The Reality of Time Flow

The Reality of Time Flow PDF Author: Richard T. W. Arthur
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030159485
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
It is commonly held that there is no place for the 'now’ in physics, and also that the passing of time is something subjective, having to do with the way reality is experienced but not with the way reality is. Indeed, the majority of modern theoretical physicists and philosophers of physics contend that the passing of time is incompatible with modern physical theory, and excluded in a fundamental description of physical reality. This book provides a forceful rebuttal of such claims. In successive chapters the author explains the historical precedents of the modern opposition to time flow, giving careful expositions of matters relevant to becoming in classical physics, the special and general theories of relativity, and quantum theory, without presupposing prior expertise in these subjects. Analysing the arguments of thinkers ranging from Aristotle, Russell, and Bergson to the proponents of quantum gravity, he contends that the passage of time, understood as a local becoming of events out of those in their past at varying rates, is not only compatible with the theories of modern physics, but implicit in them.

The Reality of Time Flow

The Reality of Time Flow PDF Author: Richard T. W. Arthur
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030159485
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 294

Get Book Here

Book Description
It is commonly held that there is no place for the 'now’ in physics, and also that the passing of time is something subjective, having to do with the way reality is experienced but not with the way reality is. Indeed, the majority of modern theoretical physicists and philosophers of physics contend that the passing of time is incompatible with modern physical theory, and excluded in a fundamental description of physical reality. This book provides a forceful rebuttal of such claims. In successive chapters the author explains the historical precedents of the modern opposition to time flow, giving careful expositions of matters relevant to becoming in classical physics, the special and general theories of relativity, and quantum theory, without presupposing prior expertise in these subjects. Analysing the arguments of thinkers ranging from Aristotle, Russell, and Bergson to the proponents of quantum gravity, he contends that the passage of time, understood as a local becoming of events out of those in their past at varying rates, is not only compatible with the theories of modern physics, but implicit in them.

The Reality of Time Flow

The Reality of Time Flow PDF Author: Richard T. W. Arthur
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9783030159467
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 287

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Book Description
It is commonly held that there is no place for the 'now’ in physics, and also that the passing of time is something subjective, having to do with the way reality is experienced but not with the way reality is. Indeed, the majority of modern theoretical physicists and philosophers of physics contend that the passing of time is incompatible with modern physical theory, and excluded in a fundamental description of physical reality. This book provides a forceful rebuttal of such claims. In successive chapters the author explains the historical precedents of the modern opposition to time flow, giving careful expositions of matters relevant to becoming in classical physics, the special and general theories of relativity, and quantum theory, without presupposing prior expertise in these subjects. Analysing the arguments of thinkers ranging from Aristotle, Russell, and Bergson to the proponents of quantum gravity, he contends that the passage of time, understood as a local becoming of events out of those in their past at varying rates, is not only compatible with the theories of modern physics, but implicit in them.

The Order of Time

The Order of Time PDF Author: Carlo Rovelli
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0735216118
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
One of TIME’s Ten Best Nonfiction Books of the Decade "Meet the new Stephen Hawking . . . The Order of Time is a dazzling book." --The Sunday Times From the bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, Reality Is Not What It Seems, Helgoland, and Anaximander comes a concise, elegant exploration of time. Why do we remember the past and not the future? What does it mean for time to "flow"? Do we exist in time or does time exist in us? In lyric, accessible prose, Carlo Rovelli invites us to consider questions about the nature of time that continue to puzzle physicists and philosophers alike. For most readers this is unfamiliar terrain. We all experience time, but the more scientists learn about it, the more mysterious it remains. We think of it as uniform and universal, moving steadily from past to future, measured by clocks. Rovelli tears down these assumptions one by one, revealing a strange universe where at the most fundamental level time disappears. He explains how the theory of quantum gravity attempts to understand and give meaning to the resulting extreme landscape of this timeless world. Weaving together ideas from philosophy, science and literature, he suggests that our perception of the flow of time depends on our perspective, better understood starting from the structure of our brain and emotions than from the physical universe. Already a bestseller in Italy, and written with the poetic vitality that made Seven Brief Lessons on Physics so appealing, The Order of Time offers a profoundly intelligent, culturally rich, novel appreciation of the mysteries of time.

The Singular Universe and the Reality of Time

The Singular Universe and the Reality of Time PDF Author: Roberto Mangabeira Unger
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107074061
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 567

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Book Description
Roberto Mangabeira Unger and Lee Smolin argue for a revolution in our cosmological ideas. Ideal for non-scientists, physicists and cosmologists.

Time, Reality and Experience

Time, Reality and Experience PDF Author: Craig Callender
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521529679
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
Why does time seem to flow in one direction? Can we influence the past? Is only the present real? Does relativity conflict with our common understanding of time? Could science do away with time? These questions and others about time are among the most puzzling problems in philosophy and science. In this exciting collection of original articles, eminent philosophers propose novel answers to these and other questions. Based on the latest research in philosophy and physics, these essays will be enjoyable to anyone with a speculative turn of mind.

