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About Time
From a Palaeolithic farmer living by the sun and stone plinths to the factory worker logging into an industrial punch clock to the modern manager enslaved to Outlook's 15-minute increments, our relationship with time has constantly evolved alongside our scientific understanding of the universe. And the latest advances in physics string-theory branes, multiverses, "clockless" physics are positioned to completely rewrite time in the coming years. Weaving cosmology with day-to-day chronicles and a lively wit, astrophysicist Adam Frank tells the dazzling story of humanity's invention of time and how we will experience it in the future.
434 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 27, 2011
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About the author
Adam Frank
25 books169 followersAdam Frank is a professor of astrophysics at the University of Rochester. He is a co-founder of NPR’s 13.7: Cosmos and Culture blog and an on-air commentator for All Things Considered. He also served as the science consultant for Marvel Studio’s Dr. Strange. He lives in Rochester, New York.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 67 reviews
March 16, 2014
There’s something about time that seems to perplex us. It’s easy to measure, but hard to define; the past seems different from the future, but our equations don’t tell us why; it is everywhere, and nowhere. No wonder books about the nature of time appear like… well, clockwork, from Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time (1988) to Paul Davies’ About Time (1995) to Sean Carroll’s From Eternity to Here (2010) and Roger Penrose’s Cycles of Time (2011). (Full disclosure: I’m guilty of adding to the heap, with In Search of Time (2008).)
The latest contribution comes from Adam Frank, an astrophysicist at the University of Rochester. With all the good titles having been taken, Frank can perhaps be forgiven for re-using Davies’ title from 16 years ago (who’s counting). As for the contents – well, fortunately, time is the dimension that keeps on giving, and Frank has found a largely untapped branch of the temporal landscape to explore in this ambitious and engrossing investigation.
In this sprawling work, Frank attempts to weave together the cosmological and the cultural; to show that our theories about space and time, and how we live in time, are deeply intertwined – the “braiding” of cosmology and culture, as the author puts it. Consider, for example, the mechanical clock – “without a doubt, the most important invention of the last thousand years.” The clock became widespread in Europe in the 14th century, bringing a more structured workday and, arguably, a more rushed way of life. But the ubiquitous clock also changed the way we imagine the cosmos itself, as the metaphor of the “clockwork universe” began to take hold. The medieval philosopher Nicole Oresme, Frank tells us, described the world as “a regular clockwork that was neither fast nor slow, never stopped, and worked in summer and winter.” As for the planets circling above, Oresme found them “similar to when a person has made a horologe [a clock] and sets it in motion, and then it moves by itself.” Frank adds: “People had refashioned their daily, intimate worlds to the beat of the clock, so it was only natural that their conception of the surrounding universe should follow.”
Considering the scope of the text – Frank has included everything from the birth of agriculture to the social effect of washing machines to the pros and cons of multiple universes – it is a remarkably tight narrative. And he is very much up to speed on the latest speculations on what may have preceded the big bang. But there are a few bumps along the way. He loves the phrase “material engagement” a little too much; in one spot it appears four times in about a page. In discussing 21st-century time pressures, a surprisingly large chunk of text is devoted to the effects of Microsoft Outlook. (Is any one software package really that significant?) The Gregorian calendar reform, meanwhile, gets barely a mention. And some digressions, like a discussion of the “Sokal hoax” of 1996, come out of the blue.
I also have some concerns with the feel-good ending: Frank seems convinced that we are “participants” in the universe; we are its “co-creators”; the universe contains “a vital place for us.” In other words, there is meaning to be found in this vast, dark cosmos: “If we can recognize the enigmatic entanglement between cultural time and cosmic time, we might stop looking for God in the form of ‘final theories’ and find our rightful – and rightfully central – place in the narratives of creation.” Our universe, Frank argues, is “suffused with meaning and potential.”
Some readers will no doubt warm to this message. A skeptic might counter: This is rather like a carpenter who builds a house with a window, and then peers out at the universe – and takes comfort in the fact that he himself built the window that frames the view. My own response was somewhere in the middle.
For those who have been sampling the recent “time” books, there is much that will be familiar here. Even so, there is enough that is original to keep even seasoned “time” buffs engaged; and, fortunately, Frank is a first-rate storyteller. About Time is well worth a read. (Note: This is adapted from a longer review I wrote for Physics World.)
The latest contribution comes from Adam Frank, an astrophysicist at the University of Rochester. With all the good titles having been taken, Frank can perhaps be forgiven for re-using Davies’ title from 16 years ago (who’s counting). As for the contents – well, fortunately, time is the dimension that keeps on giving, and Frank has found a largely untapped branch of the temporal landscape to explore in this ambitious and engrossing investigation.
In this sprawling work, Frank attempts to weave together the cosmological and the cultural; to show that our theories about space and time, and how we live in time, are deeply intertwined – the “braiding” of cosmology and culture, as the author puts it. Consider, for example, the mechanical clock – “without a doubt, the most important invention of the last thousand years.” The clock became widespread in Europe in the 14th century, bringing a more structured workday and, arguably, a more rushed way of life. But the ubiquitous clock also changed the way we imagine the cosmos itself, as the metaphor of the “clockwork universe” began to take hold. The medieval philosopher Nicole Oresme, Frank tells us, described the world as “a regular clockwork that was neither fast nor slow, never stopped, and worked in summer and winter.” As for the planets circling above, Oresme found them “similar to when a person has made a horologe [a clock] and sets it in motion, and then it moves by itself.” Frank adds: “People had refashioned their daily, intimate worlds to the beat of the clock, so it was only natural that their conception of the surrounding universe should follow.”
Considering the scope of the text – Frank has included everything from the birth of agriculture to the social effect of washing machines to the pros and cons of multiple universes – it is a remarkably tight narrative. And he is very much up to speed on the latest speculations on what may have preceded the big bang. But there are a few bumps along the way. He loves the phrase “material engagement” a little too much; in one spot it appears four times in about a page. In discussing 21st-century time pressures, a surprisingly large chunk of text is devoted to the effects of Microsoft Outlook. (Is any one software package really that significant?) The Gregorian calendar reform, meanwhile, gets barely a mention. And some digressions, like a discussion of the “Sokal hoax” of 1996, come out of the blue.
I also have some concerns with the feel-good ending: Frank seems convinced that we are “participants” in the universe; we are its “co-creators”; the universe contains “a vital place for us.” In other words, there is meaning to be found in this vast, dark cosmos: “If we can recognize the enigmatic entanglement between cultural time and cosmic time, we might stop looking for God in the form of ‘final theories’ and find our rightful – and rightfully central – place in the narratives of creation.” Our universe, Frank argues, is “suffused with meaning and potential.”
Some readers will no doubt warm to this message. A skeptic might counter: This is rather like a carpenter who builds a house with a window, and then peers out at the universe – and takes comfort in the fact that he himself built the window that frames the view. My own response was somewhere in the middle.
For those who have been sampling the recent “time” books, there is much that will be familiar here. Even so, there is enough that is original to keep even seasoned “time” buffs engaged; and, fortunately, Frank is a first-rate storyteller. About Time is well worth a read. (Note: This is adapted from a longer review I wrote for Physics World.)
January 20, 2018
Adam Frank focused not just on whether we could agree that there is a time we agree upon (people near different sized objects, such as black holes or small planets) would experience time differently. This has been written about quite a bit. Frank also wants to understand time as it relates to culture. How have we come to understand what time is from the beginning of recorded history? Human's perception of time has changed as we discovered more about our universe.
The invention of the clock really had quite an impact on our perception of time. Clocks shaped every aspect of human life. We didn't eat when we were hungry. We ate when the clock told us to eat. Clocks offered nothing short of a new world model.
Then the magic came! One of my very favorite histories of all time is Isaac Newtons idea of a Clockwork Universe. This gave rise to our notion of mechanical physics. If you are into this story (and have not heard it so many times that you are sick of it, I highly recommend Edward Dolnick's Clockwork Universe.) Now humans have moved from a clockwork model onto how our universe is like a computer.
More than the clockwork model, truly mind-blowing was how Einstein understood time. Relativity changed not just the way we understood time, it informed humans that space *was* time. This is how we can know that someone near a black hole would experience time going much slower than people who are on a small planet like Earth. Relativity made humans think about the geometry of spacetime.
Even with Einsteins brilliant insights, his theory breaks down at the Big Bang. What happened before? So many scientists are looking into that. Was there a multiverse? (Sean Carroll just wrote a paper on this. You should check it out). Even if we aren't going to ask questions that big, our understanding of cosmology has led to unexpected advances in technology.
The invention of the clock really had quite an impact on our perception of time. Clocks shaped every aspect of human life. We didn't eat when we were hungry. We ate when the clock told us to eat. Clocks offered nothing short of a new world model.
Then the magic came! One of my very favorite histories of all time is Isaac Newtons idea of a Clockwork Universe. This gave rise to our notion of mechanical physics. If you are into this story (and have not heard it so many times that you are sick of it, I highly recommend Edward Dolnick's Clockwork Universe.) Now humans have moved from a clockwork model onto how our universe is like a computer.
More than the clockwork model, truly mind-blowing was how Einstein understood time. Relativity changed not just the way we understood time, it informed humans that space *was* time. This is how we can know that someone near a black hole would experience time going much slower than people who are on a small planet like Earth. Relativity made humans think about the geometry of spacetime.
Even with Einsteins brilliant insights, his theory breaks down at the Big Bang. What happened before? So many scientists are looking into that. Was there a multiverse? (Sean Carroll just wrote a paper on this. You should check it out). Even if we aren't going to ask questions that big, our understanding of cosmology has led to unexpected advances in technology.
April 21, 2017
Fairly impressive under several aspects. Recommended. Detailed review will soon follow.
