If you are aware of an interesting new academic paper (that has been published in a peer-reviewed journal or has appeared on the arXiv), a conference talk (at an official professional scientific meeting), an external blog post (by a professional scientist) or a news item (in the mainstream news media), which you think might make an interesting topic for an FQXi blog post, then please contact us at forums@fqxi.org with a link to the original source and a sentence about why you think that the work is worthy of discussion. Please note that we receive many such suggestions and while we endeavour to respond to them, we may not be able to reply to all suggestions.
Please also note that we do not accept unsolicited posts and we cannot review, or open new threads for, unsolicited articles or papers. Requests to review or post such materials will not be answered. If you have your own novel physics theory or model, which you would like to post for further discussion among then FQXi community, then please add them directly to the "Alternative Models of Reality" thread, or to the "Alternative Models of Cosmology" thread. Thank you.
Please also note that we do not accept unsolicited posts and we cannot review, or open new threads for, unsolicited articles or papers. Requests to review or post such materials will not be answered. If you have your own novel physics theory or model, which you would like to post for further discussion among then FQXi community, then please add them directly to the "Alternative Models of Reality" thread, or to the "Alternative Models of Cosmology" thread. Thank you.
Contests Home
Current Essay Contest
Contest Partners: The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation, SubMeta, and Scientific American
Previous Contests
Undecidability, Uncomputability, and Unpredictability Essay Contest
December 24, 2019 - April 24, 2020
Contest Partners: Fetzer Franklin Fund, and The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation
read/discuss • winners
What Is “Fundamental”
October 28, 2017 to January 22, 2018
Sponsored by the Fetzer Franklin Fund and The Peter & Patricia Gruber Foundation
read/discuss • winners
Wandering Towards a Goal
How can mindless mathematical laws give rise to aims and intention?
December 2, 2016 to March 3, 2017
Contest Partner: The Peter and Patricia Gruber Fund.
read/discuss • winners
Trick or Truth: The Mysterious Connection Between Physics and Mathematics
Contest Partners: Nanotronics Imaging, The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation, and The John Templeton Foundation
Media Partner: Scientific American
read/discuss • winners
How Should Humanity Steer the Future?
January 9, 2014 - August 31, 2014
Contest Partners: Jaan Tallinn, The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation, The John Templeton Foundation, and Scientific American
read/discuss • winners
It From Bit or Bit From It
March 25 - June 28, 2013
Contest Partners: The Gruber Foundation, J. Templeton Foundation, and Scientific American
read/discuss • winners
Questioning the Foundations
Which of Our Basic Physical Assumptions Are Wrong?
May 24 - August 31, 2012
Contest Partners: The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation, SubMeta, and Scientific American
read/discuss • winners
Is Reality Digital or Analog?
November 2010 - February 2011
Contest Partners: The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation and Scientific American
read/discuss • winners
What's Ultimately Possible in Physics?
May - October 2009
Contest Partners: Astrid and Bruce McWilliams
read/discuss • winners
The Nature of Time
August - December 2008
read/discuss • winners
Current Essay Contest
Contest Partners: The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation, SubMeta, and Scientific American
Previous Contests
Undecidability, Uncomputability, and Unpredictability Essay Contest
December 24, 2019 - April 24, 2020
Contest Partners: Fetzer Franklin Fund, and The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation
read/discuss • winners
What Is “Fundamental”
October 28, 2017 to January 22, 2018
Sponsored by the Fetzer Franklin Fund and The Peter & Patricia Gruber Foundation
read/discuss • winners
Wandering Towards a Goal
How can mindless mathematical laws give rise to aims and intention?
December 2, 2016 to March 3, 2017
Contest Partner: The Peter and Patricia Gruber Fund.
read/discuss • winners
Trick or Truth: The Mysterious Connection Between Physics and Mathematics
Contest Partners: Nanotronics Imaging, The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation, and The John Templeton Foundation
Media Partner: Scientific American
read/discuss • winners
How Should Humanity Steer the Future?
January 9, 2014 - August 31, 2014
Contest Partners: Jaan Tallinn, The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation, The John Templeton Foundation, and Scientific American
read/discuss • winners
It From Bit or Bit From It
March 25 - June 28, 2013
Contest Partners: The Gruber Foundation, J. Templeton Foundation, and Scientific American
read/discuss • winners
Questioning the Foundations
Which of Our Basic Physical Assumptions Are Wrong?
May 24 - August 31, 2012
Contest Partners: The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation, SubMeta, and Scientific American
read/discuss • winners
Is Reality Digital or Analog?
November 2010 - February 2011
Contest Partners: The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation and Scientific American
read/discuss • winners
What's Ultimately Possible in Physics?
