On the Arrow of Spacetime

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandre Harvey-Tremblay
Keyword(s):  
Time Horizon ◽  
Statistical Physics ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Arrow Of Time ◽  
Speed Of Light ◽  
Standard Description ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
Local Space ◽  
Future Events

Consistent with special relativity and statistical physics, here we construct a partition function of space-time events. The union of these two theories resolves longstanding problems in regards to time. It augments the standard description of time given by the (non-relativistic) arrow of time to one able to show the emergence of three macroscopic regimes of time: the past, the present, and the future, represented by space-like entropy, light-like entropy, and time-like entropy, respectively, and in a manner consistent with our experience of said regimes. First, using Fermi-Dirac statistics, we find that the system essentially describes a "waterfall" of space-time events. This "waterfall" recedes in space-time at the speed of light towards the direction of the future as it "floods" local space with events that it depletes from the past. In this union, an observer O will perceive two horizons that can be interpreted as hiding events behind it. The first is an event horizon, and its entropy hides events in the regions that O cannot see. The second is a time horizon, and its entropy "shields" events from O's causal influence. As only past events are "shielded", and not future events, an asymmetry in time is thus created. Finally, future events are hidden by an entropy prohibiting O from knowing the future before the present catches on.

On the Arrow of Spacetime

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandre Harvey-Tremblay
Keyword(s):  
Time Horizon ◽  
Statistical Physics ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Arrow Of Time ◽  
Speed Of Light ◽  
Standard Description ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
Local Space ◽  
Future Events

Consistent with special relativity and statistical physics, here we construct a partition function of space-time events. The union of these two theories resolves longstanding problems regarding time. We will argue that it augments the standard description of time given by the (non-relativistic) arrow of time to one able to describe the past, the present and the future in a manner consistent with our macroscopic experience of such. First, using Fermi-Dirac statistics, we find that the system essentially describes a "waterfall" of space-time events. This "waterfall" recedes in space-time at the speed of light towards the direction of the future as it "floods" local space with events that it depletes from the past. In this union, an observer $\mathcal{O}$ will perceive two horizons that can be interpreted as hiding events behind them. The first is an event horizon and its entropy hides events in the regions that $\mathcal{O}$ cannot see. The second is a time horizon, and its entropy "shields" events from $\mathcal{O}$'s causal influence. As only past events are "shielded" and not future events, an asymmetry in time is thus created. Finally, future events are hidden by an entropy prohibiting $\mathcal{O}$ from knowing the future before the present catches on.

scholarly journals A palace fit for the future: Desirability in temporal work

2021 ◽  
pp. 147612702110120
Author(s):  
Siavash Alimadadi ◽  
Andrew Davies ◽  
Fredrik Tell
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
The Past ◽  
Renewal Program ◽  
The Future ◽  
Depth Study ◽  
Future Events ◽  
Future Outcomes ◽  
Pluralistic Contexts

Research on the strategic organization of time often assumes that collective efforts are motivated by and oriented toward achieving desirable, although not necessarily well-defined, future states. In situations surrounded by uncertainty where work has to proceed urgently to avoid an impending disaster, however, temporal work is guided by engaging with both desirable and undesirable future outcomes. Drawing on a real-time, in-depth study of the inception of the Restoration and Renewal program of the Palace of Westminster, we investigate how organizational actors develop a strategy for an uncertain and highly contested future while safeguarding ongoing operations in the present and preserving the heritage of the past. Anticipation of undesirable future events played a crucial role in mobilizing collective efforts to move forward. We develop a model of future desirability in temporal work to identify how actors construct, link, and navigate interpretations of desirable and undesirable futures in their attempts to create a viable path of action. By conceptualizing temporal work based on the phenomenological quality of the future, we advance understanding of the strategic organization of time in pluralistic contexts characterized by uncertainty and urgency.

Church Time and Astrological Time in the Waning Middle Ages

2002 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 117-132
Author(s):  
Hilary M. Carey
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Missed Opportunities ◽  
The Past ◽  
Adam And Eve ◽  
Primary Qualities ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future Events ◽  
Scientific Claims ◽  
To Come

Time, according to medieval theologians and philosophers, was experienced in radically different ways by God and by his creation. Indeed, the obligation to dwell in time, and therefore to have no sure knowledge of what was to come, was seen as one of the primary qualities which marked the post-lapsarian state. When Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden of delights, they entered a world afflicted with the changing of the seasons, in which they were obliged to work and consume themselves with the needs of the present day and the still unknown dangers of the next. Medieval concerns about the use and abuse of time were not merely confined to anxiety about the present, or awareness of seized or missed opportunities in the past. The future was equally worrying, in particular the extent to which this part of time was set aside for God alone, or whether it was permissible to seek to know the future, either through revelation and prophecy, or through science. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the scientific claims of astrology to provide a means to explain the outcome of past and future events, circumventing God’s distant authority, became more and more insistent. This paper begins by examining one skirmish in this larger battle over the control of the future.

