Amazon.com

The thought that humans might one day be able to harness time, traveling freely from one age to another, has been a fixture of science fiction for years. Science fact is beginning to catch up to the long-held dream: in this entertaining survey, researcher-writer Clifford Pickover observes that current theories of physics support--or at least do not rule out--the possibilities of time travel.

In chapters that mix whimsical science-fiction scenarios with brief essays on matters of fact, Pickover takes a leisurely stroll through various chrono-cosmological theories and discusses their attendant virtues, flaws, and inherent paradoxes. One modern notion, Kurt Gödel's addendum to Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, posits a rotating universe in which it is possible for a traveler to move between states of time and return to the present (assuming, of course, that there is such a thing as the present); the theory depends on a universe that rotates slowly, which seems not to be the case, but, as Pickover points out, it nevertheless provides a mathematical basis for time travel--which, he suggests, is a fine and worthy start. Pickover peppers his well-illustrated text with learned asides on such matters as light-cone diagrams, rocket clocks, string theory, parallel universes, and other topics real and speculative. What he turns up in the course of his narrative is fascinating--and fuel for anyone who entertains dreams of interdimensional wandering. --Gregory McNamee ... Read more

Reviews (15)

If you lost the faith, you are a few pages from finding it!
I am completely sure that every kind of reader will get pleasure from this book; furthermore, I guarantee that any reader will recover his/her lost faith in time travel. If you saw "Contact" (the movie), or you often read science-fiction novels or even if you just want to enjoy a good and productive reading, you are strongly advised to buy and read this excellent and fascinating book. "Time: A Traveler's Guide" was written in the same clear, precise and funny way as "Black Holes: A Traveler's Guide" was done in its opportunity. The book now featured by Dr. Pickover will let you discover the "science behind the science-fiction" about the main topic by means of a science-fiction story plenty of funny dialogs, diagrams, formulas and graphics that make the information, and the book in general, a delight to read. You will NOT need vast knowledge in physics or mathematics to understand the ideas, and furthermore, to realize that time travel is possible. The book also offers a great deal of information about the special and the general theory of relativity besides spacetime physics. I also recommend Pickover's book about Black Holes as an excellent complement because that book is one of the best text in this topic and you will see that black holes could serve (in a far but possible future) to travel through time. Sincerely, buy the book and you will see that every page you read becomes a piece of your renovated faith in a dream as beautiful as paradoxical, TIME TRAVEL!

Entertaining physics lessons - what a concept!
My first reading of Pickover's work, this book was both enjoyable and educational. Pickover presents a refreshing look at the physics and philosophy of time and space travel.

Quantum Physics Can Be Fun
An outstanding book - I have never before read a book that dealt with such advanced concepts that was so easy to read and comprehend and as hard to put down (I read it in a weekend). Dr. Pickover's style of making the first half of each chapter a sci-fi story, with the second half "the science behind the story" makes this book fun and teaches you without having to work. Definately inspires creative thought.

I have a few more Pickover books on order and look forward to more. (...)

Awesome through and through
If you ever wanted to learn more about time travel, pick up this book! Time: A Traveller's Guide combines mathematics with an intruiging plot. He weaves some non-fiction into the math and information to make it all the more interesting. I have had the privilige to contact Mr. Pickover myself and he is an amazing man! This book is one of the best I have read!

One of the BEST books about temporal mechanics Ive ever read
This book is one of the bet novelles I have read about temporal mechanics in years. The engrossing yet comical plot will keep you enthralled for hours on end. At times the math gets a tad overwhelming (even for a lover of math such as myself), but it is well worth the knowledge you take away from it. ... Read more

Book Description

An elegant, witty, and engaging exploration of the riddle of time, which examines the consequences of Einstein's theory of relativity and offers startling suggestions about what recent research may reveal.

The eternal questions of science and religion were profoundly recast by Einstein's theory of relativity and its implications that time can be warped by motion and gravitation, and that it cannot be meaningfully divided into past, present, and future.

In About Time, Paul Davies discusses the big bang theory, chaos theory, and the recent discovery that the universe appears to be younger than some of the objects in it, concluding that Einstein's theory provides only an incomplete understanding of the nature of time. Davies explores unanswered questions such as:

* Does the universe have a beginning and an end?
* Is the passage of time merely an illusion?
* Is it possible to travel backward -- or forward -- in time?

About Time weaves physics and metaphysics in a provocative contemplation of time and the universe. ... Read more

Reviews (35)

A good, rather well-rounded expose on a difficult subject
Almost, if not all, philosophical debates on the subject of 'time' center on a few questions which repeat themselves quite obsessively. The most frequent ones remain the simplest and the trickiest: What is time? Did it have a beginning? What makes it appear to flow? Why is there a directionality, or "arrow", of time, and can it ever be reversed, or stopped for that matter? Is time travel possible? And might the universe be older than we thought? These are but a few of those fascinating questions addressed in the book. Davies, writing with a nurtured and cultivated passion and characteristic wit, confronts the tough questions, those that still resist any explanation, including the weird relationship between physical time and our psychological perception of it. Several touchy subjects are tackled, such as the quantization of time, time travel and whether time really exists or is merely an illusion, besides giving straightforward descriptions of topics such as the theory of relativity, time dilation and Hawking's imaginary time. With his usual clarity and flair, Davies argues that time in the 20th century is Einstein's time and sets out on a thrilling discussion of why Einstein's can't be the last word on the subject. Davies concludes that despite decades of progress in unravelling the mysteries of time, the revolution begun by Einstein remains tantalizingly incomplete.

Straightforward description of many topics about time.
This is a book about the meaning of time, what it is, when it has started, how it flows and where to. If you ever wondered about the puzzles and paradoxes of time, if you ever wanted to learn more about what Einstein's relativity implies about time itself, this is a book you will not want to miss.

Davies covers most of the questions about time; I found interesting how he explains the rather weird relationship between real time and our mental notion of it. The weirdness of bizarre possibilities should be enough to confuse anyone thinking about it for the first time; the way time relates to quantum physics, being sometimes even stranger to understand.

Black holes, the warping of space-time, theories about time travel, and the notion of "now": the division of past, present and future. From the inevitable "what existed before the Big Bang" to the Hartle Hawking theory, Wormholes, time dilation, etc, much is covered about time. Here are some of the subjects you will be able to read about:

1.Tachyons: Davies wonders if Tachyons can be ruled out. The special theory of relativity has been tested to unprecedented accuracy, yet tachyons are a problem. Allowed by the theory, they bring with them all sorts of unpalatable properties.

2.Black holes: Could there be really an end to time-a singularity- and the centre of all black holes? Can they form tunnels to other universes, or can we use them like wormholes that thread back into our universe? What happens to matter falling in them?

