Una din întrebările fundamentale de care se ocupă cartea se referă la originea, structura şi viitorul Universului, iar explicaţiile se bazează pe combinarea a două mari teorii: relativitatea şi mecanica cuantică.
"The eventual goal of science is to provide a single theory that describes the whole universe. However, the approach most scientists actually follow is to separate the problem into two parts. First, there are the laws that tell us how the universe changes with time. [...] Second, there is the question of the initial state of the universe. Some people feel that science should be concerned with only the first part; they regard the question of the initial situation as a matter for metaphysics or religion. They would say that God, being omnipotent, could have started the universe off any way he wanted. That may be so, but in that case he also could have made it develop in a completely arbitrary way. Yet it appears that he chose to make it evolve in a very regular way according to certain laws. It therefore seems equally reasonable to suppose that there are also laws governing the initial state.
It turns out to be very difficult to devise a theory to describe the universe all in one go. Instead, we break the problem up into bits and invent a number of partial theories. [...] If everything in the universe depends on everything else in a fundamental way, it might be impossible to get close to a full solution by investigating parts of the problem in isolation. Nevertheless, it is certainly the way that we have made progress in the past. [...]
Today scientists describe the universe in terms of two basic partial theories –the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. They are the great intellectual achievements of the first half of this century. The general theory of relativity describes the force of gravity and the large-scale structure of the universe [...] Quantum mechanics, on the other hand, deals with phenomena on extremely small scales, such as a millionth of an inch. Unfortunately, however, these two theories are known to be inconsistent with each other –they cannot both be correct. One of the major endeavors in physics today, and the major theme of this book, is the search for a new theory that will incorporate them both –a quantum theory of gravity."
Dar să nu vă aşteptaţi la o lectură aridă. E ca o conversaţie presărată cu scurte divagaţii autobiografice, cu mult umor, cu puncte amuzante şi atractive de "ştiaţi că". Ca să vă faceţi o idee cam ce puteţi afla citind cartea:
-cum deducem din ce elemente chimice e compusă o stea după culoarea ei;
-Oppenheimer rulZ mai ceva ca Einstein;
-distracţii de geekşi, cum ar fi pariurile pe abonamente la reviste erotice;
-oftica pe care o ghiceşti din conştiinciozitatea cu care Hawking enumeră premiile luate de alţi oameni de ştiinţă.
Ceea ce am admirat eu cel mai mult la această carte este efortul remarcabil pe care autorul îl face pentru a împărtăşi pasiunea lui pentru fizică într-un mod în care îl captivează şi pe cititorul cu minime înclinaţii spre acest domeniu, dar cu o doză sănătoasă de curiozitate despre lumea din jurul lui. M-a făcut să am un mare respect pentru Hawking dorinţa lui evidentă de a-i face pe alţii să înţeleagă ce este atât de pasionant la lucrurile pe care le studiază, fără a cădea în pedantism şi fără a-şi aroga morga omului de ştiinţă superior, imposibil de înţeles de acei bicisnici intelectual din jur incapabili vreodată să acceadă la lucrurile măreţe de care se preocupă minţile luminate (atitudine care, din păcate, este prea des întâlnită în sistemul educaţional românesc).
"... if we do discover a complete theory, it should in time be understandable in broad principle by everyone, not just a few scientists. 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."
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