Time and Truth: The Presentism-Eternalism Debate

Philosophy ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 84 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Stoneham
Keyword(s):  
Open Future ◽  
Equal Footing ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future Events ◽  
Growing Block ◽  
The Open Future ◽  
Block Universe ◽  
The Way

AbstractThere are many questions we can ask about time, but perhaps the most fundamental is whether there are metaphysically interesting differences between past, present and future events. An eternalist believes in a block universe: past, present and future events are all on an equal footing. A gradualist believes in a growing block: he agrees with the eternalist about the past and the present but not about the future. A presentist believes that what is present has a special status. My first claim is that the familiar ways of articulating these views result in there being no substantive disagreement at all between the three parties. I then show that if we accept the controversial truthmaking principle, we can articulate a substantive disagreement. Finally, I apply this way of formulating the debate to related questions such as the open future and determinism, showing that these do not always line up in quite the way one would expect.

The Unchanging Universe

2020 ◽  
pp. 72-86
Author(s):  
Demetris Nicolaides
Keyword(s):  
Space Time ◽  
Sense Perception ◽  
Theory Of Relativity ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
Time Continuum ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Block Universe

Heraclitus declares the being (that which exists, nature) but identifies it with becoming, but Parmenides declares just the Being; only what is, is, what is not, is not. All “follows” from that: change, he argues, is logically impossible and so what is, is one and unchangeable! This dazzling absolute monism is in daring disagreement with sense perception, but curiously it has found a well-known genius as a supporter. Emboldened by his theory of relativity, Einstein considers the universe as a four-dimensional “block” (a space-time continuum like a loaf of bread) which, remarkably, contains all moments of time (of past, present, and future) always, and where change is an illusion. He said, “For we convinced physicists, the distinction between past, present, and future is only an illusion, however persistent.” In the block universe, the past is not gone, it is present; and the future, like the present, is, well, present, too.

scholarly journals Memory dynamics in times of crisis: An interview with Sarah Gensburger

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 1388-1400
Author(s):  
Stef Craps ◽  
Catherine Gilbert
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Future ◽  
Local Space ◽  
The Creation

Working at the intersection of political science, ethnographic sociology, and contemporary historiography, Sarah Gensburger specializes in the social dynamics of memory. In this interview, she talks about her book Memory on My Doorstep: Chronicles of the Bataclan Neighborhood, Paris 2015–2016, which traces the evolving memorialization processes following the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris, their impact on the local landscape, and the social appropriations of the past by visitors at memorials and commemorative sites. She also discusses her new project Vitrines en confinement—Vetrine in quarantena (“Windows in Lockdown”), which documents public responses to the coronavirus pandemic from different sites across Europe through the creation of a photographic archive of public space. The interview highlights issues around the immediacy of contemporary memorialization practices, the ways in which people engage with their local space during times of crisis, and how we are all actively involved in preserving memory for the future.

scholarly journals The arrow of time in operational formulations of quantum theory

Quantum ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 520
Author(s):  
Andrea Di Biagio ◽  
Pietro Donà ◽  
Carlo Rovelli
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Theory ◽  
Time Orientation ◽  
Implicit Assumption ◽  
Arrow Of Time ◽  
Mathematical Objects ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Asymmetry ◽  
The Difference

The operational formulations of quantum theory are drastically time oriented. However, to the best of our knowledge, microscopic physics is time-symmetric. We address this tension by showing that the asymmetry of the operational formulations does not reflect a fundamental time-orientation of physics. Instead, it stems from built-in assumptions about the users of the theory. In particular, these formalisms are designed for predicting the future based on information about the past, and the main mathematical objects contain implicit assumption about the past, but not about the future. The main asymmetry in quantum theory is the difference between knowns and unknowns.

