Time Machine Tales
The Science Fiction Adventures and Philosophical Puzzles of Time Travel
1st Edition
Published on 30. December 2016
Book
Paperback/Softback
XLIX, 383 pages
978-3-319-48862-2 (ISBN)
Description
This book contains a broad overview of time travel in science fiction, along with a detailed examination of the philosophical implications of time travel. The emphasis of this book is now on the philosophical and on science fiction, rather than on physics, as in the author's earlier books on the subject. In that spirit there are, for example, no Tech Notes filled with algebra, integrals, and differential equations, as there are in the first and second editions of TIME MACHINES. Writing about time travel is, today, a respectable business. It hasn't always been so. After all, time travel, prima facie, appears to violate a fundamental law of nature; every effect has a cause, with the cause occurring before the effect. Time travel to the past, however, seems to allow, indeed to demand, backwards causation, with an effect (the time traveler emerging into the past as he exits from his time machine) occurring before its cause (the time traveler pushing the start button on his machine's control panel to start his trip backward through time). Time Machine Tales includes new discussions of the advances by physicists and philosophers that have appeared since the publication of TIME MACHINES in 1999, examples of which are the chapters on time travel paradoxes. Those chapters have been brought up-to-date with the latest philosophical thinking on the paradoxes.
Reviews / Votes
"This work is an indispensable study for scholars and fans of time-travel sf, and readers will gain a deeper insight into both the literary history of time travel and the science involved. Literature teachers will also find a plethora of ideas for texts to teach and very insightful discussion and writing prompts at the end of each chapter. Without a doubt, Time Travel Tales is a necessary read in the field of time-travel studies." (James Hamby, Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 45, 2018)More details
Product info
Paperback
Series
Edition
1st ed. 2017
Language
English
Place of publication
Cham
Switzerland
Publishing group
Springer International Publishing
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
50
3 farbige Abbildungen, 10 farbige Tabellen, 50 s/w Abbildungen
XLIX, 383 p. 53 illus., 3 illus. in color.
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 24 mm
Weight
657 gr
ISBN-13
978-3-319-48862-2 (9783319488622)
DOI
10.1007/978-3-319-48864-6
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Paul J. Nahin
Time Machine Tales
The Science Fiction Adventures and Philosophical Puzzles of Time Travel
E-Book
12/2016
Springer
€35.30
Available for download
Person
Paul Nahin was born in California, and did all of his schooling there (Brea-Olinda High 1958, Stanford BS 1962, Caltech MS 1963 and - as a Howard Hughes Staff Doctoral Fellow - UC/Irvine PhD 1972, with all degrees in electrical engineering). He has taught at Harvey Mudd College, the Naval Postgraduate School and the Universities of New Hampshire (where he is now emeritus professor of electrical engineering) and Virginia.
Prof. Nahin has published a couple of dozen short science fiction stories in ANALOG, OMNI, and TWILIGHT ZONE magazines, and has written 14 books on mathematics and physics. He has given invited talks on mathematics at Bowdoin College, the Claremont Graduate School, the University of Tennessee and Caltech, has appeared on National Public Radio's "Science Friday" show (discussing time travel) as well as on New Hampshire Public Radio's "The Front Porch" show (discussing imaginary numbers) and advised Boston's WGBH Public Television's "Nova" program on the script for their time travel episode. He gave the invited Sampson Lectures for 2011 in Mathematics at Bates College (Lewiston, Maine).
Prof. Nahin has published a couple of dozen short science fiction stories in ANALOG, OMNI, and TWILIGHT ZONE magazines, and has written 14 books on mathematics and physics. He has given invited talks on mathematics at Bowdoin College, the Claremont Graduate School, the University of Tennessee and Caltech, has appeared on National Public Radio's "Science Friday" show (discussing time travel) as well as on New Hampshire Public Radio's "The Front Porch" show (discussing imaginary numbers) and advised Boston's WGBH Public Television's "Nova" program on the script for their time travel episode. He gave the invited Sampson Lectures for 2011 in Mathematics at Bates College (Lewiston, Maine).
Content
Some First Words.- Introduction.- A Broad Look At Time Travel.- Philosophical Space and Time.- The Physics of Time Travel -Part I.-Philosophers, Physicists, and the Time Travel Paradoxes.- Communication With the Past.- The Physics of Time Travel -Part II.- Epilogue.- Appendix 1.- Appendix 2.- Appendix 3.- Glossary.- Index.