How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"You're such an unrelenting scientist, Greg. You and Mother just don't inhabit the same universe. Just think what a shock you'd get if you were to die and find out that Mother was right all along. Still, I agree she's become a trifle eccentric lately." (5.13)
The phrase is used half-jokingly, but there is some truth to it. Markham and his mother-in-law don't inhabit the same universe because of where they find their individual truths. Granted, Markham's picture is likely closer to the "true" universe, but even then, he can't be said to have a complete picture.
Quote #2
"There's even a sentence in the original Wheeler-Feynmann paper—'It is only required that the description should be logically self-consistent.' By that they meant that our sense of the flow of time, always going in one direction, is a bias. The equations of physics don't share our prejudice—they're time-symmetric. The only standard we can impose on an experiment is whether it's logically consistent." (9.155)
Especially in the modern era, science is constantly showing us a picture of the world that seems untrue. The reason it seems untrue is because our everyday experiences just do not match up with what we are learning about the world. In this quote, the example is time, but we could provide another example in evolution or geology. Time on that grand of a scale is ridiculously difficult to grasp with our limited human brains.
Quote #3
Science came to nought in these days. This kitchen was the true local reference frame, the Galilean invariant. Yes. Watching his wife turn and mix the jars, Prussian rigidities standing on slabs of pine, he saw that it was the shelves which stood aslant now; the walls were right. (10.81)
Renfrew's truth shifts here. Originally he thought the shelves were straight, but now he has changed his mind to see the walls as straight. Now, in truth, the shelves stand correct, but he is coming to them with a different perspective than he does earlier. And so, the truth seems different, too. We have more to say on this over in the "Symbols" section.
Quote #4
We may be a local lump inside somebody else's universe. Remember the old cartoon of a little fish being swallowed by a slightly larger one, in turn about to be swallowed by another bigger one, and so on, ad infinitum? Well we may be one of those fishes. (11.138)
See what we mean about science presenting truths that are just too difficult to transfer into our everyday lives? It's hard enough grasping just how ridiculously big our universe is, but the idea of other universes on top of that? Forget about it.
Quote #5
"The only mistake was that he had the wrong conclusion. The intelligent life was on his side of the telescope, not the Mars end. His mind—" Lakin jabbed a forefinger at his own temple "—saw a flickering image and then imposed order on it. His own intelligence was tricking him." (12.52)
Lakin brings up a famous story in astronomy history. At the turn of the 19th century, an astronomer named Percival Lowell believed he saw canals on Mars through his telescope. And since canals don't up and build themselves, that meant Martians. Science eventually discovered the truth, but for the longest time, Lowell and his followers maintained the truth of the Martian canals.
Quote #6
[Markham] was part of the system. The experiment was bigger, and more complex, than the simple ideas of the past. Everything was part of the experiment; nobody could stand apart from it. You could talk about a second observer, bigger than the first one, who was unaffected by the experiment—but that simply removed the problem one step further. (15.94)
This is the real crux of discovering an absolute truth. We are all part of the universe. If you can't step outside of the universe, yourself, and your own head, then how do you tell what is truthfully true? One possible answer is science, but even here, we see the answer isn't as simple as that.
Quote #7
"Tachyon collision? I don't know." Greg's levity evaporated. "My point is, the foundation of everything is shaky. Even logic itself has holes in it. Theories are based on pictures of the world—human pictures." He looked upward and Marjorie's eyes followed. Constellations hung like blazing chandeliers. (24.80)
The constellations in combination with Markham's quote provide excellent imagery for discussing truth in Timescape. The stars exist, but we view them through human pictures, a.k.a. the constellations. Also, depending on where you are, you see different pictures, different truths. For example, they have different constellations in the southern hemisphere than in the northern one.
Quote #8
It was odd how [Penny] could be a very intelligent, uncompromising literature student one moment, and then in the next come on as ordinary, middle-America, relentlessly oatmeal. Maybe she was part of this time, of things changing. (28.119)
Of course, truths don't have to be grand truths about life, the universe, and everything—they can be smaller everyday truths, too. Is Penny a conservative "middle-America" sort, or a more liberal literary type? Do these social categories only describe the world at large but never individual people? Will the real Penny please stand up?
Quote #9
Gordon smiled. The public thought of science as an absolute, sure thing, money in the bank. They never knew how some slight error could give you wildly wrong results. (39.45)
Science deals in empirical truth, which is basically something learned through observation and experimentation. Thing is, the more we observe and experiment, the more we learn. As such, science can never give us a sure thing—but that doesn't mean it can't provide us with useful, working truths.
Quote #10
This apparatus opened up communication with everywhere, everywhen, instantly. Talk to the stars. Talk to the compressed beings inside a dot of space. A telegram from Andromeda would take less time than one from London. Tachyons sleeted through the laboratory, through Renfrew, bringing word. It was within their grasp, if only they had time… (45.20)
To continue with the quote above, we can improve our working truths as long as we have the time to experiment and observe more. The more time we give over to seeking our truths, the better those truths will be even if they can never reach absolute truth. Which is fine in its own way, since if we knew everything, we imagine life would get really boring, really fast.