3.Time Travel: Just a fantasy? The investigation of exotic space-times that seem to permit travel into the past will, according to Davies, remains an active field of research, but there are no realistic time-travel scenarios known. But as with Tachyons, the absence of a no-go proof forces science to keep it on the agenda, along with the usual paradoxes, of course. :-)

4.Quantum questions: Davies spends some pages describing the wonderland of weird and perplexing temporal teasers in the quantum domain. The way relativity of time fits uneasily into the quantum picture of a world where the collapse associated with measurements occurs abruptly at specific moments. The measurements of time itself are fraught with problems, since all clocks are physical objects afflicted by quantum fuzziness.

5.The Origin of Time: You'll also be able to read about the usual topic of how time originated, with all sorts of questions concerning causality, God and eternity.

The Age of the Universe: Davies spends some time on the measurements of the expansion rate of the universe, which combined with realistic assumptions about dark matter lead to the absurd conclusion that there are objects in space older than the universe itself. What's going on anyway?

These are just some of the main issues. This title is definitely only for those who have questioned time. Davies book is a bit dry sometimes, and can probably bore the reader who is expecting more impact. Some parts like the explanation of the quantum eraser dreamed up by physicist Marlan Scully might be a bit challenging for those with no background in the subject, but in general, the whole book is very readable and clear. Little math is required, if you know how to square a negative (imaginary number), you probably know enough to keep up, almost no math is presented. And to help, we have Davies sense of humour; while it might annoy some readers, I thought it was helping the book to flow better. It all depends on who's reading. :-) The book has good recommended Bibliography, and a decent Index. Unfortunately, there is no glossary.

If I had to summarize the book in a paragraph, surprisingly, I would perhaps just write that we probably don't know much. Despite all the progress of the past decades, Time is still a mystery, and the revolution that Einstein started is still very incomplete. His word on the subject won't be the last.

Unfortunately, this book ends up raising more questions than those it answers. Not Davies fault, it's really the subject itself. :-)

Very interesting work for the layman who is curious about time.

A wonderful book with clear explanations
I never found such stimulating and satisfactory explanations about time in other books. This book is really wonderful, especially when the author expounds the case of the apparent paradox of twin's travel and her asymmetric aging at the end of the voyage or explains how to coordinate the concept of relative time with an "absolute" age of the universe or when he treats the problem of the "now" with the explanation (based on the Bayes'theorem of probability)of the future of the human race and so on. In conclusion, this book is very interesting and recommendable.

Breathtaking even at a superficial level.
This is a highly ambitious book about time from the physicist's point of view (there is even an interesting chapter from the psychologists viewpoint). The concepts it deals with are profound, and sometimes absurd (cf. the paradoxes of quantum physics). The book is well organized and well written, but at the same time I don't believe that Davies has a special gift for explanation. I could follow much of what was being said at a superficial level, and even at a superficial level it is breathtaking. My biggest disappointment? Davies spends a fair amount of time on a concrete example of a case where one twin rockets into space and returns, younger than the other. I reviewed the simple math in detail, but was still confused. I think the problem is that as part of the example you need to separate the delay effect (the light coming from a star left years ago), from the time dilation effect (due to relativity), and Davies never bothers to show how this is done.

Quantum mechanics, thermodynamics and time.
I am a big fan of prof. Davies' books, but I found that this one had not the same high standard as his other books. Some chapters were boring and gave the impression that they were written purely to expand the volume of this work.

But as always, he explains clearly and understandably his subject, like such important items as the opposite direction of time's arrow in thermodynamics (downhill) and in the Darwinist evolution(uphill), or the disappearance of time in quantum mechanics.

Remarkably, one of the main themes of his more compelling and recommendable book 'The 5th Miracle' is already announced here: "Many scientists are adamant that the 'concretization' of quantum reality has nothing whatever to do with the mind, others maintain that the mystery of the 'collapse' (of the wave) and the mystery of consciousness are intimately bound up with each other." (p. 278)

I prefer the books written by G. Whitrow about 'all sorts' of times. ... Read more

Book Description

Fascinating approach to sundials. On one hand, it is a rigorous appraisal of the science of sundials including mathematical treatment and pertinent astronomical background. On the other hand, it provides a nontechnical treatment simple enough so that several of the dials can be built by children. 106 illustrations.
... Read more

Reviews (6)

For the dial-builder
No other book, as far as I know, gives such clear detail about making your own sundials. That word seems so narrow; Waugh covers much more of solar time-telling than just dials. One thing that amazes me is his passion. He writes with clear pride about his own sundials, good to within (he says) ten seconds!

This book covers graphical or analytic techniques for laying out sundials on just about any surface that doesn't move, horizontal, vertical (facing any direction), slanted, or even the ceiling. He also discusses the movable kind, like a "shepherd's dial". It has nothing inherently to do with sheep, but can be used anywhere, even without knowing true north.

The historian may be disappointed. This is not a catalogue of sundials through the ages, although bits of history are scattered throughout. In one sense, though, this is a view into the time of its writing (1973). A modern reader, with access to modern calculators and computers, will be amused if not puzzled by some of tricks used to make hand computation more feasible. I don't know anyone any more who multiplies by adding logs, and the circumlocutions around negative logarithms look positively quaint. The only real flaw in this book is its systematic omission of half the world: the southern hemispehere. It wouldn't have been so hard to add just a paragraph or two about sundials that work "backwards".

Although this book celebrates the craft and art that can go into a sundial, its real value is technical. This book gives the essential methods for the functional side of a solar time-piece; bring your own artistry.

Overall the best available sundial text.
I have read and viewed the major English language texts on Sundials. These being 1.Waugh, 2. Mayall & Mayall, and 3. Rohr.

The Waugh text has good, mostly clear, intructions and gives both graphical and equation based methods of constructions. Mayall and Mayall perhaps has better graphical constuctions but Waugh excells in the variety of tables in the appendix. Waugh also has the clearest explanation of determining the declination of a wall. This is very important as many buildings are aligned along magnetic north (& south & east &west) rather than true north ( south etc...).

A shortcoming of the almost every book including Waugh, is the lack of clear instruction on how to draw other types of hours. Most importantly of these interesting alternatives types of hours are babylonian and Italian hours. These hours are still useful today. So far I've only found the Rohr text to have any attempt of explaining how to draw these lines. However the Rohr text simply doesn't match the clarity and breadth of Waugh and Mayall and Wayall.

Waugh (and Mayall and Mayall) both could do with an update on trigonometry. With the easy availability of scientific calculators, the need for log versions of equations and the use of things like "cot" functions is not needed and simply makes the calculations clumsy to perform on a key pad.

