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civil6512's review against another edition
3.0
A good friend of mine, who recently got his PhD. in Quantum Physics, bought me this book as a present a couple of weeks ago. He told me it was very good to get a better understanding of the Universe and the role of (the arrow of) time in it.
He was right, and I have enjoyed [a: Sean Carroll|151771|Sean Carroll|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1447348829p2/151771.jpg]'s [b: From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time|6371455|From Eternity to Here The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time|Sean Carroll|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1439413337s/6371455.jpg|6559050] very much. I have learnt greatly about the origin of the Universe and its potential fate, about time travel and its feasibility, about symmetry in the laws of physics, about the arrow of time, about entropy...
There were several things I didn't like, though: the text has a large number of notes. However, in a style decision I can't understand, these notes are all grouped together at the end of the book, instead of being regular footnotes. While some of them were large enough to justify the need for extra space, jumping several hundred pages to find a bibliographical reference was almost like the written version of beingRickroll'ed . The book also gets more difficult to understand as we progress through different theories. While this makes sense, as we cover more and more complex concepts, I think the amount of care put by the writer at the beginning to make this work understandable gets a bit relaxed later on.
In any case, I enjoyed a lot reading From Eternity to Here, and it has already allowed me to talk with my friend about some of the things he researches about!
He was right, and I have enjoyed [a: Sean Carroll|151771|Sean Carroll|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1447348829p2/151771.jpg]'s [b: From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time|6371455|From Eternity to Here The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time|Sean Carroll|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1439413337s/6371455.jpg|6559050] very much. I have learnt greatly about the origin of the Universe and its potential fate
Spoiler
as a sad, cooling, ever-expanding, emptinessThere were several things I didn't like, though: the text has a large number of notes. However, in a style decision I can't understand, these notes are all grouped together at the end of the book, instead of being regular footnotes. While some of them were large enough to justify the need for extra space, jumping several hundred pages to find a bibliographical reference was almost like the written version of being
In any case, I enjoyed a lot reading From Eternity to Here, and it has already allowed me to talk with my friend about some of the things he researches about!
clarks_dad's review against another edition
5.0
Simply the best popular physics book I've ever read. Carroll is amazingly lucid, practical and totally excited about the subject while being conscious of the problems inherent in understanding something that is so fundamental to our existence that we take it for granted: time.
What is time? Does it exist naturally, or is it emergent from some other property of the universe? These are the grand questions that drive From Eternity to Here. In fact, the questions are so grand, and so monumental, Carroll can't help but comment on the scope of modern physics from classical mechanics and relativity to the absurd realities of quantum mechanics. Within From Eternity the lay reader will find a candid and clear discussion of pretty much anything physics related a non-specialist would want to know (and perhaps a few things you didn't).
The book is divided into roughly four parts - each dealing with an aspect that explains several key features about time. Of primary focus to Carroll is the arrow of time - a fundamental asymmetry in the flow of time. How is it that we can remember the past, but not the future? It sounds like a nonsensical question at first glance, but when you really think about it, there is no logical reason for why it should be so. The first part of the book attempts to nail down what we even mean by time, and to elucidate some of its properties so that we can better understand what it is we're looking for when constructing a theory of time. Next, Carroll takes us on a whirlwind tour of Einstein's theories of relativity and the way that they distort our common sense notion of what time is and how it's supposed to function. In particular, Carroll emphasizes that subjective nature of time, not in the figurative sense we're all used to (This class feels like it's taking forever!), but in a very literal sense through the exploration of light cones and the time bending effects of black holes.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the book follows thereafter. Carroll ties the evolution of time and its direction to the laws of thermodynamics, in particular to statistical mechanic descriptions of the second law: entropy always tends to increase. Here we see asymmetry manifest and perhaps the first clue as to why we perceive time "flowing" in a single direction, or even existing at all. The tendency of any closed system is to always be more and more entropic (here we can insert the word disorganized, but very carefully). In common parlance, any system tends toward the most likely state we should find it in - mostly equilibrium. Think of a box of gas that initially has all of the gas restricted to one side in its initial condition. If we watched such a box over time, what would we find? Most likely, we'd find that in the future, the gas would have dispersed until it reached equilibrium throughout the box, at which point it stops evolving. So goes the universe according to Carroll. For some reason that we're not one hundred percent clear on, the universe just after the Big Bang contained very low entropy. Our experience of change and time rests on the natural working of that system toward a more natural high entropy condition.
