Julian Barbour: The Janus Point & the Arrow of Time!

Julian Barbour is the author of the highly regarded The Discovery of Dynamics and the bestseller The End of Time and now, The Janus Point. He received his PhD in physics from the University of Cologne in 1968. He is a past visiting professor of physics at the University of Oxford and lives on the edge of the scenic Cotswolds, UK.

A major new work of physics, The Janus Point will transform our understanding of the nature of existence. In a universe filled by chaos and disorder, Julian Barbour 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. Julian Barbour on “The Janus Point: A New Theory of Time” |

Videos: https://youtube.com/watch?v=FMD8B7VRX0w&feature=share https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E0NmHQ0WLc

What does time mean to you?

The influence of Ernst Mach.

What is the “Royal” Zero and Entaxy?

Thermodynamics and statistcal mechanics.

The cyclic universe. The theoretical virtues of the Janus Point. Is there a necessity for a theory of quantum gravity? What is the failure of the “singularity” theory of cosmogenesis? The essence of the Janus Point theory.

The Borde-Guth-Vilenkin Theorem

How do you reconcile the Janus Point Paradigm with current observations? What would you put on a timeless monolith?

What is now possible that you once thought was not as a younger man?