Product Description

The Nobel laureate and founder of chaos theory challenges the accepted laws of nature, explaining why Einstein's belief that time is merely an illusion is incorrect.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #144307 in Books
• Published on: 1997-08-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

Customer Reviews

Brilliant - probably solves 3 fundamental problems
In a direct extension of his Nobel-prize-winning work on thermodynamics,Prigogine explains that almost all natural systems are non-determinsitic, even if all their components are subject to deterministic laws. This is because such systems have enormous numbers of Poincare resonances which lead to fundamentally non-deterministic solutions. This provides a solution to 3 of the most important problems in science: 1. Time's arrow 2. The Measurement Problem in QM 3. The existence of Freewill.

Everyone who is seriously interested in these questions should read this book.

Time does have an arrow
Nobel Laureate Prigogine describes how the lack of infinitely precise measurements and non-linear behavior in the laws of nature give rise to the arrow of time experienced by all of us. His results seem completely natural in everyday experience where you never see a broken glass on the floor jump back on the table and reassemble itself. Prigogine shows that the current laws of physics, when used in a mathematical framework that excludes perfect measurements, gives rise to laws of nature where an uncertain future must follow the past. An excellent, but technical, book.

Science finds time, it's about time! Philosophically import.
Oh well, I loved this book and think Prigogine's work is of fundamental importance. The math's not bad if you're from an engineering or science background, otherwise skip the math -- the text in the first 3 and ending chapters makes the point.

One of the other reviewers got it all wrong. Just like we all seem to accept that there are no infinite velocities -- they do not exist -- so too, there is no infinitely precise location -- it does not exist either, independent of whether there's an observer or not. Without infinite precision, you get time, creativity and with a little intelligence, meaning (my claim, not Ilya's. Well at least science doesn't preclude it anymore...sort of a multi-century "D'oh!").

Probability is now the fundamental unit of understanding and dynamics, not trajectories. What's neat is how well this dovetails into the Process Philosophers and theologians like Whitehead and Rav Abrahan Cook as well as Bhaskara way back in the 10th century.

The section on cosmology is well in line with recent findings. I recommend the book.