Time's Arrow and Self-Locating Probability
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The Arrow of Time Volume 7 Paul Davies Summer 2014 Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, Arizona State University, Journal Homepage P.O
The arrow of time Volume 7 Paul Davies Summer 2014 Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, Arizona State University, journal homepage P.O. Box 871504, Tempe, AZ 852871504, USA. www.euresisjournal.org [email protected] Abstract The arrow of time is often conflated with the popular but hopelessly muddled concept of the “flow” or \passage" of time. I argue that the latter is at best an illusion with its roots in neuroscience, at worst a meaningless concept. However, what is beyond dispute is that physical states of the universe evolve in time with an objective and readily-observable directionality. The ultimate origin of this asymmetry in time, which is most famously captured by the second law of thermodynamics and the irreversible rise of entropy, rests with cosmology and the state of the universe at its origin. I trace the various physical processes that contribute to the growth of entropy, and conclude that gravitation holds the key to providing a comprehensive explanation of the elusive arrow. 1. Time's arrow versus the flow of time The subject of time's arrow is bedeviled by ambiguous or poor terminology and the con- flation of concepts. Therefore I shall begin my essay by carefully defining terms. First an uncontentious statement: the states of the physical universe are observed to be distributed asymmetrically with respect to the time dimension (see, for example, Refs. [1, 2, 3, 4]). A simple example is provided by an earthquake: the ground shakes and buildings fall down. We would not expect to see the reverse sequence, in which shaking ground results in the assembly of a building from a heap of rubble. -
September Issue
THE GLOBAL PRESS, ISSUE 1 OCT 4, 2013 JOHN MUIR K-12 MAGNET SCHOOL | BUILDING GLOBAL CITIZENS | FALL 2013 Sam Rempola - Editor-In-Chief Harry Pearce - Science & Technology Rahja Williams - Global Connections Pedro Quiroz & Tanya Reyes - Art Nicole Matthews - Food & Entertainment Mayra Jaramillo & Charday Drayton-White - Student Life Areli Ventura - Graphic Design Staff Writers: Genesis Felix, Rahel Garcia, Jose Juarez- Bardales, Riley Petka, Munah Togba Muir excited to announce class ambassadors by Mayra Jaramillo Annual peace march a success Being a class ambassador means by Jose Juarez students get the opportunity to On September 20th, John Muir held its annual peace walk, an event that brings together represent their classes and bring ideas students from all grades. As is the tradition, we were led by our own peace dove as we walked to the attention of ASB. Candidates were around the school holding signs and flags promoting peace. selected by their teachers based on maturity, academic standing, and leadership skills and then chosen by Muir welcomes new principal by Areli Ventura & Jael Villagomez their class. The ASB is looking forward appreciates the opportunity to have a direct to getting input from the more Muir students are happy to introduce our impact on students’ lives. Mrs. Bellofatto feels representatives of the student body, so new principal, Mrs. Laura Bellofatto. Mrs. being a principal is an amazing experience. the school supports all students. Bellofatto previously worked as a principal at Eleventh grade ambassador, Rahja When Mrs. Bellofatto is not at school, she Morse High and the Construction Tech likes to be outdoors. -
Avoiding Boltzmann Brain Domination in Holographic Dark Energy Models
Physics Letters B 750 (2015) 181–183 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Physics Letters B www.elsevier.com/locate/physletb Avoiding Boltzmann Brain domination in holographic dark energy models R. Horvat Rudjer Boškovi´c Institute, P.O.B. 180, 10002 Zagreb, Croatia a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: In a spatially infinite and eternal universe approaching ultimately a de Sitter (or quasi-de Sitter) Received 2 March 2015 regime, structure can form by thermal fluctuations as such a space is thermal. The models of Dark Received in revised form 10 August 2015 Energy invoking holographic principle fit naturally into such a category, and spontaneous formation of Accepted 2 September 2015 isolated brains in otherwise empty space seems the most perplexing, creating the paradox of Boltzmann Available online 7 September 2015 Brains (BB). It is thus appropriate to ask if such models can be made free from domination by Boltzmann Editor: M. Cveticˇ Brains. Here we consider only the simplest model, but adopt both the local and the global viewpoint in the description of the Universe. In the former case, we find that if a dimensionless model parameter c, which modulates the Dark Energy density, lies outside the exponentially narrow strip around the most natural c = 1line, the theory is rendered BB-safe. In the latter case, the bound on c is exponentially stronger, and seemingly at odds with those bounds on c obtained from various observational tests. © 2015 The Author. Published by Elsevier B.V. -
