The End of Time The Next Revolution in Physics

by Barbour, Julian

• ISBN13: 9780195117295
• ISBN10: 0195117298
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-01-27
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Richard Feynman once quipped: "Time is what happens when nothing else does." But Julian Barbour disagrees: if nothing happened, if nothing changed, time would stop. For time is nothing but change. It is change that we perceive occurring all around us, not time. In fact, time doesn't exist. In this highly provocative volume, Barbour presents the basic evidence for the nonexistence of time, explaining what a timeless universe is like and showing how the world will nonetheless be experienced as intensely temporal. It is a book that strikes at the heart of modern physics, that casts doubt on Einstein's greatest contribution, the space-time continuum, but that also points to the solution of one of the great paradoxes of modern science: the chasm between classical and quantum physics. Indeed, Barbour argues that the unification of Einstein's general relativity and quantum mechanics may well spell the end of time--time will cease to have a role in the foundations of physics. Barbour writes with remarkable clarity, as he ranges from ancient philosophers such as Heraclitus and Parmenides, to such giants of science as Galileo, Newton, and Einstein, to the work of contemporary physicists such as John Wheeler, Roger Penrose, and Steven Hawking. Along the way, the author treats us to an enticing look at some of the mysteries of the universe and presents intriguing ideas about multiple worlds, time travel, immortality, and, above all, the illusion of motion. Turning our understanding of reality inside-out, The End of Time is a vibrantly written and revolutionary book.

Author Biography

Julian Barbour, a theoretical physicist, has worked on foundational issues in physics for 35 years. He _ is the author of the widely praised Absolute or Relative Motion?: Volume I, and is working on the second volume.

Table of Contents

The Story in a Nutshell	1	(1)
Preface	2	(4)
Acknowledgements	6	(5)
PART 1 THE BIG PICTURE IN SIMPLE TERMS
The Main Puzzles	11	(15)
The Next Revolution in Physics	11	(4)
The Ultimate Things	15	(2)
Getting to Grips with Elusive Time	17	(2)
The Properties of Experienced Time	19	(1)
Newton's Concepts	20	(2)
Laws and Initial Conditions	22	(1)
Why is the Universe so Special?	23	(3)
Time Capsules	26	(9)
The Physical World and Consciousness	26	(2)
Time Without Time	28	(2)
Time Capsules	30	(2)
Examples of Time Capsules	32	(3)
A Timeless World	35	(26)
First Outline	35	(3)
The Crisis of Time	38	(1)
The Ultimate Arena	39	(7)
Is Motion Real?	46	(3)
The Big Picture	49	(12)
PART 2 THE INVISIBLE FRAMEWORK AND THE ULTIMATE ARENA
Alternative Frameworks	61	(10)
Absolute or Relative Motion?	61	(6)
An Alternative Arena	67	(4)
Newton's Evidence	71	(22)
The Aims of Machian Mechanics	71	(6)
Apparent Failure	77	(9)
Space and Spin	86	(4)
Energy	90	(3)
The Two Great Clocks in the Sky	93	(16)
Where is Time?	93	(4)
The First Great Clock	97	(2)
The Intertial Clock	99	(5)
The Second Great Clock	104	(5)
Paths in Platonia	109	(14)
Nature and Exploration	109	(4)
Developing Machian Ideas	113	(2)
Exploring Platonia	115	(8)
PART 3 THE DEEP STRUCTURE OF GENERAL RELATIVITY
The Bolt from the Blue	123	(15)
Historical Accidents	123	(1)
Background to the Crisis	124	(5)
Einstein and Simultaneity	129	(3)
The Forgotten Aspects of Time	132	(6)
Minkowski the Magician	138	(9)
The New Arena	138	(1)
From Three to Four Dimensions	139	(3)
Are There Nows in Relativity?	142	(5)
The Discovery of General Relativity	147	(18)
Funny Geometry	147	(4)
Einstein's Way to General Relativity	151	(5)
The Main Advances	156	(4)
The Final Hurdle	160	(2)
General Relativity and Time	162	(3)
General Relativity: The Timeless Picture	165	(20)
The Golden Age of General Relativity	165	(2)
Platonia for Relativity	167	(3)
Best Matching in the New Platonia	170	(2)
Catching up with Einstein	172	(5)
A Summary and the Dilemma	177	(8)
PART 4 QUANTUM MECHANICS AND QUANTUM COSMOLOGY
The Discovery of Quantum Mechanics	185	(8)
The Lesser Mysteries	193	(15)
Introduction	193	(1)
The Wave Function	194	(4)
Interpreting the Wave Function	198	(2)
States Within States	200	(3)
The Copenhagen Interpretation	203	(2)
Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle	205	(1)
The Enigmatic Gem	206	(2)
The Greater Mysteries	208	(21)
Schrodinger's Vast Arena	208	(3)
Correlations and Entanglement	211	(7)
The EPR Paradox	218	(2)
Bell's Inequalities	220	(1)
The Many-Worlds Interpretation	221	(6)
A Dualistic Picture	227	(2)
The Rules of Creation	229	(9)
The End of Change	229	(3)
Creation and the Schrodinger Equation	232	(3)
Quantum Mechanics Hovering in Nothing	235	(3)
`That Damned Equation'	238	(13)
History and Quantum Cosmology	238	(3)
A Simple-Minded Approach	241	(1)
`That Damned Equation'	242	(9)
PART 5 HISTORY IN THE TIMELESS UNIVERSE
The Philosophy of Timelessness	251	(6)
Static Dynamics and Time Capsules	257	(11)
Dynamics Without Dynamics	257	(4)
Why do we Think the Universe is Expanding?	261	(3)
The Idea of Time Capsules: The Kingfisher	264	(4)
Latent Histories and Wave Packets	268	(14)
Smooth Waves and Choppy Seas	268	(3)
History Without History	271	(3)
Airy Nothing and a Local Habitation	274	(4)
Schrodinger's Heroic Failure	278	(4)
The Creation of Records	282	(15)
History and Records	282	(2)
The Creation of Records: First Mechanism	284	(3)
The Prerequisites of History	287	(3)
The Improbability of History	290	(2)
The Creation of Records: Second Mechanism	292	(5)
The Many-Instants Interpretation	297	(9)
Many Histories in One Universe	297	(2)
Bell's `Many-Worlds' Interpretation	299	(3)
The Many-Instants Interpretation	302	(4)
The Emergence of Time and its Arrow	306	(17)
Causality in Quantum Cosmology	306	(1)
Soccer in the Matterhorn	307	(2)
Timeless Descriptions of Dynamics	309	(2)
A Quantum Origin of the Universe?	311	(4)
Vision of a Timeless Universe	315	(6)
A Well-Ordered Cosmos?	321	(2)
Epilogue Life Without Time	323	(14)
Notes	337	(22)
Further Reading	359	(1)
Bibliography	360	(3)
Index	363