July 16, 2012
Just as I have a desire to try to understand economics,I have a desire to try and comprehend physics and cosmology.So, being a reader, I turn to books in an attempt to self educate because I am way too old and encumbered to go back to high school and college and remake myself as a student fully committed to and formally engaged with the study of either of these two complex fields.Hence...I turn to books (like this one!) on the subject. I arrive at titles to explore by reading book reviews.I am repeatedly enticed and exhilarated by reviews that teasingly announce that, at long last and once and for all, my perplexity in these areas of human knowledge will be convincingly resolved by this or that particular book... a book that, finally, will successfully and beautifully clarify the mysterious subject for the "general reader" or "layman". I read the book and, upon completion of said tome, can only conclude one of two things:(1)I am just too damn dumb to pass muster as part of the general crowd of laymen that the book is supposedly written for or, (2) there are certain fields of knowledge (i.e. cosmology, economics, mathematical theory), that simply too complex to explicate to any person (especially me) that is not a gifted specialist in the field. Both of these alternatives leave me feeling trapped,frustrated and hopelessly pea-brained.
Adam Frank's book is a pretty good read...I especially loved his appraisal of the impact of Einstein's years of work at the patent office as a vital part of his intellectual growth, and the seed bed of the later theoretical leaps that led to his world renown. As Frank's writes on page 126; "But in the culture of his own day, the questions framing young Einstein's great achievement in relativity were not abstract...It was during his years in the patent office, from 1902-1909, before he could secure an academic position, that Einstein developed the ideas that would become the theory of relativity." This book, when it it presents the reader with a history of our concept of time, while explaining the relationship between our daily and common existential experience of time in regards to the subsequent development of theoretical approaches to time is wonderful. I am now acquainted with this relationship between lived time (praxis) and the historical march of cosmology (theoria).Thanks to you, Adam Frank! But, once I got to what I assume the climactic point of this book's history of cosmology (the penultimate Chapter 11 entitled: Giving Up The Ghost: The End Of Beginnings And The End Of Time), I got LOST!!!! My mind couldn't wrap itself around concepts such as multiverses, discrete "nows", Platonia, String Theory and other esoteric approaches to time and cosmology. The astrophysicists themselves seem (to me at any rate) to be resorting to bizarre alternatives in the face of their own bewilderment.Perhaps, if I can somehow manage to live another 20 years or so,continue to read in this field, and (at that future point in time, 20 years hence),still have the mental acuity to read another book of this ilk....maybe things will make more sense?
I should also note, as have other reviewers on this site, that Adam Frank's prose is really pretty incredible and very beautiful. Therefore, although I didn't really get it all, I did find this book helped me, especially as regards the history of the conceptualization of time up to the theory of the Big Bang. The chapters that delved into the new theoretical territory (Post Big Bang theories: Chapters 10, 11, and 12)) left me dizzy... probably because of my own limitations and mental short comings. Maybe I'll re-read this book in an attempt to glean some of all that I didn't get? 4 stars !!!
Adam Frank's book is a pretty good read...I especially loved his appraisal of the impact of Einstein's years of work at the patent office as a vital part of his intellectual growth, and the seed bed of the later theoretical leaps that led to his world renown. As Frank's writes on page 126; "But in the culture of his own day, the questions framing young Einstein's great achievement in relativity were not abstract...It was during his years in the patent office, from 1902-1909, before he could secure an academic position, that Einstein developed the ideas that would become the theory of relativity." This book, when it it presents the reader with a history of our concept of time, while explaining the relationship between our daily and common existential experience of time in regards to the subsequent development of theoretical approaches to time is wonderful. I am now acquainted with this relationship between lived time (praxis) and the historical march of cosmology (theoria).Thanks to you, Adam Frank! But, once I got to what I assume the climactic point of this book's history of cosmology (the penultimate Chapter 11 entitled: Giving Up The Ghost: The End Of Beginnings And The End Of Time), I got LOST!!!! My mind couldn't wrap itself around concepts such as multiverses, discrete "nows", Platonia, String Theory and other esoteric approaches to time and cosmology. The astrophysicists themselves seem (to me at any rate) to be resorting to bizarre alternatives in the face of their own bewilderment.Perhaps, if I can somehow manage to live another 20 years or so,continue to read in this field, and (at that future point in time, 20 years hence),still have the mental acuity to read another book of this ilk....maybe things will make more sense?
I should also note, as have other reviewers on this site, that Adam Frank's prose is really pretty incredible and very beautiful. Therefore, although I didn't really get it all, I did find this book helped me, especially as regards the history of the conceptualization of time up to the theory of the Big Bang. The chapters that delved into the new theoretical territory (Post Big Bang theories: Chapters 10, 11, and 12)) left me dizzy... probably because of my own limitations and mental short comings. Maybe I'll re-read this book in an attempt to glean some of all that I didn't get? 4 stars !!!
November 11, 2014
This is a curious book that tries to be great - and it almost succeeds. Adam Frank makes a determined effort to interweave two apparently unconnected strands of science and technology history - the personal appreciation of time in human culture and our cosmology. Along the way he brings in a whole host of little details - whether or not you feel that the main aim of the book is successful, there is plenty to enjoy in here.
To begin with, that blend of two disparate strands works very well. We start with time that is linked to the heavens and so is inevitably tied up with cosmology. Later on we get the monastic measures of time, the first clocks, the spread of mechanical time, electrical synchronisation and the railways, modern time keeping, the Outlook program from Microsoft Office and our modern hyper-connected, always aware world, and alongside it the move from mythical cosmologies through Greek and Copernican versions of the solar system, our expanding view of the universe, various Big Bang theories and their burgeoning rivals. (Frank pretty much has the Big Bang as dead by now.)
Sometimes the interweaving is impressive. For instance, I knew that Einstein came up with his special relativity with its very different views of simultaneity while he was working in the Swiss Patent Office in Bern. But I had assumed the work was a sinecure he got out of the way quickly before thinking his important thoughts. Frank points out that much of the patent material he was working on would be about electrical synchronisation of clocks - a concept with simultaneity at its heart - so could be directly inspirational in his thinking.
For much of the rest of the book, though, the linkage between our cultural perception of time and cosmology seemed forced, especially when Frank makes Outlook one of the crucial steps. Unlike the other mileposts, which applied to everyone, only a small percentage of the population has ever used Outlook, making it a clumsy choice. I found the style decidedly forced, particularly in the way each chapter began with a rather twee fictional dramadoc representation of a point in history (or the future). And there was a tendency to state as 'fact' descriptions of historic, and particularly prehistoric events we really don't know much about. This particularly struck me in the description of neolithic myth and ritual which is pure supposition. I think Frank should have read the superb Motel of the Mysteries, which features future archeologists treating a motel room as if it were an Egyptian tomb, assuming, for instance, that the sanitisation strip on the toilet was a ritual marker. (Oh, and I was really irritated with the way he used 'megalith' as a name for a monument like Stonehenge, where it is actually one of the stones the structure is built with, not the monument itself.)
All in all, then, a noble effort, and there was much to like, but it just didn't quite work for me.
To begin with, that blend of two disparate strands works very well. We start with time that is linked to the heavens and so is inevitably tied up with cosmology. Later on we get the monastic measures of time, the first clocks, the spread of mechanical time, electrical synchronisation and the railways, modern time keeping, the Outlook program from Microsoft Office and our modern hyper-connected, always aware world, and alongside it the move from mythical cosmologies through Greek and Copernican versions of the solar system, our expanding view of the universe, various Big Bang theories and their burgeoning rivals. (Frank pretty much has the Big Bang as dead by now.)
Sometimes the interweaving is impressive. For instance, I knew that Einstein came up with his special relativity with its very different views of simultaneity while he was working in the Swiss Patent Office in Bern. But I had assumed the work was a sinecure he got out of the way quickly before thinking his important thoughts. Frank points out that much of the patent material he was working on would be about electrical synchronisation of clocks - a concept with simultaneity at its heart - so could be directly inspirational in his thinking.
For much of the rest of the book, though, the linkage between our cultural perception of time and cosmology seemed forced, especially when Frank makes Outlook one of the crucial steps. Unlike the other mileposts, which applied to everyone, only a small percentage of the population has ever used Outlook, making it a clumsy choice. I found the style decidedly forced, particularly in the way each chapter began with a rather twee fictional dramadoc representation of a point in history (or the future). And there was a tendency to state as 'fact' descriptions of historic, and particularly prehistoric events we really don't know much about. This particularly struck me in the description of neolithic myth and ritual which is pure supposition. I think Frank should have read the superb Motel of the Mysteries, which features future archeologists treating a motel room as if it were an Egyptian tomb, assuming, for instance, that the sanitisation strip on the toilet was a ritual marker. (Oh, and I was really irritated with the way he used 'megalith' as a name for a monument like Stonehenge, where it is actually one of the stones the structure is built with, not the monument itself.)
All in all, then, a noble effort, and there was much to like, but it just didn't quite work for me.
January 25, 2016
From my blog post on time here:
Frank’s 2011 book provides an illuminating survey of the history of modern cosmology; the evolution from the pre-history of humans in the West to debates at astrophysics conferences in our own time. The first signs of speculation about time he sees in the story of markings on a bone fragment found on the floor of a cave in the Dordogne which was later argued to represent a marking of the passage of lunar time. This fragment dates from twelve to twenty thousand years ago. From here Frank gives a very entertaining telling of the story of our fascination with cosmology: from our paleolithic ancestors, to the neolithic megalith at Stonehenge, the agricultural view of Hesiod’s Works and Days, the urban revolution of Ptolemy, the Renaissance invention of the mechanical clock and to Newton’s absolute time and absolute space and Einstein in his patent office job reviewing electromechanical time synchronization patents.
Newton’s work described a world of time, force, matter, and motion that would transform our understanding of the physical world. According to the physics of Aristotle, which still dominated the world into which Newton was born, “the universe was a plenum, a material continuum. In their view there could be no space without matter. In an echo of Parmenides, a truly empty space was thought to be impossible. . . . If time and space did not exist without matter, how was matter supposed to move though them?” Following up on his study of Kepler, Galileo and Descartes, Newton’s innovation was “to make space and time separate realities.” Frank describes Newton’s revolutionary achievement as follows:
“Absolute, true and mathematical time passes equally without relation to anything external and without reference to any change in matter of the way in which it is measured (e.g., the hour, day, month or year).
