Re: Books on the nature of time?
- From: helbig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Phillip Helbig---remove CLOTHES to reply)
- Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2007 13:59:19 +0000 (UTC)
Check out THE NATURE OF TIME, edited by Thomas Gold. Ithaca: Cornell
University Press, 1967. This collects contributions from a collection
of philosophically interested physicists which took place at a conference.
One of the participants didn't want to be mentioned by name, so he appears
as "Mr. X". These days, especially with the internet, it is not hard to find
out who (very probably) Mr. X was, but it might be interesting to read
the book first and then find out afterwards (thus, I hope the moderators
will prevent any spoilers from appearing in the followups!).
Another interesting book is TIME TRAVEL: TIME TRAVEL IN PHYSICS,
METAPHYSICS AND SCIENCE FICTION by Paul J. Nahin. New York, American
Institute of Physics, 1993. ISBN 0-88318-935-6. (Any author who
dedicates his book not only to his wife but also to his "splendid cat,
Heaviside", has to be worth reading.) This is one of the few books on
my "must read again" list (not that others are not worthy, but this book
is so full of information that it is impossible not to forget enough
until the next reading to make it worthwile to read it again). It is
also full of pithy aphorisms (mostly quotations). As the title implies,
the focus is on time travel, but there is more than enough stuff about the
philosophy of time in general and its relation to physics (anyone who
understands time travel has to understand time first).
Of course, no discussion on the physics and philosophy of time would
be complete without mentioning Roger Penrose and his ideas on entropy,
initial conditions of the universe, the various arrows of time, and Ricci
and Weyl curvature. My impression is that, while few people have actually
delved into this in detail, those who have generally agree that Penrose
raises some very interesting issues, even if they don't agree with Penrose
as to how these should be resolved. Check out his THE ROAD TO REALITY:
A COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE LAWS OF THE UNIVERSE.
.
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