Believers in free will and the fundamental nature of change would obviously have objections to this. Your experience of growing old and of seeing change are illusions. All of the events of an individual’s life (and the Universe’s) coexist together, unchanging and eternal. What we discuss as past, present, and future are not distinguished in this model. Alternatively known as the Block Universe, this philosophy sees ultimate reality as the coexistence of all events. Founded primarily from concepts of Einstein’s physics, the Universe Rigid followers hold that time is not real and that all temporal phenomena are constructions of minds. Although an old debate, philosophy of time in the twentieth century has seen a pitched battle between the “Universe Rigid” camp and its opponents. The central topic addressed in this book is the philosophical battle between two concepts of time. Gleick connects these in a way that gives the reader an appreciation for the complexity present. He doesn’t just give biographical information in parallel with the person’s accomplishments, or list similar explorations of time travel in literature, psychology, and physics. A few thousand words cannot possibly do justice to the breadth and depth of the topics he explores and connects. Well’s The Time Machine, Gleick gives us a ride through the twentieth century that shows how modern ideas of time have shaped us in broad ways.
To see this latest work as a discussion of time travel, as he discussed in his other works on information or chaos, misses what the book has to offer. With Time Travel, Gleick has stepped this up significantly. In The Information and Chaos, for example, he interweaves historical and biographical information in a way that shows how science is a human and cultural endeavor. Gleick does not take this approach.įans of Gleick’s writing, of which I am one, appreciate his ability to clearly explain complex and far-reaching scientific concepts.
As in other disciplines, these books stay mostly focused on the impact that the discipline can have on understanding time travel and how the possible existence of time travel might affect one’s thinking. In physics, for example, there are good examples of time travel being studied as a serious theoretical topic and as a way to teach, and lure, the uninitiated to consider and study physics. This, of course, has led to a vast amount of time travel themes in literature, philosophy, psychology, and physics. “Time Travel is sexy.” Time travel is one of those rare topics that not only bridges disciplines but captures the interest of the full range of academic training.
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