We will discuss time from Planck seconds through ordinary seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, to cosmological eras, their measurement, anthropology, history, astronomy, and physics including relativity special and general and quantum theory. Is time a basic feature of reality or merely something we project to make sense of reality, or, perhaps, a complete illusion?

We will compare Newton’s time to Einstein’s, but if you never met an equation that you liked, fear not. Our approach will be diagrams, not equations. Some questions: If it is true that x will happen does that imply no one could stop x (fatalism)? Does the past exist? The future? How long is the present? Would an omniscient God see a “moving now”? Could there be two “nows,” moving along the time line? In different directions? Is “Groundhog Day” possible? A second dimension of time? What gives time its direction? Could there be time without change? Does science fiction time travel require a “super time” or diverging universes? Does the shooting-your-grandfather-paradox preclude backwards time travel—or only show that time travelers will never have happened to shoot their grandfathers?

This course will focus on lectures with opportunities for discussion.