The Order of Time (Lead Title) Paperback – 1 January 2019

A fascinating reading book. Language and presentation is lucid for folks not familiar with the nuances of space, time and temperature. May be to some extent mysterious for folks who have not read any book related to moderns science fiction etc. Stephen Hawking's book " A Brief History of Time" is a good example on the subject.

Whether you approach it scientifically or philosophically, the concept of “TIME” is something that is not easy to grasp. It seems to slip away or flow without any rhyme or reason. It is supposed to be a dimension (with space-time), but you can only travel forward. Although Einstein figured it out that TIME is not absolute and constant, it is really not easy to fathom it. This book tries to combine the scientific, philosophical aspects of TIME with a poetic tinge. To me, the book is a great science that borders around science fiction. If you are totally new to this topic, you will find it even more interesting, where you have to take a detour to explore some scientific discoveries that are back bone for this topic.

The book is amazing but the condition it was delivered in is not satisfactory. The corner of the front page was folded which has left a mark (shown in the image). All the pages of the book are folded at one corner. I bought the book at a price nearly equal to the mrp to get a good quality product. The folded pages are disappointing.

The book deals more about time and entropy. A great explanation on difference between past, present and future. Easy to understand.

fluid, rational and fluent language peaking at one of the most ancient and paradoxical 'concept'.

Seemingly not the book completely focusing on physics of time. Some of the chapters on relarivity, gravitational field, Entropy and quantum are good but the lots of philosophy and repetitions, especially in later chapters. At some point explanations seems to lengthy and confusing, may be few more equations or pictures would have helped.

It will change most of your notions about the time. At the end, you’ll probably feel that you were reading fiction(if you didn’t understand it)

A very good book telling what is time .may be we will stay astonished about reality. what is all this? Is there something else to give us this false or true idea . We are living in a world, were nothing seems original An illusory world with illusions. May be as Indian vedanta says Maya. Great book. Those who interested in physics and spirituality must read this

This book leans towards the more challenging end of off-the-shelf science topics. Carlo Rovelli explores what time means, its origins from both a scientific perspective and its uniqueness to each observing entity, as well as what time truly means to a human observer. Our sensory inputs are not instantaneous; we are an amalgamation of past experiences, interpolating ahead based on current inputs, experiencing life through a blurred flow, moment by moment.I would not recommend this book for a casual read. However, for those deeply interested in the concept of time, I have yet to come across a book as detailed as this. Personally, I anticipate requiring a second read to fully digest its complex topics.

Carlo Rovelli ademas de ser un físico que trabaja en lo mas avanzado de la ciencia, es un filósofo y un estudioso del arte y de la historia.Sus obras científicas son una delicia para la mente, pues están salpicadas de referencias al arte, a la belleza, a la historia y a la filosofía.Puedes aprender sobre las teorías de mas avanzadas de la física disfrutando la prosa amena de este genio.Cuando termines su lectura pensarás que este libro era muy breve y que se terminó como un bocado del mas delicioso pastel.

Carlo has a way with words. Amazing book: Interesting and easy to follow.

Questo è un testo affascinante, scritto in maniera semplice ma molto profondo.

In his previous book, Reality Is Not What It Seems, Rovelli emphasises the need to remove the Newtonian model of a separately existing time from physical theories. In this new similarly slim and equally lucid volume, he delves deeper into what is this time thing, anyway.He carefully picks apart the many different models of time in physics. Newtonian time has been replaced by many different models of time, all of which remove one or more ‘obvious’ properties. Special relativistic time depends on your speed, and asking what is now somewhere else “is like asking ‘What is here, in Peking?’”[p.37]: the present is defined just in a local bubble whose size depends on our precision. General relativistic time depends on the curvature of space, and so is different everywhere, and things fall because “the movement of things inclines to where time passes more slowly” [p.12]. Thermodynamics is the only basic physical theory that has an ‘arrow’ of time, of entropy increase, the existence of which depends on your scale; that “entropy exists because we describe the world in a blurred fashion”, and if we “observe the microscopic state of things the difference between past and future vanishes” [p.30]. Quantum mechanical (space)time is not continuous, but granular, as is everything else, and different times can coexist in superpositions.Rovelli provides an interesting historical perspective on our current everyday intuitions of it being the same time in different places, and time always passing at the same speed: we didn’t always have these ideas. Clocks didn’t start started regulating our hours until around the 14th century. But these clocks were synchronised to local noon, not to each other. Then train timetables in the 19th century required synchronisation across distances. Time zones were invented in 1883, and cities gradually synchronised their clocks with each other. Then, in 1905, Einstein destroyed the idea of universal synchronicity. (I had known Einstein worked in a patent office; I was not aware he dealt specifically with patents related to synchronising clocks!)Another interesting historical perspective: today we are accustomed to the idea the Newton’s view of an independently flowing absolute time, and think that Leibniz was some maverick suggesting relational time, of time being change. But actually, this view of time being dependent on change was the orthodox Aristotelian view, and it was Newton who was the maverick. We are just nowadays more used to the Newtonian view. Einstein synthesised the Aristotelian and Newtonian views: yes, spacetime is something real, yet it is relative, not absolute.Having spent the first part of the book bringing us up to date with current physics, Rovelli moves into more a speculative realm, a different view of time in terms of change. This is heady stuff. We should think of the world as a network of events, and “the simple fact that nothing is: that things happen instead” [p.85]. In this world there is no time as we currently understand it; instead it is a world in which change is ubiquitous.Rovelli explains how some of the problems we have with this new physics is down to grammar: the human languages we use to talk about the world, with their simple past, present and future tenses, do not fit well with our current view of a more complex structure to physical time. But just because natural language, developed before we knew about this complexity, can’t cope, doesn’t mean our physical models are wrong: we just have to work harder.Rovelli concludes his discussion with some thoughts on the origins of time: how it might emerge from the underlying granular, complex structure of spacetime events; from a particular blurring (ignorance) of macroscopic state; from non-commutative quantum operations imposing a natural (partial) order; from the fact that we have a point of view observing the universe while situated within it.This is a beautifully written book, explaining complex concepts with great clarity and style. It is a translation. There is an amusing translation error on p193, which talks of “a degree of liberty”: after a moment of thought, I decided that this should be “a degree of freedom”. Despite the book’s slimness, there is a great deal to think about here; I have merely scraped the surface in my summary above. It is a wonderfully rich concoction of deep ideas and lucid explanation. Recommended.