The Role of Past in the Simulation of Autobiographical Future Episodes

2010 ◽  
Vol 57 (6) ◽  
pp. 419-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadia Gamboz ◽  
Maria A. Brandimonte ◽  
Stefania De Vito
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future Events ◽  
Delayed Recognition

Human beings’ ability to envisage the future has been recently assumed to rely on the reconstructive nature of episodic memory ( Schacter & Addis, 2007 ). In the present research, young adults mentally reexperienced and preexperienced temporally close and distant autobiographical episodes, and rated their phenomenal characteristics as well as their novelty. Additionally, they performed a delayed recognition task including remember-know judgments on new, old-remember, and old-imagine words. Results showed that past and future temporally close episodes included more phenomenal details than distant episodes, in line with earlier studies. However, future events were occasionally rated as already occurred in the past. Furthermore, in the recognition task, participants falsely attributed old-imagine words to remembered episodes. While partially in line with previous results, these findings call for a more subtle analysis in order to discriminate representations of past episodes from true future events simulations.

Cosmology and the Arrow of Time

1989 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Penrose ◽  
Martin Gardner
Keyword(s):  
Present Knowledge ◽  
The Other ◽  
Arrow Of Time ◽  
The Past ◽  
Memory Traces ◽  
The Future ◽  
Newton’S Laws ◽  
Uncertain Future ◽  
Physical Laws ◽  
Einstein’S General Relativity

Central to our feelings of awareness is the sensation of the progression of time. We seem to be moving ever forward, from a definite past into an uncertain future. The past is over, we feel, and there is nothing to be done with it. It is unchangeable, and in a certain sense, it is ‘out there’ still. Our present knowledge of it may come from our records, our memory traces, and from our deductions from them, but we do not tend to doubt the actuality of the past. The past was one thing and can (now) be only one thing. What has happened has happened, and there is now nothing whatever that we, nor anyone else can do about it! The future, on the other hand, seems yet undetermined. It could turn out to be one thing or it could turn out to be another. Perhaps this ‘choice’ is fixed completely by physical laws, or perhaps partly by our own decisions (or by God); but this ‘choice’ seems still there to be made. There appear to be merely potentialities for whatever the ‘reality’ of the future may actually resolve itself to be. As we consciously perceive time to pass, the most immediate part of that vast and seemingly undetermined future continuously becomes realized as actuality, and thus makes its entry into the fixed past. Sometimes we may have the feeling that we even have been personally ‘responsible’ for somewhat influencing that choice of particular potential future which in fact becomes realized, and made permanent in the actuality of the past. More often, we feel ourselves to be helpless spectators - perhaps thankfully relieved of responsibility - as, inexorably, the scope of the determined past edges its way into an uncertain future. Yet physics, as we know it, tells a different story. All the successful equations of physics are symmetrical in time. They can be used equally well in one direction in time as in the other. The future and the past seem physically to be on a completely equal footing. Newton’s laws, Hamilton’s equations, Maxwell’s equations, Einstein’s general relativity, Dirac’s equation, the Schrödinger equation - all remain effectively unaltered if we reverse the direction of time.

Time will tell: Temporal landmarks influence metaphorical associations between space and time

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 677-701 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heng Li ◽  
Yu Cao
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Chinese Spring ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Fresh Start ◽  
The Past ◽  
Space And Time ◽  
Mapping Experiment ◽  
Spring Festival ◽  
The Future ◽  
Temporal Focus

AbstractAccording to the Temporal Focus Hypothesis (TFH), people’s implicit spatial conceptions are shaped by their temporal focus. Whereas previous studies have demonstrated that people’s cultural or individual differences related to certain temporal focus may influence their spatializations of time, we focus on temporal landmarks as potential additional influences on people’s space-time mappings. In Experiment 1, we investigated how personally-related events influence students’ conceptions of time. The results showed that student examinees were more likely to think about time according to the past-in-front mapping, and student registrants, future-in-front mapping. Experiment 2 explored the influence of calendar markers and found that participants tested on the Chinese Spring Festival, a symbol of a fresh start, tended to conceptualize the future as in front of them, while those tested on the Tomb Sweeping Day, an opportunity to remember the ancestors, showed the reversed pattern. In Experiment 3, two scenarios representing past or future landmarks correspondingly were presented to participants. We found that past-focused/future -focused scenarios caused an increase in the rate of past-in-front/future-in-front responses respectively. Taken together, the results from these three studies suggest that people’s conceptions of time may vary according to temporal landmarks, which can be explained by the TFH.

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