A Word without Time: The Forgotten Legacy of Godel and Einstein Book

"[Yourgrau] presents the nature of an intimate friendship between two magnificent thinkers and the nature of Godel's work, which inspired Einstein but is now lost in obscurity." (Deseret Morning News) In 1942, the logician Kurt Godel and Albert Einstein became close friends; they walked to and from their offices every day, exchanging ideas about science, philosophy, politics, and the lost world of German science. By 1949, Godel had produced a remarkable proof: In any universe described by the Theory of Relativity, time cannot exist. Einstein endorsed this result reluctantly but he could find no way to refute it, since then, neither has anyone else. Yet cosmologists and philosophers alike have proceeded as if this discovery was never made. In A World Without Time, Palle Yourgrau sets out to restore Godel to his rightful place in history, telling the story of two magnificent minds put on the shelf by the scientific fashions of their day, and attempts to rescue the brilliant work they did together. "[A World Without Time is] very interesting if you like [scientific] speculation. Even if you don't, the descriptions of the friendship between Godel and Einstein-Einstein said he went to his office at Princeton University mainly so that he would have the pleasure of G?del's company on his walk back home-make this book interesting." (Wisconsin State Journal) Read More