The Infinite Tree & The Rivers of Time: Time, Experience, & The Foundations of Reality

by Marc Garner

Overview

Somewhere near the heart of existence, shimmers the ethereal beauty of the mystery of Time. Though seemingly familiar to us all, time harbours secrets that penetrate the very deepest levels of reality, and though we feel certain in our conviction that we're swept forth upon the crest of its never-ending flow, with Einstein's discovery of relativity came what is perhaps the most stunning realisation in the entire history of scientific thought - the wondrously breathtaking revelation that in reality, there's actually no such thing as the passage of time... 

How can this extraordinary truth be reconciled with the reality we so surely suppose to experience? What does it mean for the very human concerns of life and death, free will, identity, and self? What should it mean for our philosophy? And how should it inform our world view? 

Buried deep within the riddle of time, lies the staggering beauty of the world. As we peel back the layers to try and sneak a glimpse into eternity, we find a light shining not only upon the nature of reality, but on the nature of ourselves...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781919629438
Publisher:	Shadowlands Media
Publication date:	06/28/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	316
File size:	75 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Marc Garner is a writer and critical thinker with a life-long fascination with the nature of time, and a strongly-held conviction that our greatest stories are those which are true. "Why turn to fiction when the truth is so much more mesmerising than anything we could possibly hope to make up?".

Table of Contents

Preface .......................................................................................... xi

Acknowledgements ........................................................................ xiv

Part I - The Everywhen

The Relativity of Time ........................................................ 6

Spacetime & the Simultaneity of Events ............................... 19

The Eternals ................................................................... 33

The Identity of a Moment ................................................... 42

Free Will & The Sway of the Future ..................................... 49

The Arrow of Time & The Problem of Flow .......................... 60

Part II - The Quantum

The Strangeness of Light & The Nature of Matter ................... 74

Superposition .................................................................. 89

Entanglement ............................................................... 103

The Infinite Tree ............................................................. 115

Exploiting Plurality ........................................................ 138

Parallel Timelines, Choice & Reckoning .............................. 147

Part III - Quantum Spacetime

Falling .......................................................................... 163

Quantum Timelessness & The Previous Forever ................... 180

On the Origins of Space ................................................... 191

Timelike Entanglements .................................................. 210

Part IV - The Rivers of Time

The Becoming ................................................................ 225

Part V - The Magnificence

The Totality of Being ....................................................... 250

Reflections .................................................................... 260

Glossary of Terms ........................................................................ 270

Works Cited ................................................................................ 283

Bibliography................................................................................. 286

Editorial Reviews

08/30/2021

“There is … no such thing as the flow of time,” Garner writes in a preface to this searching contemplation of our relationship to time in the wake of Einstein’s theory of relativity, which demonstrated that the linear experience of time—which Garner describes as “beating heart of existence”— that humanity perceives is far from the reality. Time is instead a matter of perspective, as Garner demonstrates through clear and inviting summations of the science, from time dilation to space-time to the brain-bending discoveries of quantum mechanics and, at last, to the question of how it all came to be.

“Somewhere in Spacetime, I am ‘right now’ living out the moment of my first kiss,” he notes. That playful spirit freshens Garner’s tour of science’s current understanding of existence. A lively guide suitable for an engaged lay reader but more resonant and philosophical than most science texts, The Infinite Tree & The Rivers of Time is duty bound, of course, to bring readers up to speed on conundrums like, as Garner wryly puts it, “things that had been thought of as fundamentally ‘wavey’ behaving like particles, and things that had been considered fundamentally solid behaving like waves.” The material can be heady, but helpful illustrations abound, easing readers through the explanations of superposition and the holographic principle.

But it’s in his consideration of the possibilities, though, that Garner’s work stands apart. His discussion of parallel worlds and timelines, for example, bloom into explorations of free will and ethics. Likewise, an exploration of the complexities of entanglement builds to a rousing proclamation of our humanity, even in an existence where multiple versions of each of us might co-exist: What links these “sequential states” of an individual named Bob together, Garner argues, is “the experience of being Bob.” Put another way, each of us is “the product of the differentials between the states of those things. We are the product of change. We are change.”

Takeaway: A head-spinning dive into relativity, quantum entanglement, the illusion of time, and how our humanity connects to it all.

Great for fans of:Carlo Rovelli’s The Order of Time, Rainer Dick’s Special and General Relativity.

Production grades Cover: B+ Design and typography: A Illustrations: A Editing: A- Marketing copy: A

BookLife Reviews

"More resonant and philosophical than most science texts... a rousing proclamation of our humanity"

(Publishers Weekly)

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