The book by Cousins is an excellent higly detailed text if you can get it, but it seems to be out of print. It is useful if you really want to get into the maths of spherical geometry and it wouldn't be the best book you'd want to read first. It makes you appreciate the wonderful elegance of the graphical solutions but it may convince you that it is all too hard when it actually isn't in a practical sense. Just about anyone can make a simple sundial.

The text by Rohr also has a good section on how to do hour lines on just about any shaped surface (bowl, sphere, plane etc..) if you have a rod for a gnomen. This is about the only strength of this text over the others.

So to conclude Waugh would be the best first text, very closely followed by Mayall and Mayall, then Rohr. The text by Cousins is excellent but at a much higher level that isn't needed for the construction for the standard types of dials.

Definitely a classic...
I agree with the other reviewers...This is a very clear and concise treatment of the theory and practice of sundial construction. It is a very easy read, (anyone over the age of around 12-13 should have no difficulty with it at all,) and entertaining to boot! It has a few items that some of the other 'classics' on sundials do not. (Rene Rohr,s book "Sundials:History, Theory and Practice" and Mayall & Mayall's "Sundial's:Their Construction and Use".) The only thing this book really misses, (and the same holds true for virtually every book on sundials!) is the link between sundials telling time, and their potential use for navigation. Apart from that, this is a great book, and I highly recommend it.

Best book on sundials I've ever seen
This book not only covers everything from time itself to noon marks to fancy sundials, it is well written and fun to read - a rare combination in a "technical" book.

The all-time classic work on dialing.
Albert Waugh's "Sundials: Their Theory and Construction" is a veritable treasure-house of information on the ancient science of gnomonics. As a dedicated dialist of several years, I never could have achieved such wonderful results without Waugh's classic book. The work presents the art of building sundials from two perspectives: for the advanced dialist, Waugh's book approaches the theory from a highly complex, mathematical viewpoint, including some aspects of celestial mechanics; for the average "do-it-yourself-er", Waugh presents several projects that are simple and well-explained. Accompanying this fine work is a collection of solar tables, astronomical information, and various data of inestimable value that would alone justify the purchase price of the book. So whether your purpose is to further your technical interest in the fascinating science of gnomonics, or merely to build an attractive sundial for your garden over the weekend, "Sundial! s: Their Theory and Construction" should be in your collection. It is considered the very "bible" of dialmaking. I couldn't brag about it more had I written it myself! ... Read more

Book Description

In this pathbreaking philosophical work, Elizabeth Grosz points the way toward a theory of becoming to replace the prevailing ontologies of being in social, political, and biological discourse. Arguing that theories of temporality have significant and underappreciated relevance to the social dimensions of science and the political dimensions of struggle, Grosz engages key theoretical concerns related to the reality of time. She explores the effect of time on the organization of matter and the emergence and development of biological life. Considering how the relentless forward movement of time might be conceived in political and social terms, she begins to formulate a model of time that incorporates the future and its capacity to supercede and transform the past and present.

Grosz develops her argument by juxtaposing the work of three major figures in western thought: Charles Darwin, Friedrich Nietzche, and Henri Bergson. She reveals that in theorizing time as an active, positive phenomenon with its own characteristics and specific effects, each of these thinkers had a profound effect on contemporary understandings of the body in relation to time. She shows how their allied concepts of life, evolution, and becoming are manifest in the work of Gilles Deleuze and Luce Irigaray. Throughout The Nick of Time, Grosz emphasizes the political and cultural imperative to fundamentally rethink time: the more clearly we understand our temporal location as beings straddling the past and the future without the security of a stable and abiding present, the more transformation becomes conceivable. ... Read more

Book Description

Why is the future so different from the past? Why does the past affect the future and not the other way around? What does quantum mechanics really tell us about the world? In this important and accessible book, Huw Price throws fascinating new light these great mysteries of modern physics, and connects them in a wholly original way.

Price begins with the mystery of the arrow of time. Price shows that, for over a century, most physicists have thought about problems of time in the wrong way. Misled by the human perspective from within time, which distorts and exaggerates the differences between past and future, they have fallen victim to what Price calls the "double standard fallacy": proposed explanations of the difference between the past and the future turn out to rely on a difference which has been slipped in at the beginning, when the physicists themselves treat the past and future in different ways. To avoid this fallacy, Price argues, we need to overcome our natural tendency to think about the past and the future differently. We need to imagine a point outside time--an Archimedean "view from nowhen"--from which to observe time in an unbiased way.

Time's Arrow and Archimedes'Point presents an innovative and controversial view of time and contemporary physics. In this exciting book, Price urges physicists, philosophers, and anyone who has ever pondered the mysteries of time to look at the world from the fresh perspective of Archimedes' Point and gain a deeper understanding of ourselves, the universe around us, and our own place in time. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

Time For A Drink
This is heady stuff-Perhaps if you're a theoretical physics professor at CalTech it might make for light postprandial enjoyment.-But for the rest of us...Beware!...Part of the problem is terminology(micro) or (mu) innocence for example....Oddly, I read this book for the same reason I read Proust-I'm fascinated with Time!-But be forewarned that, though this book has far less than Proust's 3,000 pages, unless you are the aforementioned professor, you have an extremely tougher row to hoe in reading this book, even though the author goes out of his way to make things understandable to the lay reader. -The basic idea isn't that hard to understand: we are captives of our position in time and that captivity affects our observations of physical (particle, wavicle, whatever) behavior. What the author eventually advances (after ploughing through many other concepts and alternative explanations) is something called "advanced action theory." This theory entails, as far as I can make out, very simply, that there is a "common future" as well a "common past" that influences what we call the present but that we are unable to perceive this common future because our nature as AGENTS (he uses this term over and over)precludes us from perceiving this common future.-I kept on thinking of a spatial analogy of a person tied to the back of the caboose of a train facing backward. He can see where the train has gone, but not the vista ahead, which is certainly just as real. But if he has been in this position his entire life, he would have no idea what you meant by saying "See that mountain up ahead!" How could you know? It's as if one of us were to state, "See that assassination attempt tomorrow!"- Archimedes' Point for Mr. Price would entail an observer standing by as the train passes observing both where it's been and where it's going.-This is the simplest way I know to explain what this book is about, though it may just make more of a muddle of things for all I know....But the physicists Mr. Price describes seem to have done a pretty good job of that already.-Anyhow, that's enough explanation for a review like this one. If you are intrigued, go ahead and buy it.-But be prepared for hard, hard work.-Unless, of course, you've already figured all this out.-In the former case, a pint down at your local pub is the fit epilogue to this mindbending work!

