Time Machines: Time Travel in Physics, Metaphysics, and Science Fiction

Paul J. Nahin

Springer Science & Business Media, Apr 20, 2001 - Science - 628 pages

"Here's a gem of a book...all peppered with delightful notes from science fiction films, novels, and comics. I can't turn a page without finding a jewel." Clifford Stoll, University of California, Berkeley, author of The Cuckoo's Egg "The research that has gone into this book is impressive." Nature "For professional physicists much of the value lies in the extensive technical appendices and footnotes, and the exhaustive list of references. But if, like me, you are a child at heart, the real fun lies in the zany stories and wild speculations." Physics World Time Machines explores the idea of time travel from the first account in English literature to the latest theories of physicists such as Kip Thorne and Igor Novikov. This very readable work covers a variety of topics including the history of time travel in fiction; the fundamental scientific concepts of time, spacetime, and the fourth dimension; the speculations of Einstein, Richard Feynman, Kurt Goedel, and others; time travel paradoxes, and much more.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - FKarr - LibraryThing

very thorough, detailed, rigorous description of time travel -- in both the physical world and in science fiction; amazing compendium of time travel in literature and media

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - elwyne - LibraryThing

This is a spectacular book. Yes, it's hard. I didn't understand quite a lot of it. I hope to come back to it after reading some Feynman etc and see if I get more out of it. But even missing so much ...

Contents

• An Overview of Time Travel l: 1
• Machineless Time Travel Without Dreams or Drugs: 13
• H G Wells Why His Time Machine Wont Work: 22
• Traveling to the Past: 30
• Some Problems: 40
• The Problem of Paradoxes: 47
• The Fictional Origins of Change the Past: 54
• Where Are All the Time Travelers?: 66
• Skepticism and Time Travelers: 72
• Einstein Godel and the Past: 79
• Quantum Mechanics Black Holes Singularities: 85
• Tiplers Time Machine: 92
• What Is Time?: 98
• Has the Past Been for Ever?: 109
• Time and Clocks: 115
• Monsters in Hyperspace: 125
• Time as the Fourth Dimension: 140
• Spacetime and the Fourth Dimension: 148
• Spacetime Omniscience and Free Will: 161
• Does the Future Already Exist? Is the Past: 170
• The Arrows of Time: 179
• Cause and Effect: 185
• Backward Causation: 191
• What Does Now Mean?: 198
• Irreversibility: 205
• The Philosophy and Physics of Reversed Time: 220
• Entropy as Times Arrow: 227
• Other Arrows of Time: 236
• Time Travel Paradoxes: 245
• Early Science Fiction Speculations: 251
• Can the Present Change the Past?: 259
• Changing the Past vs Affecting It: 269
• Why Cant a Time Traveler Kill His Grandfather?: 285
• Quantum Mechanics and Time Travel: 294
• Causal Loops: 304
• Sexual Paradoxes: 319
• Communication with the Past: 327
• Absorber Theory and Signaling to the Past: 336
• Tachyonic Signals Spooky Actions: 342
• Epilogue: 355
• Notes and References: 367
• Tech Notes: 415
• Spacetime Diagrams Light Cones Metrics: 439
• Proper Time Curved World Lines: 459
• Superluminal Speeds Backward Time Travel: 475
• Backward Time Travel According to Godel: 489
• Solving the Einstein Gravitational Field: 527
• Glossary of Important Terms and Concepts: 545
• Bibliographic Adieu: 618

Bibliographic information

• Title: Time Machines: Time Travel in Physics, Metaphysics, and Science Fiction
• Author: Paul J. Nahin
• Edition: 2, illustrated
• Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media, 2001
• ISBN: 0387985719, 9780387985718
• Length: 628 pages
• Subjects: Science / Physics / General