The last section is highly speculative, but exciting to think about. Here Carroll expands upon a number of theories about the evolution of the universe, its origins and its ultimate destination. Admittedly, there is little evidence from any of the proposals, but they're all fantastic to think about.
Carroll seems to succeed more than anything in making you feel smaller and more insignificant than you thought possible. This is an impressive feat given the series of substantial widenings in perspective given to us by scientists from Galileo to Hubble. But it's not a bad thing. On the contrary, there's a wonderful sense of order and determinism in the evolution of the universe as presented by Carroll that's mind-blowing to think about. As a reader, you really can't help but be infected by Carroll's own excitement and optimism that science will ultimately unlock even the deepest mysteries of where we came from and where we're going.
Probably not for people who have no concept of physics whatsoever, but if you've read any popular physics books by Greene or Kaku, you'll find that Carroll is much more down to earth. The stuff in the latter section tends toward the esoteric, but it's presented clearly and with as much caution as possible. Pick it up. It's worth your while.
What is time? Does it exist naturally, or is it emergent from some other property of the universe? These are the grand questions that drive From Eternity to Here. In fact, the questions are so grand, and so monumental, Carroll can't help but comment on the scope of modern physics from classical mechanics and relativity to the absurd realities of quantum mechanics. Within From Eternity the lay reader will find a candid and clear discussion of pretty much anything physics related a non-specialist would want to know (and perhaps a few things you didn't).
The book is divided into roughly four parts - each dealing with an aspect that explains several key features about time. Of primary focus to Carroll is the arrow of time - a fundamental asymmetry in the flow of time. How is it that we can remember the past, but not the future? It sounds like a nonsensical question at first glance, but when you really think about it, there is no logical reason for why it should be so. The first part of the book attempts to nail down what we even mean by time, and to elucidate some of its properties so that we can better understand what it is we're looking for when constructing a theory of time. Next, Carroll takes us on a whirlwind tour of Einstein's theories of relativity and the way that they distort our common sense notion of what time is and how it's supposed to function. In particular, Carroll emphasizes that subjective nature of time, not in the figurative sense we're all used to (This class feels like it's taking forever!), but in a very literal sense through the exploration of light cones and the time bending effects of black holes.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the book follows thereafter. Carroll ties the evolution of time and its direction to the laws of thermodynamics, in particular to statistical mechanic descriptions of the second law: entropy always tends to increase. Here we see asymmetry manifest and perhaps the first clue as to why we perceive time "flowing" in a single direction, or even existing at all. The tendency of any closed system is to always be more and more entropic (here we can insert the word disorganized, but very carefully). In common parlance, any system tends toward the most likely state we should find it in - mostly equilibrium. Think of a box of gas that initially has all of the gas restricted to one side in its initial condition. If we watched such a box over time, what would we find? Most likely, we'd find that in the future, the gas would have dispersed until it reached equilibrium throughout the box, at which point it stops evolving. So goes the universe according to Carroll. For some reason that we're not one hundred percent clear on, the universe just after the Big Bang contained very low entropy. Our experience of change and time rests on the natural working of that system toward a more natural high entropy condition.
The last section is highly speculative, but exciting to think about. Here Carroll expands upon a number of theories about the evolution of the universe, its origins and its ultimate destination. Admittedly, there is little evidence from any of the proposals, but they're all fantastic to think about.
Carroll seems to succeed more than anything in making you feel smaller and more insignificant than you thought possible. This is an impressive feat given the series of substantial widenings in perspective given to us by scientists from Galileo to Hubble. But it's not a bad thing. On the contrary, there's a wonderful sense of order and determinism in the evolution of the universe as presented by Carroll that's mind-blowing to think about. As a reader, you really can't help but be infected by Carroll's own excitement and optimism that science will ultimately unlock even the deepest mysteries of where we came from and where we're going.
