Hawking did this analysis in the first edition of A Brief History of Time—though he made a complete mess of it—and concluded that time will start going backwards when the universe stops expanding!
I remember back when I read this at university, I thought: Boltzman will be turning in his grave. I also remember immodestly thinking: here’s a smart, famous scientist—and even spotty teenage I could see what a ridiculous argument he was making - in about two seconds.
When I re-read A Brief History of Time in college, I remember bemusedly noticing that Hawking’s argument would be stronger if you reversed its conclusion.
A note to myself from 2009 claims that Hawking later dropped that argument. Can anyone substantiate that?
Hawking did this analysis in the first edition of A Brief History of Time—though he made a complete mess of it—and concluded that time will start going backwards when the universe stops expanding!
I remember back when I read this at university, I thought: Boltzman will be turning in his grave. I also remember immodestly thinking: here’s a smart, famous scientist—and even spotty teenage I could see what a ridiculous argument he was making - in about two seconds.
When I re-read A Brief History of Time in college, I remember bemusedly noticing that Hawking’s argument would be stronger if you reversed its conclusion.
A note to myself from 2009 claims that Hawking later dropped that argument. Can anyone substantiate that?
He has also edited A Brief History of Time to remove the howler. See page 64 for the updated text.