Time's Arrow and Archimedes' Point: New Directions for the Physics of Time

by Huw Price

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 on some of the great mysteries of modern physics, and connects them in a wholly original way. Price begins with the mystery of the arrow of time. Why, for example, does disorder always increase, as required by the second law of thermodynamics? Price shows that, for over a century, most physicists have thought about these problems 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. Offering a lively criticism of many major modern physicists, including Richard Feynman and Stephen Hawking, Price shows that this fallacy remains common in physics today -- for example, when contemporary cosmologists theorize about the eventual fate of the universe. The "big bang" theory normally assumes that the beginning and end of the universe will be very different. But if we are to avoid the double standard fallacy, we need to consider time symmetrically, and take seriously the possibility that the arrow of time may reverse when the universe recollapses into a "big crunch." Price then turns to the greatest mystery of modern physics, the meaning of quantum theory. He argues that in missing the Archimedean viewpoint, modern physics has missed a radical and attractive solution to many of the apparent paradoxes of quantum physics. Many consequences of quantum theory appear counterintuitive, such as Schrodinger's Cat, whose condition seems undetermined until observed, and Bell's Theorem, which suggests a spooky "nonlocality," where events happening simultaneously in different places seem to affect each other directly. Price shows that these paradoxes can be avoided by allowing that at the quantum level the future does, indeed, affect the past. This demystifies nonlocality, and supports Einstein's unpopular intuition that quantum theory describes an objective world, existing independently of human observers: the Cat is alive or dead, even when nobody looks. So interpreted, Price argues, quantum mechanics is simply the kind of theory we ought to have expected in microphysics -- from the symmetric standpoint. 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.

Genres: Science, Philosophy, Physics, Nonfiction, Popular Science

321 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[BetseaK · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found it difficult to rate this book, wavering between 3 and 4 stars. Eventually, I opted for 4 stars because the book covers many interesting points and, in the opinion of this layperson, the author's arguments seem sound and persuasive.

On the other hand, it is more obscure than necessary due to the author's long-winding linguistic style interspersed with numerous analogies/metaphors, some of which more puzzling than revealing (the way I look at it, of course) and, contrary to the description in the Preface to the book, some background in physics is required so as to appreciate the author's arguments. Besides, this book does not explain well (if at all) the concept of objective (physical) time and I feel it fails to give the non-professional reader a clear idea how to view the things from an atemporal standpoint (or 'view from nowhen').

And so, my first try at this book was a total fiasco due to the lack of a clear idea of the concepts of objective (physical) time, entropy, thermodynamical processes, causal forks, a state function,... (the full list of things would be too long). All my thanks for acquiring the required knowledge for understanding this book properly during my second try go to Records of the Future - Classical Entropy, Memory, and the 'Arrow of Time' and Galloping with Light - Einstein, Relativity, and Folklore by Felix Alba-Juez.

The main idea of Time's Arrow and Archimedes' Point is that our intuitive/subjective sense of time has a very great effect on how we think about time and the temporal aspects of reality. Namely, we should try to distinguish how the world actually is from how it seems to be from our particular standpoint. Mr. Price argues that the concept of 'time' is a secondary quality such as colour, leaving it to the reader to figure out for herself/himself what the primary quality in the case of 'time' might be. (As my inference was influenced by Records of the Future - Classical Entropy, Memory, and the 'Arrow of Time', I'll keep silent on this point so as not to spoil the fun of trying to find it out for yourself.)

