Time's Arrow & Archimedes' Point |
1. |
3 |
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Outline of the book 5 Remarks on style 11 The stock philosophical debates about time 12 The arrows of time 16 The puzzle of origins 17 |
2. |
"More Apt to Be Lost than Got": The Lessons of the Second Law |
22 |
Irreversibility discovered: Newton to Boltzmann 23 The reversibility objection I 27 Entropy as probability 29 The reversibility objection II 31 Boltzmann's symmetric view 32 Do we need to explain why entropy increases? 37 The role of the H-theorem 40 Does chaos theory make a difference? 43 Branch systems 44 Could entropy eventually decrease? 46 Summary 47 |
3. |
New Light on the Arrow of Radiation |
49 |
The circular wave argument 54 Radiation and banking 58 Radiation and nonfrictionless banking 60 What would time-symmetric radiation look like? 61 The Wheeler-Feynman theory in brief 65 Why doesn't the argument work in reverse? 67 Are the components distinct? 69 The new interpretation 70 Why the apparent asymmetry? 71 No need for a future absorber 73 Related issues in physics 73 Summary 76 |
4. |
Arrows and Errors in Contemporary Cosmology |
78 |
The need for smoothness 79 Gold universes and the basic dilemma 81 Smoothness: how surprising is it? 82 The appeal to inflation 85 Hawking and the big crunch 86 The basic dilemma and some ways to avoid it 93 What's wrong with a Gold universe? 99 A telescope to look into the future? 105 Conclusion 111 |
5. |
Innocence and Symmetry in Microphysics |
114 |
Conflicting intuitions in contemporary physics 116 Preinteractive "innocence": the intuitive asymmetry 118 Two kinds of innocence in physics 120 Is µInnocence observable? 121 Symmetry or innocence? 123 µInnocence and quantum mechanics 124 µInnocence and backward causation 127 The next step 129 |
6. |
In Search of the Third Arrow |
132 |
Causal asymmetry: the nature of the problem 136 A third arrow? 138 The fork asymmetry 138 Too few forks 140 Two ways to misuse a fork 142 A fourth arrow? 146 The symmetry of micro-forks 147 Two extreme proposals 152 The perspectival view 155 Escaping a circle, projecting an arrow 159 Summary 161 |
7. |
Convention Objectified and the Past Unlocked |
162 |
Asymmetry conventionalized 163 Convention objectified 166 The asymmetry of agency 168 The role of counterfactuals 169 Could the past depend on the future? 170 Escaping the paradoxes of backward causation 171 The past unlocked 174 Advanced action: its objective core 177 Counterfactuals: what should we fix? 178 Advanced action and µInnocence 179 Is µInnocence merely conventional? 181 Why can't a photon be more like a billiard ball? 183 Symmetry and advanced action I 185 Symmetry and advanced action II 187 Taxonomy and T-symmetry 189 Backward causation: not forward causation backwards 190 Inverted forks and distant effects 191 Summary: saving the baby 192 |
8. |
Einstein's Issue: The Puzzle of Contemporary Quantum Theory |
195 |
The quantum view: basic elements 197 A TOM SPLIT IN THOUGHT EXPERIMENT! 198 The EPR argument 201 EPR and special relativity: the cost of nonlocality 204 The temporal asymmetry objection 206 The consequences of superposition 209 Bell's Theorem 212 EPR for triplets: the GHZ argument 217 What if there is no collapse? 219 Many minds? 222 The decoherence approach 225 Summary: Einstein's live issue 228 |
9. |
The Case for Advanced Action |
231 |
Outline of the chapter 233 Locality, independence, and the pro-liberty Bell 235 Locality saved in the past 236 Locality saved in the future 238 Was Bell told? 241 The benefits of backward forks 242 Advanced action in quantum mechanics 246 Einstein reissued? 248 Advanced action and the GHZ argument 251 Advanced action and superposition 252 The atemporal view 257 |
Overview |
261 |
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Main conclusions of the book 262 Directions for further work 266 Why it matters 266 |
Notes |
269 |
Bibliography |
285 |
Index |
293 |
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