Absolute, true and mathematical space is the same everywhere; its properties remain fixed without relation to changes in matter.
Absolute motion is the movement of a body from one position in absolute space to another.”
Frank concludes, “In what might be considered a marriage of the visions of Parmenides and Heraclitus, change and eternity were fused. Timeless, immutable laws governed the universe and the progress and nature of change.” Newton’s mechanics were a leap of imagination, but the practical application of his laws of mechanics have been crucial to the development of our industrial world. Perhaps this is what so bothered Blake about Newton!
Einstein’s day job led, as we all know by now, to his working out in the evenings at home the theoretical mechanics of time, waves and simultaneity that became his special theory of relativity and which was later expanded by Minkowski into a general theory mapping out the 4-dimensional world of space-time. “The philosophical implications of the new perspective were startling. Once again the ghost of Parmenides would hover behind a new development in theoretical physics. The future and past took on a different character in the so-called block universe of space-time. In this vision of relativity, next Tuesday, which we consider to be the future, already exists. The past and the future are reduced to events that exist together in the totality of a timeless, eternal block of space-time.”
While Einstein’s and Minkowski’s block universe bring us back to the poetry of Parmenides, an empirical discovery by Edward Hubble was to lead to the true transformation of cosmology into astrophysics, a science with predictable results that can be tested. Hubble was working with the 100-inch Hooker telescope at Cal Tech’s Wilson Observatory. He was trying to unravel the riddle of whether recently discovered spiral nebulae lie within or somewhere without the Milky Way. Hubble used measurements of the brightness of a pulsating star called a “Cepheid variable” in the Andromeda spiral nebula to predict the distance of the object from the earth. By calculating the brightness of star, he calculated that Andromeda could not be part of the Milky Way, but must be another distant galaxy. He and an associate were subsequently able to determine from changes in the wavelength of light emitted by the star the velocity of its motion. Doppler shifts (changes in wavelength over time) toward shorter (blue) wavelengths would indicate that the star was moving toward the observer. Doppler shifts toward longer (red) wavelengths would indicate that the star was moving away. In an “epochal” paper in 1919 Hubble and his associate Humason were able to demonstrate that nearly all of the galaxies that they had identified were red-shifted. Hubble and Humason further determined that the further away the galaxy, the greater the “recession” velocity. The expanding universe had been demonstrated.
Hubble’s results would lead Lemaitre and others to the theory of the “Big Bang.” For this story, you will need to turn to Frank’s book, but I want to point out the charming personal story that he tells in the Prologue to his book, which starts with, “The girl in the third row raises her hand and I know I’m in trouble.” Her question, of course, is “But Professor, what happened before the Big Bang?” It is this question which will lead modern cosmologists in the last decades of the previous century to question the theory of the Big Bang. Alternate theories will propose the “Big Crunch,” multiverses, branes and cyclic models reminiscent of ancient Buddhist theory.
Along the way, Frank considers the “A-word of cosmology: the Anthropic Principle . . . . . hovering in the background of cosmological thinking for decades. In its simplest form, it states that the universe and its laws must take a form consistent with our existence within it.” Frank says, “After its introduction in the late 1960s and 1970s, most scientists rejected anthropic thinking, seeing it as so obvious as to be useless or so constrictive as to be an exercise in mysticism.” My own view on this was formed many years ago during a week-long hike in the Lassen Wilderness Area in California. My conclusion: the universe really doesn’t care that we are here. We are lucky to be so. That it should have come to be what it is in order that we should be here seems to me quite absurd.
Frank’s book concludes with a discussion of four “rebels” in modern cosmology: Julian Barbour, Andy Albrecht, Lee Smolin and Roberto Mangabiera Unger. Barbour is a British farmer physicist who has proposed a modern version of Parmenides’s Way of Truth or Dogen’s being-time in his book, The End of Time. “As we live, we seem to move through a succession of Nows and the question is, what are they. . . . We have the strong impression that things have been definite positions relative to each other. I aim to abstract away everything we cannot see (directly or indirectly) and simply keep this idea of many different things coexisting at once. There are simply Nows, nothing more, nothing less.”
While Barbour seems to be a Sceptic, Albrecht was drawn into physics as a Platonist. “I got enthralled by the appendix (in his high school physics textbook) on quantum physics. I just loved the idea that there were deeper laws behind what we see. After all these years it still keeps me going.” But he then started wondering about time. “The problem relates to time and what you decide to call a clock. . . . What does it mean to measure ‘time’? You have to divide the world into the part you want to study and the part you call a clock. When I tried to implement this in my quantum cosmology equations I ran into a big problem.” He calls this the “clock ambiguity.” “Basically, different choices of a clock lead to different kinds of physics.” Albrecht finds that “both time and the laws of physics rested on an ambiguous and arbitrary choice.” In thinking about current theories of multiverses he comes to a sceptical conclusion: “The clock ambiguity implies that the concrete set of physical laws will occur in any given universe until you sit in the middle of it and see what happens.”
The last of the “radicals” considered in Frank’s book are Lee Smolin and Roberto Mangabiera Unger. Smolin is a faculty member at the Perimeter Institute in Toronto and a member of the philosophy department at the University of Toronto. Unger is a philosopher who has associated with Smolin. Smolin’s 2013 book, Time Reborn, covers much the same ground as Frank’s book, telling the story of why classical physics banished time and why it needs to be considered as real. He is in definite opposition to Newton and Einstein’s expulsion of time from physics in their absolute and block universes. He maintains that physics needs to embrace a cosmology that respects the apparent irreversibility of time, the so-called arrow of time.
Just one concept Smolin develops is his question as to why the universe that we live in is so improbable, full of highly ordered things, like stars and us. He makes a distinction between a Leibnizean universe in which the “law of the identity of the indiscernibles” flourishes and a Boltzmanian universe in which everything runs down according to the second law of thermodynamics. His preference for the Leibnizean version for our universe is based on the observation that the second law holds only for closed systems, while the universe in which we live is an open system through which energy flows. This leads him to the conclusion that time is very real and needs to be brought back into physical theory.
Frank’s 2011 book provides an illuminating survey of the history of modern cosmology; the evolution from the pre-history of humans in the West to debates at astrophysics conferences in our own time. The first signs of speculation about time he sees in the story of markings on a bone fragment found on the floor of a cave in the Dordogne which was later argued to represent a marking of the passage of lunar time. This fragment dates from twelve to twenty thousand years ago. From here Frank gives a very entertaining telling of the story of our fascination with cosmology: from our paleolithic ancestors, to the neolithic megalith at Stonehenge, the agricultural view of Hesiod’s Works and Days, the urban revolution of Ptolemy, the Renaissance invention of the mechanical clock and to Newton’s absolute time and absolute space and Einstein in his patent office job reviewing electromechanical time synchronization patents.
Newton’s work described a world of time, force, matter, and motion that would transform our understanding of the physical world. According to the physics of Aristotle, which still dominated the world into which Newton was born, “the universe was a plenum, a material continuum. In their view there could be no space without matter. In an echo of Parmenides, a truly empty space was thought to be impossible. . . . If time and space did not exist without matter, how was matter supposed to move though them?” Following up on his study of Kepler, Galileo and Descartes, Newton’s innovation was “to make space and time separate realities.” Frank describes Newton’s revolutionary achievement as follows:
“Absolute, true and mathematical time passes equally without relation to anything external and without reference to any change in matter of the way in which it is measured (e.g., the hour, day, month or year).
Absolute, true and mathematical space is the same everywhere; its properties remain fixed without relation to changes in matter.
Absolute motion is the movement of a body from one position in absolute space to another.”
Frank concludes, “In what might be considered a marriage of the visions of Parmenides and Heraclitus, change and eternity were fused. Timeless, immutable laws governed the universe and the progress and nature of change.” Newton’s mechanics were a leap of imagination, but the practical application of his laws of mechanics have been crucial to the development of our industrial world. Perhaps this is what so bothered Blake about Newton!
Einstein’s day job led, as we all know by now, to his working out in the evenings at home the theoretical mechanics of time, waves and simultaneity that became his special theory of relativity and which was later expanded by Minkowski into a general theory mapping out the 4-dimensional world of space-time. “The philosophical implications of the new perspective were startling. Once again the ghost of Parmenides would hover behind a new development in theoretical physics. The future and past took on a different character in the so-called block universe of space-time. In this vision of relativity, next Tuesday, which we consider to be the future, already exists. The past and the future are reduced to events that exist together in the totality of a timeless, eternal block of space-time.”
While Einstein’s and Minkowski’s block universe bring us back to the poetry of Parmenides, an empirical discovery by Edward Hubble was to lead to the true transformation of cosmology into astrophysics, a science with predictable results that can be tested. Hubble was working with the 100-inch Hooker telescope at Cal Tech’s Wilson Observatory. He was trying to unravel the riddle of whether recently discovered spiral nebulae lie within or somewhere without the Milky Way. Hubble used measurements of the brightness of a pulsating star called a “Cepheid variable” in the Andromeda spiral nebula to predict the distance of the object from the earth. By calculating the brightness of star, he calculated that Andromeda could not be part of the Milky Way, but must be another distant galaxy. He and an associate were subsequently able to determine from changes in the wavelength of light emitted by the star the velocity of its motion. Doppler shifts (changes in wavelength over time) toward shorter (blue) wavelengths would indicate that the star was moving toward the observer. Doppler shifts toward longer (red) wavelengths would indicate that the star was moving away. In an “epochal” paper in 1919 Hubble and his associate Humason were able to demonstrate that nearly all of the galaxies that they had identified were red-shifted. Hubble and Humason further determined that the further away the galaxy, the greater the “recession” velocity. The expanding universe had been demonstrated.
Hubble’s results would lead Lemaitre and others to the theory of the “Big Bang.” For this story, you will need to turn to Frank’s book, but I want to point out the charming personal story that he tells in the Prologue to his book, which starts with, “The girl in the third row raises her hand and I know I’m in trouble.” Her question, of course, is “But Professor, what happened before the Big Bang?” It is this question which will lead modern cosmologists in the last decades of the previous century to question the theory of the Big Bang. Alternate theories will propose the “Big Crunch,” multiverses, branes and cyclic models reminiscent of ancient Buddhist theory.
Along the way, Frank considers the “A-word of cosmology: the Anthropic Principle . . . . . hovering in the background of cosmological thinking for decades. In its simplest form, it states that the universe and its laws must take a form consistent with our existence within it.” Frank says, “After its introduction in the late 1960s and 1970s, most scientists rejected anthropic thinking, seeing it as so obvious as to be useless or so constrictive as to be an exercise in mysticism.” My own view on this was formed many years ago during a week-long hike in the Lassen Wilderness Area in California. My conclusion: the universe really doesn’t care that we are here. We are lucky to be so. That it should have come to be what it is in order that we should be here seems to me quite absurd.
Frank’s book concludes with a discussion of four “rebels” in modern cosmology: Julian Barbour, Andy Albrecht, Lee Smolin and Roberto Mangabiera Unger. Barbour is a British farmer physicist who has proposed a modern version of Parmenides’s Way of Truth or Dogen’s being-time in his book, The End of Time. “As we live, we seem to move through a succession of Nows and the question is, what are they. . . . We have the strong impression that things have been definite positions relative to each other. I aim to abstract away everything we cannot see (directly or indirectly) and simply keep this idea of many different things coexisting at once. There are simply Nows, nothing more, nothing less.”
While Barbour seems to be a Sceptic, Albrecht was drawn into physics as a Platonist. “I got enthralled by the appendix (in his high school physics textbook) on quantum physics. I just loved the idea that there were deeper laws behind what we see. After all these years it still keeps me going.” But he then started wondering about time. “The problem relates to time and what you decide to call a clock. . . . What does it mean to measure ‘time’? You have to divide the world into the part you want to study and the part you call a clock. When I tried to implement this in my quantum cosmology equations I ran into a big problem.” He calls this the “clock ambiguity.” “Basically, different choices of a clock lead to different kinds of physics.” Albrecht finds that “both time and the laws of physics rested on an ambiguous and arbitrary choice.” In thinking about current theories of multiverses he comes to a sceptical conclusion: “The clock ambiguity implies that the concrete set of physical laws will occur in any given universe until you sit in the middle of it and see what happens.”
The last of the “radicals” considered in Frank’s book are Lee Smolin and Roberto Mangabiera Unger. Smolin is a faculty member at the Perimeter Institute in Toronto and a member of the philosophy department at the University of Toronto. Unger is a philosopher who has associated with Smolin. Smolin’s 2013 book, Time Reborn, covers much the same ground as Frank’s book, telling the story of why classical physics banished time and why it needs to be considered as real. He is in definite opposition to Newton and Einstein’s expulsion of time from physics in their absolute and block universes. He maintains that physics needs to embrace a cosmology that respects the apparent irreversibility of time, the so-called arrow of time.
Just one concept Smolin develops is his question as to why the universe that we live in is so improbable, full of highly ordered things, like stars and us. He makes a distinction between a Leibnizean universe in which the “law of the identity of the indiscernibles” flourishes and a Boltzmanian universe in which everything runs down according to the second law of thermodynamics. His preference for the Leibnizean version for our universe is based on the observation that the second law holds only for closed systems, while the universe in which we live is an open system through which energy flows. This leads him to the conclusion that time is very real and needs to be brought back into physical theory.
May 11, 2023
A fun way to have an existential crisis before bed. Still not sure what time means; pretty sure it’s not real.
July 16, 2016
Fascinating, engaging, well written, with just enough detail to keep it attractive to a large audience. This book does a wonderful job of introducing readers to physics as it points out both the evolution of things we take for granted and the obvious-that-isn't *because* we took it for granted.
Frank describes the tangible ways in which the feedback loop of our engagement with the material world (the tools we build, the actions we perform) changes our conceptions and understanding of time, and how these are inextricably bound up with each other. He describes, for example, how people used to go indoors when it was dark outside (taking their cues from the world around them) and sleep a lot more, in "first sleep and second sleep," until things like clocks and electricity (more of those tools created by humans) changed those habits but also the conception of time. Night, too, became "productive time" and there was no need to go indoors at dark if the streets were lit up and it wasn't actually so dark, and so on. Spend some time thinking about this, really thinking about it, and the enormity of those changes on our world slowly begins to dawn on you. This book is quite literally awe inspiring, over and over.
I appreciated the fact that Frank addressed all of the questions that popped into my head as I was reading, things like "But these are all just equations, what about real data?" Surely enough, a few pages later, he's writing about physicists and cosmologists that have those same questions and gives them their due. That's quite a nice bonus during a read.
Each chapter of this book deserves to be a book on its own (though the prospective audience may shrink in proportion to the increase in scientific detail). And why weren't there physics books like this while I was in high school? This is such a terrific way to get lay people easily fascinated with the universe around them.
Frank describes the tangible ways in which the feedback loop of our engagement with the material world (the tools we build, the actions we perform) changes our conceptions and understanding of time, and how these are inextricably bound up with each other. He describes, for example, how people used to go indoors when it was dark outside (taking their cues from the world around them) and sleep a lot more, in "first sleep and second sleep," until things like clocks and electricity (more of those tools created by humans) changed those habits but also the conception of time. Night, too, became "productive time" and there was no need to go indoors at dark if the streets were lit up and it wasn't actually so dark, and so on. Spend some time thinking about this, really thinking about it, and the enormity of those changes on our world slowly begins to dawn on you. This book is quite literally awe inspiring, over and over.
I appreciated the fact that Frank addressed all of the questions that popped into my head as I was reading, things like "But these are all just equations, what about real data?" Surely enough, a few pages later, he's writing about physicists and cosmologists that have those same questions and gives them their due. That's quite a nice bonus during a read.
Each chapter of this book deserves to be a book on its own (though the prospective audience may shrink in proportion to the increase in scientific detail). And why weren't there physics books like this while I was in high school? This is such a terrific way to get lay people easily fascinated with the universe around them.
April 26, 2012
I skimmed the book. I am very interested in the history of time and cosmology, but I just couldn't get into the sweeping through all of human history's take on time. Heavy on culture and light on hard science (it's really a history of science book), there were times when I slowed down and read more carefully (like the evolution of the modern calendar in Roman times), but for the most part the book did not hold together for me. Perhaps because so much of the history of these ideas in cosmology and in time is already familiar to me, I was hoping for more insights and less history. I did enjoy the early emphasis on the profoundly subjective nature of time, but as the text gets to modern times, I kept thinking there are better books out there for this stuff...
A good intro to cosmology for someone who has never taken an astronomy class?
A good intro to cosmology for someone who has never taken an astronomy class?
October 6, 2012
Fascinating book, even if at times too detailed for me to hold in my head! It's both a history of the scientific concepts of time, how it began or if it began or has always been, and one of the cultural concepts of time, which haven't always been the same. It's mostly pretty accessible, despite the tons of detail.
June 10, 2013
Adam is a first class story teller. In this book he presents a compelling case for the triangular relation between material engagement, cosmology and human time. Not exactly the lightest of reading, especially near the end while discussing post Big Bang cosmologies, but a rewarding book to read.
Want to read
October 15, 2011I loved his 3-part series on NPR.org about how we use/track time and how that has changed us over the last century.
October 7, 2012
Fascinating and engagingly written, perhaps the most personally interesting popular science book I've ever read.
June 18, 2017
Adam Frank offers a compelling premise, though doesn't follow it to completion. His thesis is that our understanding of time has always been closely intertwined within culture. It's a fascinating idea, and Frank some fascinating examples. The idea requires a close reading of both history and our understanding of time, which has changed, and grown more exacting through the centuries. But he gets waylaid through much of the second half of the book by offering a general history of developments in the past century in quantum physics, without tying it back our current notions of time, which are, as he points out, driven by the temporally precise calendars and social media outlets.
Cosmological and human times were always intertwined. There was never an age when they could be cleanly separated. "When cultural time and cosmic time change, they change together," he wrote. Sometimes one leads, sometimes the other. Material engagement with the world has always served as a source of cultural and cognitive innovation.
Most early cultures kept lunar (rather than solar) calendars. Moon cycles were short enough to count yet they could be used to capture longer durations. The lunar cycle has two distinct aspects: a variable position in the sky and changes in the moon's appearance. But the farmer looked at the skies differently than the hunter-gatherer who came before him. Time was needed to coordinate an ever-more diverse range of human activities: food production, tools, domestic animals, villages, worship, procurement, burial.
The advent of writing, about 12,000 years ago, came about as a necessary tool to keep track of all these events, and when they were to be held. In Babylon, priests became the first true astronomers, long-term records of celestial events. "Nature, embodied in celestial cycles, provides guideposts for ordering the work of the year," Frank wrote. The equally spaced 24 hour time measurement was invented by Babylonians but used only by astronomers at first.
Ptolemy was the first to create a truly accurate, geometric Geo-centric model of the celestial motion. In the year 1200 almost no one had use for exact time, by 1300 many European cities had mechanical clocks. and by 1400, most of Europe was driven by clocks.
It was the Monasteries that introduced humans to the beat of the machine, Frank wrote, citing Lewis Mumford's "The Monastery & The Clock." In medieval times, the bells ruled activities of human enterprise--soon villages had so many it became confusing. This helped spur the widespread adoption of clocks. "The mechanical regulation of time by machines freed cities of the cumbersome menagerie of bells," Frank noted.
here we see the greatest support for Frank's premise: that the need for greater accuracy occurs in more complex cultures; New institutional facts demand greater temporal accuracy. The minute hand came into use only in the mid-17th century, just prior to the industrial revolution.
In 1881, U.S railroads reshaped the meaning of time, by settling on a single time convention regardless of location. Traveling between distant cities by train, travelers were forced to face the new and vexxing issue of time standards. Local time was often set by high noon, different for each city. The disparities did not matter before the train. This need for synchronization echoes the work of Newton two centuries earlier, in which he posited that absolute true mathematical time passes equally with relation to anything external.
