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.
Contests Home
Current Essay Contest
Previous Contests
Undecidability, Uncomputability, and Unpredictability Essay Contest
December 24, 2019 - April 24, 2020Contest Partners: Fetzer Franklin Fund, and The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation
read/discuss
•
winners
What Is “Fundamental”
October 28, 2017 to January 22, 2018Sponsored 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, 2017Contest Partner: The Peter and Patricia Gruber Fund.
read/discuss
•
winners
Trick or Truth: The Mysterious Connection Between Physics and MathematicsContest 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, 2014Contest 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, 2013Contest 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, 2012Contest Partners: The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation, SubMeta, and Scientific American
read/discuss
•
winners
Is Reality Digital or Analog?
November 2010 - February 2011Contest Partners: The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation and Scientific American
read/discuss
•
winners
What's Ultimately Possible in Physics?
May - October 2009Contest Partners: Astrid and Bruce McWilliams
read/discuss
•
winners
The Nature of Time
August - December 2008read/discuss
•
winners
Forum Home
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
CATEGORY:
The Nature of Time Essay Contest (2008)
[back]
TOPIC:
Why Does Time “Flow” but Space Is? Answers in Evolution and Cognition by Harry E. Foundalis
[refresh]
Login or
create account to post reply or comment.
Harry E. Foundalis wrote on Oct. 21, 2008 @ 09:19 GMT
Essay AbstractIn physics, the following puzzle exists: there appears to be a physical device, the human brain, which manages to detect properties absent from the formulas of physics; namely, the one-way direction of time and its “flowing” quality. So, either (a) these two properties are physical and physics is an incomplete theory, or (b) they are cognitive (reducible to quantum physics after several levels of reduction, i.e., the neurobiological and chemical levels) and physics is complete as far as our knowledge of time is concerned. This essay claims that (b) is true: both the directionality and the flowing quality of time emerged as evolutionary adaptations in cognitively complex animal species. The main contribution of this essay is to explain why these adaptations emerged in such species, and thus to help disengage discussions on the directionality and flowing quality of time from physics proper.
Author BioHarry E. Foundalis has a Ph.D. in cognitive science (2006) from Indiana University, an M.Sc. in computer science, and a B.Sc. in mathematics. He also has keen interests in physics, astronomy, biology, cosmology, philosophy, classic literature, and more.
Download Essay PDF File
Cristi Stoica wrote on Dec. 24, 2008 @ 16:11 GMT
Dear Dr. Foundalis,
I like the explanation based on adaptation, which you provide for our EGN worldview and for the perception of time as flowing. Nice essay.
Best regards,
Cristi Stoica
Login or
create account to post reply or comment.