Probably not for people who have no concept of physics whatsoever, but if you've read any popular physics books by Greene or Kaku, you'll find that Carroll is much more down to earth. The stuff in the latter section tends toward the esoteric, but it's presented clearly and with as much caution as possible. Pick it up. It's worth your while.
beckydham's review against another edition
3.0
Definitely helped me get a better handle on all this, but I don't think I'll really ever understand how time and space work.
shc's review against another edition
4.0
Something about the tone of the first few chapters put me off at first and it took me a long time to get back to this book. Once I did get back to it, though, I read it through quickly and eagerly. Carroll's lighthearted and "geekish" style (which may have been what put me off at first) makes pleasant reading of his voluminous background information so that a casual, non-physicist, reader can get up to some kind of speed, at least, on recent (and not-so-recent) developments in cosmology that pertain to our understanding of time.
Most of the book--maybe 95%--is background information. He reserves explication of his own theory for the last chapter, although it's forwshadowed throughout. I would have preferred a longer explication, mainly because it's pretty mind-warping to me, but it could be that there's just not that much to say about new universes bubbling up out of vacuum energy.
I'm a sucker for popular books on difficult scientific/mathematical subjects so might have this overrated, but I liked it a lot and recommend it.
Most of the book--maybe 95%--is background information. He reserves explication of his own theory for the last chapter, although it's forwshadowed throughout. I would have preferred a longer explication, mainly because it's pretty mind-warping to me, but it could be that there's just not that much to say about new universes bubbling up out of vacuum energy.
I'm a sucker for popular books on difficult scientific/mathematical subjects so might have this overrated, but I liked it a lot and recommend it.
thebookclubmks's review against another edition
Past, Present, Future. We always see Time as these three different “phases” or “progress” or “points” from A to B to C. This is the old Newtonian understanding of Time. Time was seen in directional manner like a straight line. However, since the revolution of relativity in modern physics pioneered by Einstein, the notion that Time is a straight arrow is no longer quite correct.
Sean Carroll (the author) explains that Time is not a direction, Time is a movement of energy. The tendency of energy is to get more disorder. This universal tendency toward disorder is called entropy. The energy of all things (materials, water, fire, coffee, tea, the sun, the moon, and yes, including you as humans) in this universe will reach the state of maximum disorderliness (death). This is the reason why we can remember a past, but we cannot remember the future. We cannot remember the future because the future is a state of disorderliness. Same reasoning on why we can scramble an egg, but we cannot unscramble it. This is what Time really is. The natural tendency toward chaos.
In this book, Carrol also argues that time-travel cannot be done because we cannot reverse the movement of entropy. Just like in outer-space, there is no direction of Space (up, down, left, right), nor there is direction of Time. It is our anthropomorphic bias that makes us think everything has a direction.
We as humans need directions. We need purpose to move. That’s why it is difficult for us to let go the sense of past, present, and future. We always want to justify our past; haunted by past mistakes; thinking we have the capability to choose alternative options. This is an illusion, and we’re stuck in it. Overall, this a pretty comprehensive book talking about cosmological topics and big picture stuffs. I’d recommend this book if you want to change your perceptions of Time.
*Review by Riswan
Sean Carroll (the author) explains that Time is not a direction, Time is a movement of energy. The tendency of energy is to get more disorder. This universal tendency toward disorder is called entropy. The energy of all things (materials, water, fire, coffee, tea, the sun, the moon, and yes, including you as humans) in this universe will reach the state of maximum disorderliness (death). This is the reason why we can remember a past, but we cannot remember the future. We cannot remember the future because the future is a state of disorderliness. Same reasoning on why we can scramble an egg, but we cannot unscramble it. This is what Time really is. The natural tendency toward chaos.
In this book, Carrol also argues that time-travel cannot be done because we cannot reverse the movement of entropy. Just like in outer-space, there is no direction of Space (up, down, left, right), nor there is direction of Time. It is our anthropomorphic bias that makes us think everything has a direction.
We as humans need directions. We need purpose to move. That’s why it is difficult for us to let go the sense of past, present, and future. We always want to justify our past; haunted by past mistakes; thinking we have the capability to choose alternative options. This is an illusion, and we’re stuck in it. Overall, this a pretty comprehensive book talking about cosmological topics and big picture stuffs. I’d recommend this book if you want to change your perceptions of Time.
*Review by Riswan
hjbolus's review against another edition
5.0
Fantastic, like the rest of Sean Carroll’s work. Unfortunately I chose to listen to this as an audiobook. That was ok, but not ideal for the amount of fascinating detail in here, especially about thermodynamics and entropy. I may need to come back to this book soon.