The End of Time The Next Revolution in Physics

by Barbour, Julian

• ISBN13: 9780195145922
• ISBN10: 0195145925
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-11-29
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Richard Feynman once quipped that "Time is what happens when nothing else does." But Julian Barbour disagrees: if nothing happened, if nothing changed, then time would stop. For time is nothing but change. It is change that we perceive occurring all around us, not time. Put simply, time doesnot exist. In this highly provocative volume, Barbour presents the basic evidence for a timeless universe, and shows why we still experience the world as intensely temporal. It is a book that strikes at the heart of modern physics. It casts doubt on Einstein's greatest contribution, the spacetimecontinuum, but 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 holy grail of physicists--the unification of Einstein's general relativity with quantum mechanics--may well spell the end oftime. Barbour writes with remarkable clarity as he ranges from the ancient philosophers Heraclitus and Parmenides, through the giants of science Galileo, Newton, and Einstein, to the work of the contemporary physicists John Wheeler, Roger Penrose, and Steven Hawking. Along the way he treats us toenticing glimpses of some of the mysteries of the universe, and presents intriguing ideas about multiple worlds, time travel, immortality, and, above all, the illusion of motion. The End of Time is a vibrantly written and revolutionary book. It turns our understanding of reality inside-out.

Author Biography

Julian Barbour is a theoretical physicist who has worked on foundational issues in physics and astronomy for 35 years. His first book, the widely praised The Discovery of Dynamics, has recently been republished in paperback. In 2000 the Association of American Publishers awarded The End of Time its prestigious award for excellence in the Physics & Astronomy section. 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	p. 1
Preface	p. 2
Acknowledgements	p. 6
The Big Picture in Simple Terms
The Main Puzzles	p. 11
Time Capsules	p. 26
A Timeless World	p. 35
The Invisible Framework and the Ultimate Arena
Alternative Frameworks	p. 61
Newton's Evidence	p. 71
The Two Great Clocks in the Sky	p. 93
Paths in Platonia	p. 109
The Deep Structure of General Relativity
The Bolt from the Blue	p. 123
Minkowski the Magician	p. 138
The Discovery of General Relativity	p. 147
General Relativity: The Timeless Picture	p. 165
Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Cosmology
The Discovery of Quantum Mechanics	p. 185
The Lesser Mysteries	p. 193
The Greater Mysteries	p. 208
The Rules of Creation	p. 229
'That Damned Equation'	p. 238
History in the Timeless Universe
The Philosophy of Timelessness	p. 251
Static Dynamics and Time Capsules	p. 257
Latent Histories and Wave Packets	p. 268
The Creation of Records	p. 282
The Many-Instants Interpretation	p. 297
The Emergence of Time and its Arrow	p. 306
Epilogue: Life Without Time	p. 323
Notes	p. 337
Further Reading	p. 359
Bibliography	p. 360
Index	p. 363
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.