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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A fair introduction to time travel, March 9, 2008
This review is from: Breaking the Time Barrier: The Race to Build the First Time Machine (Paperback)
I bought "Breaking The Time Barrier" as a companion to the most excellent "Time Traveler" by Ronald Mallett, and if you are after a good book with time travel science in it, get Mallett's book.
I found Ms. Randles book a disappointment on two levels. First, it's filled with "gee whiz!" statements that upon further reading are discounted. Examples:
p. 102: "He (Frank Tipler) was the first modern scientist to design a time machine that could be constructed in the laboratory ... ". Later, on p.104, Ms. Randles backs away from that stating that, "Tipler's time machine was a worthy effort but is not likely for the foreseeable future ...". Because it would require a super dense cylinder over 60 miles long.
p.107 "The photo of Christ was a fake and the chronovisor did not work - but the device was built and the theory behind it was sound."
Antigravity experiments of Podkletnov are discussed (p. 174- 176). "Tests followed and many further experiments revealed the remarkable truth. Gravity was being reduced in the area above the floating superconductor." Then (p. 176) "But Podkletnov's research proved disappointingly difficult for others to verify."
Secondly, Ms. Randles, although seemingly familiar with modern physics ideas, sometimes misinterprets them. Example:
(pp. 77 - 78) Ms. Randles misunderstands Einstein Rosen bridges to mean that particles themselves travel through the bridges rather than quantum information.
If you do not have a science background and you are interested in time travel ideas then this could be a good starting book. For those who have had exposure to science there are a few jewels in the book such as the (brief) discussion of the delayed choice experiment.
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14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Faster than a speeding bullet..., January 1, 2006
This review is from: Breaking the Time Barrier: The Race to Build the First Time Machine (Paperback)
The first great popularising of the idea of a time machine was undoubtedly H.G. Wells' novel of the same name, but lesser known is the fact that scientists from the same time period forward to today have been speculating in earnest about the factual possibilities of time travel and time machines. These kinds of speculations do not take the form of machines that look like go-carts with umbrellas on top (such as the films portray), but they are nonetheless fascinating. Once upon a time, the idea that human beings would send ships to the moon and other planets seemed like the stuff of fanciful science fiction; time machines and time travel still has that veneer, but as recently as a few years ago, physicist Paul Davies was able to state with all seriousness that there is no theoretical problem with building a time machine.
Jenny Randles has put together an intriguing text looking at the history of time machine and time travel speculation and research. This includes a good dose of science fiction, but more interestingly, a strong selection of science fact. Scientists with well-known names such as Einstein, Fermi, Hawking, and Penrose are joined with lesser-known figures such as Kaku and Chernobrov, the latter of whom has claimed to have built a time machine of sorts already.
Of course, this flies in the face of the law of chronological protection - a speculation advanced by Hawking (among others) that there is an as-yet undiscovered law of nature that enforces the cause-preceding-effect sequence of events. Just because it hasn't been discovered yet doesn't mean it's not there, and for good measure, the idea was advanced that civilisations with time-travel capabilities would have already made their presence known (if not destroyed us entirely) if such capabilities were ever found in fact. Others hold for a less rigid law of restrictive behaviour - you cannot go back and prevent your own birth, for example. However, where the boundary exists between chronology protection and flexible but restrictive boundaries is impossible to tell.
Randles discusses in general terms experiments, theoretical physical and mathematical models, and concepts that deal with dimensional analysis and speculation. How many dimensions are there, really? Even scientists such as Einstein could not come up with a single answer over the course of his life. Do we live in a universe or a 'multi-verse'? Just what is a multi-verse, anyway? These are some of the questions discussed. Randles does not get into equations and technical details, but sticks with general narrative discussion; thus, the level of science in this text never advanced much further than popular levels. However, there are some references listed in the back that can lead the interested reader to further texts. This part could be expanded to be more helpful for those who are technically inclined.
This is an interesting text, a quick read, full of personality and intrigue as well as scientific (and science fiction) ideas.
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
These are exciting times, July 17, 2005
This review is from: Breaking the Time Barrier: The Race to Build the First Time Machine (Paperback)
Jenny Randles writes about research being done in the arena of time travel. She compares our current period of time to the space race of the 60's. In her book she talks about various time travel theories and how the basic research into the area was started by Tesla. It was later expanded during the Philadelphia Experiment and the Montauk Project. Jenny Randles talks about modern researchers like Dr. Ron Mallet and about Steven Gibbs who claims to have built the first commercial time machine the HDR or Hyper Dimensional Resonator.
I thought it was well worth my time to become familiar with the world of time travel research and new events in chronodymanics.
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