Customer Reviews

Time's Arrow and Archimedes' Point: New Directions for the Physics of Time

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This is one of the hardest books I've ever read. It was rewarding, though. Price wrote the book explicitly for philosophers and physicists. Frankly, it was nice to see a book written thus with all the condescending attitudes that these two (?) spheres of knowledge have had towards each other in this day and age. This book belongs in the same prestigious realm as the books on physics & philosophy that were written by Werner Heisenberg and Sir James Jeans earlier this century. I would like to see more books of this type in the future.

As you might have guessed, the book deals with the nature of time. It is HIGHLY recommended that anyone attempting grapple with this intellectual Godzilla have a general understanding of quantum mechanics (if, that is, anyone really DOES understand QM) and some background in thermodynamics and relativity would not hurt, either. This book is not for those who think of books by Danielle Steele as intellectually stimulating.

The book deals with the entropy "problem" of how it is that matter ever got to its low entropy state after the big bang, since (apparently) high entropy (heat death) is its natural state. Price tours some potential (although sometimes far fetched) answers to this query.

For me, the most fascinating facet of the book was its discussion of the idea of advanced action as a solution to the nonlocality "problem" in QM. It's amazing for me to think that two entangled photons could already KNOW that the other's spin is going to change at such-and-such a time due to their travelling at the speed of light. Although Price did not invent this concept, he supports it (compellingly) and also objects to the normal criticism that either we can have relativity or free will, but not both. A truly fascinating concept for physicists and philosophers alike.

So, if you want a wild and engrossing intellectual ride, this book is for you.

This is heady stuff-Perhaps if you're a theoretical physics professor at CalTech it might make for light postprandial enjoyment.-But for the rest of us...Beware!...Part of the problem is terminology(micro) or (mu) innocence for example....Oddly, I read this book for the same reason I read Proust-I'm fascinated with Time!-But be forewarned that, though this book has far less than Proust's 3,000 pages, unless you are the aforementioned professor, you have an extremely tougher row to hoe in reading this book, even though the author goes out of his way to make things understandable to the lay reader. -The basic idea isn't that hard to understand: we are captives of our position in time and that captivity affects our observations of physical (particle, wavicle, whatever) behavior. What the author eventually advances (after ploughing through many other concepts and alternative explanations) is something called "advanced action theory." This theory entails, as far as I can make out, very simply, that there is a "common future" as well a "common past" that influences what we call the present but that we are unable to perceive this common future because our nature as AGENTS (he uses this term over and over)precludes us from perceiving this common future.-I kept on thinking of a spatial analogy of a person tied to the back of the caboose of a train facing backward. He can see where the train has gone, but not the vista ahead, which is certainly just as real. But if he has been in this position his entire life, he would have no idea what you meant by saying "See that mountain up ahead!" How could you know? It's as if one of us were to state, "See that assassination attempt tomorrow!"- Archimedes' Point for Mr. Price would entail an observer standing by as the train passes observing both where it's been and where it's going.-This is the simplest way I know to explain what this book is about, though it may just make more of a muddle of things for all I know....But the physicists Mr. Price describes seem to have done a pretty good job of that already.-Anyhow, that's enough explanation for a review like this one. If you are intrigued, go ahead and buy it.-But be prepared for hard, hard work.-Unless, of course, you've already figured all this out.-In the former case, a pint down at your local pub is the fit epilogue to this mindbending work!

This is not a book for the faint of heart, especially if, like me, you are neither a physicist nor a philosopher. I suspect that students of quantum mechanics will get much more out of the book than interested bystanders such as I (who have never taken a physics class and would probably have flunked had I tried).

You cannot skim this book or read it with half a mind. You must engage yourself with the author, pay attention to each and every sentence. I recommend reading the introduction and conclusion first (this is, after all, a book about the asymmetry of time), then the beginning and end of each chapter before digging in. Luckily, Price divides each chapter into bite-sized sections. He also repeats himself quite a lot, but I think he does so because he knows how difficult his subject is and hopes that if you don't understand something the first time, you will by the third or fourth time or just by an example with a slightly different twist.

