Time reborn
by Lee Smolin · first published 2013
73% recommend27% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Accessible lay-audience argument that time is real rather than emergent, using physics and the crisis in fundamental theory; suits readers curious about the nature of time who want a readable, provocative book.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
One of our foremost thinkers and public intellectuals offers a radical new view of the nature of time, and explores its implications for everything from physics and cosmology to economics and climate change.
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…Gödel, Escher, Bach - Hofstadter Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies - Hofstadter Atlas Shrugged - Rand The Fountainhead - Rand Nineteen Eighty-Four - Orwell The Trouble With Physics - Lee Smolin Time Reborn - Lee Smolin Ambient Findability - Peter Morville Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software - Steven Johnson Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age - Duncan Watts Linked:…
on “Ask HN: What are the most thought-provoking books that you have read?” ↗…change now, as time-independent physics might be a reason why our theories work very well in specific areas, but tend to break down in a more holistic approach. See the work of physicist Lee Smolin in Time Reborn (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Time-Reborn-Crisis-Physics-Universe...) on why time and information might be the most fundamental concepts. This does not mean though that we experience time in the same way…
on “What we get wrong about time” ↗…unpredictable, and the whole of the Universe is an N-body system, so if correct it would mean the end of determinism. For a good treatment of this topic for a lay audience see Lee Smolin's recent book "Time Reborn".
on “Chaotic gravitational systems and their irreversibility to the Planck length” ↗You may have come across it already but you might be interested in "Time Reborn" by Lee Smolin. His opinion is that mathematics is a fine tool but it has lead physics to the "block universe" perspective. A reversible universe that is driven by pure immutable laws. He claims that…
on “Alan Kay has agreed to do an AMA today” ↗The Four Steps To The Epiphany - Steve Blank Code by Charles Petzold Artificial Life - Steven Levy Time Reborn - Lee Smolin The Singularity is Near - Ray Kurzweil Surfaces and Essences - Douglas Hofstadter How to Measure Anything - Douglas Hubbard -- One of my favorites is How Not to Be Wrong by Jordan Ellenbreg…
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite books?” ↗Have you read Smolin's Time Reborn? I've just finished it, and while I don't agree with certain aspects of some of his ideas, I found it quite interesting and valuable.
on “A Debate Over the Physics of Time” ↗Lee Smolin, Time Reborn (although he is unaware of the work of Henri Bergson before him).
on “What If Time Really Exists? (2008)” ↗…Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage - Cliff Stoll Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution - Steven Levy Charles Proteus Steinmetz: The Electrical Wizard of Schenectady - Robert W. Bly Time Reborn: From the Crisis in Physics to the Future of the Universe - Lee Smolin The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next - Lee Smolin The Matrix and Philosophy:…
on “Ask HN: What book should I read next?” ↗…Sabine Hossenfelder[2] The First Three Minutes - Steven Weinberg[3] Hyperspace - Michio Kaku[4] Not Even Wrong - Peter Woit[5] The Trouble With Physics - Lee Smolin[6] About Time - Paul Davies[7] Time Reborn - Lee Smolin[8] The Elegant Universe - Brian Greene[9] The Hidden Reality - Brian Greene[10] The Fabric of the Cosmos - Brian Greene[11] Quantum Space: Loop Quantum Gravity and the Search for the…
on “Ask HN: Recommended Books on Physics?” ↗You might enjoy Time Reborn[1] by Lee Smolin or About Time[2] by Paul Davies. Note that the latter book is fairly old now (from 1996 or so) and I'm not sure how well it holds up now. [1]: https://www.amazon.com/Time-Reborn-Lee-Smolin/dp/0544245598…
on “John C. Mather: “There is no first moment of time” (2017)” ↗Lee Smolin wrote a good book defending the idea that time is not emergent: https://www.amazon.com/Time-Reborn-Crisis-Physics-Universe/d... He came up with a framework where time is real (assumed), and then the laws of physics evolve with time, and then goes on to develop an evolutionary theory of universes,…
on “New theory suggests time is an illusion created by quantum entanglement” ↗Yep! Honestly it was just a random rabbit hole - I recently read Lee Smolin's Time Reborn (highly recommend btw, super fascinating read) and was curious as to what his more recent work was about, which lead me to come across The Autodidactic Universe paper. With the AI hype train full steam…
on “Spacetime as a Neural Network” ↗…Lost in Math - Sabine Hossenfelder The First Three Minutes - Steven Weinberg Hyperspace - Michio Kaku Not Even Wrong - Peter Woit The Trouble With Physics - Lee Smolin About Time - Paul Davies Time Reborn - Lee Smolin The Elegant Universe - Brian Greene The Hidden Reality - Brian Greene The Fabric of the Cosmos - Brian Greene Quantum Space: Loop Quantum Gravity and the Search for the Structure of Space,…
on “Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?” ↗I read a book by Lee Smolin a while back where he argued that, basically, we don't really know what time is. Since then he's written another book titled Time Reborn which deals with the same issues. I'm about 1/3'rd of the way into it, and while I'm far from an expert on any of this, I think he makes some interesting points. At the very least, I'd say that I'm…
on “Computer Program for Simulating Time Travel and a Solution to Grandfather Paradox” ↗…and understanding abstraction" But the problem with mathematics is that it doesn't deal with time. This may (in a sapir-whorf fashion) be limiting our understanding of the universe (see Lee Smolin's Time Reborn). But even if the universe is actually timeless in many circumstances it still does not suit us to model it like that. We can have some timeless physical law expressed mathematically (say F=ma) and if…
on “Can Programming Be Liberated From The Von Neumann Style? (1977) [pdf]” ↗