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.
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Links 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=9AoRxtYZrZo
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
00:56 Observers in Quantum Mechanics
02:15 The Measurement Problem
06:23 Dogmas in Quantum Foundations
08:24 Causation and Its Philosophical Implications
09:12 The Arrow of Time and Its Mysteries
10:28 Exploring Coarse Graining and Reductionism
13:21 Non-Locality: Temporal vs. Spatial
16:06 The Nature of Non-Locality
19:34 Temporal Non-Locality and Its Implications
21:51 Retrocausality: The All-at-Once Perspective
26:25 The Measurement Problem and All-at-Once Framework
28:24 Observer-Centric Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics
31:29 Probabilities in Physics
32:51 The Process Matrix and Causal Structures
38:33 Foundations of Physics and Philosophy
1:05:16 The Emergence of Space-Time
1:08:11 Exploring Correlations in Physical Parameters
1:10:44 Epistemology of the Measurement Problem
1:13:26 Lessons in Patience and Persistence
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