THE JANUS POINT: A New Theory of Time, difficult, worthwhile read for #Booksgiving

THE JANUS POINT: A New Theory of Time
JULIAN BARBOUR
Basic Books
$32.00 hardcover, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: In a universe filled by chaos and disorder, one physicist makes the radical argument that the growth of order drives the passage of time — and shapes the destiny of the universe.

Time is among the universe's greatest mysteries. Why, when most laws of physics allow for it to flow forward and backward, does it only go forward? Physicists have long appealed to the second law of thermodynamics, held to predict the increase of disorder in the universe, to explain this.

In The Janus Point, physicist Julian Barbour argues that the second law has been misapplied and that the growth of order determines how we experience time. In his view, the big bang becomes the "Janus point," a moment of minimal order from which time could flow, and order increase, in two directions. The Janus Point has remarkable implications: while most physicists predict that the universe will become mired in disorder, Barbour sees the possibility that order — the stuff of life — can grow without bound.

A major new work of physics, The Janus Point will transform our understanding of the nature of existence.

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My Review: On the Solstice, I think a lot about time. Why time's arrow only points in one direction, for example. I am always bothered by the implication inherent in the laws of physics that we presently understand that this is an observational artifact, not part of the structure of physics.

While I sit and ponder the strange dichotomies between what we observe and what theory tells us is possible, Author Barbour sets himself the task of learning the why, and questioning the how, of all the factors in physics that determine this issue's boundaries. That is an immense task.

It is also one well beyond most people's educational, vocational, and experiential capacities. The author isn't writing an academic paper in this book. He is, however, presupposing a lot of knowledge on the reader's part...if you don't know what a Boltzmann brain is, for example, this book will be lost on you...and even for those with the requisite grounding in at least the people who created the outlines of the Standard Model of particle physics, the need for frequent research breaks, aka "fallings down the many rabbit holes", is ever-present.

Very much not a Wikipedia-level treatment of an immensely important topic being argued, studied, researched, and pondered by some of the best-furnished minds in the field of physics today; yet it does not repel boarders with its case-shot loaded cannons of erudition. Author Barbour is quippy and quotable. The problem is quoting him won't help. This is someone with a very broad grasp of physics, history, cultural anthropology, etc. He lays out arguments that I suspect I only dimly grasp for his new model of endlessly repeatable order, ie creation of matter instead of its inevitable and complete decay, grounded in all the currents of thought there are.

Not, as you'd expect, a mere bagatelle to be consumed of an evening. Took me two years to read it, and I regret not a page or a minute of it. I was rewarded with a greatly expanded idea of what the science of physics is reaching for in its quest for a unified theory.

At this #Booksgiving moment, self-gifting this immensely challenging and deeply absorbing book is a great way to invest in your brain's expansion in entirely new ways and directions. It will be a Project. It is also well worth your eyeblinks.

THE IDEA OF THE BRAIN: The Past and Future of Neuroscience, very readable treatment of the State of the Art in neuroscience

THE IDEA OF THE BRAIN: The Past and Future of Neuroscience
MATTHEW COBB
Basic Books
$32.00 hardcover, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: A powerful examination of what we think we know about the brain and why—despite technological advances—the workings of our most essential organ remain a mystery.

For thousands of years, thinkers and scientists have tried to understand what the brain does. Yet, despite the astonishing discoveries of science, we still have only the vaguest idea of how the brain works.

In The Idea of the Brain, scientist and historian Matthew Cobb traces how our conception of the brain has evolved over the centuries. Although it might seem to be a story of ever-increasing knowledge of biology, Cobb shows how our ideas about the brain have been shaped by each era's most significant technologies. Today we might think the brain is like a supercomputer. In the past, it has been compared to a telegraph, a telephone exchange, or some kind of hydraulic system. What will we think the brain is like tomorrow, when new technology arises? The result is an essential read for anyone interested in the complex processes that drive science and the forces that have shaped our marvelous brains.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: The brain...the thing that is translating these geometric shapes on a screen into words, ideas, thoughts...is weirdly pulled apart and put together again in our age of tecnological marvels, yet lacking a paradigmatic metaphor. The many paradigms that we've fitted around our brains since we figured out the ancient system of thinking that had the heart at the center of intellect worked fine...until they broke trying to explain new data on brain function.

Well, you might think, so what? They're metaphors, not facts.

That's true as far as it goes. The role of a paradigmatic metaphor, like the best we have today of a supercomputer, isn't just to provide useful handles to grasp the still-elusive overarching explanation of what, how, and why the brain is and does. Thomas Kuhn, philosopher of science, said (in essence) that paradigms work until they don't and until new paradigms emerge, progress stalls.

That is where we stand now, atop a mountain of recently acquired data that blows up the supercomputer metaphor, but without another paradigmatic metaphor to shift to. We need, in short, another great leap forward like Darwin's theory of evolution was for millennia of accumulated biological data, to help us see how this immense pile of information can be turned into a fuller and more useful understanding of the brain and its processes.

While this is not the most fluffy and amusing read of 2023, it was deeply informative and very much an eye-opener. I had thought the neurologists were much farther behind the other sciences than they, in fact, are...much has been learned with the existence of fMRI machines and the technological like. The downside of these sorts of advances come when the private sector steps in to monetize the discoveries. They have no interest in helping people with the tech advances unless there's profit in it. The story of a severely epileptic woman whose life was completely changed by a brain implant being developed by a start-up, which then went bust, and the device (patent-protected) was permanently turned off, was particularly illustrative of the issue's costs.

Readable, informative, trenchant. Not easy to digest, but repays the effort put in with a very expanded view of whre science has come after its explosive beginnigs. Made me eager to see what comes next.

If, that is, I live that long...look how long it was between Linnaeus inventing the idea of species and Darwin explaining how they came to be in the first place.