One of the central questions of the book is how it is possible to reconcile the time-symmetric laws we find in physics with the world we find around us, which appears to have a preferred direction from past to future. In efforts to reach the answer to this question, the first half of the book deals with the categories/phenomena (the so-called 'arrows of time') on which our subjective sense of time relies: the arrow of thermodynamics, the arrow of radiation, the cosmological arrow, the arrow of causation and the arrow of counterfactual dependence. The question now is whether these 'arrows of time' reflect only our anthropocentric view or the real feature of reality. In general, the low-entropy condition of the present and past universe is puzzling and Mr. Price argues that a purely statistical reasoning is unreliable and unsatisfactory because it is in conflict with the prevailing time-symmetric physics and involves unjustified temporal double standards.
In this context, Mr. Price expounds his reflections on the basic dilemma of cosmology, which I found interesting. It seems that we have to accept either Gold's hypothesis that entropy must decrease toward both ends of the Universe, or Penrose's that the low-entropy big bang is simply not explicable by time-symmetric physics unless we were prepared to allow it is just a statistical 'fluke'. The author argues in favor of Thomas Gold’s time-symmetric Universe (recollapsing/low entropy at both ends).
What I also found very interesting are Mr. Price's reflections on Wheeler-Feynmann Absorber Theory (according to the author, it involves a misleading concept of temporal asymmetry of radiation) and objections to Hawking's assumption that the Universe has an objective start, failing to apply the statistical arguments and the 'no-boundary' (low-entropy) condition equally both to what we call the big-bang and the supposed big-crunch, putting thus asymmetry in his theory 'by hand'.

The second half of the book deals with the asymmetry of the principle of μInnocence (common past hypothesis at the microscopic level) and our intuitive view of cause-effect relation. Mr. Price proposes that causal asymmetry might be perspective dependent. What gives us the ‘causal temporal arrow’ is the fact that it is impossible for us, as agents in the world, to reverse the order of things, i.e., to achieve an earlier end(effect) by a later means (cause). We take it for granted that events in the world are independent unless they share some common causal history. In Mr. Price’s opinion, QM seems to provide a confirmation against the asymmetry of the principle of μInnocence because it is actually not observable but only reflects our macroscopic view of cause-effect relation.

However, a consequence of abandoning μInnocence is surprising. Mr. Price favors Einstein’s view of QM, arguing that the asymmetry of the state function is unproblematic if it is simply an incomplete description of QM. He suspects that Bell thought both the common past hypothesis and the common future hypothesis conflict with our intuitive assumption that experimenters are free to choose measurement settings and that these settings are free variables. Mr. Price thinks “it is fair to say that Bell saw how Einstein could be right about QM, but didn’t understand what he saw”.

Mr. Price further proposes we might give up Bell’s independence assumption and save Einsteinian realism and locality as well as free will. The secret lies in advanced action/backward causation. While the mathematics remains the same, the benefits of the advanced action approach to explain reality at microscopic level are: it avoids nonlocality (faster than light influence can be considered as a backward influence from some inertial frame of reference), denies that a collapse of a wave function corresponds to a real change in the physical system and it does not encounter the measurement problem.

Overall, this book is worth your while if you are intrigued with the subject and prepared to do some hard work.

[Scott Wilson · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've had this book for a few years and pick it up from time to time to see if it's just me or if this book really is unreadable. After reading sentence after sentence of words that never really condense into meaning, you realize that each section could be boiled down to one or two points.

[Luke Gompertz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some genuinely fascinating ideas but wrapped in deeply amateurish prose – I honestly believe it could have been half its length or even shorter. The supposed climax of the book, when Price proposes backwards causation in contemporary physics, was also fairly disappointing. It's a testament to the strength that an idea can have that I'd recommend reading it anyway.

[Jonathan Hockey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I disagree with the feasibility of an atemporal perspective, or even the benefits of going in this direction, his attempts in line with this project are mostly intellectually honest and pursue a lot of important areas in the discussions of time's arrows in relation to radiation, thermodynamics, cosmology and causality, and he makes an interesting case for a deflated view of the supposed mysteries of quantum mechanics in line with his view. The talk of the Principle of independence of incoming influences raises an important extra asymmetrical assumption hidden in much reasoning on these discussions, but I think the resolution lies simply in accepting an asymmetrical principle lying behind our ability to reason about things, I don't think a purely symmetrical approach involving advanced action, and trying to pretend our sense of causality is merely a subjective or anthropocentric creation is going to get too far, because physics without causality loses a lot of its force as an explanatory framework. What we would be left with would be little better than what we already have with quantum theory, namely an accurate description but without a satisfying physical explanation.

