A World without Time

Resumen del libro

A compelling, untold story of genius, discovery and an extraordinary friendship.

Albert Einstein and Kurt Gödel were two of the greatest minds of the twentieth century. They met at Princeton University, having fled Nazi Europe, and found rare solace in each other's company, sharing ideas and the lost world of their youth. Although they were opposites Einstein the passionate, bohemian scientist, Gödel the troubled, pessimistic philosopher their friendship grew as they challenged and inspired one another. Einstein remarked towards the end of his career that he only went to his office every day just to have the privilege of walking home with Kurt Gödel'.

However, as Palle Yourgrau's remarkable book reveals, perhaps the most astonishing aspect of their friendship was its forgotten legacy: the revolutionary notion of a world without time. In 1949, inspired by Einstein's ideas, Gödel proved that in any universe ruled by the Theory of Relativity, time simply cannot exist. Although this overthrew Einstein's views, he could find no way to refute it and acknowledged that his friend had made a vital contribution to our understanding of the cosmos. And yet, in one of the greatest scandals of modern intellectual history, a conspiracy of silence has descended upon this idea: cosmologists and philosophers alike have proceeded with their work as if Gödel's proof never existed.

A World Without Time tells the story of two intellectual giants put on the shelf by the scientific fashions of their day, and attempts to rescue from undeserved obscurity the brilliant work they did together. It is a sweeping, universal book that remains poignant, intimate and inspiring.