An introduction to black holes, information, and the string theory revolution : the holographic universe

I'm going to echo what others have said about this book. In short, if you are not at least a fairly well-rounded physics student, this book is not for you--which makes for a great deal of frustration for someone like me. I've always been fascinated by Black Holes and Theoretical Physics in general, but as I don't have a "mathematical mind" I've always had to rely on others to explain the theories and concepts to me sans(at least for the most part) the equations. This book, sadly, doesn't provide much of a life raft in that regard. I find Hawking's Information Paradox and the concept of Holographic Space more than intriguing, and I had hoped Susskind and Lindesay's book would've made those subjects more accessible for someone like me, but I've found, as others have noted, page after page of equations and a definite assumption on the part of the authors that the reader has truly done his/her homework and already possesses an "academic" understanding of physics. I have read books by Hawking and others that have proved both informative and entertaining--I have no illusions about ever becoming a physicist myself--and so if anyone knows of another book that could more readily flesh-out the subject of the Information Paradox and Holographic Space please let me know. Thanks. I will read the rest of this book but I doubt I'll be able to glean much from it. Over the last decade the physics of black holes has been revolutionized by developments that grew out of Jacob Bekenstein's realization that black holes have entropy. Stephen Hawking raised profound issues concerning the loss of information in black hole evaporation and the consistency of quantum mechanics in a world with gravity. For two decades these questions puzzled theoretical physicists and eventually led to a revolution in the way we think about space, time, matter and information. This revolution has culminated in a remarkable principle called “The Holographic Principle”, which is now a major focus of attention in gravitational research, quantum field theory and elementary particle physics. Leonard Susskind, one of the co-inventors of the Holographic Principle as well as one of the founders of String theory, develops and explains these concepts. After having read "the Cosmic Landscape" by dr. Susskind I very quickly found out that this was quite a different kind of book. It is a book by an eminent scientist for other advanced scientists, which I am not, at least not in this particular branch of physics. Still, by skipping formulas I could not understand because I did not even know the definitions used, I still, by concentrating on the text for some parts, got at least an inkling of what the book was all about. In that respect it was not a total failure to me, as it made me clear what the present scientific debate in this field is all about. Still this book is definitely not for laymen. "Over the last decade the physics of black holes has been revolutionized by developments that grew out of Jacob Bekenstein's realization that black holes have entropy. This revolution has culminated in a remarkable principle called "the holographic principle," which is now a major focus of attention in gravitational research, quantum field theory and elementary particle physics. Leonard Susskind, one of the co-inventors of the holographic principle as well as one of the founders of string theory, develops and explains these concepts."--Jacket

Over the last decade the physics of black holes has been revolutionized by developments that grew out of Jacob Bekenstein's realization that black holes have entropy. This revolution has culminated in a remarkable principle called "the holographic principle," which is now a major focus of attention in gravitational research, quantum field theory and elementary particle physics. Leonard Susskind, one of the co-inventors of the holographic principle as well as one of the founders of string theory, develops and explains these concepts.

Over the last decade the physics of black holes has been revolutionized by developments that grew out of Jacob Bekenstein's realization that black holes have entropy. Steven Hawking raised profound issues concerning the loss of information in black hole evaporation and the consistency of quantum mechanics in a world with gravity Before beginning the study of the quantum theory of black holes, one must first become thoroughly familiar with the geometry of classical black holes in a variety of different coordinate systems.