Time Reborn: From the Crisis of Physics to the Future of the Universe [Kindle Edition]

I have read all of Lee Smolin's previous books. They are beautifully written and feature ideas that are expounded with exceptional clarity, but they are always conceptually challenging and require a degree of thoughtful contemplation in order to be properly appreciated. Everything Smolin has written offers original (even daring) insight into the problems facing Physics as it develops through the 21st century. Particularly significant was the brilliant The Life of the Cosmos, in which he adapts Darwinian evolutionary theory as a means of explaining the birth and development of the physical universe. Smolin posits that black holes are the mechanism by which baby universes (including ours) are born into a vast cosmic tapestry that is slowly evolving over deep time. The radical suggestion that physical laws are themselves evolving over cosmic time is a fundamental tenet of any such evolutionary theory. This is not an idea unique to Smolin. Cosmologist Joao Magueijo has pioneered the theory that light speed varies over time, in order to deal with some of the flaws inherent in inflationary Big Bang cosmology.

In Smolin's new book Time Reborn, he tackles the profound implications of these ideas as well as the fundamental issue of time as a separate and real metric in any calculation that quantifies the nature of reality. Time is more than merely a perception and it is more than an afterthought when discussing the physical nature of the universe. It is as real as matter and energy and must be acknowledged as a fundamental variable in any physical theory with pretensions of explaining the fabric of our reality. The obvious significance of time as a variable is that all so-called fixed physical laws, as represented mathematically, are themselves subject to change as time changes. This is a revolutionary concept with incalculable impact upon our notions of the nature of the universe. Needless to say, this conception is controversial and will be difficult to justify scientifically. Observations of the universe do suggest, however, that constructions of physical laws - like the Ptolemaic model of the heavens, which was a fixture for 1300 years until painfully overthrown by Copernicus - are not necessarily the last word in explaining the way nature behaves.

Using a skillful combination of personal reminiscence and observation, detailed historical discussion and careful scientific explanation, Smolin makes a strong and even an impassioned case for Time's reality. The book is beautifully written and expertly argued. There are no equations, nothing overtly "scientific" to frighten away readers lacking a technical background. Smolin assumes a moderate level of intelligent common sense and a healthy degree of curiosity coupled with a passion for knowledge that has been the engine for all scientific discovery from Galileo until today. As befits Smolin's role as something of a scientific gadfly, he engages in well argued observations as to why current avenues of research have gone off track and the desperate need for new thinking if Physics is to regain its former glory. As always, Smolin is an intelligent and passionate critic in outlining his concerns as to why he thinks contemporary lines of scientific inquiry and explanation are misguided. Time Reborn is a personal book, written by a brilliant and philosophical scientist who has never lost his passion to know why the universe is as it is and what role intelligent, mortal and flawed observers can play in the cosmic drama.

Lee Smolin, a very bright if not brilliant physicist, upset about the explanatory limits of science, attempts in his latest book to offer a solution. As he sees it, since at least Newton the method employed by scientists uses mathematics to create "timeless" models of nature[the Newton Paradigm], which is fine for small, isolated systems, but the attempt by cosmologists to extend it to the Universe has failed, and Smolin believes the answer is in the reintroduction of Time [with a capital "T"].

For the author, this means that rather than the variable found in so many equations which actually just measures the interval between events, Time as an actual, ontological reality is needed, so that past, present and future once again have meaning, and the future is no longer just an extrapolation of essentially timeless laws acting on initial conditions. Instead it becomes something potentially novel and even unforeseeable to some degree. Not for Smolin the model of the universe created by Einstein's theories, which obliterates a direction for time and treats every moment as "now" because of the relativity of simultaneity. Using this as his premise Smolin then proceeds to apply it to everything from subatomic quantum mechanics to the entropy of the Universe, showing how it helps to clarify paradoxes and conundrums which have arisen using the Newton Paradigm by introducing the idea of the evolution of natural laws and the "freedom" of matter to formulate its own behavior. Fascinating ideas, but they have their problems.

