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C O N T E N T S Preface Acknowledgmentsts Introduction 1 The science of time travel. The "laws" of time travel. The difference between science fiction and fantasy. Outline of the book. CHAPTER 1 Time Travel in the Pulps 9 A brief history of time travel as it was written in the "GoldenAge" of science fiction. • The pulps andtime travel • Thespecial fascination of time-travel stories • Summary CHAPTER 2 Special Relativity and Time Travel to the Future 29 An explanation of Einstein's special theory of relativity and why it indicates that time travel maybe possible. • Einstein's discovery of the relativity oftime • Theparadox ofthe twins • Summary CHAPTER 3 Time Travel to the Past 49 A look at the scientific groundwork upon which time travel theory is constructed. • World-lines,light cones, and closed timelike curves • Causality • Antimatter and time travel • Why Wells's time machine couldn't work • Summary CHAPTER 4 Hyperspace 67 The concept of dimension and why we live in a world of at least three spatial dimensions. • Folded space-time andwormholes • Space as the fourth dimension • Summary CHAPTER 5 Time as the Fourth Dimension 73 A look at how time "moves" and how it can be considered as a spatial dimension. • Circular, linear, andhelical time • Thedirection oftime • Entropy as anarrow oftime • Summary CHAPTER 6 The Block Universe 87 Philosophy and science are uneasy neighbors in the block universe. • Conservation ofmass-energy intime travel • Free will andfatalism • Summary CHAPTER 7 When General Relativity Made Time Travel Honest...99 How Godel found what Einstein had overlooked and put forth his own view oftime travel. • Meetingyourself inthe past • Einstein's response to Godel • Summary viii xix CHAPTER 8 Paradoxes: Changing the Past, Causal Loops, and Sex 107 An overview of time travel paradoxes and why most of them are invalid. • The grandfather paradox • The Time Police • Principleof self-consistency • Sexual paradoxes • Summary CHAPTER 9 Time Machines that Physicists Have Already 'Invented' 127 Theoretical "paper" time machines and how they might work. • Rotating cylinders • Wormholes • Exotic matter, energy conditions, and gravity time dilation • Cauchy andchronology horizons • Cosmic strings • Summary CHAPTER 1O Faster-Than-Light (FTL) Into the Past 143 The theory of sending information forward or backward in time. • Tachyons andspecial relativity • The reinterpretation principleand antitelephones • TheFTL signed message puzzle • The space-time geometry of FTL• Summary CHAPTER 11 Quantum Gravity, Splitting Universes,and Time Machines 163 Contemporary physicists have a few new ways of looking at time travel. • The uncertainty principle • Splitting realities • Chronology protection • The Back Reaction • Multipletime tracks andparallel worlds • Summary CHAPTER 12 Reading the Physics Literature for Story Ideas 177 These technical journals are available in academic libraries, or at any college or university with a physics department, and can be scanned for the latest results in time machine physics and fresh story ideas. Glossary of SelectedTerms and Concepts 183 Bibliography 191 Index 198 ...

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