Selected Product:
| The Black Hole War: My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics
Hardcover
Author: Leonard Susskind
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Release Date: 2008-07-07
ISBN-10: 0316016403
ISBN-13: 9780316016407
List Price: $27.99
Average Customer Rating:
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Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
What happens when something is sucked into a black hole? Does it disappear? Three decades ago, a young physicist named Stephen Hawking claimed it did-and in doing so put at risk everything we know about physics and the fundamental laws of the universe. Most scientists didn't recognize the import of Hawking's claims, but Leonard Susskind and Gerard t'Hooft realized the threat, and responded with a counterattack that changed the course of physics. THE BLACK HOLE WAR is the thrilling story of their united effort to reconcile Hawking's revolutionary theories of black holes with their own sense of reality-effort that would eventually result in Hawking admitting he was wrong, paying up, and Susskind and t'Hooft realizing that our world is a hologram projected from the outer boundaries of space.
A brilliant book about modern physics, quantum mechanics, the fate of stars and the deep mysteries of black holes, Leonard Susskind's account of the Black Hole War is mind-bending and exhilarating reading.
Feynman he is not, even if he plays the bongo
| Customer Rating:  | Some arguments can be presented to the general public and some only to the specialist. In this books, in my opinion, there is confusion about the two issues. Hawking was capable of breaking down complex arguments and present them even to children, but Susskind, a great scientist, do not possess such gift. He talks about very trivial matters for a few pages and then he plunges into complex particle physic.
The war about which he speaks in the title, apparently was just a diffent view on a single (important) detail.
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Excellent review of complex theories
| Customer Rating: | | Quantum theory seems to work mathematically, but verbal descriptions have left most of us scratching our heads at the paradoxes. Suskind has excellent analogies and descriptions that minimize (though can't elemeninate) some of these problems. His knack for using one- and two-dimensional worlds to describe the "real" world are especially enlightening and understandable. |
A Book About the Personalities
| Customer Rating: | Susskind's book is a lot of fun. It's short on physics (which is a good thing for the layman) but long on personalities. It does include a lot of name dropping and some ingratiating attempts to include Susskind with the recent big boys of physics -- Feynmann, 't Hooft and Hawking -- but he does belong there as an original maverick (who was generally right). His amusing, laconic style, with irreverent detours, is engaging and pretty good for a physicist.
But the best part of the book is its description of the personalities involved and, untittingly, most revealing of Susskind's himself. The last chapter, entitled "Humility," is a gentle and wry criticism of the great Stephen Hawking, who was behind the curve and tried to claim it was he who figured out the conservation paradox of his own black hole writings. When, of course, it wasn't.
The most surprising thing about all of these reviews is that I haven't seen the one by Harriet Klausner yet. Where is she when you really need her? |
flawed but a must read
| Customer Rating: | This is a good book and the author does a great job of explaining the black hole information paradox. He also does a v.g. job of describing the personalities of those involved. The discussion of thought experiments in theoretical physics is also outstanding. What mars the book is the fact that the author is guilty of so many of the quirks that he often points out in his adversaries. It is amusing to see a lesser light take digs at such brilliant men as Hawking, Dyson and Penrose - clearly the author has more than a normal dose of chutzpah.
In light of all the recent attacks on string theory I think he must find it redeeming to be on the offensive....
Still, he does present some very salient arguments and even if you disagree with any of his conclusions it is a thought-provoking read - and I do want to believe that this was his chief motive in writing the book. |
Clearest Explanations of Quantum Mechanics and String Theory Out There
| Customer Rating: | If you want a clear explanation of the basics of quantum mechanics and string theory, read this book. In addition to learning more than you ever thought possible about the physics of black holes, author Leonard Susskind provides clear definitions of the seemingly craziest new developments in theoretical physics, such as The Holographic Principle, Black Hole Complimentarity, and anti-de Sitter Space.
If you're interested in theoretical physics, you can't go wrong with this book. |
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