One of the most thought-provoking books in recent years.
The question "What is time?" is one of the most fascinating philosophical inquiries precisely because it cannot be dismissed as metaphysical. Mr. Price has a most active mind, ready to question all of our basic assumptions about the way the world goes. Why don't we see events happening backwards? Well, maybe we do see them! Why is the world the way it is today? Because it evolved from a single particle that exploded in the "big bang"? How improbable, says Mr. Price. It is far more probable that the world was created a month ago, with everyone having false memories of a nonexistent past. If you are the type of person who needs definitive answers to things, then this may not be the book for you. But if you like questions--the kinds of questions that open up new ways of thinking about things--then you can hardly do better. I hope Huw Price favors us soon with another book.

On Price's "Time's Arrow and the Archimededs' Point"
On page 13 of "Time's Arrow and the Archimededs' Point", Huw Price writes:

".... If time flowed - then as with any flow - it would only make sense to assign that flow a direction with respect to a CHOICE (my emphasis) as to what is to count as the positive direction of time. .... The problem is that until we have such an objective basis we don't have an objective sense in which time is flowing one way rather than the other. In other words, not only does it not seem to make sense to speak of an objective rate of flow of time; it also doesn't make sense to speak of an objective rate of time; it also doesn't make sense to speak of an objective direction of time."

There are a number of ways that the world we inhabit seems asymmetric in time. Price believes that these perceptions of asymmetry are due to way we see reality, and less how reality actually is. He reminds the reader of how humanity has struggled before with anthropocentrism. Seeing the second law of thermodynamics as an EXPLANATION of time's arrow is just another anthropocentrism.

On page 17, Price writes:

".... The leading candidate for the position (the master arrow) has been the so-called arrow of thermodynamics. This is the asymmetry embodied in the second law of thermodynamics, which says roughly that the entropy of an isolated physical system never decreases.... There is nothing to stop us taking the positive axis to lie in the opposite direction, however, in which case the second law would need to be started as the principle that entropy of an isolated system never increases.... It is not an objective matter whether the gradients really go up or down, for this simply depends on an arbitrary choice of temporal orientation."

On page 20, Price writes:

"... We unwittingly project onto the world some of the idiosyncrasies of our own makeup, seeing the world in the colors of the in-built glass through which we view it. But the distinction between these sources is not always a sharp one, because our constitution is adapted to the peculiarities of our region.... It challenges the image physics holds of itself as an objective enterprise, an enterprise concerned with not with how things seem but with how they actually are. It is always painful for an academic enterprise to have to acknowledge that it might not have been living up to its own professed standards!"

On page 39, Price writes:

"... It seems to me that the problem of explaining why entropy increases has been vastly overrated. The statistical considerations suggest that a future in which entropy reaches its maximum is not in need of explanation; and yet that future, taken together with the low-entropy past, accounts for the general gradient... The puzzle is not about how the universe reaches a state of high entropy, but about how it comes to be starting from a low one. It is not about what appears in our time sense to be the destination of the greater journey on which matter is engaged, but about the point from which - again in our time sense - that journey seems to start."

What Price is describing above is what has been referred to as the ready-state paradox (see Chapter 6 of David Albert's book "Time and Chance"). And Price is right in pointing out that many of our "explanations" seems to fall to our anthropocentrism, given that we start out by assuming what it is that we seek to prove by introducing a time asymmetric ASSUMPTION.

Our low entropy birth at the big bang is a boundary condition, and one does not use statistics and determinism to explain such a boundary condition. Boundary conditions are more generally brute force realizations that are beyond explanation. So if you think that the second law of thermodynamics can explain cosmic evolution, and perhaps even the evolution of life, then think again. Or you may go on a meaningless journey to find the first ready-state.

It is quite plausibly that the early boundary conditions are determined by the present, given that time flowing backward is as plausible as time flowing forward. This brings up the possibility of backward causation, something that Price writes much on. But boundary conditions relate to collective properties, something going against the trend of reductionism. And so backward causation may better apply from the whole to its parts, which mirrors reductionism as forward causation generally goes from parts to whole.

Price writes much on Gold's big bang and big crunch model of the universe, and he writes on alternative views too. Having navigated safely from the time-flow anthropocentrism, Price seems to have gotten himself snagged on a second anthropocentrism that we are isolated from everything else. It is true we may see ourselves as all knowing creatures that are competing for our survival in a lifeless pool of chaos we call our universe. But there is no objective basis for this belief (see Thomas Nagel's
"The View from Nowhere"). It is just a possible that we are the forgetful universe reflecting hopelessly into the many egocentric bodies that are said to be all knowing. Are we the inside system or the outside system? The question is symmetrical, and cannot be answered. Then why do we answer it by projecting a Gold's universe onto reality by demanding a separate big crunch future that is just as likely as our big bang past?

A two aspect view of reality does not carry this unwanted anthropocentrism. It is that reality has an all knowing aspect that is perceived to be following the thermodynamic arrow, and the SAME reality holds a sublime shadow aspect where time is reversed from the present. In the sublime aspect the many celebrate as one, whereas in the forward aspect the one fragments into many.

The zone where the two aspects connect is the inexpressible core, where symmetries are broken and manifestation unfolds. It is the core where choices are made, and where creative tensions are released. I believe this two aspect model of the universe provides that best model that answers Price's concerns, and yet it does not demand that the future is locked into a big crunch as the evidence now suggests.

This two-aspect capacity to one reality is consistent with panpsychism, but Price does not mention this.

OK but not the best..
The author seems to go out-of-his-way to make this tome more obtuse and forbidding than it needs to be in order to present his theories.

The book is a decent supplement to other books on space/time theory but is indeed a very tedious read, and is more for the serious student than the casual reader who merely enjoys sampling divergent views on cosmologic concepts.

I certainly do not agree with the author on a number of points, but the publication is worth your while if you have the patience to slog through it, and it surely does afford some new perspective on the subject.

Philosopher sets the Physicists Straight on Time
In this book, Huw Price uses his advantage as a philosopher to show physicists where they're going all wrong on the big "what is time?" issue. I'm teasing, but while making some excellent points, Price does sound a little condescending sometimes. I wondered, while I read, if a physicist would find it merely amusing, or would be growling a bit. This book requires concentration just because he lays out intricate step-by-step explanations and arguments. Because the arguments are built logically, you can't afford to nap. He does indicate several times the chapters that could be skipped without losing his general points. The gist of his argument is this: We exist inside the system (that is, within the space-time continuum),we are deceived by that position into wrong conclusions. The solution he advocates is "Archimedes'point," that is, we should hypothesize a position outside the system,the "view from nowhere," and from there will come up with more accurate explanations of what's going on, in his opinion, that time really is non-directional. He makes some excellent points along the way, and certainly just the exercise of working through his arguments is good for the ol' brain, but some of his arguments and conclusions are invalid. The chief problem I see is; this time-space system has produced directional time perceiving agents like us. (It has produced really cumbersome directional arguments like his!) While our perspective is limited, I don't believe that it can be dismissed. It is a very big deal that beings like us exist in this universe. We can't pretend that the universe exists merely of little bits of matter knocking around. Theoretical physics does drift near the edge of the religious question, and I would have expected a philosopher to at least acknowledge that, while the "God question" is not subject to analysis, physics does at times seem to be working overtime simply to avoid a "prime mover." ... Read more

