Includes bibliographical references (pages 293-294) and index
Preface -- Prologue -- Very brief history of time -- Whose time is it anyway? -- Quest for eternity -- Escape from time -- Cyclic worlds and the eternal return -- Newton's time and the clockwork universe -- Einstein's time -- Is the universe dying? -- Return of the eternal return -- Start of it all -- It happens when it happens -- Time for a change -- Gift from heaven -- Goodbye to the ether -- Timely solution -- Interlude -- Stretching time -- Puzzle of the twins -- Goodbye to the present -- Time is money -- Timescape -- Timewarps -- Light barrier -- Perpetual motion and the uphill struggle -- Why time runs faster in space -- Clock in the box -- Best clock in the universe -- Echo that arrived late -- Going up in the world -- Black holes: Gateways to the end of time -- Warp factor infinity -- Dark mystery -- Penetrating the magic circle -- Singular problem -- Beyond the end of time -- Are they really out there? -- Beginning of time: When exactly was it? -- Great clock in the sky -- Big bang and what happened before it -- Older than the universe? -- Einstein's greatest mistake -- Two-timing the cosmos -- Einstein's greatest triumph? -- Handwriting of God -- Did the big bang ever happen? -- What's a few billion years among friends? -- Repulsive problem -- Loitering universe -- Quantum time -- Time to tunnel -- Watched kettles -- Erasing the past -- Spooky signals and psychic particles -- Faster than light? -- Time vanishes! -- Imaginary time -- Two cultures revisited -- How time got started -- Hartle-Hawking theory -- Imaginary clocks -- Arrow of time -- Catching the wave -- Signals from the future -- Matter of time reversal -- Particle that can tell the time -- Lopsided universe -- Backwards in time -- Into reverse -- Thinking backwards -- Antiworlds -- Winding the clock back -- Hawking's greatest mistake -- Time for everybody -- Time travel: Fact or fantasy? -- Signaling the past -- Visiting the past -- Black-hole time machines -- Wormholes and strings -- Paradox -- But what time is it now? -- Can time really flow? -- Myth of passage -- Does the arrow of time fly? -- Why now? -- Experimenting with time -- How long does the present last? -- Now you see it, now you don't -- Filling in time -- Subjective time -- Back door to our minds -- Unfinished revolution -- Epilogue -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
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Examines the consequences of Einstein's relativity theory, exploring the mystery of time and considering black holes, time travel, the existence of God, and the nature of the universe