Book Review - Until the End of Time by Brian Greene

Whether we consider it as the Past, Present, and Future, or rather imagine a continuous and ever-growing collection of nows, time is the lens through which we Humans go about our lives. Time is how we see nature unfold and we are rather keen on trying to understand what and why nature is given our little time. From the start of our lives until our destined ends, we chase meaning and understanding both for ourselves, and for the cosmos, we are apart of.

This is why In Physicist Brian Greene’s newest book, published February of 2020, he dives into a discussion of the universe and how it has come to be, from the very beginnings, Until the End of Time. He does an exemplary job of holding the reader’s hands as he guides them through the physics and the interplay of natural forces that have come together to create structures in a vast and evergrowing abyss. Even better is the fact that as he explains the largescale timeline of the universe, he makes sure to take us towards and consider the tiny moment in which our consciousness has arisen to question and poke into what seems to be a nature that can be understood.

Initially, Greene starts off by explaining why time flows in one way rather than another. His discussion on the second law of thermodynamics which states that systems will always reach for higher entropy (more disorder) is easily understood through his use of analogies, “Imagine you vigorously shake a bag containing a hundred pennies and then dump them out on your dining table. If you found that all hundred pennies were heads you’d surely be surprised.” Obviously it is much more likely for a shake of this system to return you less than all heads, and the possibility of shaking it such that you land to all heads is nearly impossible. The universe has this tendency to always reach more randomness. And even though it is as such, Greene makes sure to explain why even as the universe is continually reaching higher entropy, seemingly orderly things like stars and planets and life can happen. He explains that these structures actually create more entropy, such as gravity leading to stars being formed which are then able to use nuclear fusion and their eventual explosion to create the very elements which even we are made of.

As his Chapter subtitles outline, using commentary through physics as well as a mix of other natural sciences and even disciplines like psychology, he takes us through time: from creation to structure, from structure to life, from life to mind, from mind to imagination, from imagination to the sacred, from the sacred to the sublime, and from the sublime to the final thought. His aim to create a timeline of the universe that explains cause and effect as well as adding in the analysis of how humans have perceived or at least tried to, ties in many of the existential and basic questions that plague and guide each of us. 

We try to make sense of the world in which we belong. We create patterns out of this evolving, ever getting entropic universe. We are the beings that look for order in disorder. Greene even mentions that had we been born when the universe was at peak entropy our curious minds would have been upset. Whether we look towards religion, philosophy, and/or even science, Until the End of Time gathers and explains these different reasonings humans have come up. His use of science and mathematics to answer some very subjective questions only helps each and every reader understand the contexts of where they are by learning about why and where everything has been and will go. The book explains through time the big bang, the formation of the solar system, evolution, and even what comes next in the far future. To explain our purpose and find meaning given our short-lived time, Green makes sure to give background as to where we have come from and where we may go.