Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe

As someone well into their senior years my reading passions have spanned the topics from A to Z and from the scientific to the esoteric. Several years ago, I had read “The Elegant Universe” and enjoyed the book. This is why when I saw this 430-page hardcover edition (Until the end of time: Matter and our search for meaning in an evolving universe by Brian Greene) on Amazon I decided to purchase it. First off, you should be aware that this is not what you would call “a recreational read.” The author is a professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University and in this volume, he explores some heavy scientific and intellectual topics. Even though he writes beautifully and makes his ideas come alive; nevertheless, this book reads like a college level textbook on physics and cosmology. In fact, there are 99 pages of detailed notes at the end of the book if you decide to do more research on the topics. The subjects covered in this huge book covers “The lure of eternity, the language of time, origins and entropy, information and vitality, particles and consciousness, language and story, brains and belief, instinct and creativity, duration and impermanence, the twilight of time and the nobility of being.” In conclusion, I enjoyed reading this book very much and recommend it to those who may have read his best seller (The elegant universe). Rating: 5 Stars. Joseph J. Truncale (Author: Tactical principles of the most effective Combative Systems).

Brian Greene allows us into his private world, he’s brilliant, so it is a fun place to go and visit. In spite of being brilliant, he is not much different from us. For the love of pizza, when 10 years old, he blew up his mother’s kitchen (p. 57-58). Yes, brilliant but like all of us, he has moments of being stupid. His open and exposed approach makes me want to read on. He loves math and wants to go deep into physics. But beyond that shiny collegiate surface he also wants to go much deeper. His older brother has taken a spiritual path (dancing with Hare Krishna p. 203) but on some level he knows his path towards truth is not the same as his older brother. How does science then, without any beliefs get to the promised land? How does Brian find the inner peace that his brother is dancing to? Of course, it would take 428 pages. But to lay out what appears to me to be his approach, he heads toward the open state Tibetans call Samadhi, but he doesn’t use any religious language. Samadhi isn’t a normal state of thinking thoughts to find answers, but a state of open contemplation beyond thought. Brian does this by expanding your mind, one idea at a time until you become wide open. You get your mind blown. He does all this with wisdom. Wisdom is what happens to you as time takes place. You, as you get older become wise, just because you are older. Brian doesn’t call it wisdom, he only uses time itself, vast amounts of time, and as you contemplate these vast lengths of time, you naturally sense or feel outside of time. Consciousness can use intuition to do that but a strictly logical mind can’t think it. So Brian gives us time to contemplate, and he guards us from having any beliefs. Beliefs are a problem, because once you have a belief, you can’t do science, you can’t pretend to be open minded, you get stuck. Once you get stuck, you are susceptible to fascism. Fascism happens when you think there is only one way. Fascism is a large part of religion, politics, and science. Once we get stuck, we get really stuck. Here we are at the start of a world pandemic, with an idiot president pointing at his accomplishments. All of this reality, kind of helps us to read this wonderful book. A book to fight fascism, and to feel the universe giving us a personal hug. Yes, we can all enter Samadhi together.

Greene gives us a summary of the current scientific thinking about the past, present and future of the Cosmos. He begins with a discussion of entropy that is far more extensive than most treatments for the general public, but he uses this concept as a basis for much of his description of the evolution of the Cosmos. He explains many scientific speculations that go beyond the classical “heat death” of the Universe, into a time when time itself has no meaning. Along the way, Greene tries to show how human life fits into this vast cosmological story. For me, this part of the story was less compelling than the speculations about the distant future. Judging from the book’s title, I expected more profound conclusions about the meaning of Man’s existence. In fact, I was quite surprised when I turned a page (Kindle style) and found that I was on the last page! I can’t say that I learned much that is new or profound about “Meaning”. I enjoyed reading this book, and I recommend it for anyone interested in understanding how a scientist might look at our place in the Cosmos

Thanks for the tour of modern science. I liked the explaination for how all biological agents get energy from oxygen. Very detailed. I disagreed with the end bit about how conciousness is a product of atomic and material activity. But I liked how the author set out the argument and explained the plausibiblity. Thanks!

Absolutely amazing book that covers everything (life and universe). And if not everything then almost everything, from Big Bang, life, religion, future… Brian Greene has an amazing talent to explain physics in a very comprehensive manner.

Greene e' uno scrittore con una prosa ricca e precisa, unisce una vasta competenza scientifica specifica ad una vasta cultura filosofica e letteraria, esplora l'oggettivita' senza timore di esporre i propri punti di vista, offre una visione dell'umana complessità' che unisce la profondita'scientifica al bisogno delle narrative individuali che assumono rilevanza nel processo di selezione.

Pour tous ceux qui s'intéressent aux questions de la vie et la mort, de l'origine et la fin de l'univers, de l'homme, de l'intélligence, du cerveau, de la langue, de la créativité et du sens de la vie.

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