Book Description

Practical in its approach, Applied Bayesian Forecasting and Time Series Analysis provides the theories, methods, and tools necessary for forecasting and the analysis of time series. The authors unify the concepts, model forms, and modeling requirements within the framework of the dynamic linear mode (DLM). They include a complete theoretical development of the DLM and illustrate each step with analysis of time series data. Using real data sets the authors:"Explore diverse aspects of time series, including how to identify, structure, explain observed behavior, model structures and behaviors, and interpret analyses to make informed forecasts"Illustrate concepts such as component decomposition, fundamental model forms including trends and cycles, and practical modeling requirements for routine change and unusual events"Conduct all analyses in the BATS computer programs, furnishing online that program andthe more than 50 data sets used in the text The result is a clear presentation of the Bayesian paradigm: quantified subjective judgements derived from selected models applied to time series observations. Accessible to undergraduates, this unique volume also offers complete guidelines valuable to researchers, practitioners, and advanced students in statistics, operations research, and engineering. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A good introduction to dinamic models
This is a hands-on introduction to bayesian forecasting and dinamic models. After a brief overview on theory, it leads you to some fully developed examples. The second part of the book simply develop some examples on the BATS program supplied with the book. They clearly feature the main capabilities of the program. The main drawback is that all the book is focused on that program, so BF and DM are glossed over. So, a reading to the theory focused book "bayesian forecasting and dinamic models" from Harrison is mandatory for a deeper dive into this issue.

applied bayesian forecasting and time series analysis
Pole et al.'s small primer on bayesian time series analysis is a good first step for an outsider to the area. The book is split into two parts. The first gives a favourable treatment of bayesian analysis. The second half of the book is an extended tutorial to accompany the canned program and data set included with the text.

The program itself is easy to use, although in talking with people who have worked through the book, they seem to have gone on to write their own code rather than rely on the program, BATS. ... Read more

Book Description

This is a complete revision of a classic, seminal, and authoritative book that has been the model for most books on the topic written since 1970. It focuses on practical techniques throughout, rather than a rigorous mathematical treatment of the subject.It explores the building of stochastic (statistical) models for time series and their use in important areas of application —forecasting, model specification, estimation, and checking, transfer function modeling of dynamic relationships, modeling the effects of intervention events, and process control. Features sections on: recently developed methods for model specification, such as canonical correlation analysis and the use of model selection criteria; results on testing for unit root nonstationarity in ARIMA processes; the state space representation of ARMA models and its use for likelihood estimation and forecasting; score test for model checking; and deterministic components and structural components in time series models and their estimation based on regression-time series model methods. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

time series analysis
we are one private bank (BCM) in morocco please send us a proforma invoice and a if it's possible a commercial catalog describing the contents of th book. thank you

recent update of classic text
In the early 1970s I was working on practical forecasting methods to apply to the U.S. Army supply depot workloads. Exponential smoothing was the commonly used "automatic" technique (once smoothing constants have been determined) that had great advantages over the informal methods used by the Army. Then someone told me that Box-Jenkins techniques were more general and powerful. I got a copy of the first edition published in 1970 and found that I could read and understand it even though I had little statistical training. I had a bachelors degree in mathematics. I got to appreciate the book even more when I took a short course from George Box, George Tiao and David Pack based on the book. I began to grasp some of the key ideas of stationary and nonstationary time series and learned about model selection, diagnostic checking and estimation. This started my interest in becoming a statistician and gave me the practical side of time series analysis first. I later specialized in it and got a Ph.D. in statistics.

Gwilym Jenkins died many years prior to this edition and Box's colleague Greogory Reinsel took on the task of helping to revise and update it.

It retains its original flavor. It is an applied book with many practical and illustrative examples. It concentrates on the three stages of time series analysis: modeling building, selection, estimation and diagnostic checking and how to iterate the process toward a good solution. The ARIMA time series models are what are considered. The theory of stationary and nonstationary time series is introduced to motivate interpretation of autocorrelation and partial autocorrelation in the model identification phase. Operator notation is introduced and used throughout the book to simplify equations. For me it helped simplify things and illuminate some concepts. But many readers found it difficult and confusing. the book is very systematic and practical. Many of the examples are real examples from Box's work in the chemical industry and his consulting during his career at the University of Wisconsin and also the consulting experience of Gwilym Jenkins in England.

The publishers and some amazon reviewers say that this edition is a major revision. The second edition published in 1976 was criticized for being essentially a reprint of the first. Although there is a new chapter 12 on intervention analysis and outlier detection it mainly is an expansion of ideas already discussed in the first edition. Theoretical results are kept aside in appendices as in previous editions.

This is not an up-to-date text on the theory of time series. It deals strictly with the time domain approach and does not include recent advances including nonlinear and bilinear models, models with non-Gaussian innovations and bootstrap or other resampling methods.

To get a balanced approach that includes the theory for frequency and time domain approaches the book by Shumway, the latest edition of the Brockwell and Davis text and the latest edition of Fuller's text are appropriate. For a graduate course I taught at UC Santa Barbara in 1981 I used the first edition of Fuller's book. Anderson provides a thorough account of the time domain theory. Excellent texts that specialize in the frequency domain approach are Bloomfield's second edition and the two volume book by Priestley. Brillinger's text is also worthwhile for those interested in spectral theory (frequency domain statistics).

Although there are many things that is text does not cover, it remains the classical text on a rich class of time domain methods that are still very practical. This is a text I bought for reference even though I still have the first edition.

Mathematical, Theoretical, Practical.
Box-Jenkins is THE definitive, foundational text in time series analysis. Mastery of this volume requires extensive graduate level understanding of mathematical statistics. While difficult even for intermediate statistical practitioners, this text is necessary for any professional who examines time series data and well worth the considerable effort to acquire mastery.

Time Series for Hydrologic Engineers
This book shows the basic developments, and also allow users to get deeper in time series theory. In this revised edition, some discutions about ARMA models, models choice, and calibration of parameters are done. This book is of special interest for hydrologic engineers working in forecasting, planning, an modelling of water resources. ... Read more

Book Description

This fascinating book draws together a wealth of diverse material on the much-trusted (and rarely disputed) phenomenon we know as the calendar. From the fundamentals of astronomy to the world's ancient time-keeping schemes, to the development of the modern-day calendar, to the precise calculation of when specific dates occur (as in how one arrives at the date for Easter Sunday), this is a skillful yet approachable discussion of the calendar from both the historical and contemporary perspectives. Readers will even learn how to perform experiments and calculations for themselves by using such basic techniques as stargazing and simple mathematics. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Erudite But Fun
This is a nice examination of the different calendars and methods of mapping time that humans have employed over the centuries. On the surface it has the air of a dusty reference book, but inside the author is often witty and amusing as he covers the histories and backgrounds of different dating systems. I'm especially impressed by his inclusion of the different algorithms used to calculate dates, of Easter for example, which are marvelously complex. Most readers will never have occasion to use these algorithms, but its nice to know they're there. I also appreciated the charts and the glossary of the more obscure calendrical terms.

