The light hearted writing of Stephen Hawking makes the book enjoyable. I warmly recommend it.

This will sadly be Hawking's last book, but it is a pleasant little tome to go out on. While it lacks the gravity (ha!) of BHOT or the sweeping arc of The Grand Design, it is still a good light read. It reminds one of some of the essay collections from Stephen Jay Gould.

多少物理学が必要かも。内容は面白いです。人類の未来などについても論じています。

読んだのはまだ第一章だけですが、興味の湧く内容です。

「神は存在するのか」

科学と宗教の境界、それは時代とともに変化する。

昔は、日食月食などを含めすべて神のなせる業だったが、神の範囲は後退してゆく。

ビッグバンの前には、時間すら存在しない。だから神は？

私の理解の限界を越えていますが、興味津々です。

Loved it

ホーキング「ビッグ・クエスチョン＜人類の難問＞に答えよう」を読んで感動。この手の本には珍しく、翻訳がとても良かったので原著も確認。邦訳は①映画でホーキングを演じたエディのイントロ②ホーキングの本文③娘ルーシーのあとがき④ソーンの解説となっているが、原著では①④②③の順であった。邦訳④はここだけ訳者が異なるのではと思わせるよくある直訳調の文体。特に「過激な洞察」という句は「radical insight」の誤訳だと直観して原文を見たらその通り。「本質的な」とでもするべきであったか。そこだけが残念。

おそらく年内（来年？）には翻訳が出るかと思いますが、簡潔平易な英語で読みやすく、かつ示唆に富んだ著作です。ただし、量子力学、相対性理論、空間論について基礎的な知識がないと、理解に難渋するところがあるでしょう。それでも今世紀の偉大な科学者からのメッセージは心に響きます。特に「神は存在するか？」については、有神論、無神論の読者にとって、ビッグバンからの洞察は非常に興味深いものがあるに違いありません。Kindle電子版を読めば、電子辞書の助けがあるので、楽に読めるはずです。

Author encourages all people to wonder & study to make the world better

Good book

Hawking in this book is able to introduce complex concepts with straightforward explanations, and without underestimating the reader's intellect. Besides his great sense of humor, despite of his well-known disabling condition, it seems he wanted to share to the world all the knowledge he crafted along with his life before leaving us, in March this year. Although he knew this would be a very difficult task, he selected the main questions which last and defy the humanity, and provided answers correlating it vast knowledge to those questions, using some tools as general relativity, quantum physics and walking around the “theory of everything” (ToE). The result varies from astonishment from “well, how no one thought about that before?”. Either way, it is a very pleasant reading for anyone interested in “Where did we come from?” or “Where are we going to?” like questions.

This book starts with an excellent, insightful Introduction by Prof. Kip Thorne on the life and contributions by Hawking.

I am awestruck by the fact that Prof. Hawking was laid to rest between Newton and Darwin! What a wonderful tribute to Hawking! What an amazing foresight by the British in honouring him so.

Do not miss reading the tribute to her father by Lucy Hawking in the Afterword.

This is a book meant for lay folks who, at one time or other, did ask some one (or wanted to ask) one of the Big questions listed in this book. Many of the concepts and descriptions here are familiar to those who have read his previous books. Foreword, Introduction and Afterword are unique in this last book in the name of Hawking.

Liked this hard cover edition, and the picture in the jacket.

خدمة بغاية السوء

I loved this book! Any fan of Hawking's work should enjoy it, for sure. I really liked the "pondering" and "musing" pace and feel. I'd recommend it to anyone.

@Diane... Whenever I encounter something to which I feel the need to respond, I’m usually pretty good at keeping my emotions at bay, and I sincerely try to (and, usually do) keep my cool, put myself into the other person’s shoes and think about my rebuttals logically. Over the years I’ve always felt a little guilty because, even though I’m amicable and nice most of the time, I just feel bad when I make someone else feel bad, regardless of how correct I might feel that I am. After seeing your comment, however, I really have to say congratulations… you’ve convinced me that I really shouldn’t be so hard on myself.

Pathetic? I guess our definitions are a tad juxtaposed. I've always taken that word to mean "causing or evoking pity, sympathetic sadness, or sorrow." It baffles me that you can throw the book at another human being, (one who had PLENTY of reasons to wallow in self-pity, mind you, but didn't) simply for disagreeing with you, and do so under the guise of "defending yourself," all the while implying a whine that these disagreements are an "attack" on your religion. To me, THAT is the self-pity party that fits more in line with the definition of "pathetic," wouldn't you agree? Scientific discoveries are no more responsible for attacking religion, or having a motive or agenda to remove your belief in God, than learning about gravity is responsible for children eventually coming to the conclusion that reindeer can’t fly. I’m sorry, Virginia, but we lied. I don’t know if you just simply can’t grasp how it appears to the outside world, but your comment does nothing more than make you look like a petulant toddler in a tantrum because you can’t have any ice cream, and THEN taking all of the ice cream and flushing it down the toilet to make sure no one else can have any. If the weather man conveys some data that it is probably going to rain tomorrow, do you start a revolution to rise up against the hidden agenda of meteorology to wipe the concept of picnics off the face of the Earth? Of course not, that would be ridiculous, right?

Stephen Hawking was a brilliant man. He contributed so much to his field of science and had a genuine concern for the progression and well-being of humanity as a whole. I would honestly love to see your list of contributions toward bettering mankind. I have the sneaking suspicion that it would be just like mine, "pathetic." Have you actually read Hawking's work? Have you ever actually read any physics book? This is a problem in so many other areas of life and society, where someone knows “just enough to be dangerous.” You are a perfect example of this idiom in action, and your comment is perfectly indicative of someone learning what 2+2 is and then feeling they can successfully argue the elements of General or Special Relativity.

You can’t berate atheists, or any nonbeliever for that matter, for being intelligent or knowledgeable about any topic, when you refuse to educate yourself with information that is freely available to, and very easily obtained by, anyone. Hearing someone whine that “you atheist’s just think that you’re sooooo smart,” gets old, really quickly. The real irony of it is that, compared to you, that statement admittedly holds some water. But as a general rule, there is nothing that you couldn’t understand yourself if you would quite simply take the time to learn about it. Instead of pointing and laughing at these ridiculous nonbelievers running around and learning stuff, I’d suggest that you push yourself way out of your comfort zone sometime and actually give it a try. You might surprise yourself.

Look, all condescension aside, I know you have your beliefs. I know, from your perspective, Hawking is an expression of the things you feel are chipping away the the moral fabric of this world. You unknowingly got an honorary induction to my short list today, and with all of the misinformation I’ve seen lately, you just happened to be the lucky straw that broke the camel’s back, and for that, I’m sorry. I’m not going to change any of this, because I can’t lie and say I didn’t mean what I said, because I did. But, believe it or not, I do care about you and your position. And even though I’m an atheist, I very much want to live in a world where people can have faith and conviction about anything they want without having to prove it to the entire flippin' planet in order to feel justified in feeling the way they do, and more importantly, not condemn others for thinking differently. I’m not convinced that God exists, but if you are, then right on. I mean, I get it man, I used to be a Christian myself. You shouldn’t feel threatened by the world because it seems like it’s trying to take something away from you that you know full well cannot ever be taken from you. Let’s try to get this ship turned around and start acting like the amazing creatures we really are by helping each other move forward, instead of tearing each other down and holding up progress for the sake of making a point.

The man who wrote this book did his part, now let's get out there and start doing ours. We can do this.

I loved this book. Rest in peace, Stephen.