The Fabric of the Cosmos
A magnificent challenge to conventional ideas' Financial Times'I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It manages to be both challenging and entertaining: it is highly recommended' the Independent'(Greene) send(s) the reader's imagination hurtling through the universe on an astonishing ride. As a popularizer of exquisitely abstract science, he is both a skilled and kindly explicator' the New York Times'Greene is as elegant as ever, cutting through the fog of complexity with insight and clarity; space and time become putty in his hands' Los Angeles Times Book Review
Stats for nerds
23recommend
36mentions
31people
2007–2024years
75% recommend22% neutral3% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- The Selfish Gene was published in 1976, not 1989. I read it as a teen in the 90s and it is probably my favourite book of all time.
Also,
Bill Bryson’s “Short History of Nearly Everything”.
Brian Greene’s “The Fabric of the Cosmos” (and all of his other books)
Richard Dawkins’ “The Ancestor’s Tale” and “The Blind Watchmaker” are also amazing.
Fiction:
Adrian Czajkowski‘s “Children of Time” and Orson Scott Card‘s “Ender’s Game” are both anong my favourites.
- The Fabric of the Cosmos is far far better in my opinion and doesn't stick to theories - he attempts to explain concepts in an intuitive manner and it's an amazing exposition into physics.
- I had this same experience being taught physics and maths. Just a bunch of what feel like pretty dull experiments which ends with a gold leaf moving...
But the STORY of physics is fascinating. Why each experiment was done, by who, to prove what etc etc. All the sciences are like a soap opera of personalities and disagreements that make them much more interesting - and memorable - if you know the back story.
That 'thin deep slice' comment really sums it up. No context, just a thing to memorise.
I think physics students should be give The Fabric of the Cosmos my Brian Greene to read before they start doing any actual learning. I bet there's a biology equivalent of a book that is a 'what we know so far and what we don't understand' - if you know of one please let me know.
- I'll do one of each.
Essential software tools: i3wm (a tiling window manager for Linux). So much nicer to use than draggy droppy window managers, and so lightweight.
Impactful books: The Fabric of the Cosmos (Brian Greene). Reading this changed my view on the world, mainly due to it helping me get an intuitive grasp of general relativity.
Physical tools: My laptop. I have had a bunch of different Thinkpads over quite a number of years. My work and hobby lives largely revolve around computers so a laptop I like and am familiar with is very important.
Art pieces: Framing and hanging my own photos has been a lot of fun. Next I want to make the frames myself rather than buying them in.
Any other items that have significantly influenced your life or work: My dSLR (Canon 5d mkI & 50mm f1.4), my musical instruments. Also a handful of humans!
- I'm not sure where you got that message from. Nowhere in my response did I state that I or anyone else should deny existence - in fact what I'm implying is quite the opposite. I'm simply stating that our perceived experience of having a fractured existence as individual beings that die and are extinguished within a single lifetime is an illusion (i.e. you not only exist currently but you exist in a myriad of forms). In fact - time itself is also an illusion. Read about the theory of relativity if you don't believe me. Brian Green also explains it well in his Frozen River chapter in Fabric of the Cosmos.
- 1. Felix Denk - Der Klang der Familie: Berlin, Techno and the Fall of the Wall 2. Brian Greene - The Fabric of the Cosmos 3. Jürgen Teipel - Waste your Youth
