About time
The traditional association between time and creation is at the heart of science, cosmology, and religion. When scientists began to explore the implications of Einstein's time for the universe as a whole, they discovered that time is elastic, and can be warped by rapid motion or gravitation, that time cannot be meaningfully divided into past, present, and future, nor does time flow in the popular sense. And they made one of the most important discoveries in the history of human thought: that time, and hence all of physical reality, must have had a definite origin in the past. There can be both a beginning and an end to time.. But important though Einstein's theory of time turned out to be, it still did not solve "the riddle of time," and the search for a deeper understanding of time and its relationship with the rest of the physical universe remains at the top of the scientific agenda. From black holes, where time stands still, to the bizarre world of quantum physics, where time vanishes completely, Professor Davies finds evidence that our current theories of time simply don't add up. Why, for instance, does the universe appear younger than some of the objects within it? And how does the concept of time emerge from the timeless chaos of the big bang? Is the passage of time merely an illusion? Can time run backwards? Is time travel possible?
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What Hacker News says
- You might enjoy Time Reborn[1] by Lee Smolin or About Time[2] by Paul Davies. Note that the latter book is fairly old now (from 1996 or so) and I'm not sure how well it holds up now.
[1]: https://www.amazon.com/Time-Reborn-Lee-Smolin/dp/0544245598
[2]: https://www.amazon.com/About-Time-Einsteins-Unfinished-Revol...
- That would be a long list, given that I read a lot of books and would generally say that most of the books I've read were worth investing time in to some extent. But for what it's worth, here's a subset, cribbed from my previous HN comments:
Something Deeply Hidden - Sean Carroll
The Universe Speaks in Numbers: How Modern Math Reveals Nature's Deepest Secrets - Graham Farmelo
The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdos and the Search for Mathematical Truth - Paul Hoffman
The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan - Robert Kanigel
Lost in Math - Sabine Hossenfelder
The First Three Minutes - Steven Weinberg
Hyperspace - Michio Kaku
Not Even Wrong - Peter Woit
The Trouble With Physics - Lee Smolin
About Time - Paul Davies
Time Reborn - Lee Smolin
The Elegant Universe - Brian Greene
The Hidden Reality - Brian Greene
The Fabric of the Cosmos - Brian Greene
Quantum Space: Loop Quantum Gravity and the Search for the Structure of Space, Time, and the Universe - Jim Baggott
The Universe Speaks in Numbers: How Modern Math Reveals Nature's Deepest Secrets - Graham Farmelo
Three Roads To Quantum Gravity - Lee Smolin
Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos - Seth Lloyd
Higgs - The invention and discovery of the 'God Particle' - Jim Baggott
Analogy Making As Perception - Melanie Mitchell
Society of Mind - Marvin Minsky
Engineering General Intelligence, Part 1 - Ben Goertzel
Engineering General Intelligence, Part 2 - Ben Goertzel
The AGI Revolution - Ben Goertzel
Hackers & Painters by our very own Paul "pg" Graham
Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution - Steven Levy
The Soul of a New Machine - Tracy Kidder
Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier - Katie Hafner & John Markoff
Artificial Life: A Report from the Frontier Where Computers Meet Biology - Steven Levy
Ghost In The Wires - Kevin Mitnick
The Art of Deception - Kevin Mitnick
The Art of Intrusion - Kevin Mitnick
Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter
The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand
It's Not About The Bike - Lance Armstrong
Ultramarathon Man - Dean Karnazes
Charles Proteus Steinmetz: The Electrical Wizard of Schenectady - Robert Bly
Report From Engine Co 82 - Dennis Smith
Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind - Al Ries, Jack Trout and Philip Kotler
The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk! - Al Ries and Jack Trout
Re-Positioning: Marketing in an Era of Competition, Change and Crisis by Jack Trout and Steve Rivkin
The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding - Al Ries and Laura Ries
Differentiate or Die: Survival in Our Era of Killer Competition - Jack Trout and Steve Rivkin
Marketing High Technology - William H. Davidow
Marketing Warfare - Al Ries
The Discipline of Market Leaders - Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema
Crossing The Chasm - Geoffrey Moore
How to Measure Anything - Douglas Hubbard
Fooled by Randomness - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
The Black Swan - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
- Something Deeply Hidden - Sean Carroll[1]
Lost in Math - Sabine Hossenfelder[2]
The First Three Minutes - Steven Weinberg[3]
Hyperspace - Michio Kaku[4]
Not Even Wrong - Peter Woit[5]
The Trouble With Physics - Lee Smolin[6]
About Time - Paul Davies[7]
Time Reborn - Lee Smolin[8]
The Elegant Universe - Brian Greene[9]
The Hidden Reality - Brian Greene[10]
The Fabric of the Cosmos - Brian Greene[11]
Quantum Space: Loop Quantum Gravity and the Search for the Structure of Space, Time, and the Universe - Jim Baggott[12]
The Universe Speaks in Numbers: How Modern Math Reveals Nature's Deepest Secrets - Graham Farmelo[13]
Three Roads To Quantum Gravity - Lee Smolin[14]
Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos - Seth Lloyd[15]
Higgs - The invention and discovery of the 'God Particle' - Jim Baggott[16]
[1]: https://www.amazon.com/Something-Deeply-Hidden-Emergence-Spa...
[2]: https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Math-Beauty-Physics-Astray/dp/15...
[3]: https://www.amazon.com/First-Three-Minutes-Modern-Universe/d...
[4]: https://www.amazon.com/Hyperspace-Scientific-Parallel-Univer...
[5]: https://www.amazon.com/Not-Even-Wrong-Failure-Physical/dp/04...
[6]: https://www.amazon.com/Trouble-Physics-String-Theory-Science...
[7]: https://www.amazon.com/About-Time-Einsteins-Unfinished-Revol...
[8]: https://www.amazon.com/Time-Reborn-Lee-Smolin/dp/0544245598/
[9]: https://www.amazon.com/Elegant-Universe-Superstrings-Dimensi...
[10]: https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Reality-Parallel-Universes-Cos...
[11]: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375412883/ref=dbs_a_def_r...
[12]: https://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Space-Gravity-Structure-Unive...
[13]: https://www.amazon.com/Universe-Speaks-Numbers-Reveals-Natur...
[14]: https://www.amazon.com/Three-Roads-Quantum-Gravity-Smolin/dp...
[15]: https://www.amazon.com/Programming-Universe-Quantum-Computer...
[16]: https://www.amazon.com/Higgs-invention-discovery-God-Particl...
- About Time by Paul Davies is amazing!
http://www.amazon.com/About-Time-Einsteins-Unfinished-Revolu...
- I tend to read it as the steps taken in a thought process to try to use quantum entanglement to achieve FTL communication. Personally this is one of my favorite learning methods, since you go through the motions of a discoverer rather than getting the finished thought served.
The book "About Time" (Davies 1995) is written like this, and I love it :)
- No, it's an attribute of time itself, not mechanical clock issues. I _highly_ recommend the book "About Time"
http://www.amazon.com/About-Time-Einsteins-Unfinished-Revolu...
