Dedication

We would like to dedicate this book to the innocent victims who died on September 11th, 2001, and during the weeks, months, and years thereafter

—C. J. Date, Hugh Darwen, Nikos A. Lorentzos

Also to my friends in the Healdsburg Peace Project— still keeping the faith after all these years

—C. J. Date

And to the memory of my friend Adrian Larner, who had such a huge influence on my database thinking

—Hugh Darwen

And to the memory of my father, Antonios

—Nikos A. Lorentzos

What, then, is time? I know well enough what it is, provided that nobody asks me; but if I am asked what it is and try to explain, I am baffled.

—Saint Augustine of Hippo: Confessions (397)

The distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.

—Albert Einstein: Letter to the family of Michele Besso (1955)

Time is what keeps everything from happening at once.

—Ray Cummings: The Girl in the Golden Atom (1922)

Time is what happens when nothing else does.

—Richard Feynman (attrib.)

Time present and time past Are both perhaps present in time future, And time future contained in time past.

—T. S. Eliot: Burnt Norton (1936)