Thus the reordering of people's experience of time began with work and soon extended through all of their cultural and individual lives.
And progress marched forward. When the speed of light was discovered, it became obvious that looking out in space meant looking back in time. This was Einstein's space-time made manifest. Unlike Newton's comforting adherence to the universal, quantum physics demands that "No special frame of reference exists from which the motions of all others can be judged," Frank wrote.
einstein noted that the speed of light is the same for all observers, and because this rule is hard-wired, we have something called "relativistic time dilation," in which time flows more slowly for objects moving close to the speed of light. This is where things get tricky for the avergae human. "We have no hard-wired physics modules to provide instinctive understanding of #relativity," Frank asserted.
What is the connection between quantum physics and our ability to micro-schedule our calendars? Frank doesn't say. Then again, maybe we still don't how it affects our perception of time.
Some more book quotes captured here.
Cosmological and human times were always intertwined. There was never an age when they could be cleanly separated. "When cultural time and cosmic time change, they change together," he wrote. Sometimes one leads, sometimes the other. Material engagement with the world has always served as a source of cultural and cognitive innovation.
Most early cultures kept lunar (rather than solar) calendars. Moon cycles were short enough to count yet they could be used to capture longer durations. The lunar cycle has two distinct aspects: a variable position in the sky and changes in the moon's appearance. But the farmer looked at the skies differently than the hunter-gatherer who came before him. Time was needed to coordinate an ever-more diverse range of human activities: food production, tools, domestic animals, villages, worship, procurement, burial.
The advent of writing, about 12,000 years ago, came about as a necessary tool to keep track of all these events, and when they were to be held. In Babylon, priests became the first true astronomers, long-term records of celestial events. "Nature, embodied in celestial cycles, provides guideposts for ordering the work of the year," Frank wrote. The equally spaced 24 hour time measurement was invented by Babylonians but used only by astronomers at first.
Ptolemy was the first to create a truly accurate, geometric Geo-centric model of the celestial motion. In the year 1200 almost no one had use for exact time, by 1300 many European cities had mechanical clocks. and by 1400, most of Europe was driven by clocks.
It was the Monasteries that introduced humans to the beat of the machine, Frank wrote, citing Lewis Mumford's "The Monastery & The Clock." In medieval times, the bells ruled activities of human enterprise--soon villages had so many it became confusing. This helped spur the widespread adoption of clocks. "The mechanical regulation of time by machines freed cities of the cumbersome menagerie of bells," Frank noted.
here we see the greatest support for Frank's premise: that the need for greater accuracy occurs in more complex cultures; New institutional facts demand greater temporal accuracy. The minute hand came into use only in the mid-17th century, just prior to the industrial revolution.
In 1881, U.S railroads reshaped the meaning of time, by settling on a single time convention regardless of location. Traveling between distant cities by train, travelers were forced to face the new and vexxing issue of time standards. Local time was often set by high noon, different for each city. The disparities did not matter before the train. This need for synchronization echoes the work of Newton two centuries earlier, in which he posited that absolute true mathematical time passes equally with relation to anything external.
Thus the reordering of people's experience of time began with work and soon extended through all of their cultural and individual lives.
And progress marched forward. When the speed of light was discovered, it became obvious that looking out in space meant looking back in time. This was Einstein's space-time made manifest. Unlike Newton's comforting adherence to the universal, quantum physics demands that "No special frame of reference exists from which the motions of all others can be judged," Frank wrote.
einstein noted that the speed of light is the same for all observers, and because this rule is hard-wired, we have something called "relativistic time dilation," in which time flows more slowly for objects moving close to the speed of light. This is where things get tricky for the avergae human. "We have no hard-wired physics modules to provide instinctive understanding of #relativity," Frank asserted.
What is the connection between quantum physics and our ability to micro-schedule our calendars? Frank doesn't say. Then again, maybe we still don't how it affects our perception of time.
Some more book quotes captured here.
December 7, 2022
From Phaeolitic observations to XXI century models.
POSTED AT AMAZON 2011
Adam Frank created little treasure, comparable to Coming of Age in the Milky Way ! His book is soo much approachable and pleasant, it may be read by high school students, seniors and anybody in between.
This is history of us, humans, our evolution in science and culture. Cosmology is a large part, but we learn about applied science as well, how it evolved with or without religious influences. Author presents, without tedious details, importance and concepts of the TIME and its measurement (yes, not long time ago people did not know what is a wristwatch !), starting from the 15 0000 years old bone having distinct pattern of engravings recording lunar cycles, to Steinhardt/Turok and Linde/Vilenkin speculations about endless or eternal Universe. First time I have learned about calculated proposition, or rather 'timeless' modification of the Vilenkin's eternal inflation. This modification (worked out in 2004 by Sean Carroll and Jennifer Chen)solves in certain way 'arrow of time' dilemma. Where physics ends and metaphysics enters? - author presents few scientists,'thinkers outside the box' and how they approach existence (or not) of time - very interesting final part of the book. Ascent of applied science is not omitted, this makes the book even more interesting: industrial revolution resulting in home appliances, railroads, telegraph -radio, nuclear era, birth of computer and e-communication.."the enigmatic entanglement between cosmic and social time...space and time redefined by machines". I have read many good books about history of science/cosmology..they are usually demanding and require some rest. This one will not tire anybody...take my word for it.
POSTED AT AMAZON 2011
Adam Frank created little treasure, comparable to Coming of Age in the Milky Way ! His book is soo much approachable and pleasant, it may be read by high school students, seniors and anybody in between.
This is history of us, humans, our evolution in science and culture. Cosmology is a large part, but we learn about applied science as well, how it evolved with or without religious influences. Author presents, without tedious details, importance and concepts of the TIME and its measurement (yes, not long time ago people did not know what is a wristwatch !), starting from the 15 0000 years old bone having distinct pattern of engravings recording lunar cycles, to Steinhardt/Turok and Linde/Vilenkin speculations about endless or eternal Universe. First time I have learned about calculated proposition, or rather 'timeless' modification of the Vilenkin's eternal inflation. This modification (worked out in 2004 by Sean Carroll and Jennifer Chen)solves in certain way 'arrow of time' dilemma. Where physics ends and metaphysics enters? - author presents few scientists,'thinkers outside the box' and how they approach existence (or not) of time - very interesting final part of the book. Ascent of applied science is not omitted, this makes the book even more interesting: industrial revolution resulting in home appliances, railroads, telegraph -radio, nuclear era, birth of computer and e-communication.."the enigmatic entanglement between cosmic and social time...space and time redefined by machines". I have read many good books about history of science/cosmology..they are usually demanding and require some rest. This one will not tire anybody...take my word for it.
September 1, 2024
Three-and-a-half stars. This is a carefully written and researched book, but not, as far as I am concerned a particularly successful one. It is, however, interesting in places.
The first part of the book is cultural history of concepts of time. But the author is neither an historian nor a sociologist and it shows. He's pulled out various opinions he likes, and presents them as facts. But they are mostly the sort of thing you can't really prove, only provide evidence that suggests that they may be true. This is also the slow part of the book.
The second part of the book is where he gets into modern science and particularly cosmology, which where his expertise lies. Even there I feel he takes a lot of theories -- String theory, Multiverses, etc. -- that we have no idea how to test (or if they are even possible to test!) far more seriously than I feel comfortable with. However, he does admit the issues with these, which is nice to see.
At the end he talks about how culture affects science and science affects culture, but I think he is mistaken if he things cosmology affects the culture's view of time very much.
He also never really gives any evidence that we're "moving on from the Big Bang", and 13 years after this book's publication, the Big Bang still seems to be the current view of the Universe's origin.
Still, I do not regret taking the time to read this book.
The first part of the book is cultural history of concepts of time. But the author is neither an historian nor a sociologist and it shows. He's pulled out various opinions he likes, and presents them as facts. But they are mostly the sort of thing you can't really prove, only provide evidence that suggests that they may be true. This is also the slow part of the book.
The second part of the book is where he gets into modern science and particularly cosmology, which where his expertise lies. Even there I feel he takes a lot of theories -- String theory, Multiverses, etc. -- that we have no idea how to test (or if they are even possible to test!) far more seriously than I feel comfortable with. However, he does admit the issues with these, which is nice to see.
At the end he talks about how culture affects science and science affects culture, but I think he is mistaken if he things cosmology affects the culture's view of time very much.
He also never really gives any evidence that we're "moving on from the Big Bang", and 13 years after this book's publication, the Big Bang still seems to be the current view of the Universe's origin.
Still, I do not regret taking the time to read this book.
September 4, 2017
This is a fascinating book that deftly illustrates the interconnections between science and culture throughout history. One of Frank's theses is that humans invented time, and keep re-inventing it in response to their material and scientific engagement with the world. There is a lot of history here, and it all culminates in the present era, from which we must acknowledge a "Big Bang" phenomenon, but are uncertain of how to link it up or contextualize it within competing theoretical cosmologies that emerged from the failure of the Standard Model and the puzzle of inflation.
Frank asks, but does not answer: where will it all lead? Will humans ever be able to come together to create a more meaningful, harmonious, and less damaging concept of time and a less rapacious relationship with the environment? He's clearly optimistic.
I particularly appreciated Frank's whirlwind tour through several current, but competing cosmological theories. (For example: brane-worlds, multiverses, eternal inflation, string theory landscapes, and loop quantum cosmologies.) I've heard of some of these before, but only in passing references. Others were completely new to me. It was a great overview.
Although I can't say that I followed every point, Frank's style is accessible and I think a re-read of various passages would probably lead to a more satisfying understanding.
Frank asks, but does not answer: where will it all lead? Will humans ever be able to come together to create a more meaningful, harmonious, and less damaging concept of time and a less rapacious relationship with the environment? He's clearly optimistic.
I particularly appreciated Frank's whirlwind tour through several current, but competing cosmological theories. (For example: brane-worlds, multiverses, eternal inflation, string theory landscapes, and loop quantum cosmologies.) I've heard of some of these before, but only in passing references. Others were completely new to me. It was a great overview.