May - October 2009
Contest Partners: Astrid and Bruce McWilliams
read/discuss • winners
The Nature of Time
August - December 2008
read/discuss • winners
Forum Home
Introduction
Terms of Use
RSS feed | RSS help
Introduction
Terms of Use
Posts by the author are highlighted in orange; posts by FQXi Members are highlighted in blue.
By using the FQXi Forum, you acknowledge reading and agree to abide by the Terms of Use RSS feed | RSS help
RECENT POSTS IN THIS TOPIC
Peter Jackson: on 10/6/12 at 19:04pm UTC, wrote Edward You confirm my own issues with sidereal and astronomical time...
DANIEL ALVES: on 9/28/12 at 16:01pm UTC, wrote Dear Edward I have read a lot of your papers, including your phd thesis...
Yuri Danoyan: on 9/8/12 at 0:23am UTC, wrote yuri@danoyan.net
John Merryman: on 9/4/12 at 2:28am UTC, wrote Edward, Since time is the subject of my own entry, I naturally had to see...
Edward Anderson: on 9/3/12 at 13:26pm UTC, wrote Essay Abstract ``It is utterly beyond our power to measure the...
RECENT FORUM POSTS
Steve Dufourny: "Hi Mr Hosein, the MWI of Everett is a philosophical different..." in Good Vibrations
Steve Dufourny: "Hello John and Dr Chiang, Dr Chiang , I have tried to find you on..." in Anatomy of spacetime and...
Nicholas hosein: "Reality is a many-worlds Quantum level event." in Good Vibrations
Kwan Chiang: "Hi John and Steve, When the majority talk about Maxwell equations, it is..." in Anatomy of spacetime and...
Monika Součková: "What do you feel the most exciting or effective learning environment would..." in Quantum Machine Learning...
Jim Snowdon: "Had we evolved on a swiftly rotating planet like the Earth, our..." in The Quantum Clock-Maker...
Jim Snowdon: "If the rotational motion of the moon is 370km per hour, and the rotational..." in The Quantum Clock-Maker...
Lorraine Ford: "Steve, I would like to point out that physics says that the world and..." in How does an Isolated...
RECENT ARTICLES
click titles to read articles
Good Vibrations
Microbead 'motor' exploits natural fluctuations for power.
Reconstructing Physics
New photon experiment gives new meta-framework, 'constructor theory,' a boost.
The Quantum Engineer: Q&A with Alexia Auffèves
Experiments seek to use quantum observations as fuel to power mini motors.
The Quantum Clock-Maker Investigating COVID-19, Causality, and the Trouble with AI
Sally Shrapnel, a quantum physicist and medical practitioner, on her experiments into cause-and-effect that could help us understand time’s arrow—and build better healthcare algorithms.
Connect the Quantum Dots for a New Kind of Fuel
'Artificial atoms' allow physicists to manipulate individual electrons—and could help to reduce energy wastage in electronic devices.
Peter Jackson: on 10/6/12 at 19:04pm UTC, wrote Edward You confirm my own issues with sidereal and astronomical time...
DANIEL ALVES: on 9/28/12 at 16:01pm UTC, wrote Dear Edward I have read a lot of your papers, including your phd thesis...
Yuri Danoyan: on 9/8/12 at 0:23am UTC, wrote yuri@danoyan.net
John Merryman: on 9/4/12 at 2:28am UTC, wrote Edward, Since time is the subject of my own entry, I naturally had to see...
Edward Anderson: on 9/3/12 at 13:26pm UTC, wrote Essay Abstract ``It is utterly beyond our power to measure the...
RECENT FORUM POSTS
Steve Dufourny: "Hi Mr Hosein, the MWI of Everett is a philosophical different..." in Good Vibrations
Steve Dufourny: "Hello John and Dr Chiang, Dr Chiang , I have tried to find you on..." in Anatomy of spacetime and...
Nicholas hosein: "Reality is a many-worlds Quantum level event." in Good Vibrations
Kwan Chiang: "Hi John and Steve, When the majority talk about Maxwell equations, it is..." in Anatomy of spacetime and...
Monika Součková: "What do you feel the most exciting or effective learning environment would..." in Quantum Machine Learning...
Jim Snowdon: "Had we evolved on a swiftly rotating planet like the Earth, our..." in The Quantum Clock-Maker...
Jim Snowdon: "If the rotational motion of the moon is 370km per hour, and the rotational..." in The Quantum Clock-Maker...
Lorraine Ford: "Steve, I would like to point out that physics says that the world and..." in How does an Isolated...
RECENT ARTICLES
click titles to read articles
Good Vibrations
Microbead 'motor' exploits natural fluctuations for power.
Reconstructing Physics
New photon experiment gives new meta-framework, 'constructor theory,' a boost.
The Quantum Engineer: Q&A with Alexia Auffèves
Experiments seek to use quantum observations as fuel to power mini motors.
The Quantum Clock-Maker Investigating COVID-19, Causality, and the Trouble with AI
Sally Shrapnel, a quantum physicist and medical practitioner, on her experiments into cause-and-effect that could help us understand time’s arrow—and build better healthcare algorithms.
