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The Order of Time
Unavailable
The Order of Time
Unavailable
The Order of Time
Audiobook4 hours

The Order of Time

Written by Carlo Rovelli

Narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

4.5/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

From the bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, a concise, elegant exploration of time.

Why do we remember the past and not the future? What does it mean for time to "flow"? Do we exist in time or does time exist in us? In lyric, accessible prose, Carlo Rovelli invites us to consider questions about the nature of time that continue to puzzle physicists and philosophers alike.

For most readers this is unfamiliar terrain. We all experience time, but the more scientists learn about it, the more mysterious it remains. We think of it as uniform and universal, moving steadily from past to future, measured by clocks. Rovelli tears down these assumptions one by one, revealing a strange universe where at the most fundamental level time disappears. He explains how the theory of quantum gravity attempts to understand and give meaning to the resulting extreme landscape of this timeless world. Weaving together ideas from philosophy, science and literature, he suggests that our perception of the flow of time depends on our perspective, better understood starting from the structure of our brain and emotions than from the physical universe.

Already a bestseller in Italy, and written with the poetic vitality that made Seven Brief Lessons on Physics so appealing, The Order of Time offers a profoundly intelligent, culturally rich, novel appreciation of the mysteries of time.

Editor's Note

Mind-blowing…

Learn the scientific explanations of time that will totally destroy everything you know about the concept. A mind-blowing read that ensures you’ll never think of minutes or seconds the same way again.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateMay 8, 2018
ISBN9780525626084
Unavailable
The Order of Time
Author

Carlo Rovelli

Carlo Rovelli (Verona, 1956) es físico teórico, y uno de los fundadores de la llamada «gravedad cuántica de bucles». Es miembro del Instituto Universitario de Francia y de la Academia Internacional de Filosofía de la Ciencia. Responsable del equipo de gravedad cuántica del Centro de Física Teórica de la Universidad de Aix-Marsella, es autor de numerosos trabajos científicos aparecidos en las revistas más importantes de su ámbito y de dos monografías sobre la gravedad cuántica de bucles, así como de múltiples libros de divulgación, publicados en varios países. En Anagrama se han editado Siete breves lecciones de física y El orden del tiempo. Colabora con frecuencia en la prensa italiana, especialmente en Il Sole 24 Ore y La Repubblica.

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Reviews for The Order of Time

Rating: 4.313305193133047 out of 5 stars
4.5/5

233 ratings20 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a book about time--about the nature of time, the ways that we misunderstand it, and what research is revealing about it.

    The real nature of time is very different from what we experience in everyday life, in part because what we experience is to a significant degree our own creation. Events, Carlo Rovelli says, don't form an orderly queue like the English; they form a disorderly crowd, like the Italians. (Not an exact quote, because I was listening to the audiobook while driving, but pretty close.)

    This is challenging material, but Rovelli and his translators do an excellent job laying it out for the layperson. I had to dig to find the names of the translators, Erica Segre and Simon Carnell, but they did an excellent job and deserve to be acknowledged. I suspect no one will be surprised to learn that it was a pleasure to listen to Benedict reading it.

    Highly recommended.