Although I can't say that I followed every point, Frank's style is accessible and I think a re-read of various passages would probably lead to a more satisfying understanding.
April 28, 2021
This is a history of humanity's relationship with time. It also examines our concepts about the universe, since time and the universe are so interlinked. It makes the point that how we perceive time and the universe has an intimate relationship with our culture. "We believe what we perceive and perceive what we believe." There's a lot of useful things to think about here.
The book is clearly written and the author knows how to tell a story, so it's a pleasure to read.
There is a user's warning, however. The author is a scientist rather than a historian (he's a theoretical astrophysicist). His grasp of history is good based on the works he has read as research for his book, but he does make the odd blunder, e.g. calling Newton's great rival Leibniz French. However, his mistakes will only be noticed by history nerds. More significant is that he really likes writing about science, and over half the book is focused on twentieth-century theories about time and the universe. His writing is clear and a good introduction, but as some of the one-star reviews here demonstrate, quantum and relativity physics will come as a shock if you haven't read much science and believe you're reading a work of history. At least he doesn't go into maths, and his account is about as straightforward as quantum and relativity physics can be. A great book.
The book is clearly written and the author knows how to tell a story, so it's a pleasure to read.
There is a user's warning, however. The author is a scientist rather than a historian (he's a theoretical astrophysicist). His grasp of history is good based on the works he has read as research for his book, but he does make the odd blunder, e.g. calling Newton's great rival Leibniz French. However, his mistakes will only be noticed by history nerds. More significant is that he really likes writing about science, and over half the book is focused on twentieth-century theories about time and the universe. His writing is clear and a good introduction, but as some of the one-star reviews here demonstrate, quantum and relativity physics will come as a shock if you haven't read much science and believe you're reading a work of history. At least he doesn't go into maths, and his account is about as straightforward as quantum and relativity physics can be. A great book.
June 13, 2025
I really enjoyed this book. It was really well-written and I thought he did a great job explaining complex ideas. It was really interesting to read about the evolution of humanity's perception of time, culture, and the cosmos. I especially liked the earliest parts about the Paleolithic and Neolithic ages because I knew so little about them.
The end started to lose me a bit by going so far into detailed cosmology around the Big Bang and quantum theories, but it was still enjoyable and never felt too dense. I found myself wishing it were a newer book - at one point he says gravitational wave detection was decades away, but we detected them only a few years after the book was released!
The commentary at the end around climate change, while I agree with the message, did feel a bit random. It is also very western-centric (as he points out in the last chapter) - I think that embedding some Hindu and Buddhist beliefs, such as reincarnation, could have made it a richer book. But overall I really liked this book and I'm excited to read others by him!
The end started to lose me a bit by going so far into detailed cosmology around the Big Bang and quantum theories, but it was still enjoyable and never felt too dense. I found myself wishing it were a newer book - at one point he says gravitational wave detection was decades away, but we detected them only a few years after the book was released!
The commentary at the end around climate change, while I agree with the message, did feel a bit random. It is also very western-centric (as he points out in the last chapter) - I think that embedding some Hindu and Buddhist beliefs, such as reincarnation, could have made it a richer book. But overall I really liked this book and I'm excited to read others by him!
January 4, 2020
There may be relative differences, but it seems true that time applies to all matter in the universe. Suddenly this thought comes to mind. Is there only "consumption" and no "storage" in time? Just as you store electricity in batteries, can you take time out when you need it? It may be a vain idea. However, for the modern man who is always chased by time and hardly escapes from the bondage of time, and the modern man who suffers from this and other stressful diseases, “time battery” can be a great product even if it is not a panacea.
https://singingdalong.blogspot.com/20...
https://singingdalong.blogspot.com/20...
January 30, 2012
About Time: Cosmology and Culture at the Twilight of the Big Bang by Adam Frank
“About Time" is the interesting book about time, both cosmic and human and how they relate to each other. Astrophysicist Adam Frank takes us on a journey of the human quest to find out what happened at that very moment of creation at the beginning of the Big Bang. He provides us with an understanding of how we got to the Big Bang and a provocative look at how cosmology has evolved and the looming alternatives. This 432-page book is composed of the following twelve chapters: 1. Talking Sky, Working Stone and Living Field, 2. The City, the Cycle and the Epicycle, 3. The Clock, the Bell Tower and the Spheres of God, 4. Cosmic Machines, Illuminated Night and the Factory Clock, 5. The Telegraph, the Electric Clock and the Block Universe, 6. The Expanding Universe, Radio Hours and Washing Machine Time, 7. The Big Bang and a New Armageddon, 8. Inflation, Cell Phones and the Outlook Universe, 9. Wheels Within Wheels: Cyclic Universes and the Challenge of Quantum Gravity, 10. Ever-Changing Eternities: The Promise and Perils of a Multiverse, 11. Giving Up the Ghost: The End of Beginning and the End of Time, and 12. In the Fields of Learning Grass.
Positives:
1. Fantastic book for the laymen. Complex themes that is accessible to the masses.
2. Fascinating topic of cosmology in the hands of an educator.
3. Excellent format. The author introduces each chapter with an amusing vignette and proceeds to his narration.
4. Elegant prose that at times makes you forget that you are reading a science book about cosmology. Science writing at its best.
5. Great use of charts and illustrations.
6. The author was fair and even handed. Very respectful and professional tone.
7. The holy grail of physics.
8. This whole book revolves around our conception of time and how it relates to the cosmos. A historical look at time and how the concept has evolved.
9. An interesting look at inventions over time and how it impacted our lives. The great inventors behind them.
10. How myths relate to the cosmos.
11. The most critical result of urban revolution.
12. How calendars and explicit divisions of the day emerged and how it evolved.
13. The wonderful history of Greece and how it is pivotal in the interlocking narratives of human and cosmic time. Great stuff.
14. Great tidbits of knowledge throughout. As an example, find out what book became the astronomy standard textbook for more than a millennium.
15. The difference between creation myths and no-creations myths.
16. The key five cosmological questions.
17. How cosmological thinking was limited by the Church.
18. The invention of the clock.
19. How Galileo confirmed the Copernican model.
20. The great Isaac Newton.
21. How transoceanic commerce drove the need to precision…latitude and longitude.
22. A practical look at thermodynamics.
23. The ever-fascinating Albert Einstein. Where he was right and where he was wrong.
24. The transformation of cosmology from a quasi-philosophical speculation to one grounded on science.
25. The great discovery from Hubble and Humason.
26. Quantum mechanics...I keep learning more and more.
27. The history of the Big Bang cosmology. The three unassailable pillars of evidence. Excellent!
28. The inception of NASA. Communication satellites.
29. A fascinating look at the early universe.
30. How technology impacted our lives: email, computers, appliances, tech gadgets (GPS), etc…
31. Dark matter and dark energy.
32. A great accessible discussion of the various alternative explanations for the question of “before” the Big Bang: brane-world cosmologies, eternal inflation, multiverses, string theory landscapes, loop quantum cosmologies. The strength of this book.
33. Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)…enlighten me.
34. The Anthropic Principle and why it drives scientists.
35. This author does not hesitate to present radical ideas and lets us know what the scientific community feels about it. Many examples.
36. The radical concepts of time.
37. Quantum cosmology.
38. Links and excellent bibliography.
Negatives:
1. A chart summarizing the various cosmological theories would have added much value. The main scientists behind them and findings that either confirm or contradict the cosmology in question.
2. This is a very ambitious book that covers many topics of interest and in doing so of course will treat some topics with more rigor than others.
3. The author does a wonderful job of making such complex topics accessible but might disappoint those expecting a more in depth analysis.
4. I would have liked a little more conviction or perhaps a clearer explanation of where the consensus of the scientific community currently is. Is there a difference among the science fields? Perhaps I missed that but I think the author could have at least tied a bow of where we stand today regardless of all the various attempts to explain the “before” of the Big Bang.
In summary, this is an excellent book for all us cosmologists-want- a-be who want to learn more about our universe without being blown away by the complexity of it. Astrophysicist Adam Frank does a great job of educating the reader while skillfully moving the narration forward. A journey that interweaves its way proficiently through time as it relates to the cosmos. A well written science book that is worthy of your time!
“About Time" is the interesting book about time, both cosmic and human and how they relate to each other. Astrophysicist Adam Frank takes us on a journey of the human quest to find out what happened at that very moment of creation at the beginning of the Big Bang. He provides us with an understanding of how we got to the Big Bang and a provocative look at how cosmology has evolved and the looming alternatives. This 432-page book is composed of the following twelve chapters: 1. Talking Sky, Working Stone and Living Field, 2. The City, the Cycle and the Epicycle, 3. The Clock, the Bell Tower and the Spheres of God, 4. Cosmic Machines, Illuminated Night and the Factory Clock, 5. The Telegraph, the Electric Clock and the Block Universe, 6. The Expanding Universe, Radio Hours and Washing Machine Time, 7. The Big Bang and a New Armageddon, 8. Inflation, Cell Phones and the Outlook Universe, 9. Wheels Within Wheels: Cyclic Universes and the Challenge of Quantum Gravity, 10. Ever-Changing Eternities: The Promise and Perils of a Multiverse, 11. Giving Up the Ghost: The End of Beginning and the End of Time, and 12. In the Fields of Learning Grass.
Positives:
1. Fantastic book for the laymen. Complex themes that is accessible to the masses.
2. Fascinating topic of cosmology in the hands of an educator.
3. Excellent format. The author introduces each chapter with an amusing vignette and proceeds to his narration.
4. Elegant prose that at times makes you forget that you are reading a science book about cosmology. Science writing at its best.
5. Great use of charts and illustrations.
6. The author was fair and even handed. Very respectful and professional tone.
7. The holy grail of physics.
8. This whole book revolves around our conception of time and how it relates to the cosmos. A historical look at time and how the concept has evolved.
