Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Astrophysicist Katie Mack, interested in the end of all things, explores the four main ways current science thinks the universe might happen: the Big Crunch, a sort of reversal of the Big Bang, Heat Death, the Big Rip (in which the expansion of the universe tears apart the fabric of reality), and Vacuum Decay. She also ventures into the theory of a cyclical universe and then concludes with a chapter on what we as a species, or indeed as perhaps the only representative of sentience in the universe, can or should do with this eschatological knowledge-slash-guesswork. She strives assiduously to be both accessible and light in her prose, with a few references to pop culture and many winking footnotes. I give her credit for that, but still, to me, as a highly-educated layman gifted with some degree of perspicacity but having little science beyond biology and no physics expertise, most of this book was hard to follow beyond the broad strokes. I admit that to me, the final chapter was the most interesting, as it dealt with more philosophical questions of how we should live. In the end, though Mack did her best to spread her obvious enthusiasm for her pet subject, her book did not get me interested in the end of all things. The questions of how, and even of what we do in the face of utter final obliteration, just don't seem important to me in the context of our brief lives here on earth.