[Jesse Patts · Rating 3 out of 5]

Getting cover to cover is a grind, even though Huw tries to write in an accessible way. The only chapters I can recite accurately are the first few, as I reread them many times across my attempts to finish this book. Interesting to go from this to ‘free agents: how evolution gave us free will’ immediately after as this book is all about thinking about the block universe model which implies physical determinism. I do enjoy trying to imagine the ‘view from nowhen’ but I also didn’t find any real satisfaction or arrival by completion. Maybe the journey was just the friends we made along the way heh heh. I will forever now be confused by why the entropy state of the early universe was so low, and why the universe seems to dogmatically coordinate for it to increase. Every pond I visit I will imagine the water ripples converging on a point where a rock will be shot out from its surface. It’s possible according to classic physics after all!!!!

[Qingyang · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the hardest book I read in 2019, without exception. Although Price offers valuable insight into the ways we should regard time and temporal asymmetry, he really needs to structure the book in a logical way to avoid repeating his arguments over and over again. I appreciate that it is a subtle matter, but sometimes he just repeats his point over and over again with different examples without offering any new insight.

Overall, I would not recommend this book, and I only finished it because I was on a long holiday with limited access to internet.

[Paige McLoughlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is from the 90s and with the exception of Dark Energy, the issues around time with respect to entropy and the big bang are largely the same. I read this a long time ago but the conversation around the arrow time hasn't moved in the twenty-five years or so since this book broached the topic. Deep dive philosophically on the arrow of time and entropy. Good stuff.

[Reza · Rating 3 out of 5]

Author has managed to come up with a book that takes the most fascinating concept,TIME,both in philosophy and physics,combine them and write a rather booring book,trying to cover the concept from both perspectives, that does not appeal to philosophers and physicist alike.

[Cole Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books for exploring existentialism - where subjects are related to better understanding time and reality.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring and self-congratulatory. If that is not bad enough highly repetitive. This book has nothing to do with "physics" and everything to do with the philosophy of physics, thus it sheer science fiction, and not very good at that.

[Ege]

https://fivebooks.com/best-books/time...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time%27...

[Albert-Jan Jorna · Rating 5 out of 5]

3 stars
I am currently revisiting chapters as my understanding has grown with time, and now that I have more knowledge I must say the chapter on quantum mechanics is wellposed. I understand why I found things a bit convoluted the first time around as he tries hard to use intelligible language and creative metaphors and as such too many words to describe his point. But the second time around it is appreciated, to really nail down my current understanding of the subject.

Must revisit and will reevaluate my current rating. Might go to 4 ****. Probably not as it is narrowly focussed on retro-causation mostly I see now, he has an agenda and is not being truly objective, which I thought he was in the first run..should have read the preface. Also much too hard a book for a novice without a physics background, don't be fooled into reading this book if you are just getting into the subject of time. It will steer you away from a beautiful subject you might otherwise love

Edit december 2024:
5 stars for chapter 2 and 4 on the problems with thermodynamics and the arrow of time, and the intricacies on the Gold universe specifically. With the right background in this topic, this book is very interesting. It just took me a year to appreciate it, as I had to grow in my own beliefs and conclusions about this topic.

[Rana · Rating 2 out of 5]

it was funny when he complained about stephen hawking & company


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[B · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought I read this book because a friend recommended it, but it turned it was because of some future event.

I'll be honest. I didn't understand any of details or examples. It seems like the big idea: "Time may not move forward - it might only look that way" is pretty obvious once stated.

But the book spends about 80% of its time outlining examples that don't make sense and 20% touting how well it is explaining.

[Cherylann]

Great concept, but good grief, the man rambles on and on repeating himself. Sir... If we are reading your book, odds are we are intelligent enough to grasp your content without an over dissected and repetitive narrative.

[Steve Simpson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is my standard reference for time travel. It's not an easy read but it discusses the various aspects of time's direction carefully and comprehensively, at least as far as anyone can in a single volume.

[Ohr · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this years ago. It was interesting, but I am absolutely not qualified to render judgement on its accuracy.

[Cameron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not an easy read. Didn't expect it to be, but still a bit tough to plow through.