9. An interesting look at inventions over time and how it impacted our lives. The great inventors behind them.
10. How myths relate to the cosmos.
11. The most critical result of urban revolution.
12. How calendars and explicit divisions of the day emerged and how it evolved.
13. The wonderful history of Greece and how it is pivotal in the interlocking narratives of human and cosmic time. Great stuff.
14. Great tidbits of knowledge throughout. As an example, find out what book became the astronomy standard textbook for more than a millennium.
15. The difference between creation myths and no-creations myths.
16. The key five cosmological questions.
17. How cosmological thinking was limited by the Church.
18. The invention of the clock.
19. How Galileo confirmed the Copernican model.
20. The great Isaac Newton.
21. How transoceanic commerce drove the need to precision…latitude and longitude.
22. A practical look at thermodynamics.
23. The ever-fascinating Albert Einstein. Where he was right and where he was wrong.
24. The transformation of cosmology from a quasi-philosophical speculation to one grounded on science.
25. The great discovery from Hubble and Humason.
26. Quantum mechanics...I keep learning more and more.
27. The history of the Big Bang cosmology. The three unassailable pillars of evidence. Excellent!
28. The inception of NASA. Communication satellites.
29. A fascinating look at the early universe.
30. How technology impacted our lives: email, computers, appliances, tech gadgets (GPS), etc…
31. Dark matter and dark energy.
32. A great accessible discussion of the various alternative explanations for the question of “before” the Big Bang: brane-world cosmologies, eternal inflation, multiverses, string theory landscapes, loop quantum cosmologies. The strength of this book.
33. Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)…enlighten me.
34. The Anthropic Principle and why it drives scientists.
35. This author does not hesitate to present radical ideas and lets us know what the scientific community feels about it. Many examples.
36. The radical concepts of time.
37. Quantum cosmology.
38. Links and excellent bibliography.
Negatives:
1. A chart summarizing the various cosmological theories would have added much value. The main scientists behind them and findings that either confirm or contradict the cosmology in question.
2. This is a very ambitious book that covers many topics of interest and in doing so of course will treat some topics with more rigor than others.
3. The author does a wonderful job of making such complex topics accessible but might disappoint those expecting a more in depth analysis.
4. I would have liked a little more conviction or perhaps a clearer explanation of where the consensus of the scientific community currently is. Is there a difference among the science fields? Perhaps I missed that but I think the author could have at least tied a bow of where we stand today regardless of all the various attempts to explain the “before” of the Big Bang.
In summary, this is an excellent book for all us cosmologists-want- a-be who want to learn more about our universe without being blown away by the complexity of it. Astrophysicist Adam Frank does a great job of educating the reader while skillfully moving the narration forward. A journey that interweaves its way proficiently through time as it relates to the cosmos. A well written science book that is worthy of your time!
January 6, 2023
A very interesting take on time and how it has changed with knowledge and technology and cultural demands. Explores the various theories that all but threaten to replace the Big Bang Theory (the theory, not the TV show).
Well worth reading as it explores a number of aspects that I was unaware of (and I derive enjoyment from some fairly dense texts).
One comes away from reading it, realising that time is almost an artificial construct and not real at all.
Well worth reading as it explores a number of aspects that I was unaware of (and I derive enjoyment from some fairly dense texts).
One comes away from reading it, realising that time is almost an artificial construct and not real at all.
January 12, 2025
Very interesting. Lots to think about
I've not delved into math and physics in decades, so some of the later chapters got a little deep for me. However, it's a great survey of cosmological theory and the role of culture and the material world in our understanding of time and the universe. Makes me want to learn more.
I've not delved into math and physics in decades, so some of the later chapters got a little deep for me. However, it's a great survey of cosmological theory and the role of culture and the material world in our understanding of time and the universe. Makes me want to learn more.
November 29, 2016
It's edited all general relativity theory, quantum theory, super string theory.
It's easy for the beginner to learn them.
It's easy for the beginner to learn them.
July 8, 2019
درباره تاریخ زمان و نظریه های علم فیزیک بود کتاب بدی نبود
January 25, 2021
I was surprised at how much history "About Time" starts with, but it's so well done that I enjoyed it. Then the modern cosmology, also, is fascinating and fresh.
Read
August 26, 2022DNF. Not my cup of tea. Given the title, surprisingly broad, going back to prehistory... Could be good as intro for someone with no background in history of science, etc.
November 24, 2012
When I took a Freshman-level Physics class in college, basically Astronomy 101, I was still a practicing Mormon. The highly enjoyable class played no distinct role in my choice to leave formal religion and live agnosticism. On the contrary, in the closing weeks of the course, as we delved deeper and further into cosmology, I was impressed by how much room serious science leaves for the existence of god…or at least a godlike force that behaves according to law.
Reading professor and blogger Adam Frank’s book About Time brought me back to those fundamental ruminations on how/if the universe began, and does/will it ever end. However, this book is not an easy read. Many of its chapters are far from user friendly. Nevertheless, free from intellectual obligations to a church, and buoyed by Frank’s balanced approach to competing theories, I had a positive and enlightening experience reading About Time.
The first half of this book is as much a history lesson as a scientific discourse. Frank speaks of a Big Bang of human consciousness that occurred far back in our history, a time when our ancestors became capable of metaphorical thinking. Metaphor and illustrations are two of Frank’s essential tools in making quantum physics remotely understandable. We have come a long way from eras when our ancestors lived according to solar or lunar cycles. Yet we find ourselves in a similar place, on the cusp of a new era of understanding and discovery, led on by prophets (now of math and physics) who promise us the truth is just over the horizon. Though, unlike religion, science doesn’t sell itself with faith.
About Time often drifts into academic speak, utilizing phrases and word choices germane to the university but not to everyday conversation. A key term Frank relies on is material engagement. It speaks to how our notions of time and space are informed and altered by what we build and the culture that results. Stonehenge is an example of material engagement. But in Frank’s book, these rock-hard object lessons soon give way to ever more abstract discussions of gravity, space-time, relativity, and the maddeningly counter-intuitive quantum physics.
As the book drifts into increasingly complex theory that only, purportedly, makes sense to the theorists who know the math, About Time drifts further away from its titular focus: time. This is not accidental. Frank isn’t wandering. Rather, he arrives at a chapter where a scientist theorizes that time does not even exist. It isn’t that crazy of a notion, especially since Einstein proved time is at least relative.
About Time has a carefully constructed narrative. But I strongly suggest taking notes to follow it. Frank often calls back to previous chapters. There is a great deal of braiding in this book, braiding of similar theories and braiding of culture with cosmology. It’s a lot to take in, especially if you are not a scientist and lack the mathematical training. Fortunately, Frank is a gracious author willing to make explicit the limitations of present scientific theory.
Now here’s the irony this book provides. Physicists who try to sell you string theory, or the supposed existence of a multiverse, are asking you to accept as reality something that at present cannot be physically tested, may never be observable by humans, and which has as its only evidence the writings of believers. Sound familiar?
Granted the true believers of string theory are a highly trained academy. They submit their work to rigorous peer review and generally encourage skepticism and scrutiny. Nevertheless, in granting how far out some of theoretical physics is, Frank sheds light on the considerable difficulty of making deep science intelligible to the layman.
Reading About Time is the hardest I’ve yet tried to wrap my mind around quantum physics. Saying I barely succeeded is generous. Still, Frank ably furthers a discussion that needs to happen, and needs to be made intelligible to the public. He speaks thoughtfully to the enticements and limits of current and popular theories of science. All of these have direct implications for how our species navigates what we call the future, and how we frame our values and priorities against both the known and supposed universes heretofore conceived.
Reading professor and blogger Adam Frank’s book About Time brought me back to those fundamental ruminations on how/if the universe began, and does/will it ever end. However, this book is not an easy read. Many of its chapters are far from user friendly. Nevertheless, free from intellectual obligations to a church, and buoyed by Frank’s balanced approach to competing theories, I had a positive and enlightening experience reading About Time.
The first half of this book is as much a history lesson as a scientific discourse. Frank speaks of a Big Bang of human consciousness that occurred far back in our history, a time when our ancestors became capable of metaphorical thinking. Metaphor and illustrations are two of Frank’s essential tools in making quantum physics remotely understandable. We have come a long way from eras when our ancestors lived according to solar or lunar cycles. Yet we find ourselves in a similar place, on the cusp of a new era of understanding and discovery, led on by prophets (now of math and physics) who promise us the truth is just over the horizon. Though, unlike religion, science doesn’t sell itself with faith.
About Time often drifts into academic speak, utilizing phrases and word choices germane to the university but not to everyday conversation. A key term Frank relies on is material engagement. It speaks to how our notions of time and space are informed and altered by what we build and the culture that results. Stonehenge is an example of material engagement. But in Frank’s book, these rock-hard object lessons soon give way to ever more abstract discussions of gravity, space-time, relativity, and the maddeningly counter-intuitive quantum physics.
As the book drifts into increasingly complex theory that only, purportedly, makes sense to the theorists who know the math, About Time drifts further away from its titular focus: time. This is not accidental. Frank isn’t wandering. Rather, he arrives at a chapter where a scientist theorizes that time does not even exist. It isn’t that crazy of a notion, especially since Einstein proved time is at least relative.
About Time has a carefully constructed narrative. But I strongly suggest taking notes to follow it. Frank often calls back to previous chapters. There is a great deal of braiding in this book, braiding of similar theories and braiding of culture with cosmology. It’s a lot to take in, especially if you are not a scientist and lack the mathematical training. Fortunately, Frank is a gracious author willing to make explicit the limitations of present scientific theory.
Now here’s the irony this book provides. Physicists who try to sell you string theory, or the supposed existence of a multiverse, are asking you to accept as reality something that at present cannot be physically tested, may never be observable by humans, and which has as its only evidence the writings of believers. Sound familiar?
Granted the true believers of string theory are a highly trained academy. They submit their work to rigorous peer review and generally encourage skepticism and scrutiny. Nevertheless, in granting how far out some of theoretical physics is, Frank sheds light on the considerable difficulty of making deep science intelligible to the layman.
