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elizabethbest's review against another edition
5.0
I won this book in a goodreads giveaway competition (advance reading copy). I really enjoyed reading this book; it has been very thought-provoking. The various theories are laid out clearly and objectively and it found them all very interesting. They have all been researched thoroughly, and widely. It certainly made me question 'time'. I would recommend this to anyone who likes reading to learn.
lbrex's review against another edition
5.0
Dean Buonomano is a neurobiology professor at UCLA and he's published an interesting exploration of physics, neuroscience, and the overlap between the two. I found this very readable and interesting, mostly for its insights into the brain, though Buonomano is also good at boiling down complex physics concepts to make them understandable. For the most part, the book is about how humans are able to experience "mental time travel," i.e. the ability to remember a specific experience in the past and provide it with a timestamp of sorts, and, similarly, to anticipate what we might be doing in the future. I'm not sure that the term "mental time travel" is the best term for what he's discussing, but the book is insightful nonetheless. Ultimately, the book argues convincingly for how consciousness and our conscious sense of the present are largely coherent fictions engineered by the unconscious brain, though they are often approximate and delayed in their renderings of the outside world. If you're a fan of physics or neuroscience, I think you'll find this an interesting read.
ctort's review against another edition
4.0
Great overview of how the fields of physics and neuroscience approach the study of time: how they overlap and where they butt heads. Historical context, thought experiments, and countless research studies form the framework for how our concept of time has evolved across fields of study. Circadian and biological rhythms inform our mental alarm clocks, but we also employ various levels of more precise neuro-timers to properly parse speech, music and memories. Sundials, crystal quartz watches and atomic clocks capture the external, more objective passage of time, though Einstein's theories of relativity counter any hope of leaning on time as an unqualified absolute.
One dichotomy I found super interesting is the battle of presentism vs eternalism. The former holds that the present, the NOW, is the only moment grounded in reality, while the past and future are inaccessible and only exist in our memories or mental projections, respectively. This is the theory supported by our conscious experience - we feel that each passing moment, each NOW, is somehow qualitatively different than any moment in time not currently being experienced. Eternalism on the other hand, posits that time is the fourth dimension and reality can be presented as a 4D variation of a cube --like a block of cheese where the present moment is merely a slice. This is the view supported by modern physics, because time is relative to the observer and there is no evidence to suggest (beyond our intuition) that the present moment is any more real than any other moment in time. The world of scifi rejoices.
One dichotomy I found super interesting is the battle of presentism vs eternalism. The former holds that the present, the NOW, is the only moment grounded in reality, while the past and future are inaccessible and only exist in our memories or mental projections, respectively. This is the theory supported by our conscious experience - we feel that each passing moment, each NOW, is somehow qualitatively different than any moment in time not currently being experienced. Eternalism on the other hand, posits that time is the fourth dimension and reality can be presented as a 4D variation of a cube --like a block of cheese where the present moment is merely a slice. This is the view supported by modern physics, because time is relative to the observer and there is no evidence to suggest (beyond our intuition) that the present moment is any more real than any other moment in time. The world of scifi rejoices.
gw7's review against another edition
informative
mysterious
slow-paced
4.0
From the title I thought that this book was going to be written more in the style of Katie Mack's 'Then End of Everything', high level with a cool 'plot line' that engages the lay reader in this idea that 'your brain is a time machine!' The main thing stopping this from being that is that it is much much further away from a 'popular' science book. Of course this can be seen in the high brow points being made and the complex science being discussed, but I personally felt it more in the style of the rhetoric- the author presented an idea, described it, often gave the reader experiments (either mental or physical) that they could do to prove it for themselves, and then... went on to refute seemingly every argument or proposition made against this theory ever. Which, of course, is necessary in science and scientific papers and presentations but... is it necessary in a popular science book? I don't think so. Written into a popular science book and it makes it feel like the conversational monologue-ing of the member of the family on the opposite of the political spectrum than you that you see once a year at Christmas.
That being said, the points were good, and valid, and I learned things. But I also found that a lot of the thoughts I had while reading this book were revelations and new ideas about other topics and ideas- that is to say realisations from my subconscious (while my conscious was supposedly focusing on this book). Ideas that I probably wouldn't have had without the book, but nevertheless, I did find it hard to concentrate on (because of that and the fact that I had to stop every two second to understand some scientific principle.
Overall it felt like the author started with an idea that begs a plotted exploration (your brain is a time machine), explored every scientific question in relation to said idea (that, while they weren't, seemed at times tangential) and then tacked on the conclusion to the first idea as if it were the satisfying conclusion to the initial proposed story line... even though the middle (everything barring the title and the last few pages) were written like detached factual experiences that had no story about them relating to the overall 'plot' that we were seemingly promised.
None of which is to say it was good or bad because of those factors, just may not be something you're interested in.
That being said, the points were good, and valid, and I learned things. But I also found that a lot of the thoughts I had while reading this book were revelations and new ideas about other topics and ideas- that is to say realisations from my subconscious (while my conscious was supposedly focusing on this book). Ideas that I probably wouldn't have had without the book, but nevertheless, I did find it hard to concentrate on (because of that and the fact that I had to stop every two second to understand some scientific principle.
