Brief Answers to the Big Questions: the final book from Stephen Hawking

This is a mind-bendingly incredible book. It asks 10 big questions in science and in life, with Stephen Hawking gives the most thought-provoking answers.The questions are: 1. Is there a God? 2. How did all begin? 3. Is there other intelligence life in the universe? 4. Can we predict the future? 5. What is inside a black hole? 6. Is time travel possible? 7. Will we survive on Earth? 8. Should we colonise space? 9. Will artificial intelligence outsmart us? 10. How do we shape the future?The book itself is relatively thin, and the title literally says BRIEF answers. But it sure does feel voluminous and heavy weight, due to its condensed content.It is one of those books that gives me the physical feel that my brain is being stretched and expanded to the limit of my ability to comprehend. And it’s fantastic. If what reading a book does for our brain equals with lifting weights for our body, then this book is one massive weight that we train with the assistance of the best possible personal trainer.

I'm half way through. It started with goosebumps just from the Foreword. I have been blessed to have met Dr. Hawking (it's true, he prefers Stephen) one time while working on a career at Caltech. It was a beautiful California day (on the sublime Caltech campus), that was obscured by the shocking presence of "The Man".It was Y2K (1999-2000) and suddenly I was opening the door for a man in-a-machine. I do not remember the lady who walked beside him (I'm sure I was introduced) but Stephen was out and about so I took the opportunity to ask a few questions... The ULTIMATE geek experience. THANK YOU STEPHEN !!!!I'm not sure how many of us are given the chance to meet our Heros but, dammit! , take it! NEVER REGRET!!!I was shy and shaky and everything you expect when you bump into your hero and then whom thanks you for taking the time to treat them like a regular human being. I apologize for telling my story, but you can never know his greatness unless you were blessed by his presence and given his full attention, if even for a brief moment in time.Good hunting Stephen!

Stephen Hawking has managed to make science and specifically cosmology cool. While each Big Question stands on its own and allows you to pick up and put down to fit your own appetite for the answers, for me this was a cover to cover read. The Big Questions are exactly the type of questions that ordinary punters are fascinated by, and Stephen does an excellent job of providing understandable answer with a healthy sprinkle of anecdotes from his amazing life delivered with laugh out loud moments.How fortunate we have all been that Stephen Hawking exceeded all estimates of his life expectancy and has been such an incredible contributor to human knowledge.

Beautiful book revealing the thoughts of a great mind. It is written in a way that makes it understandable to the layman without thorough background in physics. Of course, it does not give definitive answers on the questions treated, which was certainly not the purpose of the book, but it enriches your understanding of the world and you read it with a great pleasure.

I'm a big fan of prof Hawking, and was delighted to read some of his final thoughts. I was not expecting some of the more philosophical remarks towards the end of the book, but I guess most people at that level reach such a stage at some point. I also like the way it was written, you could read each paragraph separately. Some parts are difficult to understand, but that only means I need to read it one more time...