From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!eagle!jerry Newsgroups: net.misc Title: Re: what is time Article-I.D.: eagle.429 Posted: Fri Jul 30 00:09:59 1982 Received: Sat Jul 31 00:30:26 1982 References: hplabs.582 pur-phy.414 If you are interested in the question "what is time" and have a fairly good physics background I would recomend The Physics of Time Asymettry by P. C. W. Davies University of California Press (1977 edition) It's first sentence describes its topic. "How is it possible to account for the difference between past and future when and examination of the laws of physics reveals only the symmetry of time?" His answer (as best I understand it -- my physics isn't up to really understanding the book) is cosmological. I quote (p. 109) "We have reached a remarkable conclusion. The origin of all thermodynamic irreversibility in the real universe depends ultimately on gravitation. Any gravitating universe that can exist and contains more than one type of interacting material must be asymettric in time, both globally in its motion, and locally in its thermodynamics." Jerry Schwarz -- BTL Murray Hill -- eagle!jerry