    I bought this audiobook.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Time seems like a simple idea but when you really look at it and try to explain what it is things get really interesting. And difficult. Some of the topics got tough to follow but the overall points were interesting to read. A good choice for Science fans.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    One of the best books in the world! What is better than learning about our existence 10/10
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Lovely and profound and complicated, yet elemental in its simplicity of intent. The narration is poetic and carries the listener effortlessly from concept to concept.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A very accessible teaching of complex subjects as well as a beautiful written poem on life.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    An eloquent blend of physics and poetry which attempts to grasp at the nature of one of the most impactful concepts of the human experience, the most beautiful book I’ve ever read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I admit that I didn't understand everything, but I understood enough to appreciate what a beautiful work of art this book is, on many different levels. I will need to listen to it again, or read it on print, to really assimilate all the ideas it presents. It certainly has inspired me to think again about what I thought I knew about this universe. Aside from the scientific content, the poetic context in which it is presented, using a wealth of metaphor to convey the meaning, is wonderful to hear and behold. The author is definitely a Renaissance man, with an outlook on and understanding of life far beyond what you might think a narrowly-focused 'scientist' would have. This book certainly dispels that caricature.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Incredibly well written and read amazingly by Benedict Cumberbatch. I'm going to buy a hard copy for my library.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    An elegant plain language explanation of relativity and quantum theory, A bit of speculative South Asian metaphysics is thrown in, but fails to explain anything.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book by Carlo Rovelli is excellent and prompts you to think deeply about the concept of time.It's an eminently readable book, and Carlo Rovelli's style is fluid and poetic. I enjoyed the book tremendously. The last chapter, which is more philosophical than the others, is magnificent. It is a perfect way to end the book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    An elegant and surprisingly readable discussion of the nature of time and whether it actually exists aside from the basics of human nature and the stubborn brain’s constant production of memory and anticipation.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Before reading this book, I had a naive and simplistic view of time, but this book made me realize both how wrong I was and how complex the whole issue of time really is. I read it fascinated by the insights about the true meaning of “time,” the puzzlement felt by physicists as they seek a deeper understanding of it and the coveralls complexity of understanding time and breaking it down to its components parts. It’s smallest possible level.
    The concepts covered in the book are complex, technically detailed and require a lot of either background understanding or details explanation. The author offers the needed explanations in ways even ignorant people like me can understand.
    This is not and easy read in terms of its content-the concepts are complex-nut the author has made it seem easy to read through his careful, direct style.
    I know a lot more now than I did before reading it and I feel good about what I have learned.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Beautiful writing g for a complex subject. I liked delving into the science of time. And while his musings at the end were beautifully done I thought them narrowly scientific positivism. But aren’t we all left to pursue our own narrow road when it comes to time and mortality? I for one look at his treatment of time and see and grand and mysterious backdrop that leaves me in humility before a creator. How else to come up with our own sphere of time and space where time operates for us just so? None the less, I loved this book and think it illustrates the beauty of our reality.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    More science, less philosophy please. Rovelli is a gifted writer and insightful scientist with illucidating descriptions. In this work, he fully embraces what was previously a minor inclination to read current scientific knowledge into ancient (and post-modern) philosophy.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Time is in Reality's Blurring: "The Order of Time" by Carlo Rovelli"Among the strange phenomena was the sense of time stopping. Things were happening in my mind but the clock was not going ahead; the flow of time was not passing any more."In “The Order of Time” by Carlo RovelliAnd it's here that Rovelli reveals a fundamental flaw in his thinking. On the one hand he argues that scientists have proven that time is discontinuous, and not what it may seem to the naked eye. On the other he sees his own drugged-out experiences (or worse: his memory of his subjective drugged-out experiences) as having an objectivity that doesn't require any questioning. He is convinced that his memory of his LSD inspired experience of time stopping is what actually happened. I would suggest (rather strongly) that perhaps it is not. Apart from his New Age druggy musings, which I'm sure are an entertaining read to folks who haven't really given much time to reading or thinking about time before, I find he has little new to offer. Emperor's new clothes again. Rovelli is an average thinker and certainly able to move between physics and philosophy with greater ease than for example Michuio Kaku’s crap (e.g. "The Future of Humanity".) Nevertheless, Smolin's take on time is much more interesting than Rovelli's.Readers interested in this sort of thing (I hope there are many of them) might also like “Great Ideas in Physics” by Alan Lightman. The ideas in question being brief introductions to the conservation of energy, the second law of thermodynamics, the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. The book is written from a 'liberal arts' perspective and has much to say about the philosophy of science, and a good deal to say about time, which is why I make the comparison. It does contain math, but only algebra - no calculus is required. The influence of the ideas on other areas of society is emphasized. Rovelli's best work has been done in collaboration with researchers such as Lee Smolin - specifically in the attempt to develop loop quantum gravity. Their work is explicitly opposed to that of string theory, & seeks to develop the possibility of experimental testing for the theory - which string theorists conspicuously do not.In some ways, Rovelli's writing is as influenced by Calvino as it is by Einstein or Feynman - this is not simply writing in the tradition of explicating or popularising scientific