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RECENT POSTS IN THIS TOPIC
Josh Hoffman: on 3/24/22 at 23:54pm UTC, wrote With Carlo Rovelli, Theoretical Physicist, Director of the Quantum Gravity...
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Josh Hoffman: on 3/24/22 at 23:54pm UTC, wrote With Carlo Rovelli, Theoretical Physicist, Director of the Quantum Gravity...
RECENT FORUM POSTS
Steve Dufourny: "In reading the paper of Maudlin quietly, I have ideas , The aim is to..." in The Noise of Gravitons
Steve Dufourny: "The equation that I have writen here is intuitive and needs probably some..." in The Noise of Gravitons
Steve Dufourny: "A kind of strategy is necessary to create all these solutions.FQXi could..." in Global Collaboration
Steve Dufourny: "This project Global collaboration here on FQXi is possible, we could name..." in Global Collaboration
Steve Dufourny: "stop this please, FQXi is well moderated , so don t insist" in George Ellis - How can...
Martin Gray: "What are the different skin conditions that people often face? Every skin..." in George Ellis - How can...
Steve Dufourny: "Jonathan Dickau ,hope you are well, always cool to have your points of vue,..." in 16th Marcel Grossmann...
Steve Dufourny: "This platform is about theoretical physics, it is irritating to have these..." in 16th Marcel Grossmann...
RECENT ARTICLES
click titles to read articles
The Math of Consciousness: Q&A with Kobi Kremnitzer
A meditating mathematician is developing a theory of conscious experience to help understand the boundary between the quantum and classical world.
Can We Feel What It’s Like to Be Quantum?
Underground experiments in the heart of the Italian mountains are testing the links between consciousness and collapse theories of quantum physics.
The Thermodynamic Limits of Intelligence: Q&A with David Wolpert
Calculating the energy needed to acquire and compute information could help explain the (in)efficiency of human brains and guide the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence.
Gambling Against the Second Law
Using precision thermometry to make mini heat engines, that might, momentarily, bust through the thermodynamic limit.
Mind and Machine: What Does It Mean to Be Sentient?
Using neural networks to test definitions of 'autonomy.'
FQXi BLOGS
July 7, 2022
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TOPIC: What is a ‘Cause,’ and Why Does it Happen Before the Effect? Carlo Rovelli by Carlo Rovelli [refresh]
TOPIC: What is a ‘Cause,’ and Why Does it Happen Before the Effect? Carlo Rovelli by Carlo Rovelli [refresh]
With Carlo Rovelli, Theoretical Physicist, Director of the Quantum Gravity Group.
The physics of the time orientation of causation is more subtle than what it looks like superficially. For a long while, it was reduced to a mere linguistic issue (a “cause” is just the term of a correlation that happens earlier, per Hume). As emphasized by Russell, there is no time orientation in fundamental physics. But causation was later better understood as an essential notion in the context of an agent having choices, which after all is our own common context. This traces the time orientation of causation to the time orientation of agency. This realization has been used by Nancy Cartwright to argue for the incompleteness of fundamental physics. However, agents are, in turn, physical systems and they must derive their time orientation from physics. Does this bring us back to square one? Remarkably, the answer is no because agency is a macroscopic notion and macroscopic physics is, contingently, time oriented, in a way compatible with the fundamental absence of an arrow of time. Hence the time orientation is causation is a consequence of the thermodynamic arrow of time, but in a peculiarly indirect way, that goes through the physical nature of the agents with respect to which causation is meaningful.
Keywords: #agency #Rovelli #Thermodynamics #Quantum
This forum thread is open to the public.
The physics of the time orientation of causation is more subtle than what it looks like superficially. For a long while, it was reduced to a mere linguistic issue (a “cause” is just the term of a correlation that happens earlier, per Hume). As emphasized by Russell, there is no time orientation in fundamental physics. But causation was later better understood as an essential notion in the context of an agent having choices, which after all is our own common context. This traces the time orientation of causation to the time orientation of agency. This realization has been used by Nancy Cartwright to argue for the incompleteness of fundamental physics. However, agents are, in turn, physical systems and they must derive their time orientation from physics. Does this bring us back to square one? Remarkably, the answer is no because agency is a macroscopic notion and macroscopic physics is, contingently, time oriented, in a way compatible with the fundamental absence of an arrow of time. Hence the time orientation is causation is a consequence of the thermodynamic arrow of time, but in a peculiarly indirect way, that goes through the physical nature of the agents with respect to which causation is meaningful.
Keywords: #agency #Rovelli #Thermodynamics #Quantum
This forum thread is open to the public.
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