One of TIME’s 10 best nonfiction books of the decade

"Meet the new Stephen Hawking...The Order of Time is a dazzling book." (The Sunday Times)

From the best-selling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, comes a concise, elegant exploration of time.

Why do we remember the past and not the future? What does it mean for time to "flow"? Do we exist in time or does time exist in us? In lyric, accessible prose, Carlo Rovelli invites us to consider questions about the nature of time that continue to puzzle physicists and philosophers alike.

For most listeners, this is unfamiliar terrain. We all experience time, but the more scientists learn about it, the more mysterious it remains. We think of it as uniform and universal, moving steadily from past to future, measured by clocks. Rovelli tears down these assumptions one by one, revealing a strange universe where at the most fundamental level time disappears. He explains how the theory of quantum gravity attempts to understand and give meaning to the resulting extreme landscape of this timeless world. Weaving together ideas from philosophy, science, and literature, he suggests that our perception of the flow of time depends on our perspective, better understood starting from the structure of our brain and emotions than from the physical universe.

Already a best seller in Italy, and written with the poetic vitality that made Seven Brief Lessons on Physics so appealing, The Order of Time offers a profoundly intelligent, culturally rich, novel appreciation of the mysteries of time.

What identity means in an algorithmic age: how it works, how our lives are controlled by it, and how we can resist it

Algorithms are everywhere, organizing the near limitless data that exists in our world. Derived from our every search, like, click, and purchase, algorithms determine the news we get, the ads we see, the information accessible to us and even who our friends are. These complex configurations not only form knowledge and social relationships in the digital and physical world, but also determine who we are and who we can be, both on and offline.

Algorithms create and recreate us, using our data to assign and reassign our gender, race, sexuality, and citizenship status. They can recognize us as celebrities or mark us as terrorists. In this era of ubiquitous surveillance, contemporary data collection entails more than gathering information about us. Entities like Google, Facebook, and the NSA also decide what that information means, constructing our worlds and the identities we inhabit in the process. We have little control over who we algorithmically are. Our identities are made useful not for us—but for someone else.

Through a series of entertaining and engaging examples, John Cheney-Lippold draws on the social constructions of identity to advance a new understanding of our algorithmic identities. We Are Data will educate and inspire readers who want to wrest back some freedom in our increasingly surveilled and algorithmically-constructed world.

From the dawn of humanity, the desire to control the thoughts, behaviors, and actions of others has been a pervasive one. From the use of coercive persuasion by ancient Egyptians and the Knights Templar to today’s claims of electronic harassment and microwave “bombing,” we have always been at the mercy of those who wish to reprogram our thoughts and reshape our beliefs.

Mind Wars includes fascinating stories of:

• Ancient attempts at mind control using spell casting, potions, and rituals.
  
• Cults and the use of mental reprogramming.
  
• More modern mind-control techniques, from hypnosis, drugs, and electroshock to radiation and psychic driving.
  
• The inside story of the quest for a real Manchurian Candidate—MKUltra and the CIA connection.
  
• The brave new world of electronic harassment, “voice to skull” technology, and gang-stalking.The inner frontier of the human mind is the last bastion of privacy. But are we really in control of our own minds? The answer may shock you!