Chaos, Dissipation, Arrow of Time, in Quantum Physics I the National Institute of Standards and Technology Was Established in 1988 by Congress to "Assist
Chaos, Dissipation, Arrow of Time, in Quantum Physics i The National Institute of Standards and Technology was established in 1988 by Congress to "assist industry in the development of technology . needed to improve product quality, to modernize manufacturing processes, to ensure product reliability . and to facilitate rapid commercialization . of products based on new scientific discoveries." NIST, originally founded as the National Bureau of Standards in 1901, works to strengthen U.S. industry's competitiveness; advance science and engineering; and improve public health, safety, and the environment. One of the agency's basic functions is to develop, maintain, and retain custody of the national standards of measurement, and provide the means and methods for comparing standards used in science, engineering, manufacturing, commerce, industry, and education with the standards adopted or recognized by the Federal Government. As an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department's Technology Administration, NIST conducts basic and applied research in the physical sciences and engineering and performs related services. The Institute does generic and precompetitive work on new and advanced technologies. NIST's research facilities are located at Gaithersburg, MD 20899, and at Boulder, CO 80303. Major technical operating units and their principal activities are listed below. For more information contact the Public Inquiries Desk, 301-975-3058. Technology Services Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory • Manufacturing Technology Centers Program • Precision -
In the Experiments in Which Alpha-Activity Was Measured Using Collimators Directed at East and West
Volume 1 PROGRESS IN PHYSICS January, 2010 “The Arrow of Time” in the Experiments in which Alpha-Activity was Measured Using Collimators Directed at East and West Simon E. Shnoll, Ilya A. Rubinsteiny, and Nikolai N. Vedenkiny Department of Physics, Moscow State University, Moscow 119992, Russia Inst. of Theor. and Experim. Biophysics, Russian Acad. of Sci., Pushchino, Moscow Region, 142290, Russia Puschino State University, Prospect Nauki 3, Pushchino, Moscow Region, 142290, Russia ySkobeltsin’s Institute of Nuclear Physics, Moscow State University, Moscow 119991, Russia E-mail: [email protected] In our previous paper (Shnoll and Rubinstein, Progress in Physics, 2009, v. 2, 83–95), we briefly reported about a phenomenon, which can be called the “arrow of time”: when we compared histograms constructed from the results of 239-Pu alpha-activity measurements that were obtained using West- and East-directed collimators, daytime series of the “eastern” histograms were similar to the inverted series of the following night, whereas daytime series of the “western” histograms resembled the inverted series of the preceding night. Here we consider this phenomenon in more detail. 1 Introduction As follows from all our past results, the fine structure of the spectrum of amplitude fluctuations (the shape of the corre- sponding histograms) is determined by the motion (orienta- tion) of the object studied (the laboratory) in relation to spa- tial inhomogeneities [2]. The spatial pattern (arrangement in space) of these inhomogeneities is stable: as the Earth ro- tates about its axis and moves along the circumsolar orbit, similar histogram shapes are realized repeatedly with the cor- responding periods (daily, near-monthly, yearly) [3, 4]. -
The Deadly Affairs of John Figaro Newton Or a Senseless Appeal to Reason and an Elegy for the Dreaming
The deadly affairs of John Figaro Newton or a senseless appeal to reason and an elegy for the dreaming Item Type Thesis Authors Campbell, Regan Download date 26/09/2021 19:18:08 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/11122/11260 THE DEADLY AFFAIRS OF JOHN FIGARO NEWTON OR A SENSELESS APPEAL TO REASON AND AN ELEGY FOR THE DREAMING By Regan Campbell, B.F.A. A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing University of Alaska Fairbanks May 2020 APPROVED: Daryl Farmer, Committee Chair Leonard Kamerling, Committee Member Chris Coffman, Committee Member Rich Carr, Chair Department of English Todd Sherman, Dean College of Liberal Arts Michael Castellini, Dean of the Graduate School Abstract Are you really you? Are your memories true? John “Fig” Newton thinks much the same as you do. But in three separate episodes of his life, he comes to see things are a little more strange and less straightforward than everyone around him has been inured to the point of pretending they are; maybe it's all some kind of bizarre form of torture for someone with the misfortune of assuming they embody a real and actual person. Whatever the case, Fig is sure he can't trust that truth exists, and over the course of his many doomed relationships and professional foibles, he continually strives to find another like him—someone incandescent with rage, and preferably, as insane and beautiful as he. i Extracts “Whose blood do you still thirst for? But sacred philosophy will shackle your success, for whatsoever may be your momentary triumph or the disorder of this anarchy, you will never govern enlightened men. -
