The Black Hole War
My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics
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Product: Book
ISBN-10: 0-316-01640-3
ISBN-13: 9780316016407
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
Country:
Year: July 7, 2008
Size: 15.24 x 23.62 x 4.06cm
Number of pages: 480
Weight: 680gr
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN-10: 0-316-01640-3
ISBN-13: 9780316016407
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
Country:
Year: July 7, 2008
Size: 15.24 x 23.62 x 4.06cm
Number of pages: 480
Weight: 680gr
Binding: Hardcover
editions
Léonard, Susskind, Ph.D. Porter (Eds.), Ray (Narrator) (Eds.)
Blackstone Audiobooks; 2008
Audio Cassette
Léonard, Susskind, Ph.D. Porter (Eds.), Ray (Narrator) (Eds.)
Blackstone Audiobooks; 2008
Audio CD
3.) The Black Hole War
Léonard, Susskind, reader: To be announced (Eds.)
Blackstone Audiobooks; 2008
Audio Cassette
Léonard, Susskind, reader: To be announced (Eds.)
Blackstone Audiobooks; 2008
Audio CD
Léonard, Susskind, Ph.D. Porter (Eds.), Ray (Narrator) (Eds.)
Blackstone Audiobooks; 2008
CD-ROM
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Product Description
What happens when something is sucked into a black hole? Does it disappear? Three decades ago, a young physicist named Stephen Hawking claimed it did-and in doing so put at risk everything we know about physics and the fundamental laws of the universe. Most scientists didn't recognize the import of Hawking's claims, but Leonard Susskind and Gerard t'Hooft realized the threat, and responded with a counterattack that changed the course of physics. THE BLACK HOLE WAR is the thrilling story of their united effort to reconcile Hawking's revolutionary theories of black holes with their own sense of reality-effort that would eventually result in Hawking admitting he was wrong, paying up, and Susskind and t'Hooft realizing that our world is a hologram projected from the outer boundaries of space. A brilliant book about modern physics, quantum mechanics, the fate of stars and the deep mysteries of black holes, Leonard Susskind's account of the Black Hole War is mind-bending and exhilarating reading.
What happens when something is sucked into a black hole? Does it disappear? Three decades ago, a young physicist named Stephen Hawking claimed it did-and in doing so put at risk everything we know about physics and the fundamental laws of the universe. Most scientists didn't recognize the import of Hawking's claims, but Leonard Susskind and Gerard t'Hooft realized the threat, and responded with a counterattack that changed the course of physics. THE BLACK HOLE WAR is the thrilling story of their united effort to reconcile Hawking's revolutionary theories of black holes with their own sense of reality-effort that would eventually result in Hawking admitting he was wrong, paying up, and Susskind and t'Hooft realizing that our world is a hologram projected from the outer boundaries of space. A brilliant book about modern physics, quantum mechanics, the fate of stars and the deep mysteries of black holes, Leonard Susskind's account of the Black Hole War is mind-bending and exhilarating reading.
reviews
Entertaining 
Very entertaining read. Susskind is able to put complex concepts into the easy reach of the novice physics enthusiast. A good explanation of quantum mechanics. Overall I really enjoyed this book but I felt the crux of the »War« was more than a little self-serving. Worth reading but also give Hawking's books serious consideration.
Very entertaining read. Susskind is able to put complex concepts into the easy reach of the novice physics enthusiast. A good explanation of quantum mechanics. Overall I really enjoyed this book but I felt the crux of the »War« was more than a little self-serving. Worth reading but also give Hawking's books serious consideration.
Popular Science of the Highest Order 
Susskind's second popular work is as lucid and compelling as his first. The subject matter of this book, though abstruse in the extreme, is rendered as intelligible as I imagine is possible to a non-specialist readership. Susskind has a great gift for explaining and illustrating difficult concepts. Though I emerged from TBHW lacking the mathematical sophistication that would enable me to understand a journal article on black holes, I nonetheless emerged with a deep understanding of, and appreciation for, this area of scientific research and speculation. I would rank TBHW on par with another outstanding treatment of similar subject matter: Kip Thorne's Black Holes and Time Warps. Towards the end of TBHW, Susskind voices the hope that he will write another book, one day, on future advances in his field. Here's very much hoping he does just that.
Susskind's second popular work is as lucid and compelling as his first. The subject matter of this book, though abstruse in the extreme, is rendered as intelligible as I imagine is possible to a non-specialist readership. Susskind has a great gift for explaining and illustrating difficult concepts. Though I emerged from TBHW lacking the mathematical sophistication that would enable me to understand a journal article on black holes, I nonetheless emerged with a deep understanding of, and appreciation for, this area of scientific research and speculation. I would rank TBHW on par with another outstanding treatment of similar subject matter: Kip Thorne's Black Holes and Time Warps. Towards the end of TBHW, Susskind voices the hope that he will write another book, one day, on future advances in his field. Here's very much hoping he does just that.
The Universe is an alien place compared to where we live.
