On the Origin of Time

October 1, 2022

Stephen Hawking's closest collaborator, Hertog sums up work they did at the end of Hawking's life that yields a new quantum theory of the cosmos. Puzzling how the universe could have created conditions hospitable to life, especially with the math predicting many big bangs producing multiple universes mostly not capable of sustaining life, they eventually realized that physical laws can transform and even simplify until particles, forces, and time itself disappear. And that means physical laws might be born and evolve alongside the universe they govern.

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January 2, 2023
This provocative if dense debut by Hertog, a cosmologist and longtime collaborator of Stephen Hawking, outlines the complex perspective the two developed on the origin of the universe. “Stephen and I came to see the big bang not only as the beginning of time but also as the origin of physical laws,” he relates, explaining that the rules of physics developed “in a process of random variation and selection akin to Darwinian evolution.” The author posits that the nature of atomic and subatomic particles as well as the values of physical constants are the products of random events that occurred at and around the big bang, rather than reflections of absolute laws. Expanding on this idea, Hertog delineates Hawking’s “top-down philosophy,” which builds on the observation that quantum behavior depends on observation and proposes that physics doesn’t exist independent of human measurement and observation: “We create the universe as much as the universe creates us.” This is primarily theoretical so the claims remain unproven, but Hertog’s visionary ideas have the potential to upend traditional notions of causality and physical laws, though lay readers will struggle to follow the technical explorations of string theory and holography. Still, those who stick around through the complicated physics will be rewarded with a bold and stimulating take on the fundamentals of the universe.

February 1, 2023
Another admirable attempt to explain Stephen Hawking (1942-2018) and his work. Like Einstein, Hawking was the world's most famous scientist during his lifetime. Unlike Einstein, whose work on space, time, and energy has been successfully described for curious nonscientists, Hawking's breakthroughs involved the complex origins of the universe or the tortuous physics of black holes. Hertog, a cosmologist, professor of theoretical physics, and one of Hawking's closest collaborators for years, gamely takes up the challenge, emphasizing Hawking's final work that began in the 1990s and remained uncompleted at the time of his death. More philosophical and less mathematical than his earlier achievements, it also seems more accessible--though not all readers will agree. As in most popular science books, Hertog begins with the history. This is traditionally the easy part, but those unfamiliar with college physics may struggle through the discussion of Hawking's early discoveries. As the 21st century approached and Hawking's contribution to the origin of the universe was largely accepted, he began to look more deeply into the consequences of some of his theories. He was not the first to observe that if fundamental laws emerging from the Big Bang (gravity, electromagnetism, nuclear forces) were only slightly different, life could not exist. Was this merely a lucky coincidence? Reexamining primordial conditions, he proposed that our life-friendly cosmos was not preordained but evolved as the hot Big Bang may have produced not one universe but an innumerable "multiverse," of which a few--or perhaps only ours--possessed natural laws amenable to life. "Stephen's final theory of the universe contains the kernel of a uniquely powerful reflection on what it can mean to be human in this biofriendly cosmos, as stewards of planet Earth," writes Hertog. "For this reason alone it may ultimately prove to be his greatest scientific legacy." Ultimately, the author produces a text that feels like Hawking with a taste of Darwin. An occasionally difficult read that will appeal to cosmologists and curious, dedicated general readers.

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