I finally finished a book that I’ve been reading for the past two years… and it’s one of the most thought provoking I’ve ever read. Hence the fact that it took me two years… after every page I read, I’d have to put the book down and exercise my brain in thought trying to comprehend the ideas involved.
Anyway, I lent it to a colleague today, saying that if I had a bible this would be it. And I really meant it. It is the most incredible book that gives a real explanation of the concepts of space and time. Something that is pretty hard to do, as I’m sure you’re well aware.
What I loved about it was that it was so well structured in terms of providing almost an historical account of the ideas of space and time. This meant that the further through the book you read, the deeper the comprehension of these topics. Essentially, the fundamental questions behind the book were the philosophical ones of ‘is space a something?’ and what is its relationship to time (hence its title: Fabric of the Cosmos). The last chapter was truly philosophical in a consideration of both time travel (time travel forward is relatively easy, it is time travel into the past which is much more difficult), and my favourite, teleportation (I have thought for many years now that if we could just invent a teleportation device, all our transport worries would be solved… okay well maybe not all our worries since we would probably worry about actually getting to where we want to go, let alone surviving the teleportation in one piece).
So what is this great book?
Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene.
Fabric of the Cosmos Book Cover
Absolutely brilliant – go out and buy it!
Philosophical thought... 