In a new Oxford University-published book, The End

of Time: The Next

Revolution in Physics,

the independent maverick physicist Julian Barbour

asserts that time

simply doesn’t exist. This

by itself is not so shocking.

My friend Artie, for

example, has always

insisted that there’s only

change, not time. Things

move around; time may

just be a way of noting

that. But Barbour goes

further. He says there’s no such thing as motion

either. Instead, Barbour sees a universe filled with

static instants — instants that contain “records” that

fool any conscious beings who happen to find

themselves encased in one into believing that things

have moved and time has passed.

Barbour’s theory meets one test of important new

ways of looking at the universe: It doesn’t, on the

face of it, make a lot of sense. [Feed]

And Julian Barbour’s own website discusses his ideas further.