When We Cease to Understand the World

De: Benjamin Labatut, Adrian West - translator

Narrado por: Adam Barr

When We Cease to Understand the World is a book about the complicated links between scientific and mathematical discovery, madness, and destruction. Fritz Haber, Alexander Grothendieck, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger - these are some of the luminaries into whose troubled lives Benjamín Labatut thrusts the listener, showing us how they grappled with the most profound questions of existence. They have strokes of unparalleled genius, alienate friends and lovers, descend into isolation and insanity. Some of their discoveries reshape human life for the better; others pave the way to chaos and unimaginable suffering. The lines are never clear. At a breakneck pace and with a wealth of disturbing detail, Labatut uses the imaginative resources of fiction to tell the stories of the scientists and mathematicians who expanded our notions of the possible.

©2021 Benjamin Labatut and Adrian West (P)2021 Dreamscape Media, LLC

A new insight into mad genius

I throughly enjoyed the individual portraits of prominent scientists from the last century. The author neatly tied together the several lives he featured by tethering to them common themes so it felt as though they overlapped in time and space.

What I would have really appreciated would be integrating more scientists outside of quantum physics that helped further the understanding of astronomy, chemistry, geology, and computer science but with similar ties between them. And feature more than a select few of German scientists. I understand that was the hotbed of quantum theory, but he could have broaden his list of included scientists to show just how radical the few really were.

Overall, it was a fantastic but limited perspective. Yet I will likely listen to it again in the future for another impression.

Quantum Physics for Poets

A great book read well. This was fun and terrifying all at once, a fantastic mix of fact and fiction that helped this lit major better understand some of science’s toughest concepts.

Titillating

The author did an admirable job of taking extraordinarily complex concepts and putting them in a layperson’s understanding. I found the details unnecessarily titillating; the description of private thoughts and actions made me doubt the veracity of the narrative.

Fascinating content

The storytelling was captivating and kept me listening. I stopped a few times due to various reasons but certainly not because the story was boring.

So Beauitiful

I haven't felt so moved by a book in a long time. This book does a better job of making quantum mechanics feel personal and understandable than any other book I've listened to on the subject, but it also does so in a way that is poignant and devastatingly beautiful. While the role of psychosis in the lives of the scientists depicted is certainly at the forefront, it is the also about creativity, intellect, and the tragically magical connection between them.

Every sentence is jaw-dropping.

There's a danger in this kind of writing... "biographical fiction"... now i have to go research which parts of this are real and which are not. But... damn. Even if only 1% of this is true, it's worthy of a listen/read & consideration. This is one of those books that readers will reflect on years later and say "my opinions of the world, reality, & genius really started evolving around then".

interesting and dark

there’s a pedophile story that goes on uncomfortably long, but maybe that’s the point. I really liked all the other stories in it though.

I mostly enjoyed it

Once I reached the Quantum Physics section begins the author goes into grandiose story telling mode. While I ultimately appreciated the point he was making, that wasn't what I was interested in when I picked this audiobook.

Not easy listening

It seems to me that this author has a penchant for crude descriptions and criticisms, which can be the focus in any account of history, but it goes on for so long it becomes gratuitous. There’s some good information in here, but it’s pretty negative on the whole. I haven’t listened to the whole thing and don’t think I will. Not great “brain food” IMO.

Thought provoking but disturbing

Thought provoking but disturbing. Parallels between the mathematicians and the physicist in the first half of the 20th century and pioneers with the Internet and AI come to mind. The former initially had no idea that their scribbles on a chalk board would lead to the atomic bomb and mass death. The latter…?