Recently I went to Michigan to speak at a conference devoted totime reversal.
Time reversal? Yes, time reversal. Wow! you say. Reversing the flow of time?
Perhaps no other term in modern physics inspires as much fascination and awe in the general public. Consider the enormous popularity of such recent movies as Back to the Future I, II, and III, The Terminator, and Peggy Sue Got Married. But those people curious enough to trudge to a library and look up time reversal in an advanced physics text--for instance, chapter 4 in the classic by J. J. Sakurai, which I studied as a student--are bound to be disappointed. Physicists do not know how to arrange for you to go back to your high school days and see teen romance with the wisdom of an adult, as Kathleen Turner did. Nor can they send you or Michael J. Fox back in time ...
