Tag Archives: block universe

January 16, 2021

Back to Block

A crushed flower.

This post has nothing to do with Amy Winehouse, sadly on the list of great talents who, poorly served by those in their lives, lost their way and died tragically and long before their time. (It’s bad enough when the ravages of life — disease and accident — steal away those with gifts. Losing people to human foibles is a more painful loss.)

The topic here is the Block Universe Hypothesis, which I’m revisiting, so the title kinda grabbed me (and I am a Winehouse fan). I’ve written about the BUH before, but a second debate with the same opponent turned up a few points worth exploring.

So it’s back to basic block (everyone looks good in block?)…

31 Comments | tags: block universe, simultaneity, Special Relativity | posted in Physics

January 10, 2021

Hard Problems

By Wyrd Smythe

Among those who study the human mind and consciousness, there is what is termed “The Hard Problem.” It is in contrast to, and qualitatively different from, problems that are merely hard. (Simply put, The Hard Problem is the question of how subjective experience arises from the physical mechanism of the brain.)

This post isn’t about that at all. It’s not even about the human mind (or about politics). This post is about good old fundamental physics. That is to say, basic reality. Some time ago, a friend asked me what was missing from our picture of physics. This is, in part, my answer.

There is quite a bit, as it turns out, and it’s something I like to remind myself of from time to time, so I made a list.

26 Comments | tags: big bang, block universe, cosmology, dark energy, dark matter, Many Worlds Interpretation, Mathematical Universe Hypothesis, MWI, quantum physics, standard model, universe, virtual reality | posted in Physics

May 9, 2020

Tegmark: MUH? Meh!

By Wyrd Smythe

I finally finished Our Mathematical Universe (2014) by Max Tegmark. It took me a while — only two days left on the 21-day library loan. I often had to put it down to clear my mind and give my neck a rest. (The book invoked a lot of head-shaking. It gave me a very bad case of the Yeah, buts.)

I debated whether to post this for Sci-Fi Saturday or for more metaphysical Sabbath Sunday. I tend to think either would be appropriate to the subject matter. Given how many science fiction references Tegmark makes in the book, I’m going with Saturday.

The hard part is going to be keeping this post a reasonable length.

32 Comments | tags: anthropic principle, block universe, doomsday argument, Mathematical Universe Hypothesis, Max Tegmark, MUH, MWI | posted in Books, Philosophy, Physics

October 30, 2019

Blocking the Universe

By Wyrd Smythe

Walking and thinking!

Recently I had a debate with someone who was downright evangelical about the Block Universe (BU) being, absolutely, positively, the way things are. Because Special Relativity. In particular because of what SR says about simultaneity between inertial frames.

Up to that point I’d never given the BU a great deal of thought other than to file it under «Probably Not the Case» (for reasons I’ll get to). But during my morning walks I’ve turned it over in my mind, and after due consideration,… I still think it’s probably not the case.

I get why people feel SR seems to imply a BU, but I don’t see the necessity of that implication. In fact, it almost seems contrary to a basic tenant of SR, that “now” is strictly a local concept.

14 Comments | tags: block universe, line of simultaneity, plane of simultaneity, simultaneity, simultaneous events, spacetime, Special Relativity, surface of simultaneity, time-space diagram | posted in Physics