Zenith Grant Awardee
Carlo Rovelli
Samy Maroun Center for Space Time and the Quantum
Project Title
Agency in time-reversal symmetric microphysics
Project Summary
When we take a decision, we affect the future, not the past. In fundamental physics, all distinctions between past and future can be traced to the second law of thermodynamics or similar statistic considerations. In this project, we study the relation between the time asymmetry of decision and the time asymmetry of thermodynamics.
Technical Abstract
Agency is time oriented: we act to affect the future, not the past. This is compatible with the irreversibility we observe in the physical world. It is conceivable, however, that this irreversibility depends on the increase of entropy made possible by past low entropy, or analogous appropriate past conditions. If so, there should a way to ground the behavior we call "agency" in the fact that entropy was low in the past. This connection is, I believe, still unclear, and I aim at clarifying it in this research project.
QSpace Latest
PressRelease: Shining a light on the roots of plant “intelligence”
All living organisms emit a low level of light radiation, but the origin and function of these ‘biophotons’ are not yet fully understood. An international team of physicists, funded by the Foundational Questions Institute, FQxI, has proposed a new approach for investigating this phenomenon based on statistical analyses of this emission. Their aim is to test whether biophotons can play a role in the transport of information within and between living organisms, and whether monitoring biophotons could contribute to the development of medical techniques for the early diagnosis of various diseases. Their analyses of the measurements of the faint glow emitted by lentil seeds support models for the emergence of a kind of plant ‘intelligence,’ in which the biophotonic emission carries information and may thus be used by plants as a means to communicate. The team reported this and reviewed the history of biophotons in an article in the journal Applied Sciences in June 2024.