Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe

Brian Greene

Feb 2020 · Penguin · Narrated by Brian Greene

About this audiobook

Brought to you by Penguin.

From the world-renowned physicist and best-selling author of The Elegant Universe comes this captivating exploration of deep time and humanity's search for purpose

In both time and space, the cosmos is astoundingly vast, and yet is governed by simple, elegant, universal mathematical laws.

On this cosmic timeline, our human era is spectacular but fleeting.

Someday, we know, we will all die.

And, we know, so too will the universe itself.

Until the End of Time is Brian Greene's breathtaking new exploration of the cosmos and our quest to understand it. Greene takes us on a journey across time, from our most refined understanding of the universe's beginning, to the closest science can take us to the very end. He explores how life and mind emerged from the initial chaos, and how our minds, in coming to understand their own impermanence, seek in different ways to give meaning to experience: in story, myth, religion, creative expression, science, the quest for truth, and our longing for the timeless, or eternal. Through a series of nested stories that explain distinct but interwoven layers of reality-from the quantum mechanics to consciousness to black holes-Greene provides us with a clearer sense of how we came to be, a finer picture of where we are now, and a firmer understanding of where we are headed.

Yet all this understanding, which arose with the emergence of life, will dissolve with its conclusion. Which leaves us with one realization: during our brief moment in the sun, we are tasked with the charge of finding our own meaning.

Let us embark.

© Brian Greene 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Ratings and reviews

Fascinating journey from the beginning to the end of time. Summary of everything we know about the universe and how it might end. I loved the blend of poetic and scientific language in some passages and will come back to listen to those again.

Antidotes to nihilism for people grounded in reality.

beautiful and intriguing book. awestruck

About the author

Brian Greene (Author, Reader)
Brian Greene is a professor of physics and mathematics and director of Columbia University's Center for Theoretical Physics, and is renowned for his groundbreaking discoveries in superstring theory. His bestselling books include The Elegant Universe, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction, and The Fabric of the Cosmos.