The Clock Mirage: Our Myth of Measured Time

by Joseph Mazur

A tour of clocks throughout the centuries—from the sandglass to the telomere—to reveal the physical, biological, and social nature of time

What is time? This question has fascinated philosophers, mathematicians, and scientists for thousands of years. Why does time seem to speed up with age? What is its connection with memory, anticipation, and sleep cycles?
 
Award-winning author and mathematician Joseph Mazur provides an engaging exploration of how the understanding of time has evolved throughout human history and offers a compelling new vision, submitting that time lives within us. Our cells, he notes, have a temporal awareness, guided by environmental cues in sync with patterns of social interaction. Readers learn that, as a consequence of time’s personal nature, a forty-eight-hour journey on the Space Shuttle can feel shorter than a six-hour trip on the Soyuz capsule, that the Amondawa of the Amazon do not have ages, and that time speeds up with fever and slows down when we feel in danger.    
 
With a narrative punctuated by personal stories of time’s effects on truck drivers, Olympic racers, prisoners, and clockmakers, Mazur’s journey is filled with fascinating insights into how our technologies, our bodies, and our attitudes can change our perceptions. Ultimately, time reveals itself as something that rides on the rhythms of our minds. The Clock Mirage presents an innovative perspective that will force us to rethink our relationship with time, and how best to use it.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Philosophy, Physics, History, Essays, Mathematics

272 pages, Hardcover

First published April 21, 2020

About the author

Joseph C. Mazur is Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at Marlboro College in Vermont. He earned his Ph.D. in algebraic geometry from MIT and has held visiting positions at MIT and the University of Warwick. A recipient of Guggenheim, Bellagio, and Bogliasco Fellowships, he has written widely on the history and philosophy of mathematics, with books translated into over a dozen languages.

Reviews

[Han · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, basically a very eloquent beating around the bush in 19 chapters. Time has some deeply mysterious aspects. The chapter about the biological mechanisms which define our circadian clock inside is very good. 3.5 stars

[Tatiana Rymarenko · Rating 3 out of 5]

a little too abrupt

[Olivera · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ovo mi je istovremeno bilo i suviše specifično, ali i suviše uopšteno razmišljanje o konceptu vremena. Mislim da se Mazur malo rasuo na sve strane, a određena poglavlja bila su dosadnija od drugih.

U svakom slučaju, drago mi je da sam je pročitala, računajući da sam našla dosta nekih informacija koje su mi potrebne za jedan tekst o putovanju kroz vreme na kojem trenutno radim, ali i dosta 'fun facts' stvari koje planiram da prepričavam naokolo jer su mi bile zanimljive.

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this book was like having a long conversation about time with a friend...It was meandering, touched on all the different things you think about with the word "time", I didn't really learn anything, but it was satisfying to have the conversation.

That's not to say it wasn't well researched or well written, because it was both. It just didn't build to conclusions. At one point you're talking about clocks, another the body's cells, another Einstein relativity, another astronauts. I most liked the information about the origin of clocks in the beginning (I guess I lied and did learn something), and the epilogue at the very end (which I won't spoil here). I didn't really get much from the interludes...they were too short and I didn't care what someone convicted of manslaughter and serving a life sentence thought about time.

Overall? Well, if you're looking for a good meandering conversation about time but don't have anyone to talk about it with, this is a pretty good way to get that.

[Danielle C. · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book that explores the concept of time. I was expecting maybe more of a philosophical insight but given that the author is a mathematician, we get a broad view of clockmaking, astrophysics, and cellular biology. Interesting at parts but overall I found the while thing a bit obtuse and bogged down with too many details to make a cohesive whole

[Emiel Vertongen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hoe ongrijpbaar tijd eigenlijk is wordt duidelijk in dit boek, wat door de omvang van de ambitie gedoemd is teleur te stellen. Dat neemt niet weg dat er veel interessante dingen instaan, als je door de matige poëzie en losse samenhang heen kan lezen.

[Mich · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to delve in this book but it just didn’t get me with all the stuff on clocks in the opening chapters, the way the world divided time into weeks, months, minutes, and then philosophy. Ended up speed reading and didn’t do it justice.

[Justus · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do plan on rereading this book again (there's brief mention of physics concepts and I'd like to refamiliarize myself), and my rating may change; however, I think 3 stars is a good rating. I do like the detail he gave about clocks and when humans started measuring time. He explains everything well so the reader won't get lost, but sometimes this leads to the book being boring. It also approaches the concept of time more from a philosophical standpoint than anything. Maybe I also misinterpreted the intention of the book, but the answer the author gives for time left me wishing I skipped the epilogue.

[Robert Pinto · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading The Clock Mirage by Joseph Mazur. As someone who's first subject isn't math I found it very easy to read and understand. I highly enjoyed the human elements added to the book. I think it was important that he talked about social issues like how time effects prisoners. That gave the book a human aspect to it. I think when you delve into the psychology of time it brings out a lot of interesting inquiries. This is certainly a book not to be missed no matter what your interest it whether it is math, history, psychology.

[Roberta Westwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super interesting

This book was super interesting but unfortunately, a lot of it went over my head. I suppose I am with the mathematical scaffolding he refers to, so didn’t grasp the formulas. Plus there was jargon I didn’t understand. I suspect I would grasp more on a second listening. All the stuff on time was mind blowing…

[Justin Sasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Initially intrigued by learning more about time as a concept, I was surprised to jump in with both feet into a book heavily based in physics. This book provided a good history of time as well as what it is (as much as one can define). Very good book

[Lee Barry · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the better books that elaborate on time perception, sleep cycles (insomnia), internal clocks, biorhythms, etc. If you ever wondered why time always 'feels' different, this book is for you.

[Arya Mayr · Rating 5 out of 5]

The concept of time always fascinated me. I didn’t find a better book to explain Time better than this one.

[Yama Chen · Rating 2 out of 5]

A little boring as usual.

[Maurizio Codogno · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gli intermezzi rovinano il testo

Il titolo italiano del libro non va bene: meglio quello originale, The Clock Mirage, ma forse sarebbe stato meglio ancora meglio qualcosa tipo "appunti sparsi sul tempo". Una delle cose che almeno a mio parere manca nel testo è appunto un fil rouge che ci guidi nel vedere le varie sfaccettature del concetto di tempo nella storia. Né aiutano gli intermezzi personali (anche poesie!) di Mazur: io almeno sono rimasto piuttosto spiazzato. Diciamo che il testo si può leggere, ma poteva essere meglio. La traduzione di Giovanni Malafarina è standard.