The Nature of Time
Posted by John Baez
The Foundational Questions Institute is having an essay contest on The Nature of Time. The top prize is $10,000, the second prize is $5,000, and so on.
It’s a fascinating topic, but I can’t say I’m thrilled with most of the essays. In fact, that’s a polite way of expressing my feelings, in keeping with the civil atmosphere of this café. I’ll mention my favorite essay below, and keep quiet about the worst.
Maybe you could do better. In fact, maybe you should give it a try! Just make sure to submit your essay before December 1st, 2008.
I would write one myself, but I don’t have… time.
I haven’t read all the essays — so there could be some gems I haven’t seen. So far, my favorite is the one by my friend Carlo Rovelli:
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Carlo Rovelli, Forget time.
Abstract: Following a line of research that I have developed for several years, I argue that the best strategy for understanding quantum gravity is to build a picture of the physical world where the notion of time plays no role at all. I summarize here this point of view, explaining why I think that in a fundamental description of nature we must “forget time”, and how this can be done in the classical and in the quantum theory. The idea is to develop a formalism that treats dependent and independent variables on the same footing. In short, I propose to interpret mechanics as a theory of relations between variables, rather than the theory of the evolution of variables in time.
For those familiar with his work on quantum gravity and the ‘thermal time hypothesis’, there’s nothing drastically new about this essay. But, it makes a good case for the radical viewpoint that has motivated his work all along.
By the way: you can vote for your favorite essay! However, your vote will have no direct effect, unless you’re a member of the Foundational Questions Institute. It’s just like voting in the U.S. presidential election when you don’t live in a swing state.
Also by the way: I’m slightly suprised by the fact that right now, every essay except Rovelli’s has exactly 10 votes. How likely is that? Do you get 10 free votes just for playing?
Re: The Nature of Time
When I checked, most essays had less than ten public votes, one had ten and there were a few with more than ten.