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Stephen Hawking and the Mind of God (Postmodern Encounters)

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The text in this little booklet is much too short, but since it is part of a series of pamphlets called Postmodern Encounters, I suppose its brevity was a requirement set down by the publisher. Basically it is an examination of why theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking has become such a widely recognized cultural icon, even though his field of research (astrophysics and cosmology) is hardly understood by most people. Coles even speculates, correctly I think, that vast majority of those who bought his best-selling Brief History of Time probably did not even bother reading it. Even though Coles never implies that Hawking is anything but a brilliant scientist and top-notch researcher, he also points out that Hawking can hardly be placed in the company of such revolutionary physicists as Galileo, Newton or Einstein  even though is how he is now perceived in the popular mind. Coles thus explores how this assignment of an almost guru-like status for Hawking came about. Along the way, Coles also provides a summary of the basic ideas underlying relativity theory and quantum physics, geared toward compleat idiots such as myself. This section actually accounts for the bulk of the text, and makes his rather brief investigation of the Hawking phenomenon all the more tantalizing. This subject matter deserves a much more detailed study  hopefully Coles is working on a more comprehensive book.

This was a very informative booklet and Coles presented the facts about Stephen Hawking. Coles started out with a quick overview on Hawking, the phenomenon surrounding this great physicist, he touches on the history of physics, and an implied connection of Hawking birth to Galileo's death, exactly 300 years ago.

he middle section of the book build up to the connection of the three primary theory, the need of finding a link with the laws of gravity, and the work Hawking did regarding Black Holes being no so black.

The downside of the book are; i) I expected Hawking's spiel on the Mind of God or even god, ii) the brevity iii) the comments about the celebrity of Hawking due to modern media coverage.

I recommend reading the book and then getting a copy of A Brief History of Time (1988) by Stephen Hawking