Time and Existence

2019 ◽  
pp. 127-149
Author(s):  
Palle Yourgrau
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Special Relativity ◽  
Physical Science ◽  
Relativity Theory ◽  
The Past ◽  
Decisive Reason ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Intuitive Sense

The nonexistence of the dead is a consequence of the fact that people are objects in time, and something’s position in time determines whether or not it exists. This is known as presentism. Objects like the dead, which belong exclusively to the past, are nonexistent. At least, this is true of time in the intuitive sense. Relativity theory, however, appears to contradict intuitive time, as was argued by Gödel. A defense is offered of Gödel’s argument, based on how Einstein himself understood special relativity, but arguments are also considered which reject the conventional understanding of relativity. Quantum mechanics also conflicts, here, with relativity. The conclusion is that there appears to be no decisive reason to reject intuitive time based on the inconclusive and divided deliverances of physical science, and thus no decisive reason to reject the view that the dead are nonexistent.

RELATIVITY AND THE SPEED OF LIGHT – A 100 YEAR OLD MISUNDERSTANDING

2006 ◽  
Vol 15 (02) ◽  
pp. 275-283 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. J. ŚWIATECKI
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Special Relativity ◽  
Thought Experiment ◽  
Minkowski Spacetime ◽  
Speed Of Light ◽  
The Past ◽  
Mistaken Belief

I point out a conceptual misunderstanding in the exposition of relativity, namely the mistaken belief that light has something to do with the essence of relativity. This misunderstanding can be clarified by stressing that the content of Special Relativity is simply that "we live in a Minkowski spacetime", together with a thought experiment that illustrates how one could discover this fact without ever mentioning even the existence of light. I also note a recently uncovered implication of living in Minkowski spacetime, namely the Copenhagen reinterpretation of Quantum Mechanics, developed in the past decade.

The Ultimate Sophistication of Special Theory of Relativity

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 43-49
Author(s):  
Hamdoon A. Khan ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Special Relativity ◽  
Special Theory ◽  
Mathematical Approach ◽  
Theory Of Relativity ◽  
Special Theory Of Relativity ◽  
The Real ◽  
The Past ◽  
The One ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Faster Than Light

With the consideration of the light which carries the photon particles, the Lorentz transformation was constructed with an impressive mathematical approach. But the generalization of that equation for all the velocities of the universe is direct enforcement on other things not to travel faster than light. It has created serious issues in every scientific research that was done in the last century based on the special theory of relativity. This paper replaces the velocity of light with some other velocities and shows us the possible consequences and highlights the issues of special relativity. If I travel through my past or future and was able to see another me there, who would be the real Hamdoon I or the one I see there in the past or future! If the real one is only me, the one I saw, is not me, so, I could not travel through my or someone else's past or future. Therefore, no one can travel through time. If both of us are the same, can the key of personal identity be duplicated or be separated into two or more parts? These are some of the fundamental philosophical arguments that annihilate the concept of time travel which is one of the sequels of special relativity.

scholarly journals The Old Greeks

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
George Kouvaros
Keyword(s):  
Past History ◽  
The Past ◽  
Siegfried Kracauer ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Dead

In his final unfinished book on the writing of history, Siegfried Kracauer wonders about his increasing susceptibility to ‘the speechless plea of the dead’. ‘[T]he older one grows, the more he is bound to realize that his future is the future of the past—history.’ For the children of migrants, the question of how to speak well of the dead is distinguished by complex feelings of attachment and rejection, identification and denial that are expressed in a range of everyday interactions. ‘The Old Greeks’ examines the part played by photographic media in this process of memorialisation. It elaborates a series of propositions about the value of photographic media that are tested through a consideration of the events that surrounded the author’s first years in Australia.

Alessandro Gavazzi: a barnabite friar and the risorgimento (Presidential Address)

1975 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 303-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Basil Hall
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Address ◽  
Memento Mori ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The Mind

Think nowHistory has many cunning passages, contrived corridorsAnd issues, deceives with whispering ambitions,Guides us by vanities. Think nowShe gives when our attention is distractedAnd what she gives, gives with such supple confusionsThat the giving famishes the craving. Gives too lateWhat’s not believed in, or if still believed,In memory only, reconsidered passion.Historians no doubt have problems enough without setting before themselves that ‘memento mori’ from Eliot, who, though he was describing an old man seeking to understand his own past, leaves nevertheless an echo in the mind disturbing to those who practise the historian’s craft. We assume a confidence which in our heart of hearts we do not always, or should not always, possess. Eliot’s words not only demonstrate the difficulty of one man understanding his own past, but also the historian’s difficulty in understanding those whom they select for questioning from among the vast multitudes of the silent dead, whose deeds, artifacts, ideas, passions, hopes and memories have died with them. We dig into the past, obtain data from archives, brush off the objects found, collect statistics, annotate, arrange, describe, establish a chronology – but do we effectively understand the dead, especially since we are affected by our own beliefs, customs and ideologies? We are, of course, all aware of this: we silently scorn the lecturer who raises these diffident hesitations. For we know our duty: we examine all that we can, we describe our findings, we annotate them, we draw conclusions, or leave our demonstrations to speak for themselves. There are reasons, as I shall hope to show, that these considerations – Eliot’s ominous words and our determination not to be disquieted by them – bear upon the subject of this paper, the almost forgotten Alessandro Gavazzi.

WHITE NOISE ANALYSIS: SOME APPLICATIONS IN COMPLEX SYSTEMS, BIOPHYSICS AND QUANTUM MECHANICS

2012 ◽  
Vol 26 (29) ◽  
pp. 1230014 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRISTOPHER C. BERNIDO ◽  
M. VICTORIA CARPIO-BERNIDO
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Probability Density Function ◽  
Complex Systems ◽  
White Noise ◽  
Noise Analysis ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
White Noise Analysis ◽  
The Past ◽  
White Noise Calculus ◽  
With Memory

The white noise calculus originated by T. Hida is presented as a powerful tool in investigating physical and social systems. Combined with Feynman's sum-over-all histories approach, we parameterize paths with memory of the past, and evaluate the corresponding probability density function. We discuss applications of this approach to problems in complex systems and biophysics. Examples in quantum mechanics with boundaries are also given where Markovian paths are considered.

scholarly journals Free Will in Human Behavior and Physics

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vasil Dinev Penchev
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Quantum Information ◽  
Free Will ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Classical Physics ◽  
Quantum Bit ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Mean ◽  
The One

If the concept of “free will” is reduced to that of “choice” all physical world share the latter quality. Anyway the “free will” can be distinguished from the “choice”: The “free will” involves implicitly a certain goal, and the choice is only the mean, by which the aim can be achieved or not by the one who determines the target. Thus, for example, an electron has always a choice but not free will unlike a human possessing both. Consequently, and paradoxically, the determinism of classical physics is more subjective and more anthropomorphic than the indeterminism of quantum mechanics for the former presupposes certain deterministic goal implicitly following the model of human freewill behavior. Quantum mechanics introduces the choice in the fundament of physical world involving a generalized case of choice, which can be called “subjectless”: There is certain choice, which originates from the transition of the future into the past. Thus that kind of choice is shared of all existing and does not need any subject: It can be considered as a low of nature. There are a few theorems in quantum mechanics directly relevant to the topic: two of them are called “free will theorems” by their authors (Conway and Kochen 2006; 2009). Any quantum system either a human or an electron or whatever else has always a choice: Its behavior is not predetermined by its past. This is a physical law. It implies that a form of information, the quantum information underlies all existing for the unit of the quantity of information is an elementary choice: either a bit or a quantum bit (qubit).

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