The lack of a physics background will not only make the subject harder to understand (of course) but will also make the argument harder to evaluate. His points are very interesting and seem well-reasoned, but I don't know enough about the subject to evaluate them.

Still, if you're interested in the subject and are prepared to work at it, the book will reward your time and energy.

The question "What is time?" is one of the most fascinating philosophical inquiries precisely because it cannot be dismissed as metaphysical. Mr. Price has a most active mind, ready to question all of our basic assumptions about the way the world goes. Why don't we see events happening backwards? Well, maybe we do see them! Why is the world the way it is today? Because it evolved from a single particle that exploded in the "big bang"? How improbable, says Mr. Price. It is far more probable that the world was created a month ago, with everyone having false memories of a nonexistent past. If you are the type of person who needs definitive answers to things, then this may not be the book for you. But if you like questions--the kinds of questions that open up new ways of thinking about things--then you can hardly do better. I hope Huw Price favors us soon with another book.

An absolutely revolutionary vision of the physics of time. I believe that what Huw Price has to say here will ultimately come to be the predominant paradigm in understanding the concept of time. The last great revolution in physics occured with Einstein, and ever since physics has bordered on the mystical in its theories and implications. Since our perspective of time and space is relative, it also makes sense that in whatever frame we occupy, we are not seeing the whole picture. We understand the relativity and therefore the limitations of our individual perspectives, but as the author says, it is extremely difficult to separate ourselves from our everyday notions of time and space (to gain the Archimedean perspective, in other words). I believe that the vision Mr. Price achieves in this book is the closest we have come so far to a truly objective understanding of time and our place in it. An undeniably difficult, yet profoundly rewarding read.

In the preface of Time's Arrow and Archimedes' Point, Mr. Price describes his target audience as being those people with an interest in the subject of time, yet no formal education in either Physics or Philosophy. In this light I feel that the book does not fare well due more to its style than its topic. I am wildly interested in the book's subject matter, and I have no formal education in either Physics or Philosophy, yet I found myself struggling at times to appreciate Mr. Price's logic on the first pass. Following the linguistic style of the book was apparently an issue for the editors at Oxford as well because it contained over a half-dozen typographical errors (all contextual; not spelling errors).

The ultimate purpose of the book is to make the case for a "Block Universe", one in which time does not flow, but rather whose entire existence already resides as a fourth dimension. "Archimedes' Point" in the title refers to the need for us to step out of our shells as agents in time, and view nature "from nowhen" if we are to truly understand the concept. Mr. Price begins by analyzing what appears to be the natural symmetry of time as outlined by the mathematical description of physics. He then presents common time-asymmetric arguments, one after another, and shows them to be ultimately fallacious, contradictory, or suffering from anthropocentric double standards. Near the end of the book Mr. Price incorporates the strange behavior of quantum mechanics, which can plausibly be explained by advanced action (aka causes coming from the future), to bolster his "Block Universe" claims. In the end I almost take the Block Universe for granted, and from this perspective the book is a resounding success.

Making it through the book was ultimately satisfying. The author's arguments, once fully appreciated, are sound and persuasive. The end of each chapter contains a summary of its contents which was fantastic. The final chapter again contains a summary of the major logical points made throughout the book which really helps to bring everything together. If you are a casual reader looking to be entertained then this book is probably not for you. If you are willing to do some work in the quest to expand your knowledge then I would recommend it...

Huw Price's book is one of the best, but also most demanding, popular science books on the market. Actually it is a mixture of science and philosophy. Depite now being over 10 years old, there is little in it that has lost its relevance or been knocked down in those intervening years.

