By Clifford PickoverOur Price: $25.00 Our Item Code: TimeTravelGuide Postage Code: book2
304 Pages, Hardcover |
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| Information from the Publisher | Always supportive |
In Time: A Traveler's Guide, Pickover takes readers to the forefront of science as he illuminates the most mysterious phenomenon in the universe--time itself. Is time travel possible? Is time real? Does it flow in one direction only? Does it have a beginning and an end? What is eternity? These are questions that Pickover tackles in this stimulating blend of Chopin, philosophy, Einstein, and modern physics, spiced with diverting side-trips to such topics as the history of clocks, the nature of free will, and the reason gold glitters. Pickover includes numerous diagrams so readers have no trouble following along, computer code that lets us write simulations for various aspects of time travel, and an on-going science fiction tale featuring quirky characters who yearn to travel back in time to hear Chopin play in person. By the time we finish this book, we understand such seemingly arcane concepts as space-time diagrams, light cones, cosmic moment lines, transcendent infinite speeds, Lorentz transformations, superluminal and ultraluminal motions, Minkowskian space-times, Goedel universes, closed timelike curves, and Tipler cylinders. Learn about tachyonic aliens from other worlds, how free will and consciousness impact our perception of time, and perform experiments on your computer...
And most important, we will understand that time travel need not be confined to myth, science fiction, Hollywood fantasies, or scientific speculation. Time travel, we will realize, is possible.
Clifford A. Pickover is Research Staff Member at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center. The lead writer for the brain-boggler column in Discover magazine, Pickover is the author of many bestselling books on popular science topics. He lives in Yorktown Heights, New York.
"If you thought time travel was just for science fiction nuts, think again. As Pickover demonstrates, time travel is not the stuff of Asimovian dreams, it being theoretically possible. Of course, how to travel through time is is no simple matter, nor is explaining it, but Pickover rises to the challenge in many ways. Witty and profound quotations -- from Einstein to Woody Allen -- about time and our relation to it are liberally scattered throughout. Pickover's masterstroke, however, is to divided each chapter into two sections. The first is a second-person narrative recording the impromptu discussions about time-travel of a Chopin-obsessed curator from a Museum of Music with his assistant, "a Zetamorph, a member of a race of philosophers from a subterranean air pocket of Ganymede, a moon of Jupiter" and with a female earthling student. The second section, dutifully labeled "The Science behind the Science Fiction," is a sober essayistic review of topics addressed in the narrative half. Despite the popular tone, Pickover does not shy away from the mathematics of time travel. (He even includes an appendix of programmable algorithms.) A careful reader with some basic science should be able to follow Pickover chapter by chapter . The imaginative and humorous approach makes a difficult subject palatable -- and gives a plug for Chopin at the same time." - Publisher's Weekly, April 20, 1998
"A playful introduction to modern physics from a Discovery magazine columnist.... Frequent references to popular sci-fi movies and stories make the concepts even more accessible to readers. ...The basic principles are clearly explained... An entertaining introduction to modern scientific principles for bright students as well as adults." - Kirkus Review, April 15, 1998
"It is impossible to read Clifford Pickover's latest book without
learning a great deal about modern physics, and at the same time
being overwhelmed by the impenetrable mystery of time and its
role in those other two dark mysteries, consciousness and free will.
As always, the author's pages are exciting, entertaining, and
a delight to read.
- Martin Gardner
"Cliff Pickover explores most aspects of the implausible prospects of
practical time travel. If not a visitor from the future, he's at least
a man ahead of his time."
- Julien Clinton Sprott, Professor of Physics, University of Wisconsin
"Time: A Traveler's Guide is certain to shed new light, raise new
questions, and make your mind reel over the ancient and illusive
concept of time."
- Theoni Pappas, The Joy of Mathematics
"The arrow of time and our understanding of it defines much of our
humanity. Whether it be correcting past mistakes, regaining lost
youth, or leaning what comes next, everyone yearns to overcome the
consequence of time. Traveling through time creates enormous
paradoxes, but modern physical theories do no eliminate the
possibility. In this book, Clifford Pickover presents those theories
in layman's terms. To understand time is to know the ambitions of
humans, something Pickover excels at."
- Charles Aschbacher, Journal of Recreational Mathematics
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