Arrow of Time and Reality

Arrow of Time and Reality PDF Author: Anne Magnon
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9789810230227
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
What is Reality? What is the role of human consciousness in the shaping of such a concept? These questions are as old as mankind and gave rise to the MIND-MATTER dualism which preoccupied so many physicists: Schrödinger, Wigner, etc. This book considers the problem within the realm of contemporary physics, and shows that it could be related to that of ultimate entities. The author develops the viewpoint according to which human thinking activities are fruit of the Cosmos and of its combinatorial activity. Ultimate entities, the bricks out of which our universe is made, could be hidden, as a primordial alphabet, in the foundations of the pyramid of increasing complexity, which seems to unfold as a language and to culminate in the emergence of organized and thinking structures. This is analyzed in the context of cosmological screening and horizons (an expression of our lack of access to totality) where macroscopic and microscopic can mingle, where a unification of interactions and a matching of available arrows of time can take place. This context is also that of quantum evaporation of particle-antiparticle like entities, which triggers entropy increase, and of the overlap between General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. The problem of an (global) origin of the cruising (and evanescent) “Now” is considered. A creative principle (reminiscent of the biological mitosis) is also presented which is the generator of the “event” through breaking of temporal symmetry. In this perspective, time-flow is an emergent concept: Creation of the World is declined priority on the concept of “coming into existence”. Participant to the origin of the World, all (possibly virtual) processes are able to culminate into the phenomenon of consciousness and Self-Awareness.

Flow

Flow PDF Author: Mihaly Csikszent
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0060920432
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
An introduction to "flow," a new field of behavioral science that offers life-fulfilling potential, explains its principles and shows how to introduce flow into all aspects of life, avoiding the interferences of disharmony.

Reality Is Not What It Seems

Reality Is Not What It Seems PDF Author: Carlo Rovelli
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0735213941
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
“The man who makes physics sexy . . . the scientist they’re calling the next Stephen Hawking.” —The Times Magazine From the New York Times–bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, The Order of Time, and Helgoland, a closer look at the mind-bending nature of the universe. What are the elementary ingredients of the world? Do time and space exist? And what exactly is reality? Theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli has spent his life exploring these questions. He tells us how our understanding of reality has changed over the centuries and how physicists think about the structure of the universe today. In elegant and accessible prose, Rovelli takes us on a wondrous journey from Democritus to Albert Einstein, from Michael Faraday to gravitational waves, and from classical physics to his own work in quantum gravity. As he shows us how the idea of reality has evolved over time, Rovelli offers deeper explanations of the theories he introduced so concisely in Seven Brief Lessons on Physics. This book culminates in a lucid overview of quantum gravity, the field of research that explores the quantum nature of space and time, seeking to unify quantum mechanics and general relativity. Rovelli invites us to imagine a marvelous world where space breaks up into tiny grains, time disappears at the smallest scales, and black holes are waiting to explode—a vast universe still largely undiscovered.

Cycles of Time

Cycles of Time PDF Author: Roger Penrose
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307596745
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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Book Description
From Nobel prize-winner Roger Penrose, this groundbreaking book is for anyone "who is interested in the world, how it works, and how it got here" (New York Journal of Books). Penrose presents a new perspective on three of cosmology’s essential questions: What came before the Big Bang? What is the source of order in our universe? And what cosmic future awaits us? He shows how the expected fate of our ever-accelerating and expanding universe—heat death or ultimate entropy—can actually be reinterpreted as the conditions that will begin a new “Big Bang.” He details the basic principles beneath our universe, explaining various standard and non-standard cosmological models, the fundamental role of the cosmic microwave background, the paramount significance of black holes, and other basic building blocks of contemporary physics. Intellectually thrilling and widely accessible, Cycles of Time is a welcome new contribution to our understanding of the universe from one of our greatest mathematicians and thinkers.

What Makes Time Special?

What Makes Time Special? PDF Author: Craig Callender
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192517856
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
As we navigate through life we instinctively model time as having a flowing present that divides a fixed past from open future. This model develops in childhood and is deeply saturated within our language, thought and behavior, affecting our conceptions of the universe, freedom and the self. Yet as central as it is to our lives, physics seems to have no room for this flowing present. What Makes Time Special? demonstrates this claim in detail and then turns to two novel positive tasks. First, by looking at the world "sideways" - in the spatial directions -- it shows that physics is not "spatializing time" as is commonly alleged. Even relativity theory makes significant distinctions between the spacelike and timelike directions, often with surprising consequences. Second, if the flowing present is an illusion, it is a deep one worthy of explanation. The author develops a picture whereby the temporal flow arises as an interaction effect between an observer and the physics of the world. Using insights from philosophy, cognitive science, biology, psychology and physics, the theory claims that the flowing present model of time is the natural reaction to the perceptual and evolutionary challenges thrown at us. Modeling time as flowing makes sense even if it misrepresents it.