The great thing about the topic of time is that it is something that we all experience and have an intuitive feeling for. But if asked to explain it, to others or ourselves, we start to tie ourselves in knots. That is where this author shines most - at tackling the problem a step at a time, clearly, in simple language and with great attention to possible misunderstandings. His whole argument centers on the question of why the laws of physics are time symmetric whilst the world that we observe appears to have a preferred direction - from past to future. It turns out that many fascinating concepts are involved in untangling this problem. Entropy, causality and dependence, micro- versus macro-events. Psychological factors (based on human experience) are shown to strongly influence the way we think about the world, and to obscure our view of what time symmetry really implies.

The central claim of the book is that microscopic processes actually are time reversible and admit backwards causation. This idea is applied in quantum mechanics (in a non-mathematical but logical fashion) to suggest that Bell's theorem and non-locality can be explained (away) by assuming that particles can be influenced in their present state by a measurement that lies in the future. Sounds crazy? No its not, really. This is not wishful thinking, or trying to open a 'scientific door' to supernatural phenomena. What Price shows, very convincingly, is how difficult it is, even for famous physicists, to step outside our human perspective as actors in time. However, with a little effort to adopt the Archimedean perspective 'outside' of time, the reader is rewarded with a truly mind-bending new view of time, and the challenges it poses for physics and philosophy. An excellent, carefully argued and thoroughly stimulating book!

"What if" is perhaps the most significant of all scientific questions because the speculation it causes can lead to remarkable insights.

Likewise, "what if" can also be the inspiration for great fiction as here where the author takes us on many a wild goose chase. While the goose chases aren't necessarily a waste of time, readers should be aware of them nonetheless.

First things first: to understand the physical basis for the arrow of time, we need to understand the basis of reality in which the arrow of time is housed. As currently understood, reality is a confluence of four physical forces:

1) Gravity -- exerted at the macroscopic level and greater consistent with the increasing size of the object in question;

2) Electromagnatism -- exerted macroscopically, it concerns the relationship between electricity and magnatism;

3) The srong nuclear force -- exerted microscopically at the subatomic level, it concerns the relationship between the constituent particles of the nucleus;

SO FAR ALL THE FORCES DESCRIBED ARE TIME SYMMETRICAL, IN OTHER WORDS, THEY OPERATE THE SAME WAY WHETHER ONE IS SEEKING TO UNDERSTAND THE NORMAL SEQUENTIAL PASSAGE OF TIME -- SO CALLED RETARDED TIME -- OR REVERSED TIME SO CALLED ADVANCED TIME.

4) The fourth currently understood fundamental force of nature -- the weak nuclear force -- which also operates microscopically at the subatomic level but relates to proton decay. Since 1957, we have been aware that this force is time asymmetric in that so called K particle decay (so called because the decay pattern in a bubble chamber resembles the letter K) operates in a fashion consistent with retarded time.

While one might think that a fundamental force of nature showing a selective prejudice for the type of time that we physically observe might merit some serious reflection, Price's response is to simply disregard the matter as being physically insignificant because the interactions happen on such a minute scale (viz. the subatomic realm).

In other words, by Price's reasoning the fact that after the Big Bang, matter only outnumbered antimatter by a measure of one billion and one particles to one billion would enable him to say that we live in an antimatter universe because the enumerated differences between the number of particles was so small.

While his discussion of quantum entanglement is fascinating, his insights invariably serve as yet another wild goose chase. Disdained by Albert Einstein as "spooky action at a distance" quantum entanglement is the phenomenon that exists wherein two particles become entangled with a similar subatomic signature. Amazingly, research has shown that regardless of the seeming physical distance between the particles, a change in the signature to one of them can cause a similtaneous change in the signature of the other.

While fascinating, follow up research has failed to show that any useful information can be communicated through this immediate process and therefore -- though interesting -- it doesn't defeat Einsteinian causality.

Indeed, properly understood, it best inspires us to better understand what locality really is when we discuss the quantum level...a discussion not significantly fostered by Price's speculations.

