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Time's Arrow And Archimedes' Point
''Time's Arrow and Archimedes Point: New Directions for the Physics of Time'' is a 1996 book by Huw Price, on the physics and philosophy of the Arrow of Time. It explores the problem of the direction of time, looking at issues in thermodynamics, cosmology, electromagnetism, and quantum mechanics. Price argues that it is fruitful to think about time from a hypothetical Archimedean Point - a viewpoint outside of time. In later chapters, Price argues that retrocausality can resolve many of the philosophical issues facing quantum mechanics and along these lines proposes an interpretation involving what he calls 'advanced action'. Summary Chapter 1 - The View From Nowhen Price briefly introduces the stock philosophical questions about time, starting with Saint Augustine's observations in Confessions, highlighting the questions 'What is the difference between past and future?', 'Could the future affect the past?' and 'what gives time its direction?'. He then introduces the block ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Huw Price
Huw Price (; born 17 May 1953) is an Australian philosopher, formerly the Bertrand Russell Professor in the Faculty of Philosophy, Cambridge, and a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. He was previously Challis Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Centre for Time at the University of Sydney, and before that Professor of Logic and Metaphysics at the University of Edinburgh. He is also one of three founders and the Academic Director of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge, and the Academic Director of the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence. Work Price is known for his work in philosophy of physics and for his brand of "neo-pragmatism" and " anti-representationalism," according to which "all utterances must be looked at through the lens of their function in our interactions, not the metaphysics of their semantic relations." This view has acknowledged affinities with the work of Robert Brandom and, earlier, Wilfrid Sel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ludwig Boltzmann
Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann (; 20 February 1844 – 5 September 1906) was an Austrian physicist and philosopher. His greatest achievements were the development of statistical mechanics, and the statistical explanation of the second law of thermodynamics. In 1877 he provided the current definition of entropy, S = k_ \ln \Omega \!, where Ω is the number of microstates whose energy equals the system's energy, interpreted as a measure of statistical disorder of a system. Max Planck named the constant the Boltzmann constant. Statistical mechanics is one of the pillars of modern physics. It describes how macroscopic observations (such as temperature and pressure) are related to microscopic parameters that fluctuate around an average. It connects thermodynamic quantities (such as heat capacity) to microscopic behavior, whereas, in classical thermodynamics, the only available option would be to measure and tabulate such quantities for various materials. Biography Childhood and educat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
GHZ Experiment
The Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger experiment or GHZ experiments are a class of physics experiments that may be used to generate starkly contrasting predictions from local hidden-variable theory and quantum mechanical theory, and permit immediate comparison with actual experimental results. A GHZ experiment is similar to a test of Bell's inequality, except using three or more entangled particles, rather than two. With specific settings of GHZ experiments, it is possible to demonstrate absolute contradictions between the predictions of local hidden variable theory and those of quantum mechanics, whereas tests of Bell's inequality only demonstrate contradictions of a statistical nature. The results of actual GHZ experiments agree with the predictions of quantum mechanics. The GHZ experiments are named for Daniel M. Greenberger, Michael A. Horne, and Anton Zeilinger (GHZ) who first analyzed certain measurements involving four observers and who subsequently (together with Abner Shim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Measurement Problem
In quantum mechanics, the measurement problem is the problem of how, or whether, wave function collapse occurs. The inability to observe such a collapse directly has given rise to different interpretations of quantum mechanics and poses a key set of questions that each interpretation must answer. The wave function in quantum mechanics evolves deterministically according to the Schrödinger equation as a linear superposition of different states. However, actual measurements always find the physical system in a definite state. Any future evolution of the wave function is based on the state the system was discovered to be in when the measurement was made, meaning that the measurement "did something" to the system that is not obviously a consequence of Schrödinger evolution. The measurement problem is describing what that "something" is, how a superposition of many possible values becomes a single measured value. To express matters differently (paraphrasing Steven Weinberg), the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
EPR Paradox
EPR may refer to: Science and technology * EPR (nuclear reactor), European Pressurised-Water Reactor * EPR paradox (Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen paradox), in physics * Earth potential rise, in electrical engineering * East Pacific Rise, a mid-oceanic ridge * Electron paramagnetic resonance * Engine pressure ratio,of a jet engine * Ethylene propylene rubber * Yevpatoria RT-70 radio telescope (Evpatoria planetary radar) * Bernays–Schönfinkel class or effectively propositional, in mathematical logic * Endpoint references in Web addressing * Ethnic Power Relations, dataset of ethnic groups * ePrivacy Regulation (ePR), proposal for the regulation of various privacy-related topics, mostly in relation to electronic communications within the European Union Medicine * Enhanced permeability and retention effect, a controversial concept in cancer research * Emergency Preservation and Resuscitation, a medical procedure * Electronic patient record Environment * UNECE Environmental ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Dummett
Sir Michael Anthony Eardley Dummett (27 June 1925 – 27 December 2011) was an English academic described as "among the most significant British philosophers of the last century and a leading campaigner for racial tolerance and equality." He was, until 1992, Wykeham Professor of Logic at the University of Oxford. He wrote on the history of analytic philosophy, notably as an interpreter of Frege, and made original contributions particularly in the philosophies of mathematics, logic, language and metaphysics. He was known for his work on truth and meaning and their implications to debates between realism and anti-realism, a term he helped to popularize. He devised the Quota Borda system of proportional voting, based on the Borda count. In mathematical logic, he developed an intermediate logic, already studied by Kurt Gödel: the Gödel–Dummett logic. Education and army service Born 27 June 1925, Dummett was the son of George Herbert Dummett (1880–1970), a silk merch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gold Universe
A Gold universe is a cosmological model of the universe. In these models, the universe starts with a Big Bang and expands for some time, with increasing entropy and a thermodynamic arrow of time pointing in the direction of the expansion. After the universe reaches a low-density state, it recontracts, but entropy now decreases, pointing the thermodynamic arrow of time in the opposite direction, until the universe ends in a low-entropy, high-density Big Crunch The Big Crunch is a hypothetical scenario for the ultimate fate of the universe, in which the expansion of the universe eventually reverses and the universe recollapses, ultimately causing the cosmic scale factor to reach zero, an event potential .... There are two models of the universe which support the possibility of a reversed direction of time. The first begins with a state of low entropy at the Big Bang which continually increases until the Big Crunch. The second, a Gold Universe, posits that entropy will increase ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wheeler–Feynman Absorber Theory
The Wheeler–Feynman absorber theory (also called the Wheeler–Feynman time-symmetric theory), named after its originators, the physicists Richard Feynman and John Archibald Wheeler, is an interpretation of electrodynamics derived from the assumption that the solutions of the electromagnetic field equations must be invariant under time-reversal transformation, as are the field equations themselves. Indeed, there is no apparent reason for the time-reversal symmetry breaking, which singles out a preferential time direction and thus makes a distinction between past and future. A time-reversal invariant theory is more logical and elegant. Another key principle, resulting from this interpretation and reminiscent of Mach's principle due to Hugo Tetrode, is that elementary particles are not self-interacting. This immediately removes the problem of self-energies. T-symmetry and causality The requirement of time-reversal symmetry, in general, is difficult to reconcile with the princ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dieter Zeh
Heinz-Dieter Zeh (; 8 May 1932 – 15 April 2018), usually referred to as H. Dieter Zeh, was a professor (later professor emeritus) of the University of Heidelberg and theoretical physicist. Work Zeh was one of the developers of the many-minds interpretation of quantum mechanics and the discoverer of decoherence, first described in his seminal 1970 paper. Bibliography *''The Problem Of Conscious Observation In Quantum Mechanical Description'' (June, 2000). *''The Physical Basis of the Direction of Time'', 2001, *''Decoherence and the Appearance of a Classical World in Quantum Theory'', 2003, (with Erich Joos, Claus Kiefer, Domenico Giulini, Joachim Kupsch, Ion-Olimpiu Stamatescu) * "On the interpretation of measurement in quantum theory", 1970, Foundations of Physics, Volume 1, Issue 1, pp. 69–76 See also *''Epistemological Letters'' *Measurement problem *Quantum suicide and immortality Quantum suicide is a thought experiment in quantum mechanics and the philosophy of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Davies
Paul Charles William Davies (born 22 April 1946) is an English physicist, writer and broadcaster, a professor in Arizona State University and Director of BEYOND: Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science. He is affiliated with the Institute for Quantum Studies in Chapman University in California. He previously held academic appointments in the University of Cambridge, University College London, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, University of Adelaide and Macquarie University. His research interests are in the fields of cosmology, quantum field theory, and astrobiology. In 2005, he took up the chair of the SETI: Post-Detection Science and Technology Taskgroup of the International Academy of Astronautics. Davies serves on the Advisory Council of METI (Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence). Education Born on 22 April 1946, Davies was brought up in Finchley, London. He attended Woodhouse Grammar School and studied physics at University College London, gaining a Bachel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
