From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time |  | Author: Sean Carroll
Publisher: Dutton Adult
Category: Book
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Rating:  39 reviews
Sales Rank: 5865
Media: Hardcover
Edition: First Edition
Pages: 448
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.5
ISBN: 0525951334
Dewey Decimal Number: 530.11
EAN: 9780525951339
ASIN: 0525951334
Publication Date: January 7, 2010
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Product Description
A rising star in theoretical physics offers his awesome vision of our universe and beyond, all beginning with a simple question: Why does time move forward?
Time moves forward, not backward-everyone knows you can't unscramble an egg. In the hands of one of today's hottest young physicists, that simple fact of breakfast becomes a doorway to understanding the Big Bang, the universe, and other universes, too. In From Eternity to Here, Sean Carroll argues that the arrow of time, pointing resolutely from the past to the future, owes its existence to conditions before the Big Bang itself-a period modern cosmology of which Einstein never dreamed. Increasingly, though, physicists are going out into realms that make the theory of relativity seem like child's play. Carroll's scenario is not only elegant, it's laid out in the same easy-to- understand language that has made his group blog, Cosmic Variance, the most popular physics blog on the Net.
From Eternity to Here uses ideas at the cutting edge of theoretical physics to explore how properties of spacetime before the Big Bang can explain the flow of time we experience in our everyday lives. Carroll suggests that we live in a baby universe, part of a large family of universes in which many of our siblings experience an arrow of time running in the opposite direction. It's an ambitious, fascinating picture of the universe on an ultra-large scale, one that will captivate fans of popular physics blockbusters like Elegant Universe and A Brief History of Time.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 39
 A captivating read on a deep and difficult topic January 7, 2010
A Cosmologist
99 out of 112 found this review helpful
The arrow of time is a central issue in fundamental physics, and one that remains an open question even in the age of quantum mechanics and general relativity. It is a tall task even to define the question properly, never mind to explain what some of the proposed resolutions are. Nevertheless, Carroll is one of the best writers of popular science working today, and in this book he tackles the topic beautifully, guiding the reader through the relevant ideas, many of which we all think we have an intuitive feel for, like entropy, and explaining their physical meanings, and how gravity complicates the story.
The book is worth reading for its expert descriptions of the background material alone, but the reader hungry for speculations of how physics at the frontier may provide an understanding of the arrow of time will not be disappointed. Carroll devotes ample space to the concepts of cosmic inflation, the role of quantum mechanics, baby universes, and the setting that string theory may provide for all of this. None of this is settled ground in physics yet, and the author makes that entirely clear. But it hard to read this account and not come away with a tangible sense of the excitement to be found in taking on these most fundamental of problems.
Genius for non-geniuses! January 7, 2010
David Grae
57 out of 68 found this review helpful
I am not a physicist. I majored in English in college. I shouldn't be able to understand this book on any level. But I do. And it's fascinating. Illuminating. And just plain interesting as hell. That's Sean Carroll's greatest achievement in this page-turner about the TIME we live in. If you have any interest at all in getting your head around just what this elusive "time" we all experience is all about, you should read this book.
Time in the eternity of the multiverse March 21, 2010
Jaume Puigbo Vila (Barcelona, Spain)
16 out of 18 found this review helpful
This is a wonderful book that would merit a second reading to understand it more fully. At a fundamental level physics consists of the Standard Model, General Relativity and the Big Bang Inflationary Model of the universe. However, in this model there is something unexplained and it is the Past Hypothesis, that is that the universe started in a low entropy configuration. However the author speculates that perhaps the Big Bang was neither the beginning of time nor a moment of low entropy, but a moment of lowest entropy and the entropy increases in both directions of time, towards the future of the Big Bang and towards its past (from our point of view). This would be the situation in a single connected universe, although string theory predicts a multiverse.
Trying to elucidate the meaning of time (perhaps "an emergent phenomenon rather than a necessary part of our ultimate description of the world") the author reviews special and general relativity, Boltzmann's entropy, black holes and the controversy about conservation of information, life, quantum mechanics, inflation and the multiverse. Generally speaking the book is written in an accessible style (eggs can be broken and turned into omelettes, but not the other way around to describe the Second Law), but you will need to reread some parts to make the most of it.
In the final chapter Sean Carroll faces the "search for meaning in a preposterous universe". I quote: "We find ourselves, not as a central player in the life of the cosmos, but as a tiny epiphenomenon, flourishing for a brief moment as we ride a wave of increasing entropy...Purpose and meaning are not to be found in the laws of nature, or in the plans of any external agent...it is our job to create them. One of those purposes -among many- stems from our urge to explain the world around us the best we can. If our lives are brief and undirected, at least we can take pride in our mutual courage as we struggle to understand things much greater than ourselves". I think he has a point. It is in our human nature to try to find meaning to things. The universe is meaningless. I agree and I think that Woody Allen would also.
Sean Carroll Hits a Home Run January 14, 2010
Robert B. Zannelli (Ocala FL USA)
14 out of 20 found this review helpful
Carroll has a talent for clear and in depth descriptions of cutting edge Cosmology and Physics. This book is an example of this talent. For anyone with any interests in Cosmology or Physics this book is a must read.
An exceptional read January 7, 2010
Glenn Kleier
12 out of 20 found this review helpful
Whenever a scientist attempts to make complex topics such as space/time accessible to the layman, he/she must inevitably cut some corners lest the average reader become hopelessly lost. One method for doing so is to use the rhetorical vehicle of analogy, with which a certain reviewer below is obviously not acquainted. Kudos to Mr. Carroll for translating eggheadspeak into the vulgate.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 39
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