This book is an easy read, though the topic is not an easy topic. While there is a little math, it's both easy math and totally ignorable. While the primary subject is physics, there are lots of human interest features and anecdotes. The story starts with black holes. Early in the story, Stephen Hawking makes the claim that when you drop stuff into a black hole, everything about it disappears forever. This is a violation of a basic principle of physics. If you work out what happens to something from the point of view of General Relativity, it turns out to be very different from what happens from the point of Quantum Mechanics. The Black Hole War is a war of ideas, not armies or people. To win the war, one idea must become more convincing than others. The story takes you through how issues were settled all the way to the startling conclusion of how this apparent contradiction is resolved. In my opinion, the resolution is that the Universe is an alien place compared to where we live. Understandable, but not intuitive. But it's the only Universe we have. This book provides an easy way to learning something more about it.
This book is an easy read, though the topic is not an easy topic. While there is a little math, it's both easy math and totally ignorable. While the primary subject is physics, there are lots of human interest features and anecdotes. The story starts with black holes. Early in the story, Stephen Hawking makes the claim that when you drop stuff into a black hole, everything about it disappears forever. This is a violation of a basic principle of physics. If you work out what happens to something from the point of view of General Relativity, it turns out to be very different from what happens from the point of Quantum Mechanics. The Black Hole War is a war of ideas, not armies or people. To win the war, one idea must become more convincing than others. The story takes you through how issues were settled all the way to the startling conclusion of how this apparent contradiction is resolved. In my opinion, the resolution is that the Universe is an alien place compared to where we live. Understandable, but not intuitive. But it's the only Universe we have. This book provides an easy way to learning something more about it.
General Susskind's Memoir
Excellent reading for those interested in the latest developments (~2008) in theoretical gravitational, high-energy, and string physics, straight from one of the field's most distinguished and original practitioners. Most valuable are his anecdotes from being on the front lines of this scientific debate, particularly his interactions with Hawking and 't Hooft. There are also many imaginative and graphic explanations of black hole physics, for example the »dumb hole« (or »acoustic black hole«) analogy and the »Alice's airplane« description of de-localization near an event horizon. Though the black hole war may be over, others rage on. Perhaps Susskind will treat us to an account of some of those in the future …
Excellent reading for those interested in the latest developments (~2008) in theoretical gravitational, high-energy, and string physics, straight from one of the field's most distinguished and original practitioners. Most valuable are his anecdotes from being on the front lines of this scientific debate, particularly his interactions with Hawking and 't Hooft. There are also many imaginative and graphic explanations of black hole physics, for example the »dumb hole« (or »acoustic black hole«) analogy and the »Alice's airplane« description of de-localization near an event horizon. Though the black hole war may be over, others rage on. Perhaps Susskind will treat us to an account of some of those in the future …
The first third of the book is excellent – worth a read
I enjoyed this book. Within the first few chapters, you get a nice understanding of what a black hole really is. You also get introductory descriptions of lots of other advanced topics in physics such as string theory and that's what I enjoyed most about the book. The actual »black hole war« is really just a long running argument that two camps of pysicists had over one aspect of black holes that is eventually resolved in the end of the book in a very anticlimactic way. That is not the reason to read this book. You should read this book if you want to know more about black holes, quantum physics and string theory. While I liked the book and I'm glad I read it, the book could have been a lot better written than it was. I felt like the author had great energy and clarity at describing very complicated quantum physics concepts in the first third of the book. But, then he either seemed to have lost that energy or the concepts just got so complicated that he couldn't figure out a simple way to describe them. In the last half of the book, I ended up skimming some of the chapters because the explanations got very, very technical and the author often failed to explain why we're trying understand this particular part of physics. It's as if the point of the book got lost several times and just wandered through a few chapters of advanced physics and math. My teenage son is interested in reading it and I will encourage him, but I am guessing that he will make it about 1/3 of the way through and then get bogged down. That first third is still worth the read.
I enjoyed this book. Within the first few chapters, you get a nice understanding of what a black hole really is. You also get introductory descriptions of lots of other advanced topics in physics such as string theory and that's what I enjoyed most about the book. The actual »black hole war« is really just a long running argument that two camps of pysicists had over one aspect of black holes that is eventually resolved in the end of the book in a very anticlimactic way. That is not the reason to read this book. You should read this book if you want to know more about black holes, quantum physics and string theory. While I liked the book and I'm glad I read it, the book could have been a lot better written than it was. I felt like the author had great energy and clarity at describing very complicated quantum physics concepts in the first third of the book. But, then he either seemed to have lost that energy or the concepts just got so complicated that he couldn't figure out a simple way to describe them. In the last half of the book, I ended up skimming some of the chapters because the explanations got very, very technical and the author often failed to explain why we're trying understand this particular part of physics. It's as if the point of the book got lost several times and just wandered through a few chapters of advanced physics and math. My teenage son is interested in reading it and I will encourage him, but I am guessing that he will make it about 1/3 of the way through and then get bogged down. That first third is still worth the read.
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