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thebookclubmks's review against another edition
Past, Present, Future. We always see Time as these three different “phases” or “progress” or “points” from A to B to C. This is the old Newtonian understanding of Time. Time was seen in directional manner like a straight line. However, since the revolution of relativity in modern physics pioneered by Einstein, the notion that Time is a straight arrow is no longer quite correct.
Sean Carroll (the author) explains that Time is not a direction, Time is a movement of energy. The tendency of energy is to get more disorder. This universal tendency toward disorder is called entropy. The energy of all things (materials, water, fire, coffee, tea, the sun, the moon, and yes, including you as humans) in this universe will reach the state of maximum disorderliness (death). This is the reason why we can remember a past, but we cannot remember the future. We cannot remember the future because the future is a state of disorderliness. Same reasoning on why we can scramble an egg, but we cannot unscramble it. This is what Time really is. The natural tendency toward chaos.
In this book, Carrol also argues that time-travel cannot be done because we cannot reverse the movement of entropy. Just like in outer-space, there is no direction of Space (up, down, left, right), nor there is direction of Time. It is our anthropomorphic bias that makes us think everything has a direction.
We as humans need directions. We need purpose to move. That’s why it is difficult for us to let go the sense of past, present, and future. We always want to justify our past; haunted by past mistakes; thinking we have the capability to choose alternative options. This is an illusion, and we’re stuck in it. Overall, this a pretty comprehensive book talking about cosmological topics and big picture stuffs. I’d recommend this book if you want to change your perceptions of Time.
*Review by Riswan
Sean Carroll (the author) explains that Time is not a direction, Time is a movement of energy. The tendency of energy is to get more disorder. This universal tendency toward disorder is called entropy. The energy of all things (materials, water, fire, coffee, tea, the sun, the moon, and yes, including you as humans) in this universe will reach the state of maximum disorderliness (death). This is the reason why we can remember a past, but we cannot remember the future. We cannot remember the future because the future is a state of disorderliness. Same reasoning on why we can scramble an egg, but we cannot unscramble it. This is what Time really is. The natural tendency toward chaos.
In this book, Carrol also argues that time-travel cannot be done because we cannot reverse the movement of entropy. Just like in outer-space, there is no direction of Space (up, down, left, right), nor there is direction of Time. It is our anthropomorphic bias that makes us think everything has a direction.
We as humans need directions. We need purpose to move. That’s why it is difficult for us to let go the sense of past, present, and future. We always want to justify our past; haunted by past mistakes; thinking we have the capability to choose alternative options. This is an illusion, and we’re stuck in it. Overall, this a pretty comprehensive book talking about cosmological topics and big picture stuffs. I’d recommend this book if you want to change your perceptions of Time.
*Review by Riswan
hjbolus's review against another edition
5.0
Fantastic, like the rest of Sean Carroll’s work. Unfortunately I chose to listen to this as an audiobook. That was ok, but not ideal for the amount of fascinating detail in here, especially about thermodynamics and entropy. I may need to come back to this book soon.
iamnader's review against another edition
4.0
Much more vigorous than some other layman physics books.
book_ish's review against another edition
great book, I just felt like it was taking too long for me to finish and I was beginning to lose interest.
alchewpacca's review against another edition
challenging
informative
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
timbo001's review against another edition
4.0
Would you suspect a static universe with thermal equilibrium that gives birth to baby universes is responsible for the arrow of time? Sean Carroll does.
genpopadopolous's review against another edition
3.0
Not the book's fault- a fair amount of this was straight over my head.
I plan on coming back later with hopefully some more knowledge and see if I can retain a bit better.
I plan on coming back later with hopefully some more knowledge and see if I can retain a bit better.
embingham's review against another edition
2.0
I really should give this book 2.5 stars. I really enjoyed the first few chapters, but it soon got a little to technical for me. I would not recommend this book to someone who didn't have a background in science. The explanation of entropy was great, but after that, the author spent so much time discussing entropy that I started to get frustrated with the concept. I guess I should expect that from a book that spends 375 pages discussing a single topic. His writing wasn't interesting enough to hold my interest for long, so it took me quite a while to plough through.