On 7/23/2011 9:45 PM, Jason Resch wrote:
If you want to formulate block time without reifying spacetime, then
just consider block time a collection of events separated by certain
distances and directions from eachother. You may be right that
ultimately this is all related to a theory of observation, and I think
I can understand what you mean by relativity explaining the
organization of these events/observations. In any case, a block
universe seems to be a simpler theory than that of one in which
objects become real and become unreal continuously, and it is
consistent with observations. There is no scientific justification
for presentism that I am aware of.
Jason
Hi Jason,
But can't you see that I am arguing against any form of spacetime
substantivalism, this includes block spacetime, block time, presentism
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presentism_%28philosophy_of_time%29),
eternalism
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternalism_%28philosophy_of_time%29), etc.
The idea that events exist with specific properties attached independent
of specification of measurement - of which observation by humans is a
special case - is what I am arguing against. See:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spacetime-holearg/ for the full
details. Substantivalism just a hold over of Aether theories.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aether_theories and I argue that it is an
unnecessary hypothesis.
One specific observation that for me nails substantivalism is the
observation of no delay or polarization difference between ultra high
gamma photons and gamma photons of lower energies from the same gamma
ray buster event. Spacetime is show to be smooth at all energy scales,
this is contra all theories that treat spacetime as some kind of substance.
Onward!
Stephen
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