inquiry; but rather writing which seeks to open new spaces of possibility for thinking through the very endeavour of the writing itself. There does seem to be an appetite for knowledge out there, although the problem (so it seems to me at least) with physics for a wide audience is that ultimately there is only so much that you can do without resorting to maths. A good example would be any of the 'popular' books written on physics by Paul Nahin. They are quite excellent, but they require the readership to be mathematically literate at least as far as differential equations. For that matter, so does Feynman. This is no problem for me, but I wonder who else reads this sort of thing apart from serious students of the subject? Hawking famously said that his publisher told him that every equation included halved the sales figures, but insisted on including E =mc^2 anyway.It seems to me that the barrier of what can be done without maths (rather little) and what can be done with it (virtually everything) will remain insurmountable. A fact (if it is one) which gives me no pleasure at all to state.NB: What a difference when compared to “Reality is not What It Seems”.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It is a commonplace of accounts of physics, especially quantum physics, that the world is not exactly the way we think it is. After all, contrary to appearances, the earth actually circles the sun rather than vice versa. And gravity turns out not to be as simple as an apple falling from a tree. But in all the disorder brought to our view of the universe by physicists, at least time, one damn thing following another, has stayed fixed in place. Right? Wrong. Time, it turns out, is just as illusory as everything else, at least when seen without the myopic eye of “ordinary” experience. Seen clearly, time does not exist. And yet…Carlo Rovelli masterfully explodes our preconceptions about space and time before gently reconstructing the world anew. It’s a fascinating account drawn directly from the physics of the 20th and 21st century. Rovelli is no journalist hyping the confusing world of the quantum. He’s a well-respected quantum loop theorist who brings a healthy regard for clarity to his subject. You never feel patronized when reading Rovelli. On the other hand, like me, you may feel a bit inadequate. So I’m glad there are people out there like Rovelli who do seem to understand both the equations and their implications.Rovelli writes with patience but not condescension. He is at his best when discussing the subject in which he specializes — quantum physics. And his references to analytic philosophers (in the endnotes) all seem entirely apt. I marvel at his breadth. When he strays outside this core his writing becomes more florid and the philosophers he cites switch from analytic to continental, possibly tellingly. But he doesn’t linger in the long grass.Very likely you’ll want to read this book more than once. I’m sure I would get much more out of it on a second reading.Highly recommended.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is a rather small book, but don't let that fool you - this book covers some pretty deep concepts. In fact I'd go so far as to say this probably shouldn't be your first book on the topic - I'd recommend Stephen Hawking's A Brief History Of Time for that.A rather odd writing style - a combination of the scientific, and flowery poetic prose.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I think it is a compelling introduction to the topic but was expecting a little more depth.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Carlo Rovelli is an Italian theoretical physicist who has written several books trying to explain very abstruse constructs, and has been fairly successful at it.In this book, he tries to make sense of the meaning of time. He observes that all of the laws of physics, save one, are expressed in a way that the “arrow” of time could go either forward or backward. The exception is by the second law of thermodynamics. This law rigorously defines the concept of entropy as a thermodynamic quantity often interpreted as the degree of disorder or randomness in the system.  The second law says that disorder never decreases. Rather, it always increases or remains constant, and any process described by it is irreversible. (For example, cold water cannot become hot, unless you add energy to it. Similarly, a broken plate is not apt to put itself together again, unless you apply glue.) As usable energy is irretrievably lost, disorganization, randomness, and chaos increase. Thus, there is an asymmetry between future and past. Rovelli’s reliance on the second law to account for the direction of time has a distinguished pedigree, starting with Arthur Eddington. However, Richard A. Muller, a professor of physics at The University of California, Berkeley, has a more interesting theory. To Muller, entropy is the result, not the cause, of the flow of time. Muller argues persuasively that time, being the fourth dimension, is expanding from the big bang just as the other three dimensions (of space) are expanding. What we experience as now is just the leading edge of that expansion.And yet, as complicated as that may sound, it is still not even that “simple” at all. Modern physics has changed our notions of time from “absolute” to “relative.” For example, Einstein’s special theory of relativity showed that time is affected by relative velocity, and his general theory showed time was affected by gravity. Time passes more quickly in an airplane than on the ground.Quantum mechanics has complicated this already complex concept. Time is not only relative (to velocity and mass), it is granular. On a micro level, time “passes” in discrete jumps. It is not smooth. And it is “blurry”—it is subject to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, just as are location and momentum. Therefore, what we call “time” is just a function of change, which is a function of entropy, sending us always into decline and disorder in a discrete series of “events.” But it’s possible even that understanding is just an artifact of where we are in the universe and the mental tools we have to understand it. Maybe it’s like the famous scene in The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in which the narrator explains that, as a young boy, he once drew a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant in its stomach. To his surprise, every adult who saw the picture mistakenly interpreted it as a drawing of a hat. It all depended on one’s perspective. Even grammar plays a role: we speak of the “past” and the “future” and “now” as if they were all real, and those words color our perceptions. Thus, the riddle of time may ultimately be beyond our “blurred,” Earth-bound comprehension, says Rovelli. But he has given us enough tools to think about it for all the remaining time we have, before entropy ends the discussion once and for all.This excellent short book is highly recommended.(JAB)

    2 people found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I am a sucker for a good narrator and I just spent a little over four hours listening to Benedict Cumberbatch talk about physics. Nerd-girl me is practically purring.

    1 person found this helpful