Probabaly a better -- though harder -- read on this topic is Deiter Zeh's Physical Basis for the Direction of Time.

'In order to explain temporal asymmetry it is necessary to shake off its constraints on our ordinary ways of thinking -- to stand in thought as a point outside of time, and thence to regard the world in atemporal terms. This book is a kind of self-help manual for those who would make this Archimedean journey.' Price, p.19

I do second the contention that one does not need formal schooling in either physics or philosophy, nevertheless a fairly robust foundation laid, at the very least, through self-directed reading, in both disciplines is key to wrapping one's head around this groundbreaking, well-considered text. If one is serious about participating in this Archimedean journey, exposure to the concept of our restrained, illusion-inducing cognitive capacity would be a good place to start. Before being able to grapple with the idea that time is not an objective continuum but rather a dimension by which we are bound and a lens through which we interpret our filtered experience, our environment and, ultimately, our very picture of reality, I believe it is essential to understand that, as creatures saddled with brains -- fundamentally organic computing machines -- we are ludicrously easy to manipulate, deceive and subdue.

There is a sense in which the experience of time as an asymmetric 'flow' facilitates just such deception (for lack of a better word.) Price is a consummate thinker. He examines the pitfalls of relying on a given concept's philosophical laurels and presses through by taking up arguments to the contrary and methodically examining each; one of the earliest of which is the most illuminating. If one has the most basic grasp of the implications of the second law of thermodynamics, most notably the intuitive assumption that the amount of entropy in a system increases is not exceptionless but rather a matter of extremely high probability, then a high entropy state on the heels of a low entropy state is not a state which requires explanation. Rather that the current low-entropy state of our universe is statistically aberrant and in need of examination precisely because it has followed an even lower entropy state. In examining radiative asymmetry -- such as that exhibited in water and by radio waves -- he gathers steam to postulate that the initial cosmological condition of a low-entropy state begs a symmetrical return to a low-entropy state which renders the notion of a past and a future, as defined by the time asymmetry we experience through increasing entropy in a system, subjective.

Do you know what this means? It means that this damn thing doesn't work at all!

(Little 'Back to the Future' humor, there, for ya.)

But back, again, to this dense articulation, if you were able to follow my feeble yet considered dissection above, you have a much better chance of engaging Price's book. If not, you need to do some foundational reading on the second law and the limitations of consciousness because,

'One of the general lessons is that because our ordinary (asymmetric) ways of thinking are intimately tied up with the thermodynamic asymmetry, we cannot assume that they will be dependable in contexts in which this asymmetry is not universal.' Price, p. 109

To avail myself of an analogy, it might be a bit like this. If you, your friends, your home, your photo albums, your ambition, your pantry, your mp3 files, your stamp collection, your bitterness, your bootleg copy of 'Norwegian Wood' and your ski lift stub are all in a very, very long block of hot pink Jell-o, everything looks pink. Especially if you and all your stuff are constantly moving through it and it is just very, very long. Say you somehow get ejected from the hot pink Jell-o mold. You wipe off all the residual evidence of having been subject to it, and you recognize that you are, in fact, not hot pink.

Do you suppose all your stuff is still hot pink? Or maybe, just maybe, has it simply looked that way for as long as memory serves because of your perspective?

That's kind of what this book is like, only way less rosy.

Recommended for all humans. You'll never look at your Timex the same way, again.

10-Point Rating: (9.25)
Does more successuully for time what Genz's Nothingness attempted to do for space. Hopefully this extremely enjoyable book will stimulate more serious-minded philosophers to become engaged in a long needed exchange of ideas with theoretical physicists. Thought provoking, challenging, and well written (although a few words such as asymmetrical may be overused), this book has to be the most balanced approach to time within the Western traditions currently in print. My only complaint about this book is that it doesn't suitably analyze the concept of time from a more metaphysical angle, given the author's intended philosophical approach.