The "All At Once" Universe Shatters Our View of Time
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/toe Join My New Substack (Personal Writings): https://curtjaimungal.substack.com Listen on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/SpotifyTOE Become a YouTube Member (Early Access Videos): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdWIQh9DGG6uhJk8eyIFl1w/join 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 Support TOE on Patreon: https://patreon.com/curtjaimungal Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt Discord Invite: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs #science Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices