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EDITORIAL INFORMATION

While it seems manifest in our experience that time flows -from the past to the present moment and into the future, there are a number of philosophical and physical objections to this commonsense view of dynamic time. In the quest to make sense of this conundrum philosophers and physicists confront fascinating and irresistible questions such as: Can effects precede causes? Can one travel in time? Can the expansion of the universe or the process of measurement in quantum mechanics provide a direction of time?

In this book eleven eminent scholars, standing at the boundary between physics and philosophy, attempt to answer these questions in an entertaining yet rigorous way. For example, William Unruth's chapter is one of the first non-technical essays by this important cosmologist and Huw Price discusses critically the exciting cosmological views of Hawking and Penrose. Philip Stamp and Anthony Leggett discuss macroscopic quantum phenomena, a subject which has not been discussed much outside the specialist literature. John Earman's paper on time travel is likely to become one of the landmarks in the literature. The book will be enjoyed by anyone of a speculative turn of mind fascinated by the puzzles of time.

(Extracted from cover jacket, by Steven F. Savitt.)

GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

-Introduction. Steven F. Savitt.

-Part I: Cosmology and Time's Arrow.

-Time, Gravity and Quantum Mechanics. William Unruth.
-Cosmology, Time's Arrow, and the Old Double Standard. Huw Price.

-Part 2: Quantum Theory and Time's Arrow.

-Time's Arrow and the Quantum Measurement Problem. Anthony Leggett.
-Time, Decoherence, and 'Reversible' Measurements. Philip Stamp.
-Time Flow, Non-Locality, and Measurement in Quantum Mechanics. Storrs McGCall.
-Stochastically Branching Spacetime Topology. Roy Douglas.

-Part 3: Thermodynamics and Time's Arrow.

-The Elusive Object of Desire: in Pursuit of the Kinetic Equations and the Second Law. Lawrence Sklar.
-Time in Experience and in Theoretical Description of the World. Lawrence Sklar.
-When and Why Does Entropy Increase? Martin Barret & Elliot Sober.

-Part 4: Time Travel and Time's Arrow.

-Closed Causal Chains. Paul Horwich.
-Recent Work on Time Travel. John Earman.

-References. Index.

OUR REVIEW

Undertitled Recent Physical and Philosophical Work on the Direction of Time, this book is a true update on the theme advertised in its cover. This collection of papers, compiled by Steven F. Savitt, is one of the most complete ones of those available nowadays. Among the eleven guest scientists, three are physicians (Leggett, Stamp y Unruh) and one is a mathematician (Douglas). The rest are science philosophers, which is a good indication of the general feel of the book.

Although not all of them, most of these papers were released for the first time at the 'Time's Arrows Today' Conference, a congress which took place in 1992 at the campus of the University of Bristish Columbia. The aim of these papers was to contribute as much as possible to the solving of the unknown factors still existing in the characterization of the direction of time, while at the same time providing some solutions and avoiding the increase in the degree of uncertainty and discussion which pervades this fascinating field of research.

So as to get into the matter, Savitt undertakes in his introduction a fortunate review on the most important issues, showing one by one the problems which will be dealt with in the following chapters. These, prepared by the guest scientists, will provide the true contribution of the book to the progress in the resolution of some of these unknowns.

The reader needs a certain mathematical and physical background knowledge so as to understand some of the chapters, yet in general this is a work aimed to non-expert minds. The direction of time, a cosmological theme really attractive for the reader, will find here one of the best platforms to be part of the discussions among teachers and students as weel as anyone interested in this topic at an advanced level. It will suffice with reading the chapter devoted to the theoretical construction of an imaginary "time machine" so as to arouse anyone's curiosity.