End of Time [Paperback]

Julian Barbour (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 16, 2000

In this book, theoretical physicist Julian Barbour describes the coming revolution in physics: 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).

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Julian Barbour has worked on foundational issues in physics for 35 years, making important and original contributions to the theory of time and motion. Author of Absolute or Relative Motion?, a much-praised book on the history of science, he has contributed to several recent major television and radio programmes that have been broadcast worldwide. He is exceptional in having a leading reputation in the field while holding no academic position.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Phoenix Paperbacks (March 16, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0753810204
• ISBN-13: 978-0753810200
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.9 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,617,772 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Seeds of a work beyond our Time, January 17, 2009

By 

Ali Moharr (La Verne, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: End of Time (Paperback)

I'm not a physicist by profession though I conduct my own general inquiries into foundational issues of mathematical physics. I have read this book and I am deeply impressed and intrigued by the whole wealth of ideas and research works used by Julian to formulate his key concepts. As I read about Julian's life I find him a very committed scientist to probe deeper issues. While this book avoids explicit use of mathematical equations nevertheless, one needs to do a background study on his referenced papers in order to understand arguing grounds of this book.

There is only Quantum Statics! This is the key concept (and also mathematically argued) main theme of this book as Julian himself puts this on 2nd paragraph of page 253.

Now in my view this goes against all the impressions and ideas we have from what is generally considered as changing/temporal universe. It is so obvious that all is about motion and change and (almost) all formulations of general relativity and quantum mechanics do involve a time coordinate in order to capture this so basic observation, rate of change!

This is where Julian goes beyond or (deeper into) generally introduced framework of physics and attempts to introduce a Machian formulation of general relativity to probe into roots of (apparent) conflict among unification efforts of Quantum Mechanics with General Relativity: introduce a space of all possible relative configurations, called Platonia, which contains all possible relative configurations of everything that could ever exist(I'm adding some bits of my own wording here) and try to employ intriguing concepts/tools like `Best Matching' and `Machian Distinguished Simplifier' to trace how a notion of change comes into our ordinary formulation of dynamics. I consider these as requisites to grasp this book. Julian uses simple examples to convey his concepts.

As much as I understand Julian's works, it could be the implications of ideas are so powerful that if understood properly and imagined for their repercussions, they would open a door to a new view of workings of universe, reconciliation of classical field theories is one of them plus hint at deeper imports of gauge fields as derivative of Best Matching (expert readers may refer to Bruno Bertotti's papers in this regard).

I would rather not make any philosophical conclusions for the message that our universe is actually is static universe but I would encourage those readers of Heidegger's works in phenomenology of time and being to match Julian's ideas with Martin Heidegger's open ended inquiries.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in nature of time; there are many other books written on the subject but this one is an exception. As for me it helped me with better understanding of classical dynamics.

Alireza

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars not for the layperson, August 21, 2009

By 

Stephen P. Kennedy - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: End of Time (Paperback)

I purchased this book because it was advertised as being readable even by a layperson (someone not particular scientifically literate). My impression after reading the book is that you will not get much out of it unless you have a strong scientific background. I would like to hear from others who disagree with my assessment.