Connect the Quantum Dots for a New Kind of Fuel
'Artificial atoms' allow physicists to manipulate individual electrons—and could help to reduce energy wastage in electronic devices.
FQXi FORUM
January 18, 2022
CATEGORY:
Questioning the Foundations Essay Contest (2012)
[back]
TOPIC: Machian Time Is To Be Abstracted From What Change? by Edward Anderson [refresh]
TOPIC: Machian Time Is To Be Abstracted From What Change? by Edward Anderson [refresh]
Essay Abstract
``It is utterly beyond our power to measure the changes of things by time. Quite the contrary, time is an abstraction at which we arrive through the changes of things." Ernst Mach [1]. *What* change? Three answers to this are `any change' (Rovelli), `all change' (Barbour) and my argument here for the middle ground of a `sufficient totality of locally relevant change' (STLRC) giving a generalization of the astronomers' ephemeris time. I then use STLRC as a selection principle on existing and new approaches to the Problem of Time in Quantum Gravity. Emergent Jacobi-Barbour-Bertotti time can be interpreted as arising from a STLRC, resolves the classical Problem of Time and has an emergent semiclassical counterpart as regards facing the QM Problem of Time.
Author Bio
Edward Anderson studied theoretical physics at Cambridge and London, before holding research positions at Cambridge, Alberta, Madrid and Paris. Edward's other main interest is in forms of university welfare that actually work for the shy and the different.
Download Essay PDF File
``It is utterly beyond our power to measure the changes of things by time. Quite the contrary, time is an abstraction at which we arrive through the changes of things." Ernst Mach [1]. *What* change? Three answers to this are `any change' (Rovelli), `all change' (Barbour) and my argument here for the middle ground of a `sufficient totality of locally relevant change' (STLRC) giving a generalization of the astronomers' ephemeris time. I then use STLRC as a selection principle on existing and new approaches to the Problem of Time in Quantum Gravity. Emergent Jacobi-Barbour-Bertotti time can be interpreted as arising from a STLRC, resolves the classical Problem of Time and has an emergent semiclassical counterpart as regards facing the QM Problem of Time.
Author Bio
Edward Anderson studied theoretical physics at Cambridge and London, before holding research positions at Cambridge, Alberta, Madrid and Paris. Edward's other main interest is in forms of university welfare that actually work for the shy and the different.
Download Essay PDF File
Edward,
Since time is the subject of my own entry, I naturally had to see what your entry says.
You make what seems to be the classic physics mistake of first recognizing that time is an effect of change, then obsessing over how it's measured. If you want to understand time, ask what change is, not how to measure it. Hint: The earth doesn't travel the fourth dimension from yesterday to tomorrow. Tomorrow becomes yesterday because the earth rotates.
report post as inappropriate
Since time is the subject of my own entry, I naturally had to see what your entry says.
You make what seems to be the classic physics mistake of first recognizing that time is an effect of change, then obsessing over how it's measured. If you want to understand time, ask what change is, not how to measure it. Hint: The earth doesn't travel the fourth dimension from yesterday to tomorrow. Tomorrow becomes yesterday because the earth rotates.
Dear Edward
I have read a lot of your papers, including your phd thesis which I find fascinating. I will have to read your essay again to go through all the technical details. One question: why are Mach´s thoughts so compelling? If distinct philosophies of motion lead to distinct physics, would it be possible that advances in Mach´s thougths could lead to advances in physics? Particularly, are we restricted to absolute or relational philosophies of motion? Please see my essay , I think your opinion would be very valuable. Thanks
Daniel
report post as inappropriate
I have read a lot of your papers, including your phd thesis which I find fascinating. I will have to read your essay again to go through all the technical details. One question: why are Mach´s thoughts so compelling? If distinct philosophies of motion lead to distinct physics, would it be possible that advances in Mach´s thougths could lead to advances in physics? Particularly, are we restricted to absolute or relational philosophies of motion? Please see my essay , I think your opinion would be very valuable. Thanks
Daniel
Edward
You confirm my own issues with sidereal and astronomical time conventions, but I was quite surprised, although closing in a little on the question of locality of time, that you didn't explore of analyse 'Proper Time', and the consequential existence of what I may then christen 'improper time' and it's rationalisation. Do you have a view?
I'd also be interested in your views on the rather new temporal analysis and findings within my own essay.
Best wishes.
Peter
report post as inappropriate
You confirm my own issues with sidereal and astronomical time conventions, but I was quite surprised, although closing in a little on the question of locality of time, that you didn't explore of analyse 'Proper Time', and the consequential existence of what I may then christen 'improper time' and it's rationalisation. Do you have a view?
I'd also be interested in your views on the rather new temporal analysis and findings within my own essay.
Best wishes.
Peter
Login or create account to post reply or comment.