On the Origin of Time

Stephen Hawking's Final Theory

By: Thomas Hertog

Narrated by: Ethan Kelly

Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Stephen Hawking’s closest collaborator offers the intellectual superstar’s final thoughts on the cosmos—a dramatic revision of the theory he put forward in A Brief History of Time.

“This superbly written book offers insight into an extraordinary individual, the creative process, and the scope and limits of our current understanding of the cosmos.”—Lord Martin Rees

Perhaps the biggest question Stephen Hawking tried to answer in his extraordinary life was how the universe could have created conditions so perfectly hospitable to life. In order to solve this mystery, Hawking studied the big bang origin of the universe, but his early work ran into a crisis when the math predicted many big bangs producing a multiverse—countless different universes, most of which would be far too bizarre to ​harbor life.

Holed up in the theoretical physics department at Cambridge, Stephen Hawking and his friend and collaborator Thomas Hertog worked on this problem for twenty years, developing a new theory of the cosmos that could account for the emergence of life. Peering into the extreme quantum physics of cosmic holograms and venturing far back in time to our deepest roots, they were startled to find a deeper level of evolution in which the physical laws themselves transform and simplify until particles, forces, and even time itself fades away. This discovery led them to a revolutionary idea: The laws of physics are not set in stone but are born and co-evolve as the universe they govern takes shape. As Hawking’s final days drew near, the two collaborators published their theory, which proposed a radical new Darwinian perspective on the origins of our universe.

On the Origin of Time offers a striking new vision of the universe’s birth that will profoundly transform the way we think about our place in the order of the cosmos and may ultimately prove to be Hawking’s greatest legacy.

* Includes a downloadable PDF containing evidence-based diagrams and illustrations, figures, works of art, and personal portraits.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2022 Thomas Hertog (P)2022 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“[A] wonderful book about Stephen Hawking's Hawking’s ‘biggest legacy’.” —Spectator

“Truly mind-stretching . . . Immensely immensely rewarding.” —The Times

"Stephen Hawking’s final theory is lucidly explained in this splendidly accessible book. Author Thomas Hertog, one of Hawking’s closest collaborators, gives us a vivid insight into Hawking as both a brilliant physicist and an astonishingly determined human being.”—Graham Farmelo, Churchill College, University of Cambridge, and author of The Strangest Man

Quite good but I do have a reservation

I enjoyed "On The Origin Of Time" a great deal, however at one point professor Hertog says that the trouble with anthropomorphic reasoning when used for cosmology is that it claims to be able to predict what "we" should expect to see but does not make clear exactly what "we" means. In this context I would say that "we" means any stable structure that is able to process information intelligently. So somewhere in the multiverse there could be a universe without DNA or atoms or even electrons but can nevertheless support structures made of some sort of stuff that can process data intelligently by using laws of physics that are radically different from anything we know about because they simply don't exist here. And by using the exact same anthropomorphic reasoning that we do, these observers should expect to find that the fundamental physical constants that have produced their world allow for the existence of their form of life, but just barely. So even there the illusion that life has been fine tuned would exist despite the fact that life worked completely differently there than the way it operates here; the only thing we do have in common is both universes support structures that can process data.

I believe data processing is important because I think consciousness is the way data feels when it is being processed intelligently. As for "intelligence" I can't give a definition but I can give things that are more fundamental, examples; after all examples are what gave lexicographers the knowledge to write their dictionary.

John K Clark

1960 ’s to 1980’s Re-Hash of History

Interesting in that Bio is described from a
Slightly different perspective, however
There is nothing new revealed regarding
Physics, time or science

Yes, the PDF is there now. I really enjoyed this book

Good narrator. Fascinating subject matter explained well. I listen to a lot of science books and this is in the top percentage of the ones I’ve read. Depending on your background, it might not have anything new but I found it enlightening and enjoyable. I feel like I have a much better understanding of the discourse around the Big Bang and the history of cosmology.

Ambitious and Delightful

A thorough and informative overview of quantum theory from its inception to the titular theory. And an excellent narrator to boot.

Brilliant, I suppose (except last chapter)

As a non physicist i found this book brilliant, enlightening, and enjoyable… almost to the end. I appreciate the clear explanations and easy navigation of extremely complex and perplexing ideas and debates. I could only assume his explanations are correct and give the subject matter justice as I wouldn’t know.

Until i got to the last chapter which leads me to think the author is just another clueless academic trying to make himself relevant. If he buys into the false narrative that Covid 19 came from a bat in the Wuhan market, what other statements throughout the book did he get wrong and won’t age well? And then his hopes that these cosmological theories will be applied to creat the AI singularity and human generic engineering severely casts doubt on the author’s morality and humanity. Perhaps he’s an idiot savant.

Superb

An extremely well-written and narrated book that beautifully explains a deeply satisfying and profound cosmological theory.

Where's the PDF?

Very interesting but with 50+ references to images and a statement that the audiobook has an accompanying PDF (it didn't), made it hard to follow. Not enough detail about Hawking's final theory about time.

Beautiful.

Fascinating book. I consume a fair number of books and audiobooks in this genre and still I found this one uniquely captivating and thought-provoking. It is also a rather beautiful homage to Steven.

insightfull view

really difficult concept, explained in a reasonably understandable manner. very nice that the development route is provider.

I Don’t See An Answer

In addition to the centuries of theory there is one big asked but unanswered question: where’s the PDF?
I feel as if I purchased this volume in reliance upon a bait and switch.