Recent investigations opened the opportunity of constructing special model of general understanding of time. But is whether we have the final answer for the question about the meaning of time?
Article Who Creates the Time: Nature or Human?
As so very often Sergey, the answer probably lies in the relevant mathematics. The non-linearity and counter-intuitiveness of so much in science seems to mandate that we focus on the math and, just perhaps, not overly trust our instincts nor philosophy, born of a long evolutionary past and fraught with all manners of cognitive bias.
In the specific case of time, there are so many facets to be taken into account - Bell's inequality, the consequences of Lorentz transforms, different interpretations of QM, etc., some of which seem mutually contradictory, that reliance on the math is all the more crucial. Some of the explanations for time out there seem to work well within certain circumscribed domains, but fail to be comprehensively explanatory and/or overlook certain aspects that do not fit in with the particular thesis espoused....
PS - By the way, if I may - a 'wether' is a (gelded) ram. I tried to read your publication, but was defeated by the odd use of language, maybe you could decide to make an effort to streamline? just a suggestion.
A very worth reading book about time is Julian Barbour's "The End of Time". You can find there some deep thoughts about the 'essence of time'.
Dear Chris H. Ransford, thank you for intresting suggesstion. It will help me in my future work.
Dear Walter Smilga, thank you for recomended book. I'll surely read it!
By the way, there are very many books on Time, I would not necessarily classify JB's amongst the top ones, and I'd be interested in knowing Walter why did you single it out?
It depends at what level you'd be interested, and what area of focus. A pretty solid and interesting general-overview book would be Paul Davies's 'About Time', but there are many others. Sean Carroll's is pretty good, there are some that are, at least IMMO, less interesting. To address Time in its wholeness, you have to deal with delayed choice experiments, with multi-dimensionality, with time beyond infinite time (within event horizons), with time before the infinite past (e.g. in a matrix universe), with the Transactional Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, with Loop Quantum gravity (under which calculations Time must forerun a Big Bang or the BB cannot take place), with Bell's inequality and the Aspect and Gisin experiments, and much more besides.
Because some specific but important questions - such as how the interplay of time, distance, and speed under relativity can make you simultaneous at the same time with events that are in fact days apart - have been widely overlooked, I have written 'The Far Horizons of Time', a book due out shortly at de Gruyter.
Chris, if you would ask for an entertaining book about time, I would recommend Paul Davies' book. Davies is no doubt an excellent scientific writer and you will find in his book quite a lot about different aspects of time. But, if you are interested in the very 'roots' of time, I consider JB's 'The End of Time' as the more suitable one.
I have found Palle Yourgrau's A World Without Time: The Forgotten Legacy of Gödel and Einstein to be the latest most definitive and comprehensive treatment of 'time' as the best springboard for advancing discussion, incorporated in soon-to-be (2015) published work of my own which uniquely addresses 'time,' where in analysis (p. 170) I diverge from Gödel's approach, taking into consideration physics (nature), not merely mathematical concepts alone. Hence I am able to conclude that 'time' emerges from BOTH nature absolutely AND human perception relatively, how?, pending publication.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Theoretical Physics
- Time