Past Perfect
One of several books written in anticipation of the millennium, "Mapping Time: The Calendar and Its History" by E. G. Richards suffers from an especially heavy burden of typographical errors. As can be seen on the author's own web page, the address of which also is incorrect, there are hundreds of errors, some of which affect the accuracy of the account. For example, on page 208, January 1 came to mark the beginning of the Roman civil year in 153 BC, not 158 BC, and was in response to the Second Celtiberian War in Spain. Rather than wait until the middle of March for consuls to assume office, the new year was moved to the first of January so the Roman commander could depart with his legions that much sooner. It is a pity that so many errors compromise an otherwise informative history. Until they can be corrected, a better introduction to the calendar is "The Oxford Companion to the Year."

An intriguing compendium of obscure lore
Designing calendars is one of the more difficult tasks that human beings have set themselves. You first needed to -determine- the lengths of the cycles of the solar year and the lunar month. This was not an easy task, and it was not achieved until well into recorded history.

The various cycles don't fit into each other particularly easily, either. With a solar year of just under 365.25 days, and a lunar month of just over 29.5 days, you aren't going to get it to come out even in the short run. You can stick with the sun and ignore the moon --- the solution of the Roman calendar fixed by Julius Cæsar. You can go with the moon, and leave the seasons to fall where they may --- as Muhammad, the desert-dwelling prophet of Islam, chose.

Or you can try to keep the moon and sun tied together, necessarily loosely. This requires a number of cumbersome kludges, as the Babylonians, the Jews, the Chinese, and the Christians who fixed the date of Easter all discovered. These calendars took a lot more thought than the ones that simply discarded one or the other heavenly lights, and rank among the most intricate and intriguing works of ancient astronomy.

This book contains a complete listing and description of the several solutions people have come up with to this seemingly intractable problem of arithmetic.

Interesting but flawed
Very interesting history of the major calendar systems used around the world, both in the present day and in the past. It also gets into the mathematics of how to convert between calendar systems, including algorithms suitable for computer programming. Unfortunately, there are numerous typographical errors in the narrative and in the algorithms! The word "temperature" where the author clearly meant "temperate", substitution of "*" for "-" in a formula, etc. So far, I have been able to correct the formula for computing the day of the week and the formula for computing the date of Easter. I'm not looking forward to tackling the other algorithms. Did anyone proofread this before it was printed? Maybe the publisher could put up an errata sheet on their web site.

Good for the history, but be prepared to do some algebra if you want to use the algorithms.

one of the best books I read in 1999
In this well-illustrated book, the author accurately presents lunar and solar calendars. A history of the Egyptian, Mayan, Chinese, Jewish, French Republican, Roman, prehistoric and present-day Gregorian calendars is provided. The author has also included commentaries about astronomy, writing, counting, the week, the month, the year and calendar reform. An excellent readable reference on a fascinating subject for the interested reader. ... Read more

Book Description

The final work of a distinguished physicist, this remarkable volume examines the emotive significance of time, the time order of mechanics, the time direction of thermodynamics and microstatistics, the time direction of macrostatistics, and the time of quantum physics. Coherent discussions include accounts of analytic methods of scientific philosophy in the investigation of probability, quantum mechanics, the theory of relativity, and causality. "[Reichenbach’s] best by a good deal."—Physics Today. 1971 ed.
... Read more

Reviews (3)

Time: Why is it so important?
H.Reichenbach is undoubtly one of the most remarkable scientists that the world has ever witnessed. The interested mind is to be very strongly urged to read the book 'The direction of time' by him. Time is an essential concept to every physics student, as without it nature would be meaningless, and therefore the study of nature would be an empty pursuit. Whenever we wish to understand why we are in the 'world', say rather than in the planet MARS we have to understand thoroughly what actually happenned in the past, beginning from The Big Bang, that is, from the beginning of time. The book gives us a clear understanding into this inquiry ('TIME') developing both classical and quantum mechanical content of the concept of time starting from the first principles. The book carefully clarifies many confusing conceptions about time. For instance, the author clearly explains the contradictions lying in the famous Zeno's paradox which attemts to prove that time does not exist, in such a way that the physics student is now much more confident with such essential concepts as displacement and velocity. Also in the book, another essential concept of statistical physics ENTROPY is developed in a very systematic way and through this concept the direction of time is decisively established. Moreover, the issue of DETERMINACY or INDETERMINACY , an issue which is simply ignored in the text books or mentioned briefly in a few sentences as if it is self-evident and therefore does not need further elaboration, is discussed in depth, so both theoretical and experimental physicists have now a strong ground in arguing their proposals. I, as a physicist of 18 years of university lecturing experience, strongly recommend it to every single physics student or actually every single mind (student or not) who cares about the future, and who needs a decisive explanation (justification) for their potential steps to save (before being too late) our home THE WORLD WHICH WE NOW LIVE IN, only home only home and only home for us and for our childeren including of course our organic bodies, the animals and the plants. The direction of time and equally of The ENTROPY are the key concepts to understand what technology actually is, and to understand why it is inevitable to face more and more polluted environment as technology advances.

This is a great book
It is a beautiful but exterememly difficult book. It covers the concept of time and direction of time from the beginning up to current thinking. Author, being one of the founding fathers of philosophical quantum theory first introduces a good understanding of Thermodaynamics and Statiastical Physics and defines the order of events to lead into statistical definition of arrow of time. A lot of difficult concepts from Classsical Statistical Physics, Probability Theory, Relativity and Mathematical Logic as well as a good understanding of Quantum Physics is assumed to be in the bag of the reader, after all this book is not a Popular Science book. Although the author claims that knowledge of derivations of the formulas used are not critical to understand this study yet time to time the language and logic becames exteremely difficult. This is a must read book in this subject, may be many times or time and time over after increasing the understanding in other subjects that only tools in this book.

