A review by weaselweader
About Time: Einstein's Unfinished Revolution by Paul Davies
4.0
Did the universe come into existence with time or in time?
Whether one addresses questions regarding the duration, the existence, the direction or the meaning of time - then, now, before, after, past, present and future - from the point of view of the mathematics of multi-dimensional differential geometry, the physics of special and general relativity or quantum mechanics, meta-physics, religion, or purely philosophy, there can be no doubt that a full and complete understanding of the nature of time is the single biggest roadblock to the development of that holy grail of science, the Theory of Everything. Indeed, even the often strained acceptance of the Big Bang Theory, which is currently the most widely (but far from universally) accepted version of orthodoxy to explain the “beginning” of the universe hinges on a grotesquely incomplete and poorly understood conceptualization of time.
Paul Davies' extended essay on the current state of understanding of the meaning time is elegantly written, lucid, and, at once, head-scratching, provocative and awe-inspiring. But it’s not lightweight stuff that lends itself to scanning and high-speed reading, by any means. In fact, I had to read some sections several times in order to gather even a basic understanding. On the other hand, Davies’ explanation of special relativity’s time dilation and the weird symmetry of Twins’ Paradox, for example, was the best, the clearest and the simplest to understand of any popular physics book that I’d read in my entire life. I was also thrilled to learn of the subtlety of treating the Big Bang as a boundary to time as opposed to an event that happened IN time!
If you’re a complete beginner to the ideas of cosmology and modern physics, ABOUT TIME is probably not a place for you to begin your journey. On the other hand, if you’ve got a basic grasp of the fundamental ideas of special and general relativity and quantum mechanics and you’re a fan of popular science reading (think Stephen Hawking, Michio Kaku, Neil deGrasse Tyson or Brian Greene, for example), then ABOUT TIME certainly deserves a place on your reading schedule. Highly recommended.
Paul Weiss
Whether one addresses questions regarding the duration, the existence, the direction or the meaning of time - then, now, before, after, past, present and future - from the point of view of the mathematics of multi-dimensional differential geometry, the physics of special and general relativity or quantum mechanics, meta-physics, religion, or purely philosophy, there can be no doubt that a full and complete understanding of the nature of time is the single biggest roadblock to the development of that holy grail of science, the Theory of Everything. Indeed, even the often strained acceptance of the Big Bang Theory, which is currently the most widely (but far from universally) accepted version of orthodoxy to explain the “beginning” of the universe hinges on a grotesquely incomplete and poorly understood conceptualization of time.
Paul Davies' extended essay on the current state of understanding of the meaning time is elegantly written, lucid, and, at once, head-scratching, provocative and awe-inspiring. But it’s not lightweight stuff that lends itself to scanning and high-speed reading, by any means. In fact, I had to read some sections several times in order to gather even a basic understanding. On the other hand, Davies’ explanation of special relativity’s time dilation and the weird symmetry of Twins’ Paradox, for example, was the best, the clearest and the simplest to understand of any popular physics book that I’d read in my entire life. I was also thrilled to learn of the subtlety of treating the Big Bang as a boundary to time as opposed to an event that happened IN time!
If you’re a complete beginner to the ideas of cosmology and modern physics, ABOUT TIME is probably not a place for you to begin your journey. On the other hand, if you’ve got a basic grasp of the fundamental ideas of special and general relativity and quantum mechanics and you’re a fan of popular science reading (think Stephen Hawking, Michio Kaku, Neil deGrasse Tyson or Brian Greene, for example), then ABOUT TIME certainly deserves a place on your reading schedule. Highly recommended.
Paul Weiss