110508NU-Ep511-Yellow Script
“Arrow of Time” #511/Ep. 90 Written by Ken Sanzel Directed by Ken Sanzel Production Draft – 10/17/08 Rev. FULL Blue – 10/30/08 Rev. Pink – 11/4/08 Rev. Yellow – 11/5/08 (Pages: 41,46,50,55.) SCOTT FREE in association with CBS PARAMOUNT NETWORK TELEVISION, a division of CBS Studios. © Copyright 2008 CBS Paramount Network Television. All Rights Reserved. This script is the property of CBS Paramount Network Television and may not be copied or distributed without the express written permission of CBS Paramount Network Television. This copy of the script remains the property of CBS Paramount Network Television. It may not be sold or transferred and must be returned to: CBS Paramount Network Television Legal Affairs 4024 Radford Avenue Administration Bldg., Suite 390, Studio City, CA 91604 THE WRITING CREDITS MAY OR MAY NOT BE FINAL AND SHOULD NOT BE USED FOR PUBLICITY OR ADVERTISING PURPOSES WITHOUT FIRST CHECKING WITH TELEVISION LEGAL DEPARTMENT. “Arrow of Time” Ep. #511 – Production Draft: Rev. Yellow – 11/5/08 SCRIPT REVISION HISTORY COLOR DATE PAGES WHITE 10/17/08 (1-57) REV. FULL BLUE 10/30/08 (1-57) REV. PINK 11/4/08 (2,3,4,6,7,18,19,20,27,33, 34,39,41,42,49,50,51,55.) REV. YELLOW 11/5/08 (41,46,50,55.) “Arrow of Time” Ep. #511 – Production Draft: Rev. FULL Blue – 10/30/08 CAST LIST DON EPPES CHARLIE EPPES ALAN EPPES DAVID SINCLAIR LARRY FLEINHARDT AMITA RAMANUJAN COLBY GRANGER NIKKI BETANCOURT LIZ WARNER ROBIN BROOKS BUCK WINTERS RAFE LANSKY GRAY McCLAUGHLIN JOE THIBODEAUX * DEANNE DRAKE TOBY TIM PYNCHON SECOND MARSHAL “Arrow of Time” Ep. -
Seeing the Arrow of Time
Seeing the Arrow of Time Lyndsey C. Pickup1 Zheng Pan2 Donglai Wei3 YiChang Shih3 Changshui Zhang2 Andrew Zisserman1 Bernhard Scholkopf¨ 4 William T. Freeman3 1Visual Geometry Group, Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford. 2Department of Automation, Tsinghua University State Key Lab of Intelligent Technologies and Systems, Tsinghua National Laboratory for Information Science and Technology (TNList). 3Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 4Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Tubingen.¨ Abstract itself visually. This is a fundamental property of the visual world that we should understand. Thus we ask the question: We explore whether we can observe Time’s Arrow in a can we see the Arrow of Time? – can we distinguish a video temporal sequence–is it possible to tell whether a video is playing forward from one playing backward? running forwards or backwards? We investigate this some- Here, we seek to use low-level visual information – what philosophical question using computer vision and ma- closer to the underlying physics – to see Time’s Arrow, not chine learning techniques. object-level visual cues. We are not interested in memoriz- We explore three methods by which we might detect ing that cars tend to drive forward, but rather in studying the Time’s Arrow in video sequences, based on distinct ways common temporal structure of images. We expect that such in which motion in video sequences might be asymmetric regularities will make the problem amenable to a learning- in time. We demonstrate good video forwards/backwards based approach. Some sequences will be difficult or im- classification results on a selection of YouTube video clips, possible; others may be straightforward. -
Seeing the Arrow of Time
Seeing the Arrow of Time Lyndsey C. Pickup1 Zheng Pan2 Donglai Wei3 YiChang Shih3 Changshui Zhang2 Andrew Zisserman1 Bernhard Scholkopf¨ 4 William T. Freeman3 1Visual Geometry Group, Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford. 2Department of Automation, Tsinghua University State Key Lab of Intelligent Technologies and Systems, Tsinghua National Laboratory for Information Science and Technology (TNList). 3Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 4Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Tubingen.¨ Abstract itself visually. This is a fundamental property of the visual world that we should understand. Thus we ask the question: We explore whether we can observe Time’s Arrow in a can we see the Arrow of Time? – can we distinguish a video temporal sequence–is it possible to tell whether a video is playing forward from one playing backward? running forwards or backwards? We investigate this some- Here, we seek to use low-level visual information – what philosophical question using computer vision and ma- closer to the underlying physics – to see Time’s Arrow, not chine learning techniques. object-level visual cues. We are not interested in memoriz- We explore three methods by which we might detect ing that cars tend to drive forward, but rather in studying the Time’s Arrow in video sequences, based on distinct ways common temporal structure of images. We expect that such in which motion in video sequences might be asymmetric regularities will make the problem amenable to a learning- in time. We demonstrate good video forwards/backwards based approach. Some sequences will be difficult or im- classification results on a selection of YouTube video clips, possible; others may be straightforward. -
Why Is There Something, Rather Than Nothing?
