I read Barbour's book twice--and still did not understand it. I sent him a list of questions, which I wish had been covered by his book. Some which I recall involved music--which is tightly bound to time--and also that the concept of 'time capsules' seems circular in that it seems to require a 'meta time', or instruction pointer, which selects the time capsules in a particular sequence. This "meta time" is therefore (in my mind) precisely what we call
time, only once removed.
I asked several more questions.
I got a reply: "The questions you pose are deep. I hope someday soon to have the time to begin to answer them." (pun unintended). I suspect it was from a bot; if I had suggested that time was composed of gouda cheese, I would have gotten "The questions you pose are deep..."
--Boris
Ah! Now I see - Barbour's bot is Eliza, who (which?) famously responded to the expanded expletive M-F with "Tell me more about your mother."
If you had asked Barbour about gouda, you would probably have received the same cheesy answer...