Laymen Beware
If you didn't know, this book is hard. I am a first year engineering student, and I felt lost through most of it. I gather it was intended for full-fledged physicists, but I was intrigued to read it anyway because of a philosophical thread running through the work. But beware--get ready for some Immanuel Kant and Einstein in only the introduction. This book is as much about the physics of time as the philosophy concerning subjectivity of time. Even though I didn't understand a lot of the probability or almost any of the quantum mechanics math, I still got some pleasure out of some of the more bizzare conclusions of the book. Did you know that for an isolated system (one not interacting with any others), time can't be said to have any direction? Furthermore, time as we know it is just a statistic. Another interesting fact is that on the quantum mechanical level, there is no such thing as time! If these things intrigue you (and you know what a double Riemann sum is) go for this book. Otherwise, be very afraid... ... Read more

Book Description

A brilliant and poetic exploration of the way that we experience time in our everyday lives.

Why does time seem so short? How does women's time differ from men's? Why does time seem to move slowly in the countryside and quickly in cities? How do different cultures around the world see time? In A Sideways Look at Time, Jay Griffiths takes readers on an extraordinary tour of time as we have never seen it before.

With this dazzling and defiant work, Griffiths introduces us to dimensions of time that are largely forgotten in our modern lives. She presents an infectious argument for other, more magical times, the diverse cycles of nature, of folktale or carnival, when time is unlimited and on our side. This is a book for those who suspect that there's more to time than clocks.

Irresistible and provocative, A Sideways Look at Time could change the way we view time-forever. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

A journalistic look at time
This was not the book I had hoped it would be. It is a good one, but given its title, its chosen subject, it could have reasonably been a terrific one. Griffiths, perhaps, is too young and extroverted to have selected the more exotic and decisive aspects her subject and spent some, er...time with them. Perhaps it is a matter of temperament. Rather than merely outline the manifold ways with which time is conceived in various cultures, she could have inhabited some of the more interesting constructs and helped the reader try them out, experience them. They are here, in this book--the accounts of peoples for whom past and future are identical, others for whom time is exclusively cyclical, or for whom change itself (as in "progress") is a negative, rather than a positve value--but the author doesn't tarry long enough to immerse us in these non-Western mind sets, help us to see the cosmos through their eyes.

Griffiths is basically a journalist of the chatty, wide-ranging sort hat the British are good at (as with the author of "Nathaniel's Nutmeg" or the old BBC series "Connections"). Her methods suggest she had located some gigantic encyclopedia, looked up "time," then followed up all the leads and connections, however tenuous, however founded on mere figures of speech. The resulting verbal carnival hops through all periods and continents, back and forth, sometimes repetitively, flogging her biases (Western, male, linear time is Bad; non- or pre-industrial, female, i.e., cyclic, time is Good) ad infinitum and ad nauseum. Hard to imagine a reader of any stripe not wanting to rise to the defense of our own clock-dominated culture, if only to be contrary.

If you dislike puns, stop reading this immediately and look for another book. Griffiths is positively smitten with them, and moreover with wordplay of all kinds. The trouble with this penchant is that it too often competes with her very interesting subject, her considerable research into non-Western peoples and their customs. The book is self-indulgent in the extreme. With all the multiple re-phrasings and digressions, I suspected more than once that the author is used to being paid by the word.

With all these caveats, though, this is a rich survey of a fascinating subject by an erudite author. She tosses off scores of razor-sharp insights without seeming to value them, often crowding them with silliness and pointless asides that dilute her purposes. Those willing to sift through this compendious book for the strands of gold, however, will find it quite worthwhile.

profound and powerful--don't miss it!
A SIDEWAYS LOOK AT TIME is a gem of a book. Jay Griffiths combines the wisdom and humility of Ivan Illich, the anger at social injustice and word magic of Eduardo Galeano, the senstivity and compassion of Terry Tempest Williams and the sense of wonder of John Muir into a text that challenges the time and productivity obsessed world of consumer society. Take time to read this book; its depth, and Griffiths' erudition, sharp wit and incisive social critism can't be fully appreciated by skimming it. As the book makes clear, the road to (social and ecological) hell is paved with "time-saving" devices and the worldview that "time is money." Perhaps this book will eventually be seen as a manifesto for the growing "slow life movement" now taking root around the world. Even when I disagreed with Griffiths, which wasn't often, the power of her prose and her arguments forced me to think hard about my own views. You can't ask for more from a book.

One of the best books I've read!
This is truly one of the most thought-provoking and well-crafted books I've read-but be warned, it's not for the closed-minded reader who is simply interested in defending the oppressive nature of dominant Western culture and "time" while denying that, yes, there may be a more responsible, healthy, just, and environmentally and culturally responsible way to understand and live in our world. Instead, it is for those who can accept and, indeed, embrace that one can learn thruths from nature and from those who continue to live so closely to and within its rhythms. It is for those who are interested in learning about how we got to this "Teflon society"-and how age, wisdom, and process have somehow been quashed by immaturity, short-sightedness, and haste. I've recommended it to my husband, family members, and friends. Ms. Griffith's writing style is witty, poetic, and provocative. She makes my "if I could invite anyone to a dinner party, I would invite..." list! Bravo!

Common Sense Concepts Mixed with Man-bashing
Give Jay Griffiths credit for an apt title. This is indeed a sideways look: the book does not present an intelligent investigation into the history and philosophy of the concept of time. Instead, Griffiths offers up a series of petulant and (affectedly) whimsical observations about social variations in the interpretation of time. If it is news to you that modern society moves at an ever-increasing pace, or that children sense time differently, or that things seem slower in the countryside, you may learn from this book.

Even then, however, you must endure the real topic of Ms. Griffiths' study, which might be summarized as, "The Evils of Western Patriarchal Society." It is not enough for Griffiths to observe that our culture has an unfortunate obsession with time's pace, and that there is a romantic appeal to the third-world cultures which move by natural rhythms. Rather, in a tired rehashing of late-80's Marxist-Feminism, she asserts that time has been co-opted and ruined by Western males. It's all about power, you see: one gets the idea that Griffiths envisions weekly, punctually-scheduled, secret meetings in which men plot the subversion of world culture through the mass-production of digital watches. And don't get her started on the terrors induced by Christianity "in the struggle for world domination." While Christians recognize Christ as the ultimate conqueror of time and the salvation from all the temporal ills which the book lists, Griffiths portrays the "power-hungry Church" as another source of evil, creating mental shackles with horrific concepts such as Calendars and B.C./A.D! By contrast, Griffiths celebrates any alternatives to Western traditions, including Druidism and tribes such as "the Kalui people of Papua New Guinea," who "have a clock of birds."

Griffiths rails against Franklin's aphorism that "Time is money," but no one can deny that money is money, and you'll waste both if you spend them on this book. ... Read more

Book Description

The revised and updated second edition of Religious Holidays and Calendars:An Encyclopedic Handbook has been reorganized for ease of use and expanded to cover more than 450 religious holidays.The holidays covered in this encyclopedic reference are those with a sacred component that celebrates, commemorates, or honors people, places, events, and concepts important to a specific religious community.

