Tipler, Frank 328, 341
transformation theory 206
trial pairing 171
Triangle Land 40, 41, 42, 45–6, 116–17, 344
Twain, Mark 338
two-and-a-bit puzzle 109
two-slit experiment 194–6
two-snapshots problem 92, 103
unbound states 235
unity of unities 75
universal equation 254
universe 22
chronology of 313–15
as a clock 107–8
expansion 262–4
modelling 40–6
order of 23
wave function of 242
Vaughan, Henry 328
vector fields 191
velocity 96, 97
group 278
Vilenkin, Alexander 352, 359
Voltaire 111
von Laue, Max 190
Vonnegut, Kurt 359
Walsch, Neale Donald 344
water-clock 95
wave function 194–205, 241–2
collapse 199–200, 204, 217–18, 224, 297
of the universe 242
wave mechanics 13, 189–90, 194–205
wave optics 270
wave packets 201, 205, 262, 275–81
wave theory of light 124, 125, 269–71
website 5, 7, 344
Weinberg, Steven 244
well behaved, conditions of being 254
Wheeler, John Archibald 38, 44, 136, 167, 169, 175–6, 246–7
Wheeler-DeWitt equation 38–9, 242, 247, 256, 351, 359
Whitehead, Alfred North 329
Wilczek, Frank 347
Williams, Tennessee 331, 332
Wootters, William 257
World, The 328
world line 140
X-rays 190
Yeats, W.B. 322
Young, Thomas 124, 125
Zeh, Dieter 264, 307, 338, 354
Zeilinger, Anton 360
Zeno’s paradox 49
CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1 The Main Puzzles
The Next Revolution in Physics
The Ultimate Things
Getting to Grips with Elusive Time
The Properties of Experienced Time
Newton’s Concepts
Laws and Initial Conditions
Why is the Universe so Special?
CHAPTER 2 Time Capsules
The Physical World and Consciousness
Time Without Time
Time Capsules
Examples of Time Capsules
CHAPTER 3 A Timeless World
First Outline
The Crisis of Time
The Ultimate Arena
Is Motion Real?
The Big Picture
ULTIMATE ARENA
CHAPTER 4 Alternative Frameworks
Absolute or Relative Motion?
An Alternative Arena
CHAPTER 5 Newton’s Evidence
The Aims of Machian Mechanics
Apparent Failure
Space and Spin
Energy
CHAPTER 6 The Two Great Clocks in the Sky
Where is Time?
The First Great Clock
The Inertial Clock
The Second Great Clock
CHAPTER 7 Paths in Platonia
Nature and Exploration
Developing Machian Ideas
Exploring Platonia
RELATIVITY
CHAPTER 8 The Bolt from the Blue
Historical Accidents
Background to the Crisis
Einstein and Simultaneity
The Forgotten Aspects of Time
CHAPTER 9 Minkowski the Magician
The New Arena
From Three to Four Dimensions
Are There Nows in Relativity?
CHAPTER 10 The Discovery of General Relativity
Funny Geometry
Einstein’s Way to General Relativity
The Main Advances
The Final Hurdle
General Relativity and Time
CHAPTER 11 General Relativity: The Timeless Picture
The Golden Age of General Relativity
Platonia for Relativity
Best Matching in the New Platonia
Catching up with Einstein
A Summary and the Dilemma
COSMOLOGY
CHAPTER 12 The Discovery of Quantum Mechanics
CHAPTER 13 The Lesser Mysteries
Introduction
The Wave Function
Interpreting the Wave Function
States Within States
The Copenhagen Interpretation
Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle
The Enigmatic Gem
CHAPTER 14 The Greater Mysteries
Schrödinger’s Vast Arena
Correlations and Entanglement
The EPR Paradox
Bell’s Inequalities
The Many-Worlds Interpretation
A Dualistic Picture
CHAPTER 15 The Rules of Creation
The End of Change
Creation and the Schrödinger Equation
Quantum Mechanics Hovering in Nothing
CHAPTER 16 ‘That Damned Equation’
History and Quantum Cosmology
A Simple-Minded Approach
‘That Damned Equation’
CHAPTER 17 The Philosophy of Timelessness
CHAPTER 18 Static Dynamics and Time Capsules
Dynamics Without Dynamics
Why do we Think the Universe is Expanding?
The Idea of Time Capsules: The Kingfisher
CHAPTER 19 Latent Histories and Wave Packets
Smooth Waves and Choppy Seas
History Without History
Airy Nothing and a Local Habitation
Schrödinger’s Heroic Failure
CHAPTER 20 The Creation of Records
History and Records
The Creation of Records: First Mechanism
The Prerequisites of History
The Improbability of History
The Creation of Records: Second Mechanism
CHAPTER 21 The Many-Instants Interpretation
Many Histories in One Universe
Bell’s ‘Many-Worlds’ Interpretation
The Many-Instants Interpretation
CHAPTER 22 The Emergence of Time and its Arrow
Causality in Quantum Cosmology
Soccer in the Matterhorn
Timeless Descriptions of Dynamics
A Quantum Origin of the Universe?
Vision of a Timeless Universe
A Weil-Ordered Cosmos?
EPILOGUE Life Without Time
Notes
Further Reading
Bibliography
Index
LIST OF DISPLAY ITEMS
BOXES
1 The Great Revolutions in Physics
2 The Two Big Mysteries
3 Possible Platonias
4 Centre of Mass
5 The Galilean Relativity Principle
6 The Equation of Time
7 Tait’s Inertial Clock
8 Intrinsic Difference and Best Matching
9 Relativity in One Diagram and 211 Words
10 The Impossible Becomes Possible