About Time: Cosmology and Culture at the Twilight of the Big Bang

The Big Bang is all but dead and we do not yet know what will replace it Our universes beginning is at an end What does this have to do with us here on Earth Our lives are about to be dramatically shaken againas altered as they were with the invention of the clock the steam engine the railroad the radio and the Internet In The End of the Beginning Adam Frank explains how the texture of our lives changes along with our understanding of the universes origin Since we awoke to self-consciousness fifty thousand years ago our lived experience of timefrom hunting and gathering to the development of agriculture to the industrial revolution to the invention of Outlook calendarshas been transformed and rebuilt many times But the latest theories in cosmology time with no beginning parallel universes eternal inflationare about to send us in a new direction Time is both our grandest and most intimate conception of the universe Many books tell the story recounting the progress of scientific cosmology Frank tells the story of humanitys deepest question when and how did everything beginalongside the story of how human beings have experienced time He looks at the way our engagement with the world our inventions our habits and morehas allowed us to discover the nature of the universe and how those discoveries in turn inform our daily experience This astounding book will change the way we think about time and how it affects our lives.