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What is time? The Janus Point offers a ground-breaking solution to
one of the greatest mysteries in physics. For over a century, the
greatest minds have sought to understand why time seems to flow in
one direction, ever forward. In The Janus Point, Julian Barbour
offers a radically new answer: it doesn't. At the heart of this
book, Barbour provides a new vision of the Big Bang - the Janus
Point - from which time flows in two directions, its currents
driven by the expansion of the universe and the growth of order in
the galaxies, planets and life itself. What emerges is not just a
revolutionary new theory of time, but a hopeful argument about the
destiny of our universe. 'Both a work of literature and a
masterpiece of scientific thought' Lee Smolin, author of The
Trouble with Physics 'Profound...original...accessible to anyone
who has pondered the mysteries of space and time' Martin Rees,
Astronomer Royal 'Takes on fundamental questions, offering a new
perspective on how the Universe started and where it may be headed'
Science Magazine
In a universe filled by chaos and disorder, one physicist makes the
radical argument that the growth of order drives the passage of
time -- and shapes the destiny of the universe. Time is among the
universe's greatest mysteries. Why, when most laws of physics allow
for it to flow forward and backward, does it only go forward?
Physicists have long appealed to the second law of thermodynamics,
held to predict the increase of disorder in the universe, to
explain this. In The Janus Point, physicist Julian Barbour argues
that the second law has been misapplied and that the growth of
order determines how we experience time. In his view, the big bang
becomes the "Janus point," a moment of minimal order from which
time could flow, and order increase, in two directions. The Janus
Point has remarkable implications: while most physicists predict
that the universe will become mired in disorder, Barbour sees the
possibility that order -- the stuff of life -- can grow without
bound. A major new work of physics, The Janus Point will transform
our understanding of the nature of existence.
Time is an illusion. Although the laws of physics create a powerful
impression that time is flowing, in fact there are only timeless
'nows'. In THE END OF TIME, the British theoretical physicist
Julian Barbour describes the coming revolution in our understanding
of the world: a quantum theory of the universe that brings together
Einstein's general theory of relativity, which denies the existence
of a unique time, and quantum mechanics, which demands one. Barbour
believes that only the most radical of ideas can resolve the
conflict between these two theories: that there is, quite
literally, no time at all. This is the first full-length account of
the crisis in our understanding that has enveloped quantum
cosmology. Unifying thinking that has never been brought together
before in a book for the general reader, Barbour reveals the true
architecture of the universe and demonstrates how physics is coming
up sharp against the extraordinary possibility that the sense of
time passing emerges from a universe that is timeless. The heart of
the book is the author's lucid description of how a world of
stillness can appear to be teeming with motion: in this timeless
world where all possible instants coexist, complex mathematical
rules of quantum mechanics bind together a special selection of
these instants in a coherent order that consciousness perceives as
the flow of time. Finally, in a lucid and eloquent epilogue, the
author speculates on the philosophical implications of his theory:
Does free will exist? Is time travel possible? How did the universe
begin? Where is heaven? Does the denial of time make life
meaningless? Written with exceptional clarity and elegance, this
profound and original work presents a dazzlingly powerful argument
that all will be able to follow, but no-one with an interest in the
workings of the universe will be able to ignore.
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