I just finished reading Stephen Hawking's book A Briefer History of Time. I was fascinated with what I read. This is the revised edition from his original A Brief History of Time. I didn't fully understand everything I read, but that certainly was expected. One thing I wish he would've done better is used more descriptive pictures when attempting to describe a particular topic. The pictures were too simplistic and I believe more work could've gone into some of them. However, I don't want to sound too critical. For an admitted physics novice, I loved the book.
For me, physics was always one of the most difficult and boring subjects. However, Hawking has raised my interest in physics (for arguably the first time). I took three semesters of Physics in high school and another three in college (two on Newtonian physics and one on quantum mechanics). I'm not sure why, but I had no interest and muddled my way through all of them. The quantum mechanics class was definitely over my head. I'm thinking about restarting at the beginning and finding a "Physics 101" book. I'm also interested in finding more out about String Theory. I'm planning on reading The Universe in a Nutshell next.
Interestingly enough, I was intrigued by the similarities between some of Jeff Hawkins comments on Intelligent Computing and Stephen Hawking's discussion of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. The similarity being that in both cases there's no finite, deterministic answer. Rather there can only be an approximation or best guess. I still have trouble digesting that this is how the brain works (as described in On Intelligence). Based on my understanding, in a similar way The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle underlies the Theory of Quantum Mechanics and basically states that it's not possible to be exactly sure of both the position and velocity of a particle. It sounds like Einstein had trouble buying into this uncertainty, so I don't feel too bad about my reservations.
In the final chapter (Conclusion), Hawking discusses both the scientific and the philosophical aspects of a Unified Theory. It's mind-boggling to think as Hawking suggests... "Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason--for then we would know the mind of God."
