Preview
  • From Eternity to Here

  • The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time
  • By: Sean Carroll
  • Narrated by: Erik Synnestvedt
  • Length: 16 hrs and 4 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (482 ratings)

Access a growing selection of included Audible Originals, audiobooks, and podcasts.
You will get an email reminder before your trial ends.
Audible Plus auto-renews for $7.95/mo after 30 days. Upgrade or cancel anytime.

From Eternity to Here

By: Sean Carroll
Narrated by: Erik Synnestvedt
Try for $0.00

$7.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $19.77

Buy for $19.77

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

Time moves forward, not backward---everyone knows you can't unscramble an egg. In the hands of one of today's hottest young physicists, that simple fact of breakfast becomes a doorway to understanding the Big Bang, the universe, and other universes, too. In From Eternity to Here, Sean Carroll argues that the arrow of time, pointing resolutely from the past to the future, owes its existence to conditions before the Big Bang itself---a period of modern cosmology of which Einstein never dreamed.

Increasingly, though, physicists are going out into realms that make the theory of relativity seem like child's play. Carroll's scenario is not only elegant, it's laid out in the same easy-to-understand language that has made his group blog, Cosmic Variance, the most popular physics blog on the Net. From Eternity to Here uses ideas at the cutting edge of theoretical physics to explore how properties of space-time before the Big Bang can explain the flow of time we experience in our everyday lives. Carroll suggests that we live in a baby universe, part of a large family of universes in which many of our siblings experience an arrow of time running in the opposite direction. It's an ambitious, fascinating picture of the universe on an ultra-large scale, one that will captivate fans of popular physics blockbusters like Elegant Universe and A Brief History of Time.

©2009 Sean Carroll (P)2010 Tantor
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Critic reviews

Carroll writes with verve and infectious enthusiasm, reminding readers that science is a journey in which getting there is, without question, much of the fun.( Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about From Eternity to Here

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    241
  • 4 Stars
    134
  • 3 Stars
    81
  • 2 Stars
    21
  • 1 Stars
    5
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    193
  • 4 Stars
    104
  • 3 Stars
    51
  • 2 Stars
    13
  • 1 Stars
    2
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    203
  • 4 Stars
    98
  • 3 Stars
    38
  • 2 Stars
    17
  • 1 Stars
    2

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Sean Carrol is great but ...

I wanted so much to like this book, but it’s too technical for me. It’s a level or two above my ability to comprehend. Maybe I should have listened to it without doing other things.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

great listen well worth it.

Carol does a great job relating universal time to a somewhat more understandable human scale.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Great but looks for the keys under the streetlight

This book deserves a high rating simply because of the sheer quantity of interesting information and questions it clearly presents along with the pleasant narration. Most of the book focuses on the facts and questions related to our understanding of time followed by some relatively brief speculations. When speculation occurs it is clearly labeled as such. It is unfortunate that a PDF is not available for the figures discussed. There were, however, a few weaknesses. The book is largely from a general relativity point of view, only mildly addressing quantum effects. Particularly in the description of the hints we see in experiments regarding time, Carroll focuses a lot on the unexpectedly low entropy of the recent past (which is important) but then glosses over several other equally important hints such as the Bell/EPR results, Space and Time not being fundamental, and the information density enigma, he also speaks about the wave function as if it is fundamental while there are very good reasons to believe it is not.

The author basically admits although space and time being non-fundamental increasingly appears to be the case, he is unable to say anything interesting about this, so instead proposes solutions to the low entropy problem in a fundamental space-time context. This is a bit like looking for your keys under the streetlight because the light is better over there. Although speculation is an important aspect of science, successful speculation will illuminate by addressing several of the outstanding hints before us. Although the speculation was mildly interesting, the focusing on just one of the outstanding enigmas along with non-testability left it ultimately un-illuminating.

The author also indicates his preferred interpretation of quantum mechanics is the Multi-World interpretation. Although Carroll seems to point out QM having so many interpretations is odd (and likely another hint) instead of rejecting all the interpretations he seems to settle for one.

The key benefits of this book are the enigma and questions it raises. The author highlights most of the important enigmas giving us hints towards a fuller understanding of time; unfortunately he does follow most of the hint presented. For example the author points out the strong correspondences between information and entropy, even seeming to conclude that the information viewpoint is clearer and more fundamental, yet then proceeds to ignore the information viewpoint for the rest of the book.

Although the author does a pretty good job describing how classical entropy works, I am not sure I would have fully understood it without having listened to Penrose???s (long, detailed and daunting) description in Cycles of Time.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

18 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A very good teacher…

Very good foundation presentation for me as a non physicist. He made some more of the story come to life!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Good, but Flawed

I love Sean Carroll, but found this book frustrating. The key lies in the epilogue: as Carroll says, he spent far more time discussing the problem of time, while spending just one chapter discussing all possible solutions. I understand why he made that choice, but it often leaves the book feeling like "a thousand and one ways of saying we don't understand why entropy was initially low." Time then is just increasing entropy under the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

Nevertheless, the heart of this book in Part 3 is excellent and provides a super clear explanation of entropy. The chapters before and after that feel like beating around the bush until the "solutions" chapter.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Probably best to read.

I had to replay a lot. Usually driving. When I had to give my attention to the outside world, I would loose the thread, and have to go back.
Worth it though.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Cool but repetitive

Focuses a lot on entropy, which makes some sense but then there are lots of ideas of time unrelated to entropy. Could have explored them a bit more instead of restating the same thing so many times. But, it’s an accessible and entertaining listen anyway

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Best summary of modern cosmology yet, but....

Ponderous, yes. Comprehensive, yes, yes. Up to date--wow. Carroll is a genius at seeing the links between critical ideas. I have heard him lecture on physics through the Teaching Company, and this book is far superior. But it is hard going, and sadly the publisher has not provided the figures to go with it, so it is difficult to follow some of Carroll's arguments. I recommend the first section to get your feet under you, the last section to review, and in between just listen and be amazed. This book will change your perspectives on both time and the universe. And you will get lots of exercise in the process.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

32 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

I will read anything Sean Carroll writes

Sean Carroll is my favorite physicist and science writer. I didn't love the first half of this book, including discussions about time travel, as much as I loved the second half of the book; which discussed black holes, bubbles, pocket universes, and a provided a more in depth look at the low entropy state of the early universe. I read as much as I can about black holes and am always looking for authors who can make the material extremely relatable . Sean Carroll is by far the best at taking complex subjects and breaking them down for his reader. He includes information that others authors assume the reader should already know. And yet, he does it done in a way that does not bore the reader who already has knowledge of the subject at hand. I suggest reading this book and then following it up with an amazing talk by Ouellette and Carroll on black holes firewalls, which can be found on YouTube.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Deep without being confusing

I'm an engineer, so my experience may not reflect everyone's. Still, connecting cosmology to thermodynamics and focusing on the problems, and only then getting to solutions, this book helps build understanding rather than just presenting pop science.

I wish Sean Carroll narrated it himself, but I guess he's too busy trying to figure out fundamental laws of physics.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful