Time Machines: Time Travel in Physics, Metaphysics, and Science Fiction"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. |
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - FKarr - LibraryThingvery 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 Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - elwyne - LibraryThingThis 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 ... Read full review
Contents
Machineless Time Travel Without Dreams or Drugs | 13 |
Traveling to the Past | 30 |
Backward in TimeCan It Really Be Done? | 43 |
Ways to Avoid Paradoxes | 57 |
Skepticism and Time Travelers | 72 |
Einstein Gödel and the Past | 79 |
Quantum Mechanics Black Holes Singularities | 85 |
Tiplers Time Machine | 92 |
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 |
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 |
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 Gödel | 489 |
Solving the Einstein Gravitational Field | 527 |
Glossary of Important Terms and Concepts | 545 |
618 | |
Other editions - View all
Time Machines: Time Travel in Physics, Metaphysics, and Science Fiction Paul J. Nahin No preview available - 2014 |
Time Machines: Time Travel in Physics, Metaphysics, and Science Fiction Paul J. Nahin No preview available - 1993 |
Common terms and phrases
actually appeared argued argument backward become believe black hole called causal cause century Chapter claim clock closed concept course curved described direction discussed earlier early Earth Edited effect Einstein energy equations example exist experience explain fact field fourth dimension future gravity happen idea imagine interesting Journal later laws least letter light living logical look loop machine mass mathematical matter means mechanics mind moving nature novel object observer occur original paradox particle past perhaps philosophers physicists physics position possible present problem Professor published quantum quantum mechanics question reason relativity result reversed Review science fiction seems shows simply space spacetime special relativity speed star story tale Tech Note tells theory things thought timelike tion trip universe world line wormhole write wrote York