Why is the future so different from the past? Why does the past affect the future and not the other way around? What does quantum mechanics really tell us about the world? In this important and accessible book, Huw Price throws fascinating new light on some of the great mysteries of modern physics, and connects them in a wholly original way. Price begins with the mystery of the arrow of time. Why, for example, does disorder always increase, as required by the second law of thermodynamics? Price shows that, for over a century, most physicists have thought about these problems the wrong way. Misled by the human perspective from within time, which distorts and exaggerates the differences between past and future, they have fallen victim to what Price calls the "double standard fallacy": proposed explanations of the difference between the past and the future turn out to rely on a difference which has been slipped in at the beginning, when the physicists themselves treat the past and future in different ways. To avoid this fallacy, Price argues, we need to overcome our natural tendency to think about the past and the future differently. We need to imagine a point outside time -- an Archimedean "view from nowhen" -- from which to observe time in an unbiased way. Offering a lively criticism of many major modern physicists, including Richard Feynman and Stephen Hawking, Price shows that this fallacy remains common in physics today -- for example, when contemporary cosmologists theorize about the eventual fate of the universe. The "big bang" theory normally assumes that the beginning and end of the universe will be very different. But if we are to avoid the double standard fallacy, we need to consider time symmetrically, and take seriously the possibility that the arrow of time may reverse when the universe recollapses into a "big crunch." Price then turns to the greatest mystery of modern physics, the meaning of quantum theory. He argues that in missing the Archimedean viewpoint, modern physics has missed a radical and attractive solution to many of the apparent paradoxes of quantum physics. Many consequences of quantum theory appear counterintuitive, such as Schrodinger's Cat, whose condition seems undetermined until observed, and Bell's Theorem, which suggests a spooky "nonlocality," where events happening simultaneously in different places seem to affect each other directly. Price shows that these paradoxes can be avoided by allowing that at the quantum level the future does, indeed, affect the past. This demystifies nonlocality, and supports Einstein's unpopular intuition that quantum theory describes an objective world, existing independently of human observers: the Cat is alive or dead, even when nobody looks. So interpreted, Price argues, quantum mechanics is simply the kind of theory we ought to have expected in microphysics -- from the symmetric standpoint.Time's Arrow and Archimedes' Point presents an innovative and controversial view of time and contemporary physics. In this exciting book, Price urges physicists, philosophers, and anyone who has ever pondered the mysteries of time to look at the world from the fresh perspective of Archimedes' Point and gain a deeper understanding of ourselves, the universe around us, and our own place in time.
Author(s): Huw Price
Year: 1997
Language: English
Pages: 320
Contents......Page 12
1 The View from Nowhen......Page 18
Outline of the book......Page 20
Remarks on style......Page 26
The stock philosophical debates about time......Page 27
The arrows of time......Page 31
The puzzle of origins......Page 32
2 "More Apt to Be Lost than Got": The Lessons of the Second Law......Page 37
Irreversibility discovered: Newton to Boltzmann......Page 38
The reversibility objection I......Page 42
Entropy as probability......Page 44
The reversibility objection II......Page 46
Boltzmann's symmetric view......Page 47
Do we need to explain why entropy increases?......Page 52
The role of the H-theorem......Page 55
Does chaos theory make a difference?......Page 58
Branch systems......Page 59
Could entropy eventually decrease?......Page 61
Summary......Page 62
3 New Light on the Arrow of Radiation......Page 64
The circular wave argument......Page 69
Radiation and banking......Page 73
Radiation and nonfrictionless banking......Page 75
What would time-symmetric radiation look like?......Page 76
The Wheeler-Feynman theory in brief......Page 80
Why doesn't the argument work in reverse?......Page 82
Are the components distinct?......Page 84
The new interpretation......Page 85
Why the apparent asymmetry?......Page 86
Related issues in physics......Page 88
Summary......Page 91
4 Arrows and Errors in Contemporary Cosmology......Page 93
The need for smoothness......Page 94
Gold universes and the basic dilemma......Page 96
Smoothness: how surprising is it?......Page 97
The appeal to inflation......Page 100
Hawking and the big crunch......Page 101
The basic dilemma and some ways to avoid it......Page 108
What's wrong with a Gold universe?......Page 114
A telescope to look into the future?......Page 120
Conclusion......Page 126
5 Innocence and Symmetry in Microphysics......Page 129
Conflicting intuitions in contemporary physics......Page 131
Preinteractive "innocence": the intuitive asymmetry......Page 133
Two kinds of innocence in physics......Page 135
Is μInnocence observable?......Page 136
Symmetry or innocence?......Page 138
μInnocence and quantum mechanics......Page 139
μInnocence and backward causation......Page 142
The next step......Page 144
6 In Search of the Third Arrow......Page 147
Causal asymmetry: the nature of the problem......Page 151
The fork asymmetry......Page 153
Too few forks......Page 155
Two ways to misuse a fork......Page 157
A fourth arrow?......Page 161
The symmetry of micro-forks......Page 162
Two extreme proposals......Page 167
The perspectival view......Page 170
Escaping a circle, projecting an arrow......Page 174
Summary......Page 176
7 Convention Objectified and the Past Unlocked......Page 177
Asymmetry conventionalized......Page 178
Convention objectified......Page 181
The asymmetry of agency......Page 183
The role of counterfactuals......Page 184
Could the past depend on the future?......Page 185
Escaping the paradoxes of backward causation......Page 186
The past unlocked......Page 189
Advanced action: its objective core......Page 192
Counterfactuals: what should we fix?......Page 193
Advanced action and μInnocence......Page 194
Is μInnocence merely conventional?......Page 196
Why can't a photon be more like a billiard ball?......Page 198
Symmetry and advanced action I......Page 200
Symmetry and advanced action II......Page 202
Taxonomy and T-symmetry......Page 204
Backward causation: not forward causation backwards......Page 205
Inverted forks and distant effects......Page 206
Summary: saving the baby......Page 207
8 Einstein's Issue: The Puzzle of Contemporary Quantum Theory......Page 210
The quantum view: basic elements......Page 212
A TOM SPLIT IN THOUGHT EXPERIMENT!......Page 213
The EPR argument......Page 216
EPR and special relativity: the cost of nonlocality......Page 219
The temporal asymmetry objection......Page 221
The consequences of superposition......Page 224
Bell's Theorem......Page 227
EPR for triplets: the GHZ argument......Page 232
What if there is no collapse?......Page 234
Many minds?......Page 237
The decoherence approach......Page 240
Summary: Einstein's live issue......Page 243
9 The Case for Advanced Action......Page 246
Outline of the chapter......Page 248
Locality, independence, and the pro-liberty Bell......Page 250
Locality saved in the past......Page 251
Locality saved in the future......Page 253
Was Bell told?......Page 256
The benefits of backward forks......Page 257
Advanced action and the GHZ argument......Page 261
Einstein reissued?......Page 263
Advanced action and superposition......Page 267
The atemporal view......Page 272
10 Overview......Page 276
Main conclusions of the book......Page 277
Why it matters......Page 281
NOTES......Page 284
BIBLIOGRAPHY......Page 300
A......Page 308
B......Page 309
C......Page 310
D......Page 311
F......Page 312
H......Page 313
M......Page 314
P......Page 315
Q......Page 317
R......Page 318
T......Page 319
W......Page 320
Z......Page 321
