Show notes
Today we are joined by physicist and philosopher Emily Adlam for her first appearance on Theories of Everything to challenge one of the deepest assumptions in science: that time flows. In this thought-provoking conversation, Adlam presents her “all-at-once” view of physics, where the universe is more like a completed Sudoku puzzle than a film playing forward. We explore the measurement problem in quantum mechanics, the role of the observer, the illusion of causality, and why these foundational questions demand both philosophical clarity and scientific precision.As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toeJoin My New Substack (Personal Writings): https://curtjaimungal.substack.comListen on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/SpotifyTOEBecome a YouTube Member (Early Access Videos):https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdWIQh9DGG6uhJk8eyIFl1w/joinLinks Mentioned:• Emily’s profile: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Emily-Adlam• Spooky Action at a Temporal Distance (paper): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7512241/pdf/entropy-20-00041.pdf• Quantum Field Theory and the Limits of Reductionism (paper): https://arxiv.org/pdf/2407.20457• Two Roads of Retrocausality (paper): https://arxiv.org/pdf/2201.12934• Taxonomy for Physics Beyond Quantum Mechanics (paper): https://arxiv.org/pdf/2309.12293 • Strong Determinism (paper): https://arxiv.org/pdf/2203.02886• Carlo Rovelli on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF4SAketEHY• Stephen Wolfram on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YRlQQw0d-4• Emily interviewed about Nonlocality: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR7aPlZg7dE&ab_channel=GeorgeMusser• Tim Palmer on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlklA6jsS8A• Tim Maudlin on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU1bs5o3nss• Algorithmic Randomness and Probabilistic Laws (paper): https://arxiv.org/pdf/2303.01411• Governing Without a Fundamental Direction of Time (paper): https://arxiv.org/pdf/2109.09226• Matt Segal on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeTm4fSXpbM• Jacob Barandes on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oWip00iXbo&list=PLZ7ikzmc6zlN6E8KrxcYCWQIHg2tfkqvR&index=33• Sabine Hossenfelder on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3y-Z0pgupg&t=1s• Bernardo Kastrup and Sabine on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJmBmopxc1k&t=755s&ab_channel=CurtJaimungal• Sean Carroll on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AoRxtYZrZoTimestamps:00:00 Introduction00:56 Observers in Quantum Mechanics02:15 The Measurement Problem 06:23 Dogmas in Quantum Foundations08:24 Causation and Its Philosophical Implications09:12 The Arrow of Time and Its Mysteries10:28 Exploring Coarse Graining and Reductionism13:21 Non-Locality: Temporal vs. Spatial16:06 The Nature of Non-Locality19:34 Temporal Non-Locality and Its Implications21:51 Retrocausality: The All-at-Once Perspective26:25 The Measurement Problem and All-at-Once Framework28:24 Observer-Centric Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics31:29 Probabilities in Physics32:51 The Process Matrix and Causal Structures38:33 Foundations of Physics and Philosophy1:05:16 The Emergence of Space-Time1:08:11 Exploring Correlations in Physical Parameters1:10:44 Epistemology of the Measurement Problem1:13:26 Lessons in Patience and PersistenceSupport TOE on Patreon: https://patreon.com/curtjaimungal Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurtDiscord Invite: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs#science Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices