Time Before Time...

[Olias]

Great Paper with some general calrifications on how Time is percieved in various models:http://uk.arxiv.org/abs/physics/0408111

[marcus]

Great Paper with some general calrifications on how Time is percieved in various models:http://uk.arxiv.org/abs/physics/0408111

Hi Olias, I saw your post earlier and then lost track of it, just found it again.

since this is Rudi Vaas, who is a good science journalist as well as a philosophy/history of science expert, I will put a link to some of his popular articles in case newcomers havent seen them (most regulars have I would guess)

Beyond Space And Time
Rudi Vaas
7 pages, English translation of "Jenseits von Raum und Zeit"
http://arxiv.org/physics/0401128

The Duel: Strings versus Loops
Rudi Vaas
10 pages, English translation of "Das Duell: Strings gegen Schleifen"
http://arxiv.org/physics/0403112

The Inverted Big-Bang
Rudi Vaas
8 pages, English translation of "Der umgestuelpte Urknall"
http://arxiv.org/physics/0407071

[marcus]

Olias what I see in this article Time before Time
is it is good for having no formulas
(accessible to completely un-mathematical people)
and it gives a historical perspective on the different ways
people have viewed the universe

and then in addition it looks at the modern view of the Big Bang
as not having necessarily been a singularity
but (since the pivotal 2001 paper) time stretching back before where the break used to be.

It is potentially a useful paper because there are still people
who imagine a complete break at bang-time and having
papers like this can help them get over it.

however the writing is not as popular or fun as in the other Rudi Vaas
articles I've seen. it is even a bit Respektable as one might imagine from its being based on a lecture given in Austria at the
"26th International Wittgenstein Symposium"
You just dont go into a room full of German philosophy academics and tell them the bang was a bounce and time didnt start then. It has to be approached by listing a whole taxonomy of different possibilities from Demokritus and Plato onwards. Rudi obvously enjoys the company of the Potsdam Loop crowd but he does what he has to do to get his message to the Philosophers.