--- product_id: 507942133 title: "On the Origin of Time: Stephen Hawking's Final Theory" price: "B/.63" currency: PAB in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.com.pa/products/507942133-on-the-origin-of-time-stephen-hawkings-final-theory store_origin: PA region: Panama --- # On the Origin of Time: Stephen Hawking's Final Theory **Price:** B/.63 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** On the Origin of Time: Stephen Hawking's Final Theory - **How much does it cost?** B/.63 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.com.pa](https://www.desertcart.com.pa/products/507942133-on-the-origin-of-time-stephen-hawkings-final-theory) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Stephen Hawking’s closest collaborator offers the intellectual superstar’s final thoughts on the cosmos—a dramatic revision of the theory he put forward in A Brief History of Time . “This superbly written book offers insight into an extraordinary individual, the creative process, and the scope and limits of our current understanding of the cosmos.”—Lord Martin Rees Perhaps the biggest question Stephen Hawking tried to answer in his extraordinary life was how the universe could have created conditions so perfectly hospitable to life. In order to solve this mystery, Hawking studied the big bang origin of the universe, but his early work ran into a crisis when the math predicted many big bangs producing a multiverse—countless different universes, most of which would be far too bizarre to ​harbor life. Holed up in the theoretical physics department at Cambridge, Stephen Hawking and his friend and collaborator Thomas Hertog worked on this problem for twenty years, developing a new theory of the cosmos that could account for the emergence of life. Peering into the extreme quantum physics of cosmic holograms and venturing far back in time to our deepest roots, they were startled to find a deeper level of evolution in which the physical laws themselves transform and simplify until particles, forces, and even time itself fades away. This discovery led them to a revolutionary idea: The laws of physics are not set in stone but are born and co-evolve as the universe they govern takes shape. As Hawking’s final days drew near, the two collaborators published their theory, which proposed a radical new Darwinian perspective on the origins of our universe. On the Origin of Time offers a striking new vision of the universe’s birth that will profoundly transform the way we think about our place in the order of the cosmos and may ultimately prove to be Hawking’s greatest legacy. Review: A good argument against simplistic reductionism - To my surprise, this book is not a glorification of the multiverse concept — Marvel has that turf well-covered these days, yes? — but a thoughtful and considered navigation of the terrifyingly dark and murky waters between Aristotelian absolutism and profligate quantum possibilities. There is, for example, this striking line from the final chapter: "The multiverse evaporates like snow before the sun in quantum cosmology." I had no idea that the thoughts of Hawking and his associates on the multiverse were this nuanced towards the end of his life. I was fascinated to discover that Hawking vacillated from a bottom-up universe early in his life to a top-down universe later. It would have been fascinating to discuss with him the non-binary alternative that he seems never to have considered: the Matryoshka universe, in which different levels of certainty, complexity, and existence exist simultaneously and nested within each other, with the most robust forming the exterior, and the most significant complexity on the interior. And even without stating that, and despite Hertog declaring a top-down only strategy, he and Hawking and their associates nonetheless seem to have considered, perhaps without recognizing it, a decidedly Russian-doll-like concept in quotes like this one: "… there isn't the slightest ontological difference between the fact that Christian religions dominated Western Europe … and the value of the anomalous magnetic moment of the electron in the standard model of particle physics. They are both frozen accidents, just at widely different levels of complexity." It makes sense that the least time-like and most encompassing of Hawking's "frozen accidents" also form the most stable and encompassing of the layers, and perhaps this is why Hawking refers to this as a top-down universe. Just as a frozen alphabet enables communication and the formation of new levels of linguistic complexity, Hawking's earliest frozen accidents become the Standard Model of particle physics, allowing us to see and understand the most distant reaches of the visible universe. Also, a fully emergent universe enables the interplay of particles, space, and time, allowing levels of space to proceed those that we know from a classical perspective, just as some simpler particles, such as quarks, join together into more complex particles such as protons and neutrons. Perhaps a top-down universe versus a Matryoshka universe is more a matter of linguistic connotation and preference. Top-down better conveys the concept of a tree with the diversification of complexity in the higher branches than the more linear implication of nested dolls. On the other hand, top-down has an unfortunate connotation of premeditated design that is not what Hawking intended, yet it comes to mind quickly for anyone reading the phrase. However one describes Hawking's final and more nuanced concept time, this book is a worthy and thought-provoking read. Review: Hawking and the Hertog have provided a genuine gift. - Beautifully written. The author bravely presents profound cosmological insights in understandable prose without patronizing the reader. The concepts are spell-binding. The interwoven humanity is uplifting. It was a privilege to read this book. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #101,650 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #36 in Cosmology (Books) #41 in Astrophysics & Space Science (Books) #138 in Evolution (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,032 Reviews | ## Images ![On the Origin of Time: Stephen Hawking's Final Theory - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71H2-yxaVVL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A good argument against simplistic reductionism *by T***R on April 11, 2023* To my surprise, this book is not a glorification of the multiverse concept — Marvel has that turf well-covered these days, yes? — but a thoughtful and considered navigation of the terrifyingly dark and murky waters between Aristotelian absolutism and profligate quantum possibilities. There is, for example, this striking line from the final chapter: "The multiverse evaporates like snow before the sun in quantum cosmology." I had no idea that the thoughts of Hawking and his associates on the multiverse were this nuanced towards the end of his life. I was fascinated to discover that Hawking vacillated from a bottom-up universe early in his life to a top-down universe later. It would have been fascinating to discuss with him the non-binary alternative that he seems never to have considered: the