The Order of Time

by Rovelli, Carlo
ISBN: 9780735216112
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Used - Trade Paperback - 9780735216112

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Overview

One of TIME's Ten Best Nonfiction Books of 2018
"Meet the new Stephen Hawking . . . The Order of Time is a dazzling book." --The Sunday Times

From the bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, comes a concise, elegant exploration of time.

Why do we remember the past and not the future? What does it mean for time to "flow"? Do we exist in time or does time exist in us? In lyric, accessible prose, Carlo Rovelli invites us to consider questions about the nature of time that continue to puzzle physicists and philosophers alike.

For most readers this is unfamiliar terrain. We all experience time, but the more scientists learn about it, the more mysterious it remains. We think of it as uniform and universal, moving steadily from past to future, measured by clocks. Rovelli tears down these assumptions one by one, revealing a strange universe where at the most fundamental level time disappears. He explains how the theory of quantum gravity attempts to understand and give meaning to the resulting extreme landscape of this timeless world. Weaving together ideas from philosophy, science and literature, he suggests that our perception of the flow of time depends on our perspective, better understood starting from the structure of our brain and emotions than from the physical universe.

Already a bestseller in Italy, and written with the poetic vitality that made Seven Brief Lessons on Physics so appealing, The Order of Time offers a profoundly intelligent, culturally rich, novel appreciation of the mysteries of time.

  • Format: TradePaperback
  • Author: Rovelli, Carlo
  • ISBN: 9780735216112
  • Condition: Used
  • Dimensions: 7.20 x 0.70
  • Number Of Pages: 256
  • Publication Year: 2019

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  • Uncanny ideas!

    Raul M. - 8 years 2 months ago

    This magnificent little book eloquently summarizes what science knows about "Time" and contemplates what the concept means for us all. Rovelli is a brilliant writer who not only gets us to the heart of the matter, he philosophizes beautifully on the nature and perception of time and some mind blowing ideas flow so well from his pen. Is there an answer to the question "What is Time?" Rovelli argues that time does not exist in our larger world since that detail is so prominent in the quantum world; in that place of the smallest of the small, time is meaningless. Likewise time beyond our minute appreciation of the present is a meaningless concept - it does not really help, beside the weight of memory, because every instant of time is a "now" - before is only a reflection and the future is unknown. Just because the second law of thermodynamics is so prominent does not mean that time is meaningless or that life if futile; though decay and death await all things mortal and not, the experience of time is our sole human gift to the universe. We are time. For better or worse.

    HPB Staff Review