Why Is There Something, Rather Than Nothing?∗ Sean M. Carroll Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, U.S.A. [email protected] February 8, 2018 It seems natural to ask why the universe exists at all. Modern physics suggests that the universe can exist all by itself as a self-contained system, without any- thing external to create or sustain it. But there might not be an absolute answer to why it exists. I argue that any attempt to account for the existence of some- thing rather than nothing must ultimately bottom out in a set of brute facts; the universe simply is, without ultimate cause or explanation. Science and philosophy are concerned with asking how things are, and why they are the way they are. It therefore seems natural to take the next step and ask why things are at all – why the universe exists, or why there is something rather than nothing [1, 2]. Ancient philosophers didn’t focus too much on what Heidegger [3] called the “funda- mental question of metaphysics” and Gr¨unbaum [4] has dubbed the “Primordial Existential Question.” It was Leibniz, in the eighteenth century, who first explicitly asked “Why is there something rather than nothing?” in the context of discussing his Principle of Sufficient Rea- son (“nothing is without a ground or reason why it is”) [5]. By way of an answer, Leibniz arXiv:1802.02231v1 [physics.hist-ph] 6 Feb 2018 appealed to what has become a popular strategy: God is the reason the universe exists, but God’s existence is its own reason, since God exists necessarily. -
What Follows from the Possibility of Boltzmann Brains?
What Follows from the Possibility of Boltzmann Brains? Matthew Kotzen University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Department of Philosophy Draft of August 27, 2017 1 The Boltzmann Brain Problems A Boltzmann Brain is a hypothesized observer that comes into existence by way of an extremely low-probability quantum or thermodynamic1 “fluctuation” and that is capable of conscious experience (including sensory experience and apparent memories) and at least some degree of reflection about itself and its environment. Boltzmann Brains do not have histories that are anything like the ones that we seriously consider as candidates for own history; they did not come into existence on a large, stable planet, and their existence is not the re- sult of any sort of evolutionary process or intelligent design. Rather, they are staggeringly improbable cosmic “accidents” that are (at least typically) mas- sively deluded about their own predicament and history. It is uncontroversial that Boltzmann Brains are both metaphysically and physically possible, and yet that they are staggeringly unlikely to fluctuate into existence at any particular moment.2 Throughout the following, I will use the term “ordinary observer” to refer to an observer who is not a Boltzmann Brain. We naturally take ourselves to be ordinary observers, and I will not be arguing that we are in any way wrong to do so. There are several deep and fascinating philosophical and cosmological ques- tions that are raised by the possibility of Boltzmann Brains. Here are just a few of them: Do I have compelling reasons to believe that I am not a Boltzmann Brain? Is it possible, under any circumstances, for me to coherently believe 1Some cosmologists have argued that Boltzmann Brains that arise as quantum fluctuations in the vacuum pose more serious problems than those that arise as thermal fluctuations — see, e.g., Davenport and Olum. -
'Arrow of Time' Solution Stirs up Old Issues Sense of Well--Being Tied To
~ 1 ~7'f 'Arrow of time' solution stirs up old issues Ilya Prigogine's new formulation of physics, as reported in our last issue, This issue (June/July) contains has generated a strong response 12 pages rather than eight in order mostly favorable-from many quarters to do justice to the torrent of reac and stimulated a host of questions. tion to Ilya Prigogine's recent Some of the reaction is summarized work (May issue). The August in this issue; some is reprinted in the Brain/Mind will also be a 12- Commentary and a four-page special pager. For extra copies of this insert, with additional comments to issue, call (800) 553-MIND or I appear in future issues. (213) 223-2500. Prigogine's reformulation addresses the question of the "arrow of time," a ciplines such as biology and geology problem that has made science schizo take time into consideration. Physicists A BULLETIN Of BREAKTHROUGHS phrenic. are indeed able to show this "time According to physics, time is irrele symmetry" experimentally, but Prigo June/ July 1994 Volume 19, Numbers 9/10 vant-even reversible-whereas dis- gine says these are special cases involving isolated points. More from Tucson An "ensemble of points" behaves differently, however. Resonance Microtubules link mind, physics among the points creates genuine nov Perhaps the hottest topic of the around cells, dissolving and re-forming elty. After working on the problem for recent consciousness conference in in other places. many years, Prigogine expressed Tucson (Brain/Mind, April) was the Microtubule networks serve as a mathematically our common-sense ex potential relation- sort of skeleton for a cell, lending it perience of a forward movement of ship between con- structure and creating pathways for events.