String Theory, Loop Quantum Gravity and Eternalism

Abstract

Eternalism, the view that what we regard locally as being located in the past, the present and the future equally exists, is the best ontological account of temporal existence in line with special and general relativity. However, special and general relativity are not fundamental theories and several research programs aim at finding a more fundamental theory of quantum gravity weaving together all we know from relativistic physics and quantum physics. Interestingly, some of these approaches assert that time is not fundamental. If time is not fundamental, what does it entail for eternalism and the standard debate over existence in time? First, I will argue that the non-fundamentality of time to be found in string theory entails standard eternalism. Second, I will argue that the non-fundamentality of time to be found in loop quantum gravity entails atemporal eternalism, namely a novel position in the spirit of standard eternalism.

References in corpus (9)

• A Classical Sequential Growth Dynamics for Causal Sets
• Emergent spacetime and empirical (in)coherence
• Less is Different: Emergence and Reduction Reconciled
• Einstein gravity as a 3D conformally invariant theory
• Disordered locality in loop quantum gravity states
• The birth of spacetime atoms as the passage of time
• Target Space $\ne$ Space
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• The structure of causal sets

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Humeanism in Light of Quantum Gravity
• Eternalism and the Problem of Hyperplanes