VIA View: "A brief history of time" by Stephen Hawking
“A brief history of time” by Stephen Hawking is surely a book that goes down in history (pardon the pun) as a truly groundbreaking piece of work. It’s been on my bookshelf for years always being passed over for something easier to digest. But recently I started it, and it was everything I expected it to be, but it also surprised me so many times. Now obviously I could talk about the inevitable takeaways in terms of the science. But I’m no expert (& clearly Hawking is!) so I’m not going to even try and paraphrase his genius. But why I think this book is so popular across non-science circles is because of how much it opens up new ways of thinking.
Firstly, Hawking, with all his extensive research doesn’t present any of his work as 100% correct. I consider him one of the greatest minds of our time, and so I found this incredibly humble of him. As I read his theories, they made perfect sense to me – I think of them as fact, but he also speaks of theories from the past that have been disproven. This was the first of many mind-blowing moments for me. The idea that what we believe to be true is only true now. Much like the early days of believing the world was flat, or that flying was impossible. It really challenged my thinking as I know I can find comfort in my experiences fitting neatly into a theory to make sense and inform my actions. As a leadership trainer I also know I can be over-reliant on theories to explain concepts to others. But in Hawking’s book, there are many theories he presents and the idea of them ‘perhaps being true, perhaps not’ is quite a significant shift for me. In life, how many things do I habitually believe without question? How many times do I stubbornly stick to a thought process from years back? This has been a concept I hope to continue to dwell on and challenge myself in the future.
What’s the time? Well actually… that’s a meaningless question when based on the scale of the universe. Hawking explains that if the sun were to explode the universe would not feel it’s impact at the same ‘time’. On Earth for 8 minutes, we would carry on as normal before experiencing any change. So that makes time a concept we create ourselves. We work 9-530. We take lunch between 12 & 2. I couldn’t help but then consider the seasons and time zones across the world and how they differ. The more I thought about it, the more ‘made up’ time seemed. Yet, of course we adhere to time as a social concept. At the same time, I was reading Hawking, I was lucky enough to get a ticket to climb the steps inside Big Ben (or the Elizabeth tower if you’re being picky) and be in the belfry at 12 Noon. As the bells rang out across London, as they have done for decades, I thought about how life might be different if we didn’t know the time. It seems impossible now to live life based on body clocks and serendipity. I honestly don’t think I could go a single day without trying to check the time. At it’s core the concept of time makes no sense, and yet it is one that feels impossible to live without.
Whilst I cannot pretend that this was an easy read (it took me quite some time to get through!) I would mentally prepare myself each chapter to get into the mindset to learn complex theories. But Hawking’s wit and character shine through in his words. There is humour, and it is genuine humour. This is a piece of work about the universe – it’s a pretty big and important topic right? But rather than fully channel the academic, Hawking brings in light touches making the work have real human feel. It put me at ease as a reader, relaxing me between the harder to comprehend concepts and making the work so much more accessible that I anticipated. I must also confess to having started to read “A brief history of time” believing Hawking would present the science as a counterargument to religious beliefs about God creating the earth. He doesn’t. In fact on many occasions he speaks about the possibility of there being a Creator and refers to God on several occasions. The work he presents both showcases the wonders of science without undermining anyone’s beliefs. Whilst Hawking’s scientific abilities are well known, this incredible ability to communicate complex science with a distinctly ‘everyday human’ touch is an approach I believe we can all learn from.
Whether you like science or not, this book was not a bestseller for nothing! It is as remarkable as you would expect, but for me the surprise was that this was a real education not in science, but in everyday life lessons and that will stay with me for (wait for it…) light years.
