Time Reborn: From the Crisis in Physics to the Future of the Universe

By Lee Smolin

Since the ancients, physicists have argued that time is not real, that we may think we experience time passing but it's just a human illusion in a timeless universe operating on predetermined laws. Lee brilliantly shows how this thinking came about from our deep need for stability and the eternal, but that indeed time may be the only thing that is real.

Since the ancients, physicists have argued that time is not real, that we may think we experience time passing but it's just a human illusion in a timeless universe operating on predetermined laws. Lee brilliantly shows how this thinking came about from our deep need for stability and the eternal, but that indeed time may be the only thing that is real.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Apr 23, 2013
• ISBN: 9780307400734

Reviews for Time Reborn

[ashleytylerjohn · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I'm not a scientist, but I keep thinking that the more science books I read, the more I'll eventually understand (and so far, that's been true). Having just finished The Grand Design I wanted to explore more on a similar topic and this seemed like it would address many of my questions, and to a certain extent did.

The first half I enjoyed quite a lot, a run-through of "established" science, and then the book turned into his apparently unorthodox repositioning of established truths. It seemed to me he made a lot of unsubstantiated claims (e.g. time must be real because we can feel it passing, say), and while my gut agrees with him (I can't help but suspect the fixed space-time orthodoxy is missing something) I don't think he makes his case. After a few chapters of samey-samey, I stopped reading and picked up an 80s mystery in stead.

[applemcg · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Smolin has a point: this business of timelessness needs a re-think. At the risk of sounding arrogant, his community shrinks because of his argument. I'm one of those curious, who likes to think i can appreciate what the serious thinkers think. I didn't say understand; i'm not that arrogant. But I think I'm clever enough to appreciate what's at stake. A recent reading of the Tao of Physics resurrected any recollection I had that quantum physics now tells us that time is an emergent property, rather than fundamental. At least according to the largest part of that community. I think many (most?) well-read people would find that a novel idea. So do I. So, I start this book in sympathy with where Smolin is going. He carefully lays out his plan. To paraphrase "First, let's see how time lost it's unquestioned status as fundamental", then he says he'll see why that has to be rethought. This is an honest approach for a scientist. "I'm with you, Lee". And he's thorough. By the end of Part I, he's taken us from Newton thru Einstein and Bohr, when in the 20's (I guess) "time" lost it's place in the equation's denominator.His restoring time on scientific grounds comes from cosmological questions: Einsteins forsaking the cosmological constant, and since his death, the need to insert it back to explain newer observations. I can appreciate (recall, not the same as understanding) that now, dark matter and dark energy explain the need for a cosmological constant, and help to model the observations. Smolin argues that physical laws have evolved in this universe to explain the measured changes in the distribution of the universe's constituents: photons, stars (matter), energy, and the dark versions. And evolution implies passage of time. The initial conditions and the "selection" of fundamental constants receive pro and con arguments. So too, the possibility of multiple (infinite numbers of) universes, and a single infinite universe. As his scope widens, his audience narrows. The problem he's trying to solve matters to fewer and fewer people. He confesses his real motive in the epilogue, where he sums up his argument as the need for a new philosophy. I suspect literary critics could easily tease out the circularity of his reasoning. To me, it's not unlike a local pastor of my witness who complains about those who complain, failing to see himself in that club. I rationalize my rating of 3* on my belief one's ratings should be a binomial distribution. Since the lowest I will go is 2.5, and I only allow a handful of books at that rating, this book is not one of those.

[nielsengw_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Time is both everywhere and nowhere. It is force we deal with everyday in a metaphysical sense as well as a phantom object. In the physics world, it has no real definition aside from what other theories and variables give it. After Einstein’s theories, it became relative; what was perceived as a certain time to one person could be different to another. Lee Smolin’s Time Reborn seeks to wrestle the relative and vanishing concept of time away from the quantum mechanical model and give it a physical presence in the universe. He wants to make time real.Separating space and time, and making time real in the process, is a very heady goal. There’s a reason it’s always referred to as “space-time.” They are inextricably linked. While I liked all the interesting new physics Smolin discussed, I’m not entirely sure he accomplished his goal with the clarity he wanted. Metaphysics and philosophy tend to creep into his argument and thus create flaws in his quest to quantify time as a legitimate, whole, and distinct entity. A lot of the standard physics theories tend to break down when trying to isolate time in a concrete sense. That being said, Smolin’s history of physics was engaging and slightly more refreshing than the rote stuff you get from other texts. And this book will get you thinking about the larger concepts of the universe, which is never a bad thing. It has kind of a physics class feel to it as his illustrations look like they were drawn with a dry-erase marker (I liked that). If you’re interested in a different perspective on contemporary quantum physics, then dive right in—if you have the time, of course.