Matryoshka universe, in which different levels of certainty, complexity, and existence exist simultaneously and nested within each other, with the most robust forming the exterior, and the most significant complexity on the interior. And even without stating that, and despite Hertog declaring a top-down only strategy, he and Hawking and their associates nonetheless seem to have considered, perhaps without recognizing it, a decidedly Russian-doll-like concept in quotes like this one: "… there isn't the slightest ontological difference between the fact that Christian religions dominated Western Europe … and the value of the anomalous magnetic moment of the electron in the standard model of particle physics. They are both frozen accidents, just at widely different levels of complexity." It makes sense that the least time-like and most encompassing of Hawking's "frozen accidents" also form the most stable and encompassing of the layers, and perhaps this is why Hawking refers to this as a top-down universe. Just as a frozen alphabet enables communication and the formation of new levels of linguistic complexity, Hawking's earliest frozen accidents become the Standard Model of particle physics, allowing us to see and understand the most distant reaches of the visible universe. Also, a fully emergent universe enables the interplay of particles, space, and time, allowing levels of space to proceed those that we know from a classical perspective, just as some simpler particles, such as quarks, join together into more complex particles such as protons and neutrons. Perhaps a top-down universe versus a Matryoshka universe is more a matter of linguistic connotation and preference. Top-down better conveys the concept of a tree with the diversification of complexity in the higher branches than the more linear implication of nested dolls. On the other hand, top-down has an unfortunate connotation of premeditated design that is not what Hawking intended, yet it comes to mind quickly for anyone reading the phrase. However one describes Hawking's final and more nuanced concept time, this book is a worthy and thought-provoking read. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Hawking and the Hertog have provided a genuine gift. *by T***Y on November 16, 2025* Beautifully written. The author bravely presents profound cosmological insights in understandable prose without patronizing the reader. The concepts are spell-binding. The interwoven humanity is uplifting. It was a privilege to read this book. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Challenging cosmology from Stephen Hawking and Thomas Hertog *by O***J on April 12, 2024* Most books on physics for the layman must include some history; ideas in science are built on the shoulders of historical giants (and a few dwarves). Thomas Hertog does a good job of including the background necessary for his tale without digressing too much. But like all physicists who write such books, his greatest challenge is to translate the Hawking team's work from the language of physics -- complex mathematics -- into language composed of words. He does quite well, I think. I felt there was perhaps a little too much bashing of the Anthropic Principle (AP). In it's simplest form the AP is a tautology: humans cannot find themselves in a universe where the physical laws make it impossible for life to exist, and therefore we see a universe in which the laws are compatible with us. I think Hertog's (and Hawking's) objection to the AP is that, when coupled with a cosmology which posits multiple universes, it appears to make cosmology untestable -- scientifically moot and therefore somewhat useless. I'm not entirely convinced; there have been hypotheses considered similarly untestable which clever investigation has found ways to test experimentally. But others besides Hertog and Hawking have voiced these concerns about the AP and a multiverse, so I can't ding them too much. While most cosmologies start as far back into the origin of our Universe as possible and then find equations to describe how its physics evolved from there, Hawking's idea here is to start with the known physics of our Universe and work backwards to derive a mathematical framework -- a wave function of the Universe -- describing how it began. He calls it a "worm's-eye view" instead of a "god's-eye view", meaning visualizing our Universe from the inside rather than from a god-like "outside". In Hertog's telling, taking the known physical laws as initial parameters for the math gives a different formulation of the wave function than starting with the Big Bang and evolving the equations from there. When worked this way, according to Hertog (and Hawking), the equations end up quite descriptive of our Universe. I'm not at all competent to address the real physics here, though. For laymen such as myself, it's crucial to remember that Hawking, Hertog, and their team worked rigorously inside the mathematical framework of physics. Their proposal had to fit with the math of General Relativity, quantum field theory, etc. It's not just something they dreamed up over pizza and a few beers. At one point Hertog mentions that a photo in the book shows some of their early equations on a blackboard behind Stephen Hawking. I wish he had emphasized the mathematical process more. Overall, it's another interesting and challenging idea from the workshop of Stephen Hawking. I know I've sold "Origin" short in many respects. I only hope I haven't misstated its thesis. Excellent reading to complement "The Origin of Time" would be Brian Greene's "The Hidden Reality", which explains the inflationary multiverse and other cosmological hypotheses. And of course Hawking's "A Brief History of Time", which gives an overview of cosmology, and of Hawking's prior no-boundary proposal. The no-boundary proposal as originally stated by Hawking was disappointing (according to Hertog) because it predicted a universe quite unlike ours; the proposal in "The Origin of Time" works backwards to the no-boundary condition and, as mentioned, appears to give a much better description of our Universe. And for those who don't know deep physics but would like a view into the equations, the indefatigable science author Sean Carroll is writing a trilogy of books to do just that. The first is "Time, Space, and Motion", dealing with classical physics equations from Newton to Einstein; the second (coming in May, 2024) is "Quanta and Fields"; and the third will be "Complexity and Emergence". Keep reading. Incidentally, I bought a paperback copy of "Origin", and got about 2/3 of the way through before the glue in the binding failed. Glued it back together and continued, of course. But disappointing. ## Frequently Bought Together - On the Origin of Time: Stephen Hawking's Final Theory - Astrophysics for People in a Hurry - The Biggest Ideas in the Universe: Space, Time, and Motion --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.com.pa/products/507942133-on-the-origin-of-time-stephen-hawkings-final-theory](https://www.desertcart.com.pa/products/507942133-on-the-origin-of-time-stephen-hawkings-final-theory) --- *Product available on Desertcart Panama* *Store origin: PA* *Last updated: 2026-08-16*