256 - Tim Maudlin: A Masterclass on the Philosophy of Time

Tim Maudlin is Professor of Philosophy at NYU and Founder and Director of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. This is Tim’s eighth appearance on the show. His second to  last appeared on episode 246 for a masterclass on Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, explaining it from the ground up and elucidating some common misconceptions. In this episode Tim returns for a discussion of the philosophy of time. More particularly, Tim and Robinson discuss black holes, fundamentality, simultaneity, time’s flow, rate, and limits, connections to physics, time travel, and more. If you’re interested in the foundations of physics, then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute’s life.Tim’s Website: www.tim-maudlin.siteThe John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.orgOUTLINE00:00:00 Introduction00:01:01 “What Is” Questions00:06:09 Everyday Misconceptions About Simultaneity00:15:12 The Relativity of Duration00:20:19 Is Time Fundamental?00:28:55 Does Time Exist at Quantum Scales?00:40:19 Is Quantum Mechanics Complete?00:50:16 What Is Time-Reversal Invariance?01:01:01 Parity Violations01:11:46 What Is Metaphysics?01:22:16 Does Time Have A Rate of Passage?01:25:02 Does Time Flow?01:27:04 What Does Time Really Measure?01:29:15 Is There a Limit to How Accurately Clocks Can Measure Time?01:33:06 Is Time Continuous or Discrete?01:36:36 On Zeno’s Paradoxes of Motion01:44:08 Is Time Discrete?01:51:14 Did Time Have a Beginning?02:02:41 Stephen Hawking on Time02:05:39 David Albert’s Past Hypothesis02:14:13 The Debate Between Presentism and Eternalism02:23:16 Lee Smolin’s Black Hole Theory02:24:46 A Shortcoming of the Standard Model02:26:05 Arrival Time and Time of Flight02:34:51 Arrival Time Experiments and Bell’s Inequality02:46:07 The Black Hole Information Paradox02:56:27 Is Time Travel Back to the Dinosaurs Possible?02:58:34 A Rant on Aliens03:03:35 The John Bell Institute for the Foundations of PhysicsRobinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.comRobinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where is also a student in the Law School.