. ~15 years later, my parents are still holding on to them and my Dad has read them a couple of times too. It was great reading and played a significant role in my choice of research…
on “Astrophysicists Puzzle over Webb's New Universe” ↗"Stephen Hawking recently fluttered the academic dovecotes by writing in his new book The Grand Design – and repeating to an eager company of interviewers and journalists – that philosophy as practised nowadays is a waste of time and philosophers a waste of space. More precisely, he wrote that philosophy…
on “Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won't Go Away” ↗…explanation powers surpass even him) and, of course, philosophy. Currently, science popularizers seem to either give you a watered down, sweetened, "intelligent layman" version (e.g. Hawking and Mlodinow's The Grand Design) or hard core stuff that only practitioners can understand.
on “Terrence Tao: The Cosmic Distance Ladder” ↗Stephen Hawking has concluded in his book "The Grand Design": "So it seems that we are no more than biological machines and that free will is just an illusion." [1] Machines don't have afterlife. So, enjoy every moment you live right now! :) [1] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deepak-chopra/stephen-hawkings...
on “The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind” ↗Buyology - Martin Lindstrom The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit - Ralph Kimball The Grand Design - Stephen Hawking
on “Ask HN: What are you reading right now?” ↗…gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing ... Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist." — Stephen Hawking in "The Grand Design". I'm not qualified to say what a negative curvature might do to that pretty spontaneous-creation picture. It's a nice model, and it offers an answer to the question "where did all this come from?"
on “Universe may be curved, not flat” ↗…means the universe could have sprung into existence spontaneously, like a virtual particle pair, without violating the law of conservation of energy. Stephen Hawking explains this idea in his book "The Grand Design": "Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why…
on “Astrophysicists propose new twist on Big Bang” ↗The Grand Design - Stephen Hawking. Should finish it by tonight. After that, it is time for 1984 - George Orwell.
on “Ask HN: What are you reading?” ↗…to the border that marks the end of the territory of biology and the beginning of the territory of philosophy. It's possible to charge right through this border (as Stephen Hawking did in his book The Grand Design) but there is a peril in doing so. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/may/27/physic... > The attempt to fit consciousness into the material world, > usually by identifying it with activity…
on “Better drainage of brain debris improves Alzheimer's disease therapies” ↗There is a lot of activity on social media about this Stephen Hawking piece though: http://www.tribevibe.com/track/link/?url=http://online.wsj.c... The book is called The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow.
on “Why God Did Not Create the Universe” ↗From the introduction to The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking & Leonard Mlodinow: "Traditionally these are questions for philosophy, but philosophy is dead. Philosophy has not kept up with modern developments in science, particularly physics.…
on “Why philosophy is largely ignored by science” ↗