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

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars | 3,129 ratings

Price: 20.25

Last update: 01-31-2025


About this item

New York Times Best Seller

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

"Few humans share Greene’s mastery of both the latest cosmological science and English prose." (The New York Times)

Until the End of Time is Brian Greene's breathtaking new exploration of the cosmos and our quest to find meaning in the face of this vast expanse. Greene takes us on a journey from the big bang to the end of time, exploring how lasting structures formed, how life and mind emerged, and how we grapple with our existence through narrative, myth, religion, creative expression, science, the quest for truth, and a deep longing for the eternal. From particles to planets, consciousness to creativity, matter to meaning - Brian Greene allows us all to grasp and appreciate our fleeting but utterly exquisite moment in the cosmos.


Top reviews from the United States

  • Joseph J. Truncale
    5.0 out of 5 stars An academic study of
    Reviewed in the United States on July 27, 2023
    As someone well into their senior years my reading passions have spanned the topics from A to Z and from the scientific to the esoteric. Several years ago, I had read “The Elegant Universe” and enjoyed the book.

    This is why when I saw this 430-page hardcover edition (Until the end of time: Matter and our search for meaning in an evolving universe by Brian Greene) on Amazon I decided to purchase it.

    First off, you should be aware that this is not what you would call “a recreational read.” The author is a professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University and in this volume, he explores some heavy scientific and intellectual topics.

    Even though he writes beautifully and makes his ideas come alive; nevertheless, this book reads like a college level textbook on physics and cosmology. In fact, there are 99 pages of detailed notes at the end of the book if you decide to do more research on the topics.

    The subjects covered in this huge book covers “The lure of eternity, the language of time, origins and entropy, information and vitality, particles and consciousness, language and story, brains and belief, instinct and creativity, duration and impermanence, the twilight of time and the nobility of being.”

    In conclusion, I enjoyed reading this book very much and recommend it to those who may have read his best seller (The elegant universe).
    Rating: 5 Stars. Joseph J. Truncale (Author: Tactical principles of the most effective Combative Systems).
  • grounded2000
    5.0 out of 5 stars Brian Greene is always a good read
    Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2024
    Brian Greene is one of the best for the non-scientist who is interested in cosmology. He explains things eloquently and with a bit of humor, occasionally. Highly recommend this and all of his books.
  • Aran Joseph Canes
    4.0 out of 5 stars Let me Tell you a Story
    Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2020
    It can’t be said that Brian Greene doesn’t aim high in Until the End of Time. In some three hundred pages he tries to explain the Big Bang, cosmic evolution, stellar formation, the beginnings of life, the beginnings of consciousness, the role of art and religion in civilization and the ultimate fate of the universe. Quite a story!

    As an explainer of complex scientific theories, particularly physics, Greene is on a par with popularizing scientists like Richard Dawkins or Stephen Hawking. Of course, if you found a Brief History of Time incomprehensible then you are likely to find large parts of Until the End of Time similarly difficult. I had a bit of an edge as my undergraduate major was in physics.

    Greene is also honest that many of the phenomena he tries to fashion as chapters in his story remain scientific enigma. He does a good job of reviewing competing theories of life’s origin, the evolutionary grounding of the arts, etc.

    What I found hard to justify is the amount of space Greene devotes to speculations about the distant future of the universe. He seems to make the error in reasoning that since we’ve discovered laws of physics that seem to apply to objects billions of years old we can similarly apply these to what the universe will be like in billions of years.

    The lacuna in this argument is that modern physics is only a century old. Most of the advances in cosmology are even more recent. Why should we think that a hundred year old discipline can make accurate predictions across uncountable eons in the future?

    Astronomers like to point out that human civilization would be only a few seconds long if the history of the universe were condensed to a year. It seems rather myopic to not notice that modern physics is only tenths of a second long and that it will probably evolve in unfathomable ways in the next thousand years, let alone the next billion.

    Because Greene spends so much of this book on this topic, even concluding the book with a call to create our own meanings because the universe will finally end in entropic coldness, this seems like a major flaw.

    However, much of the book does communicate difficult scientific concepts to a lay audience in a way I could understand. I’m glad I read the book and recommend it to others. I merely think a little humility about the possible developments in a century old human enterprise would’ve made much of the book a little more realistic and less like the outpourings of a wild imagination.
  • Phil Embree
    5.0 out of 5 stars Science
    Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2024
    Physics, chemistry, physiology and mathematics are used to inform our understanding of the persistence of thinking and self. It’s a mind-expanding experience.

    I bought the book, read it, absorbed a large portion of it, and then shelved it. Then, in a discussion with a friend, remembered the clear presentation and recommended it with the promise to find it and share. I searched the obvious places and then (what I thought was) all the less obvious places. No book found. Maybe I had given it to someone else and forgot? No problem. Order a new one. So I did. His copy doesn’t have the author signature like mine did but the text is intact. Then a few months later I found my original copy. Some people say that I have too many books.

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