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Amazon.co.uk Review
The End of Time is a fascinating contribution to physics by a scholar and thinker who is taken seriously by physicists of the calibre of Wheeler and Smolin. But he has pursued a career outside the mainstream, living on a farm and refusing to get involved in traditional teaching and research. He argues that time is a purely local phenomenon, a way of seeing things, rather than something that actually meaningfully exists at the core of the Universe. This consists of a vast agglomeration of Nows, single moments whose relationship with each other is intimate, but not intrinsically one of causation.
"If time is removed from the foundations of physics, we shall not all suddenly feel that the flow of time has ceased. On the contrary, new timeless principles will explain why we do feel that time flows. The pattern of the first great revolution will be repeated. Copernicus, Galileo and Kepler taught us that the Earth moves and rotates while the heavens stand still, but this did not change by one iota our direct perception that the heavens do move and that the Earth does not budge."
The many worlds hypothesis is also true and the worlds that derive from alternate possibility exist alongside each other moment-by-moment. Seeing things in this way solves the more recondite problems of quantum physics--Schrodinger's Cat is both dead, and alive, and never in the box in the first place and at a time before the box was thought of, and long dead all in a set of Nows that sit alongside each other in the Platonic realm which is underlying reality. There are no paradoxes because Sequence is an illusion: this is philosophical physics for those of you who like to have your brains hurt. --Roz Kaveney
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In this book, theoretical physicist Julian Barbour describes the coming revolution in physics: a quantum theory of the universe that brings together Einstein's general theory of relativity (which denies the existence of a unique time) and quantum mechanics (which demands one).
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First Sentence
Nothing is more mysterious and elusive than time. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Nothing is more mysterious and elusive than time. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not suitable for the layman but some good deep thinking,,
By Jimmie "Jimmie" (Ireland) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The End Of Time: The Next Revolution in Our Understanding of the Universe (Paperback)
I may as well start by saying that I have a degree in Applied physics and I'm more exposed to this kind of thinking than the average reader. This book is more an excercise in deep thought than an enlightening read.
I can't imagine anyone not finding some of the ideas and imaginings in this book hard to grasp unless they have a technical science background and are used to thinking in this manner. His overall view of time I disagree with but that doesn't mean I regret reading it. In fact I found it to be a very thought provoking book which is always a good thing. Because of the obscurity of the subject the author in no way really convinced me of his beliefs, since the arguments he puts forward are a mesh between his own eccentric thoughts about timelessness coupled with an underlying quantum mechanical structure to it. A process which would seem to be impossible to prove anyway. But still a eye-opening read. I'm giving it 3 stars because of the difficulty of understanding some of the material he puts across which I don't recommend for someone looking for a nice and easy interesting science read, the book is hard to get through compared to most popular science books. As a result of the awkward material presented I can't say that I found this book to be an exciting read either.
14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Long and involved, but interesting,
By bobobob5 "bobobob5" (london england) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The End Of Time: The Next Revolution in Our Understanding of the Universe (Paperback)
Humans find it quite easy to grasp the idea of spacial dimensions. This might be because we have eyes, and skin that can feel things. If a clock was conscious, would it find space to be the elusive dimension? The author starts from the premise that time is inherently elusive, and he seeks to resolve this by eliminating it entirely. Inevitably, the notorious dual-slit light interference experiment features centrally in the book, as it does in Professor Deutsch's studies. Both of these quantum physicists are drawn to the multiple worlds (multiverse) theory, in which a virtually infinite number of universes exist simultaneously, 'touching' and affecting each other through the interaction of electromagnetic particles and probabilities. This theory is not accepted by the majority of physicists. Barbour's book is not an easy read; the early parts are far too long, and the conclusions - and the resultant implications - are not really clear at all. Having read the book, I certainly find it easier to imagine the universe existing as a timeless present moment, with no past and no future. Whether this book is on the right track, or merely leading its readers up the garden path, only the 'future' will reveal.
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Complex, but ultimately interesting,
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This review is from: The End Of Time: The Next Revolution in Our Understanding of the Universe (Paperback)
This book was difficult to get into the first time. An awful lot is packed in. The first chapters seem to explain the authors general idea, and the rest of the book explains how this fits into other physics theories. This was difficult to start with because you have to take some assumptions at face value until they are explained in full. Having said that, the diagrams are excellent, and the information is ultimately accessable. You may need to read it twice, but it is worth it.
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