Let me say that I liked this book and found it very interesting and informative. Smolin has the gift of presenting complex ideas in ways that are understandable, though I cannot see how anyone unfamiliar with physics would even begin reading this book. True there are no complicated math formulas, and the author suggests just skipping over those parts you don't understand, but I suspect for the average reader that would mean reading less than 20% of the material. Does reading that Time matters, things evolve and change, and you cannot really know the future based on the past really justify buying a book?

But for those interested and somewhat acquainted with physics I think this will be an interesting read. However, the conclusions are bound to be controversial since Smolin had basically attacked the entire scientific methodology in the name of saving the "ethics" of science as he calls it. One obvious problem is that Smolin's ideas could lead to Hume's extreme skepticism where nothing can be predicted based on past experience- the ultimate time-based novelty. The author attempts to answer this using a concept called precedence, but this looks dangerously like the kind of model he is criticizing. Or maybe I am just not bright enough to understand the difference.

Whether you will agree with him or not, I think this book has alot of value for what it will teach or explain to you, and for that reason I recommend it with one caveat. The final chapter, wherein Smolin attempts to extend his hypothesis to economics, climate science and even the study of consciousness is a waste of time[perhaps that is why it is the Epilogue] and I think the book would have been better without it. The next best thing is to simply not read it. The nineteen chapters on physics will give you more than enough to think about without having to consider the silliness of Smolin's prescription for an enlightened society which is one where if rational argument about public evidence decides something, than the matter is settled. Otherwise people should be free to come up with differing opinions. As his arguments in this book show, even the best "settled" arguments of science can be reevaluated and even overturned, as he is attempting to do. Luckily for him others do not adhere to his paradigm for deciding "truth". Smolin is a good physicist, but a poor epistemologist. He should stick to what he does best.

****1/2
"If we imagine that the task of physics is the discovery of a timeless mathematical object that is isomorphic to the history of the world, then we imagine that the truth to the universe lies outside the universe. ..., if we take the reality of time as evident, then there can be no mathematical object that is perfectly isomorphic to the world,..."--Lee Smolin
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The perception of the passage of time is a fundamental experience of being human, yet to many philosophers and mystical traditions, time is considered an illusion, throughout history. Any witty exploration of the riddle of time, examines the consequences of Einstein's theory of relativity and offers startling suggestions about what recent research may reveal. Ever since the great success of Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time," examining the physical and theoretical foundations of time intensified. The intelligent elucidation of Einstein's relativity theory and its temporal consequences could now reach a significant audience. The subject focuses on a number of basic issues, including whether or not time and space exist independently of the mind, whether they exist independently of one another, what accounts for time's apparently unidirectional flow, whether times other than the present moment exist, and questions on the nature of identity.

Most physicists, from Newton to Einstein perceive entities differently, and for contemporary quantum scientists, time is not real. In Time Reborn, Lee Smolin debates that such denial of time is holding back our understanding of physics, and the universe. A major Kuhnian revolution in scientific thought is needed, one that embraces the reality of time and pushes into the core of our thinking. As our conception of the universe crystallizes, Newton's laws may not remain as fundamental. Time, Lee Smolin argues, is not an illusion: it is our securest clue to the fundamental reality. What if the laws of physics were not eternal? Those implications are vast, reaching far beyond physics, further to economics, politics, and even our personal philosophy. Time Reborn provides a completely radical approach to reality of time, embraced by cosmology, opening up a whole diverse possibilities for our notion of time, shaping our realization of a new universe.

Answering the question, What scientific concept would improve our cognitive toolkit? Smolin replied, "Scientists are thinking in time when we conceive of our task as the invention of genuinely novel ideas to describe newly discovered phenomena, and novel mathematical structures to express them. If we think outside of time, we believe these ideas somehow "existed" before we invented them. If we think in time we see no reason to presume that." Smolin contrasts thinking in time with thinking outside of time, in many domains of human thought and action. His magnum opus, shines in his Epilogue. He states, we assume that possible approaches are already determined by a set of absolute pre-existing categories. We are thinking in time when we understand that progress in technology, society and science happens by the invention of genuinely novel ideas, strategies, and novel forms of social organization.