Kurze Antworten auf große Fragen

Hardcover

German language

Published April 12, 2018 by Klett-Cotta Verlag.

ISBN:
978-3-608-96376-2
Copied ISBN!

View on OpenLibrary

View on Inventaire

3 stars (3 reviews)

Brief Answers to the Big Questions is a popular science book written by physicist Stephen Hawking, and published by Hodder & Stoughton (hardcover) and Bantam Books (paperback) on 16 October 2018. The book examines some of the universe's greatest mysteries, and promotes the view that science is very important in helping to solve problems on planet Earth. The publisher describes the book as "a selection of [Hawking's] most profound, accessible, and timely reflections from his personal archive", and features, according to a book reviewer, "half a million or so words" from his essays, lectures and keynote speeches.The book was incomplete at the time of the author's passing in March 2018, but was completed with "his academic colleagues, his family and the Stephen Hawking Estate". The book includes a foreword written by Eddie Redmayne, who won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Hawking in the 2014 film The Theory of …

5 editions

Review of 'Kurze Antworten auf große Fragen' on 'Goodreads'

1 star

The title promises "brief answers", and the (German) blurb claims said answers are "accessible and clear". Unfortunately, the answer are neither brief nor accessible.

The book is a compilation of texts from Hawking, begun during his lifetime and finished posthumously. The patchwork nature of the book shows, unfortunately, as several thoughts or explanations (such as about the dangers of artificial intelligence or the components of DNA) are repeated multiple times throughout the book. Overall, much of the writing seems incoherent, with sudden, unexpected tangents to different topics. Many times, Hawking's "brief" answers go on for well over 20 or even 30 pages, and I am left thinking that the answer could have been summarised within 10, had it not been for several off-topic passages.

The answers themselves are hardly suitable for the kind of layman the marketing suggests they were written for. Complex theories and concepts are presented with little …

Review of 'Brief Answers to the Big Questions' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Ich denke, man muss sich im Klaren sein, dass es sich hier um ein Buch von Hawking handelt. Das heißt, selbst wenn er versucht, Wissenschaft zu erklären, ist es immer noch unendlich kompliziert.
Was dieses Buch so eindrucksvoll macht, ist die Tatsache, dass er es in seinem letzten Lebensjahr geschrieben hat. Irgendwie schwingt es die ganze Zeit mit. Er sieht sein Leben auch als weitgehend abgeschlossen an und blickt hier und da auf Ereignisse in seinem Leben zurück.
Sicherlich kein großartiges Buch, aber im Kontext betrachtet gut.

avatar for atarijunge

rated it

4 stars