Black Holes And Baby Universes And Other Essays [Paperback]

The first 3 essays, "Childhood", "Oxford and Cambridge", and "My Experience with ALS" are autobiographical, drawn from talks presented to various Motor Neurone Disease Societies in 1987, with material added in 1991. Much of this (particularly "My Experience with ALS") should be familiar to anyone who watched Errol Morris' A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME or read the transcript (STEPHEN HAWKING'S A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME: A READER'S COMPANION, edited by Gene Stone). To me, this material is most interesting taken together with the film and with Jane Hawking's MUSIC TO MOVE THE STARS. For example, the filmmakers followed up the professor's childhood friends who once bet a bag of sweets on whether he'd ever amount to anything, while Jane Hawking in her book discussed her theory that the professor (like their sons) is probably dyslexic, explaining why he learnt to read relatively late.

"Public Attitudes Toward Science" (October 1989) isn't a history of science, but instead (after pointing out the drawbacks - and impossibility - of putting the clock back to a 'simpler' age) a talk about the need for basic scientific literacy for the general public to be able to make informed decisions. Hawking is careful to make clear that understanding the concepts, not the math, is fundamental.

"A Brief History of A BRIEF HISTORY" (THE INDEPENDENT, December 1988) describes how Hawking came to write the book, first published on April Fools Day 1988, why he avoided heavy mathematics in it, and the predictable outline followed by many popular articles about Hawking and his book to this day.

"My Position" (May 1992) "I would say that I am a realist in the sense that I think there is a universe out there waiting to be investigated and understood...But we cannot distinguish what is real about the universe without a theory...A theory is a good theory if it is an elegant model, if it describes a wide class of observations, and if it predicts the results of new observations. Beyond that, it makes no sense to ask if it corresponds to reality, because we do not know what reality is independent of a theory." Discussion of how better theories replace less complete theories, such as how Einstein's theory of relativity replaced the notions of absolute space and time, and some discussion of Schrodinger's cat experiment. (This last is even better if followed by reading THE SCIENCE OF DISCWORLD series).

"Is the End in Sight for Theoretical Physics?" (April 1980) was Hawking's inaugural lecture as Lucasian Professor. This is the first essay that might lose the lay reader, but be patient; various terms left unexplained here, such as the uncertainty principle, are explained more fully in subsequent essays.

"Einstein's Dream" (July 1991) explains the fundamentals of both relativity and quantum mechanics, and why Einstein was unhappy about quantum mechanics. Includes a nice, simple explanation of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, ends with some discussion of black holes.

"The Origin of the Universe" (June 1987) corresponds to a sizeable chunk of chapter 1 of THE ILLUSTRATED BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME, but the material is organized differently and includes somewhat different details.

"The Quantum Mechanics of Black Holes" (SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, January 1977) explains what black holes are, where they come from, and work done by Hawking and various colleagues to understand them better. Should be read with "Einstein's Dream", since each essay lays some groundwork for the other.

(If you'd care to pursue Hawking's comment that a black hole *could* emit almost anything, see Diane Duane's SO YOU WANT TO BE A WIZARD.)

"Black Holes and Baby Universes" (April 1988) What happens to objects that fall into black holes (where do they go?) and the possible consequences (or not) for rapid-transit space travel.

"Is Everything Determined?" (April 1990) Philosophical discussion; if a grand theory of everything is found that can "explain everything", can people have free will?

"The Future of the Universe" (January 1991) starts with a discussion of prophecies in general, from the Oracle at Delphi to modern-day doomsayers. ("These have even tended to depress the stock market, though it beats me why the end of the world should make one want to sell shares for money. Presumably, you can't take either with you.") Leads into a discussion of whether the universe might expand forever or eventually recollapse, and whether time travel might be possible. Some of this material also appears in THE UNIVERSE IN A NUTSHELL.

"DESERT ISLAND DISCS: An Interview", first broadcast by the BBC on Christmas Day 1992. The show's guests are asked at various points in the interview to name 8 CDs, one book, and a luxury object they'd want if stranded on a desert island. The music is played during the interview (though not during O'Brien's narration on the audio edition). Hawking mainly talks about why he chose each piece (which turns a bit autobiographical for very old favourites), answers stock questions about his speech synthesizer, and deflects questions about his personal life.