Overall it felt like the author started with an idea that begs a plotted exploration (your brain is a time machine), explored every scientific question in relation to said idea (that, while they weren't, seemed at times tangential) and then tacked on the conclusion to the first idea as if it were the satisfying conclusion to the initial proposed story line... even though the middle (everything barring the title and the last few pages) were written like detached factual experiences that had no story about them relating to the overall 'plot' that we were seemingly promised.
None of which is to say it was good or bad because of those factors, just may not be something you're interested in.
leonardalovric's review against another edition
I was interested in the theme, but I got bored eventually... Planning to revisit this book, I feel like it deserves a second chance.
cameliarose's review against another edition
4.0
Your Brain is a Time Machine: The Neuroscience and Physics of Time is an eye-opening book. It is a combination of neuroscience and physics on the topic of time, completed with charts and diagrams. Some parts may appear very academic, but the writing is clear and precise without too many jargons.
Your brain is a time machine because, as the author explains, it does the following: 1. remembers the past in order to predict the future; 2. tells time; 3. creates the sense of time; 4. allows us to mentally travel back and forth in time.
The brain has several inner clocks, each works on different time scale and solves a different problem that requires time. The brain's circadian clock tells time like an hourglass instead of a pendulum clock. Time compression and dilation - why you feel things moving in slow motion when you are hit by a car, why time passes faster when you are engaged in an absorbing task and slower when you are bored, and why drugs (such as marijuana) can distort your sense of time. It is not surprising how inaccurate and unreliable our judgments of elapsed time are. How the brain works as a time machine is closely related to how memory works. Patients with damaged hippocampus who can not form new long term memory may also fail to imagine a future event.
Two views of the nature of time: presentism and eternalism. Neuroscience is presentism by default. The second half of the book explores why modern physicists generally favor eternalism. The author has an excellent explanation of why "now" is a perspective to time like "here" is to space, easy to understand to a layman like me.
"Among the many things the brain certainly did not evolve to understand was the brain itself. Another is the nature of time."
The second last chapter discusses deeper questions of the brain and time. Our brain evolved to tell time, to run future scenarios in our brain. This ability sets homo sapiens apart from fellow animals. The idea of after-life was probably invented to deal with our own eventual death. However, the evolution baggage also makes us naturally favor short-term gratification over long-term gains. This temporal myopia is hard to overcome. No surprise why people find it so hard to accept responsibility for climate change, not to mention making an effort to stop it.
"Mental time travel is both a gift and a curse." It turns out "live in the present" is hard, and, on the other hand, is to live in the present the same thing as to abandon the ability to vision the future?
The last chapter, Consciousness: Blinding the Past and the Future, discusses the nature of consciousness, free will and life itself.
Your brain is a time machine because, as the author explains, it does the following: 1. remembers the past in order to predict the future; 2. tells time; 3. creates the sense of time; 4. allows us to mentally travel back and forth in time.
The brain has several inner clocks, each works on different time scale and solves a different problem that requires time. The brain's circadian clock tells time like an hourglass instead of a pendulum clock. Time compression and dilation - why you feel things moving in slow motion when you are hit by a car, why time passes faster when you are engaged in an absorbing task and slower when you are bored, and why drugs (such as marijuana) can distort your sense of time. It is not surprising how inaccurate and unreliable our judgments of elapsed time are. How the brain works as a time machine is closely related to how memory works. Patients with damaged hippocampus who can not form new long term memory may also fail to imagine a future event.
Two views of the nature of time: presentism and eternalism. Neuroscience is presentism by default. The second half of the book explores why modern physicists generally favor eternalism. The author has an excellent explanation of why "now" is a perspective to time like "here" is to space, easy to understand to a layman like me.
"Among the many things the brain certainly did not evolve to understand was the brain itself. Another is the nature of time."
The second last chapter discusses deeper questions of the brain and time. Our brain evolved to tell time, to run future scenarios in our brain. This ability sets homo sapiens apart from fellow animals. The idea of after-life was probably invented to deal with our own eventual death. However, the evolution baggage also makes us naturally favor short-term gratification over long-term gains. This temporal myopia is hard to overcome. No surprise why people find it so hard to accept responsibility for climate change, not to mention making an effort to stop it.
"Mental time travel is both a gift and a curse." It turns out "live in the present" is hard, and, on the other hand, is to live in the present the same thing as to abandon the ability to vision the future?
The last chapter, Consciousness: Blinding the Past and the Future, discusses the nature of consciousness, free will and life itself.
runawaykid's review against another edition
4.0
There are three kinds of time: subjective-time (how we experience time), clock-time (how we measure time) and natural time (time as a component of reality). The author helpfully distinguishes these three in his exposition of time, starting first with an account of subjective time before moving on to time as a part of our physical world. I thought the exposition on the special theory of relativity was
particularly good - can't say I understand it fully yet, but I've glimpsed a little more from this book!
particularly good - can't say I understand it fully yet, but I've glimpsed a little more from this book!