Not even gonna pretend like I understood half of what I just read. And that's not because this was too dense for the layman. It's because this layman is too dense. However, I did pick up a scrap or two of new knowledge (new for me, of course). It's always nice to correct a little of my errant elementary science.

Or:
What a semi-beginner physics lover can learn about time and space in a nutshell.


P.S.
This is an updated version of A Brief History of Time.

Discovering what it means to be both confused and mind blown. This is pretty amazing.

"Brevísima historia del tiempo" de Stephen Hawking en colaboración con Leonard Mlodinow, ensayo de divulgación que, a través de un lenguaje sencillo, revisa las grandes teorías de la cosmología, desde Aristóteles hasta nuestros días, e intenta simplificar los conceptos, teorías y paradojas de la física moderna, de la que Hawking siente se ha alejado el gran público debido a su especialización: relatividad general, mecánica cuántica, agujeros negros, viajes en el tiempo, teoría de cuerdas, etc.

The book is a simpler and an updated version of “A brief history of time”. Topics like string theory and dualities which were not fully developed at the time are also included. The language is what you find in technical articles, simple and dull, which I ironically liked a lot.
The authors did a good job walking through the evolution of scientific modeling of the world from old times. It was really interesting to me to find out how people in the past figured out the facts that are well known today for the first time.
Newtonian mechanics, relativity, the curved time-space, big bang, black holes, quantum theory, and singularities were explained well. However, I think, string theory and anti-particles were still confusing and I found the chapter on time travel ridiculous.
Overall, the book is informative and entertaining. However, I feel the basic understanding of college-level physics is still necessary to enjoy the book.

Я ну дуууууже далека від фізики, але мені сподобалось. Не можу сказати, що було прям «вау», бо все ж таки місцями мозок ламався (на квантовій теорії, наприклад), проте взагалі було зрозуміло й доступно.

Zamanın Kısa Tarihi’nin özeti gibi. Ben Zamanın Kısa Tarihi’yle birlikte okuyorum. Fizik benim için anlaşılması zor bir alan. O nedenle ikisini bir arada okumak konuyu daha anlaşılır hale getiriyor. Uzay, parçacıklar, solucan delikleri, kara delikler, yıldızlar, ışık hızı, zaman yolculuğu, kuantum vs. gibi konular bir yanıyla felsefeye el sallıyor.

n  “Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. And however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. It matters that you don’t just give up.”n

My third time reading Stephen Hawking and unfortunately not my best experience. This wasn't due to the book being bad but more that for the most part, it is just going over topics and theories that are covered in the two books of his that I have previously read.
That said I would still recommend reading this if you have any interest in physics or cosmology.

Для мого гуманітарного складу розуму нелегко далось читання цієї книги. Але певне загальне розуміння появилось.

Факт, який вразив - ми бачимо на небі приблизно 5000 зірок - це лише 0,0001% від усіх зір нашої Галактики Чумацький Шлях. А Чумацький Шлях - лише одна з понад ста мільярдів галактик, які видно в сучасні телескопи.

En mi opinión, está bastante bien para ir alimentando el gusanillo de la curiosidad y desengrasando el cerebro que solemos tener de vacaciones (al menos en estos temas) y preguntarnos cosas como: ¿cuál es la naturaleza del universo? ¿Cuál es nuestro lugar en él, y de dónde surgimos él y nosotros? ¿Por qué es como es?
¡De vez en cuando no está mal leer algo distinto!
Mi reseña completa: https://armasdetinta.wordpress.com/20...

General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, and String Theory for Dummies! This book is for all the thousands of people who bought the original edition, read 20 pages and gave up at the first differential equation, and put it on their to-be-finished-someday-in-the-far-future shelf. Well, it actually does a pretty good job of surveying the development of the cosmological and physical sciences from antiquity to the present. I thought general relativity and quantum were fairly well explained, but that string theory was totally incomprehensible (hard to say if it's possible to explain something that abstract in a book like this anyway). Still, it's an entertaining book on science that liberal arts majors can tolerate.

"WE LIVE IN A STRANGE AND wonderful universe."

In 'A Briefer History of Time,' the authors have been successful in making good on their promise to deliver a simplified version of original book, to provide the general reader with some understanding of the universe.

In this well laid out book, reader is guided through the major scientific theories that are in existence today. Relativity, Curved Space, and Quantum Gravity are given much weight and the strengths and weaknesses of each are presented with very clear examples.

Though a longtime student of physics might find the content to be simple, it is certainly the excellent for the non-scientist, who I believe are the intended audience of this book.

"A complete, consistent, unified theory is the only first step: out goal is a complete understanding of the events around us, and of our own existence."