Related papers: The Pseudoscience of Time Travel
We study the paradoxical aspects of closed time-like curves and their impact on the theory of computation. After introducing the $\text{TM}_\text{CTC}$, a classical Turing machine benefiting CTCs for backward time travel, Aaronson et al.…
Consider the scenario, in which human civilization undergoes periodic eras of progression and regression, and consequently, changes in cosmological knowledge are cyclic. There exist solutions of general theory of relativity, such as the…
Relative motions have long been known to mislead the unsuspecting observers to false interpretations of reality. The deceptions are usually brief and unimportant, though relative motions have also led to illusions that were both…
The twin paradox of the special theory of relativity has given rise to a large body of literature discussing its implications. In its standard form, the traveler changes velocity only at the destination of the trip, so that he appears to…
Contemporary research programs in fundamental physics appear to suggest that there could be two (physical) times---or none at all. This essay articulates these possibilities in the context of quantum gravity, and in particular of…
We review the idea, due to Einstein, Eddington, Hoyle and Ballard, that time is a subjective label, whose primary purpose is to order events, perhaps in a higher-dimensional universe. In this approach, all moments in time exist…
It is often argued that superluminal velocities and nontrivial spacetime topologies, allowed by the theory of relativity, may lead to causal paradoxes. By emphasizing that the notion of causality assumes the existence of a time arrow (TA)…
The result "chronological spacetimes without lightlike lines are stably causal" is announced and motivated. It implies that chronological spacetimes which are null geodesically complete and satisfy the null genericity and the null…
Whether the space-time is curved or not? The experimental criterions to judge this point are: (1) The results of three classical relativistic experiments in essence are favorable to the special relativistic gravitational theory (base in the…
It has been claimed in several papers that a phantom energy-dominated universe can undergo a ``big trip'', i.e., tunneling through a wormhole that grows faster than the cosmic substratum due to the accretion of phantom energy, and will…
Bell's theorem proves only that hidden variables evolving in true physical time can't exist; still the theorem's meaning is usually interpreted intolerably wide. The concept of hidden time (and, in general, hidden space-time) is introduced.…
Time's apparent passage has long been debated by philosophers, with no decisive argument for or against its objective existence. In this paper we show that introducing the issue of determinism gives the debate a new, empirical twist. We…
Despite various parallels between quantum states and ordinary information, quantum no-go-theorems have convinced many that there is no realistic framework that might underly quantum theory, no reality that quantum states can represent…
We analyse the existence of closed timelike curves in spacetimes which possess an isometry. In particular we check which discrete quotients of such spaces lead to closed timelike curves. As a by-product of our analysis, we prove that the…
It is recalled that closed (isolated) systems are essentially reversible whilst open systems like the Earth, or living beings on it, are irreversible because they are not isolated. Earth and life irreversibility derives from the evolution…
With the theory of special relativity, time has been linked with space into a four-dimensional space-time from which a basic question must be asked: can space be really transformed into time and vice-versa? The response is affirmative if…
Backward causation in which future events affect the past is formalized in a way consistent with Special Relativity and shown to restore locality to nonrelativistic quantum mechanics. It can explain the correlations of the EPR paradox…
Inflation is known to be generically eternal to the future: the false vacuum is thermalized in some regions of space, while inflation continues in other regions. Here, we address the question of whether inflation can also be eternal to the…
How special (or not) is the epoch we are living in? What is the appropriate reference class for embedding the observations made at the present time? How probable -- or else -- is anything we observe in the fulness of time? Contemporary…
In this review paper, we consider the fundamental nature of time and causality, most particularly, in the context of the theories of special and general relativity. We also discuss the issue of closed timelike curves in the context of…