Hawking's latest book...and it's on mathematics!

neutrino

Just came across this one - God Created the Integers: The Mathematical Breakthroughs That Changed History. Has anyone had a change to read it?

JasonRox

Hawking's got to stop stealing the God expressions from Einstein.

t!m

It's good as long as you know what you're buying. Each chapter includes a short biography of the mathematician (17 in total) followed by a brief discussion of their work and its significance. This is then followed by selections of the mathematician's original work, reproduced, which comprises a majority of the book. It is its own contained library of what Hawking believes to be the most significant works in math.

fourier jr

the expression "god created the integers, all else is the work of man" is kronecker's. he was one of cantor's leading anagonists.

neutrino

I've also seen another version in which he seems to have said that "God created the natural numbers...". I first came across this in a book on number theory by David Burton. Wikipedia seems to agree with you, though.

fourier jr

einstein said "I want to know God's thoughts,..... the rest is just details.." maybe that's what you're thinking of?

tribdog

Einstein also said "God damn, I'm having a hard time unifying these forces."

*pure conjecture on my part. he may not have said that. but I bet he thought it.