Entries for more than 450 religious holidays are organized in the new edition by religion, according to the most appropriate calendar, rather than alphabetically by holiday name.Each religion chapter begins with an introductory essay that provides the reader with background information, followed by an essay covering specific issues related to the religion and its sacred calendar.

The religion chapters begin in the Middle East, the birthplace of many religions.These are listed in order of the historical appearance of their founders:Abraham (Judaism), Zoroaster (Zoroastrianism), Jesus (Christianity), Muhammad (Islam), and Baha'u'llah (Baha'i).Several post-Christian movements of the last few centuries have been included in the Christian chapter.

Moving eastward, the next group of religions are those with origins in the Indian subcontinent:Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, and Buddhism.Buddhism serves as a bridge to the religions of the Far East:Confucianism, Taoism, Chinese folk religions, and Shinto.These are folowed by religions for the Old and New Worlds:Native American and tribal religions, Paganism (including Wicca, Druidry, Asatru, and Goddess Cults), and Western African Religions and their New World expressions (including Yoruba religious traditions, Vodoo, Santeria, and Candomblé).

Preceding the main section on religious holidays are four chapters on the historical development of lunar, lunisolar, and solar calendars, their sacred and secular uses, and calendar reform movements. Completing the work are an appendix listing Internet resources, a topically arranged bibliography, and four indexes:Alphabetic List of Holidays, Chronological List of Holidays, Calendar Index, and Master Index. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A Great Resource
The 2nd edition of Religious Holidays and Calendars: An Encyclopedic Handbook edited by Karen Bellener is an incomparable and concise resource for information describing different types of calendars (e.g., lunar, solar) and why they are utilized by various religions to keep time and determine the dates of important celebrations. The holidays of every known religion are described in detail, a remarkable feat given that there is a description of holidays from religions such as Shinto, Jainism, Voodoo, Scientology and Theosophy that usually do not receive as much attention as Judeo-Christian holidays. The book is well organized, making it easy to quickly find the exact information one seeks and the indices are invaluable. This book is everything a reference book should be and, as an Interfaith Minister, an invaluable addition to my library. ... Read more

Book Description

Swedish physicist Bodil Jönsson has spent several decades thinking about the opportunities and problems facing human beings in modern times. From a scientific standpoint, we now lead longer lives than ever before, yet many of us feel that we don't have enough time to accomplish everything we want to do. Technological developments, such as high-speed travel, cell phones, computers, and the Internet would seem to save time, but as the speed and pace of our society increases, we all feel that we have much less than we need. By combining her knowledge of science with common sense and a woman's unique perspective, Jönsson provides an interesting view of contemporary life and the toll it takes on our bodies and minds. Encouraging us to look forward rather than being nostalgic about the past, Jönsson offers concrete suggestions for preserving our humanity while working and living in the fast lane. With great wisdom and gentle humor, Unwinding the Clock ultimately shows us how to slow down and enjoy the time we have. International Bestseller ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Focusing Your Attention in the Most Useful Ways
While American bookshelves are burdened with time-management books that few feel they have the time to read, Swedish physicist Bodil Jonsson has written about a totally different subject: new ways to think about, appreciate, and use time. In this European bestseller (newly translated into English), she points out that "time is not something you can resolve once and for all." The book contains the benefits of her twenty years of thinking on the subject, and will give you greater awareness of and ability to make good use of your own time. The book is done in a recursive style to help you see the same issues from many perspectives. Her main point is that you need to carve out time to be a thinking, innovative, caring person from the frantic pursuit of "doing" daily tasks.

The introduction to the ten essays in the book points out that she began by moving beyond just narrowing time down (which is what time management encourages). At this point, she felt just as frantic as the rest of us -- never having enough time to do what she wanted. Next, she "found some more methodological ways of thinking about . . . time and its usage." As the third step, she learned to "describe . . . thoughts about time and . . . living to the fullest in the midst of ongoing time." Finally, she came to "imagine that [she understood] . . . everthing that's important for [one's] . . . relationship to time." Interestingly, she then reports that some unexpected event would occur to make her realize that she needed to go back and think the whole thing through again.

Time Is the Only Thing You Have -- In this essay, she points out the constrast between her grandmother who always had enough time to do what she wanted to do, and the stressed-out modern person who feels she or he does not have enough time. Her point is that "time is the true capital." It can be reallocated for different uses. For important things, "I have plenty of time." Most people will live for 30,000 days. How would you like to spend them? She suggests experiencing "rootlessness in time" so that time becomes "a joy, an eye-opener, an exhortation or a challenge, all depending on your mood." The key is to break your link to measured time, and to focus on time as it is experienced.

Clock Time and Experience Time -- This essay points out that we can "stretch out time" by the way we choose our mood. "How do I gain more experienced time?"

Setup Time -- This essay points out that the time to prepare has a large effect on how a task goes. By compressing preparation time too much, many people experience "set-up time anxiety." She suggests getting off by yourself to think. This may mean taking a train rather than an airplane for a short trip, because the uninterrupted thinking time is longer on the train.

Divided and Undivided Time -- This essay points out that tiny chunks of time cannot be used for many purposes. So restructure your time to have the right amount for what you want to do. For thinking, you need larger blocks than for much individual doing.

Thoughts Take Time -- Using the metaphor of "fast food" versus "slow food" and the qualitative differences, she encourages you to take the linear time needed to explore and develop your thoughts. How much can you think in the time it takes to eat french fries? Perhaps not very much.

Being in the Here and Now -- This essay points out the evils of the interrupting telephone (now carried as a cellular device) to distract you, and the benefits of e-mail and snail mail for giving you control over the moment and your use of time. She suggests that you follow Bertrand Russell's advice and focus on (a) search for knowledge, (b) longing for love, and (c) empathy for those who are suffering. Focus on establishing a "creative environment."

The Pace of Change and the Perception of Time -- She sees the exponential rate of growth in technology as squeezing our ability to relate well to time. It makes time seem to speed up. If we do not become better at taking control of our experience of time, we may be overwhelmed like a lake filled with lily pads or algae.

One of the best essays is Rhythm and Nonrhythm, which points out how activities differ in the ideal time, frequency, and duration for their experience. She also emphasizes the need to be in sync with those you are experiencing the activity with.

Forward and Backward Thoughts explores how to start with the end in mind, to create a path back to the present. This will help you create the future you desire.

Why Are There So Few Poodles? addresses how to expand innovation, and emphasizes the importance of banishing pessimism.

After you finish this thoughtful book, I suggest that you review how you spent the last week. What would you have liked to have spent less time on, and what more of? What can you do differently this week to redress that balance? How can you create more space in your life, and a greater sense of time?

Many people report that it helps to "schedule" unscheduled time. Give it a try!

... Read more

Amazon.com

Likely you've heard that the mechanical clock is one of humanit