When Einstein Walked with Gödel

Excursions to the Edge of Thought

By: Jim Holt

Narrated by: David Stifel

Length: 15 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

From Jim Holt, New York Times best-selling author of Why Does the World Exist?, comes When Einstein Walked with Gödel: Excursions to the Edge of Thought, an entertaining and accessible audiobook guide to the most profound scientific and mathematical ideas of recent centuries

Does time exist? What is infinity? Why do mirrors reverse left and right but not up and down? In this scintillating collection, Holt explores the human mind, the cosmos, and the thinkers who’ve tried to encompass the latter with the former. With his trademark clarity and humor, Holt probes the mysteries of quantum mechanics, the quest for the foundations of mathematics, and the nature of logic and truth. Along the way, he offers intimate biographical sketches of celebrated and neglected thinkers, from the physicist Emmy Noether to the computing pioneer Alan Turing and the discoverer of fractals, Benoit Mandelbrot. In this audiobook, Holt offers a painless and playful introduction to many of our most beautiful but least understood ideas, from Einsteinian relativity to string theory, and also invites listeners to consider why the greatest logician of the 20th century believed the US Constitution contained a terrible contradiction - and whether the universe truly has a future.

©2018 Jim Holt (P)2018 Macmillan Audio

An enjoyable romp through the history of science!

What a fantastic audiobook for those interested in the history and philosophy of science and math. Highly recommended!!

Enjoyed

I'll say it again, Science Rocks! This book has a ton of history of physics in it. I found that interesting and useful... It didn't really work off the title as much but it made up for it with a world of what might have been said in the two principal characters walks... Buy it!

Very fascinating

Great book lots of different stories about a lot of different bright minds. Really enjoyed I would advise not listening if your distracted because you will miss a lot. Very simulating.

Often pretentious, occasionally intriguing

It wasn't until after I purchased the book did I realize that this isn't a book at all, but a collection of the author's journalistic writings. That was a little disappointing when I was looking for something in the vein of Carlo Rivelli's "reality is not what it seems".

There are a few articles featured that excited me, not because of their direct edification, but because they gave me a glimpse into areas of higher mathematics and logic that I was not aware of and find myself drawn to learn more about.

On the other hand, I found the section of articles on philosophical topics to be full of bull. That is, a lot of noise amounting to little meaning.

The author's style itself grated on me throughout. He has a propensity to end his articles with punchy half jokes that are clearly meant to say "think more on this" but which come across more like "now here's a bit of elitist humor I can clue you in on. please, admire my wit". He also has a tendency to pull historical figures apart seemingly without aim. I don't mind contrary views on who thought up what first, but it just seemed like a fruitless engagement in drama, amidst otherwise interesting topics.

Regarding the voicing, well that was distractingly dry as well. In places that maybe could have used some emotional expression, we're left with vacant recitation. Knowing some french, and given the amount of phrases in it that the author uses, the narrator's awful pronunciation was also a distraction. I don't know German, but some of the German words and names also came across sounding over emphasized. I've heard this narrator before and in combination with some writings he can be tolerable if not appropriate of tone, but definitely not for this writing.

In short, if you're looking to expand your concepts of reality and gain insight into recent thinking from the scientific community, be prepared to be distracted by a lot of fluff in between a few gems. Hell, even if you're just looking for historical insights on important figures, there's scant of worth here.

Narration stops abruptly near “end??” !!!

Well written and presented. A bit too much about philosophers for my taste but definitely worth reading.

great information, interesting history,

one play through was not enough for me. this book covers a lot of ground and over a long period of time. anyone who has interested in math and science will enjoy this book. it's not as dry as some science history retelling and also goes into detail of the personality's of some of the greatest minds in making the world what it is today.

Less about Einstein and Gödel

This wasn't what I was expecting (which was more on Einstein and Gödel), but I enjoyed this quite a bit. Holt covered the major ideas of philosophy, science and mathematics. It was a journey through the extremeties of human thought [I just realised that the sub-title is 'Excursions to the Edge of Thought :)]. These are the topics that I would discuss with a friend, if I had a friend who would discuss them! Holt is easy to read and not pushy of any particular position, although he does push back on certain ideas and ideologies. I'd happily read his other books.

The narrator worked really well for this.

Fantastic

A combination of storytelling, scientific explanation, history, and philosophical argument. Anybody with broad intellectual interests will find something.

The Full Range of Thought - Sublimity to Abyssmal

This book is a great exposition of thought from mathematics and the very difficult concepts of infinity, unprovability, incompleteness and randomness - the heights of math and physics - to many topics that include the abysmal waste of thought of philosophers spending their time on, and wasting publications pace with, the stupidest pursuits possible (the mirror paradox, the Doom-Soon concept and other meaningless uiltra-deep wastes of intellect that some people get away with as having 'published'). The stunning spectrum of coverage given the many solid, worthy ideas is very impressive and highly enjoyable, but you have also to have the patience to work through the meaningless drivel Mr. Holt included in this work.
The narration is also very well done but Mr. Stifel has a few foibles that can be irritating in terms of the pronunciation of certain words..... for example the word is COS*MOS* not CozMUS. Hearing it said CozMUS a few times is excusable. Fifty times becomes irritating - at least to me.
Good, very worthwhile book overall.

Delightful

Holt is a talented scientiific and literary essayist in the mold of Gould, Thomas, or Sacks, but in seldom popularized topics in mathematics, logic and philosophy. He mixes historical anecdotes and explanations into a compelling narrative. The narration survived 1.5x speed up.