English

A philosophical argument against time machines

History and Philosophy of Physics 2019-06-07 v3 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

Time machines are predictions of Einstein's theory of general relativity and provide a myriad of unsolved paradoxes. Convincing and general arguments against time machines and their paradoxes are missing in physics and philosophy so far. In this article, a philosophical argument against time machines is given. When thought of as a process, individuation refuses the idea of time machines, in particular travels into the past. With the aid of Nietzsche-Heraclitus' philosophy of becoming and Simondon's notion of process of individuation, I propose that time machines are modern fables, created by the man of ressentiment\textit{ressentiment}. In the amor fati\textit{amor fati} formula of Nietzsche, I suggest the antipode to time machines.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1709.02060,
  title  = {A philosophical argument against time machines},
  author = {Juliano C. S. Neves},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1709.02060},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

14 pages. Version with improvements, corrections, new references and section. Published in The Agonist

R2 v1 2026-06-22T21:35:28.148Z