The Labyrinth of Time: Introducing the Universe

by Michael Lockwood

Modern physics has revealed our knowledge of the universe as a much stranger place than we could have imagined. The puzzle at the center of our understanding of the universe is time. Michael Lockwood takes the reader on a fascinating journey into the nature of things. He investigates philosophical questions about the past, present, and future, our experience of time, and the possibility of time travel. And he provides the most careful, lively, and up-to-date introduction to the physics of time and the structure of the universe. His aim is not just to boggle the mind, but to lead the reader towards an understanding of the science and philosophy.

Genres: Science, Philosophy, Physics

416 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

A curious book: for nine tenths of it, Lockwood staunchly supports Einstein's "loaf universe" view, according to which the future is as determinate as the past, together with the "Principle of Sufficient Reason," according to which even a time traveler can't change the past because his/her visit is already part of it. Then he veers off into a discussion of how time travel *could* change the past (hence, the future is *not* fixed) based on his (many worlds) interpretation of Everett's non-collapse quantum mechanics.

I'm confused, to say the least!

[Ramzzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

**UPDATED, HOURS AFTER POSTED**

“Time is central to our being in a way that space is not. We can envisage an afterlife in which we no longer find ourselves located in space. But we cannot envisage an afterlife in which we are no longer in time. Correspondingly, time lies at the core of our strongest emotions—as is reflected in those popular songs that most effectively tug at the heartstrings: Vera Lynn’s ‘We’ll Meet Again’, for example, or the Beatles’ ‘Yesterday’. The past can be the focus of nostalgia, relief, pride or shame, an aching sense of loss, or the bitter regret associated with missed opportunities. And the future, though less poignantly, can be the focus of longing, dread, eager anticipation, intense impatience, unbearable suspense, paralysing fear or nail-biting anxiety.”

Michael Lockwood is an analytic philosopher in the field of philosophy of physics. As such, his book is purely science-based philosophy of time. As science withdraws from any human frame of reference in answering the questions of de rerum natura (‘the way things are’), so Lockwood rarely expounds on human culture which is in itself a trove of temporality and history. (A strong highlight nevertheless, is Lockwood discussing how Lewis Carollʼs fiction predated the logic of Einsteinʼs special theory of relativity!) A scientific frame of reference is more on the matter and energy, especially with the further rise of relativity physics, quantum physics, and the like, more also on the deeper structures of a subject-independent reality, a somewhat Platonist, if not positivist pursuit physics inherited indirectly from philosophy. To consider values, which are human-based, betrays the objective reality they are aiming to transcribe into facts, and if facts meet scientific theory, therefore a law. Philosophy comes in here in matters of methodology and the paradoxes (especially on time travel). As a book written by a figure from analytic philosophy and physics, it must be dealt with caution hence, for—even if Lockwood tried to simplify the ideas and arguments from the philosophers and scientists for the general public—it is mired with intricacies, technicalities, and high-tier logic that the reading public might not catch up immediately. Nevertheless, Lockwood’s book hits the notes right, the program coherent, especially David Deutsch, the so-called father of quantum computing and an ardent Popperian (Lockwood echoes Deutsch’s confiding of Popper’s epistemology in the book), endorses it for being true. Such can be respected because it is scientific and analytically valid, but being true does not mean being complete. Being human only means being incomplete, whatever we will become.

[A.J. McMahon · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author from start to finish seems to think that time is something that can only be investigated scientifically. This makes his book in the end largely pointless. He spends page after page on minute microscopic detail about scientific diagrams of cones without the thought ever appearing to cross his mind that maybe what he is doing is absurd. It is as if a painting were to be examined purely in terms of the pigments of which the paint was made up of, and the woof and weave of the canvas upon which it had been laid. In short, Lockwood's book is a representation of the failings of modern science as much as anything. Without Plato's teaching that "Time is a moving image of Eternity" how can we begin to approach the subject of time?

[Brian Swain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrifically detailed exploration of time and universal physics concepts. Kind of tough to follow (i.e., wrap one's head around) in spots, but a wonderfully elucidating explanation nonetheless. Well worth the effort!

[Michael Chase · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a quite interesting book, filled with interesting discussions and tidbits of information, although perhaps lacking structure overall. It has the flavor of being based on a series of articles that are more or less closely related (although the author nowhere acknowledges this). He provides interesting insight on time in Einsteinian relativity and the tensed versus non-tensed view of time otherwise known as presentism vs. the block universe view; the origin and eventual fate of the universe (it will probably keep on expanding ad infinitum), the possibility of time travel, entropy and the arrow of time. Lockwood ultimately supports the block view of time, i.e. that past, present, and future are equally extant and real.Ch. 13, on the Emergence of Order, is particularly interesting with its discussions of how life arise and increases its complexity despite the second law of thermodynamics, which decrees that disorder will increase in closed systems. It is astonishing, however, that Lockwood can write (p. 266) about how "self-organization characteristically occurs on the 'edge of chaos' " without mentioning Stuart Kauffman, whose name is absent from both index and bibliography. The chapters on quantum physics, with their inevitable discussion of Schrödinger's cat, are comptent and occasionally technical, but marred, for me, by the fact that the author pretty much takes Everett's many-word interpretation for granted, which seems to me nonsensical (but hey, what do I know?).

Some parts are fairly technical (on Hamiltonians or Fitzgerald-Lorentz length contractions, or pseudo-Riemannian manifolds, hyper-surfaces of constant mean extrinsic curvature, Riemann, Ricci and Weyl tensors, etc., for instance). Perhaps the book's most disappointing feature is how it ends: with a weak chapter on temporal modes of perception that is only marginally relevant to the rest of the book. There is no attempt to tie all the book's themes together in a conclusion, so that everything ends - ironically enough, given that it devotes quite a bit of discussion to Big Bang cosmology - not with a bang but with a whimper.

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Lockwood is one of my favorite philosophers, but this is not his best work. Mind Brain and the Quantum was real philosophy AND real science. Mostly this is a "guided tour of the universe" type of book that goes way too quickly over the philosophical issues and takes a "science says" approach. There are some places where Lockwood is critical of stuff like the block universe and Everett interpretation of QM, but there's far too little of that. Basically for him it is one big (predetermined?) multiverse in which however many ad hoc dimensions and devices will be added until the whole thing works out mathematically. But shouldn't philosophers question such things instead of being apologists for the physicists (who don't need it anyway)? Verdict: philosophy as science popularization, but well done nevertheless.

[Soulcatcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent introduction to the modern science. Highly recommended for everyone interested in cosmology, relativity, quantum mechanics, statistical physics and their philosophical implications with emphasis on time and mind.

[Kadri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goes through philosophy, relativity theory, quantum mechanics and a lot of other theories and takes a look at the nature of time.