Reading About Time is the hardest I’ve yet tried to wrap my mind around quantum physics. Saying I barely succeeded is generous. Still, Frank ably furthers a discussion that needs to happen, and needs to be made intelligible to the public. He speaks thoughtfully to the enticements and limits of current and popular theories of science. All of these have direct implications for how our species navigates what we call the future, and how we frame our values and priorities against both the known and supposed universes heretofore conceived.
January 3, 2021
About Time
Adam Frank
Frank weaves a thread along the entire history of humanity in a broad exploration on how our cultural and social conceptions of time shaped our cosmology. And when I say the entire history, I mean it. Frank literally begins at the emergence of abstract thinking to take us all the way to our modern world.
Indeed, from the organization of the first cities and the emergence of trade and money, which both required and sharpened abstract thinking, Frank chart a path to the first markets, the beginning of specialization and the need to measure time more accurately. From there, we move on to the monasteries and their bells and prayers schedules, to the invention of the escapement mechanism, to the first mechanic clocks, the steam engine, the network of railways and the problems of multiple presents that this new speed of movement create.
Follows the creation of time zones, the telegraph, the telephone and the first transoceanic cables, as our world keeps getting smaller and faster, then the invention of radio, satellites, live broadcast, GPS and finally the emergence of Internet and emails. Our material engagement through those changes shaped our relationship with time in our lived-experience. This should be obvious, but Frank is never boring and the picture he paints is both instructive and interesting.
The links between how our material engagement shape our experience of time and our cosmology are certainly made obvious, and it is often convincing, but perhaps the connections are not always as explicit as Frank would hope. Once again, many ideas and concepts are explored, static universe models, Big Bang, cyclic universes, multi-verse, string theory, dark-everything... no stone is left untuned.
Along the way, Frank enlist the ideas of many physicists, of course Newton and Einstein are discussed at length, of note, I had never considered how Einstein’s occupation at the patent office might have influenced his ideas on physic; it can’t be a coincidence that he came up with the relativity at the very era where railroads had sped up travel sufficiently for the question of how to accurately measure the present between two locations to be relevant.
More current works of physicist such as Julian Barbour, Lee Smolin and Sean Carroll are also discussed. I enjoyed this part, even if I got bogged down in places. It was not overwhelmingly complex, however, this is certainly a strong effort to make cutting edge and speculative physic palatable.
Among those pages, it was my first contact with Steinhardt and Turok’s ideas of the Brane’s collision model. This is a cyclic universe model. The Big Bang would have been caused by a collision between two 3-Branes universe embedded in an 11 dimensions space named the “Bulk.” The more recent collision occurred, for us, about 14 billions years ago, but those collision would be bound to happen again and to have happened in the past. Well, here we have speculative cosmology, based on speculative physic! Frank goes to great length to highlight the tentative nature of the ideas presented; I personally just find it interesting. Really, this was a very rich reading experience.
I will leave Frank with the last words: I doubt that one can spoil a non-fiction book, but since this is a direct quote from the conclusion, I felt I should add the spoiler tag.
Adam Frank
Frank weaves a thread along the entire history of humanity in a broad exploration on how our cultural and social conceptions of time shaped our cosmology. And when I say the entire history, I mean it. Frank literally begins at the emergence of abstract thinking to take us all the way to our modern world.
Indeed, from the organization of the first cities and the emergence of trade and money, which both required and sharpened abstract thinking, Frank chart a path to the first markets, the beginning of specialization and the need to measure time more accurately. From there, we move on to the monasteries and their bells and prayers schedules, to the invention of the escapement mechanism, to the first mechanic clocks, the steam engine, the network of railways and the problems of multiple presents that this new speed of movement create.
Follows the creation of time zones, the telegraph, the telephone and the first transoceanic cables, as our world keeps getting smaller and faster, then the invention of radio, satellites, live broadcast, GPS and finally the emergence of Internet and emails. Our material engagement through those changes shaped our relationship with time in our lived-experience. This should be obvious, but Frank is never boring and the picture he paints is both instructive and interesting.
The links between how our material engagement shape our experience of time and our cosmology are certainly made obvious, and it is often convincing, but perhaps the connections are not always as explicit as Frank would hope. Once again, many ideas and concepts are explored, static universe models, Big Bang, cyclic universes, multi-verse, string theory, dark-everything... no stone is left untuned.
Along the way, Frank enlist the ideas of many physicists, of course Newton and Einstein are discussed at length, of note, I had never considered how Einstein’s occupation at the patent office might have influenced his ideas on physic; it can’t be a coincidence that he came up with the relativity at the very era where railroads had sped up travel sufficiently for the question of how to accurately measure the present between two locations to be relevant.
More current works of physicist such as Julian Barbour, Lee Smolin and Sean Carroll are also discussed. I enjoyed this part, even if I got bogged down in places. It was not overwhelmingly complex, however, this is certainly a strong effort to make cutting edge and speculative physic palatable.
Among those pages, it was my first contact with Steinhardt and Turok’s ideas of the Brane’s collision model. This is a cyclic universe model. The Big Bang would have been caused by a collision between two 3-Branes universe embedded in an 11 dimensions space named the “Bulk.” The more recent collision occurred, for us, about 14 billions years ago, but those collision would be bound to happen again and to have happened in the past. Well, here we have speculative cosmology, based on speculative physic! Frank goes to great length to highlight the tentative nature of the ideas presented; I personally just find it interesting. Really, this was a very rich reading experience.
I will leave Frank with the last words: I doubt that one can spoil a non-fiction book, but since this is a direct quote from the conclusion, I felt I should add the spoiler tag.
July 27, 2016
Full disclosure: I am a biased reviewer. I had the good fortune of working for Adam Frank while I was a student at The University of Rochester. During that time I came to respect him as a writer, a scholar, and most importantly, as a person. I've always enjoyed his perspective on matters of science and philosophy, and his unique voice is very present in About Time.
I couldn't help but see immediate parallels to another book I recently finished: Immortality: The Quest to Live Forever and How It Drives Civilization. Any discussion of the human perspective on time invariably has to look at beginnings and endings. As Steven Cave pointed out, without our conception of time, particularly it's finitude, our lives would have no meaning. "The deep problem is this, the value of a thing is related to its scarcity— people conscious of their mortality value their time and aim to spend it wisely because they know their days are numbered. But if our days were not numbered, this incentive would disappear: given infinity, time would lose its worth." Or in Adam's words: "Death has always been a portal to time's great mystery. By ending time (at least as we know it) for the self, death acts as an invitation to consider time's reality and meaning."
He begins by questioning how fundamentally reliable our perception of time even is. "You feel time in a way nobody did a thousand years ago. The human encounter with time is fluid and malleable. It can and will change again". Our modern conception of time in seconds, minutes, hours, days, months and years is not at all self-evident, but rather has evolved along with our species. It's a pertinent conceit for the digital age where the clock forms the very bedrock of our lives. Lewis Mumford posits that by the end of the fifteenth century, its exalted position in human affairs was secure. "Abstract time became the new medium of existence. One ate, not upon feeling hungry, but when prompted by the clock; one slept, not when one was tired, but when the clock sanctioned it." However, we stand in a privileged position at this point in our evolution. “We can, at long last, recognize the paired cycles of change in cosmic and human time and ask what they tell us about who we are, what we are and where might we be going. By recognizing that we have invented and are reinventing time, we give ourselves the opportunity to change it yet again.”
About Time is not a textbook. In the grand tradition of Carl Sagan's Cosmos, it conveys its message through storytelling rather than rigorous proofs. It weaves together narrative strands on the development of our society with the advancements of science and anchors them all to the evolution of our understanding of time. One consequence of this approach is that in the interest of storytelling, the book does move quickly over some pretty challenging and abstract ideas toward the end - particularly regarding string theory and brane cosmology. It doesn't hurt to have an astrophysicist friend who you can pester with questions after finishing. But I see that as a sign of the book’s success; any author that can inspire their reader to dive deeper into the ideas they present has done their job well.
I couldn't help but see immediate parallels to another book I recently finished: Immortality: The Quest to Live Forever and How It Drives Civilization. Any discussion of the human perspective on time invariably has to look at beginnings and endings. As Steven Cave pointed out, without our conception of time, particularly it's finitude, our lives would have no meaning. "The deep problem is this, the value of a thing is related to its scarcity— people conscious of their mortality value their time and aim to spend it wisely because they know their days are numbered. But if our days were not numbered, this incentive would disappear: given infinity, time would lose its worth." Or in Adam's words: "Death has always been a portal to time's great mystery. By ending time (at least as we know it) for the self, death acts as an invitation to consider time's reality and meaning."
He begins by questioning how fundamentally reliable our perception of time even is. "You feel time in a way nobody did a thousand years ago. The human encounter with time is fluid and malleable. It can and will change again". Our modern conception of time in seconds, minutes, hours, days, months and years is not at all self-evident, but rather has evolved along with our species. It's a pertinent conceit for the digital age where the clock forms the very bedrock of our lives. Lewis Mumford posits that by the end of the fifteenth century, its exalted position in human affairs was secure. "Abstract time became the new medium of existence. One ate, not upon feeling hungry, but when prompted by the clock; one slept, not when one was tired, but when the clock sanctioned it." However, we stand in a privileged position at this point in our evolution. “We can, at long last, recognize the paired cycles of change in cosmic and human time and ask what they tell us about who we are, what we are and where might we be going. By recognizing that we have invented and are reinventing time, we give ourselves the opportunity to change it yet again.”
About Time is not a textbook. In the grand tradition of Carl Sagan's Cosmos, it conveys its message through storytelling rather than rigorous proofs. It weaves together narrative strands on the development of our society with the advancements of science and anchors them all to the evolution of our understanding of time. One consequence of this approach is that in the interest of storytelling, the book does move quickly over some pretty challenging and abstract ideas toward the end - particularly regarding string theory and brane cosmology. It doesn't hurt to have an astrophysicist friend who you can pester with questions after finishing. But I see that as a sign of the book’s success; any author that can inspire their reader to dive deeper into the ideas they present has done their job well.
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