Drossel, Barbara (2023)
The passage of time and top-down causation.
16th Marcel Grossmann Meeting on Recent Developments in Theoretical and Experimental General Relativity, Astrophysics and Relativistic Field Theories. virtual Conference (05.-10.07.2021)
doi: 10.1142/9789811269776_0300
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Kurzbeschreibung (Abstract)

It is often claimed that the fundamental laws of physics are deterministic and time-symmetric and that therefore our experience of the passage of time is an illusion. Thistalk will critically discuss these claims and show that they are based on the misconceptionthat the laws of physics are an exact and complete description of nature. I will argue thatall supposedly fundamental deterministic and time-symmetric laws have their limitationsand are supplemented by stochastic and irreversible elements. In fact, a deterministicdescription of a system is valid only as long as interactions with the rest of the worldcan be ignored. The most famous example is the quantum measurement process thatoccurs when a quantum system interacts with a macroscopic environment such as ameasurement apparatus. This environment determines in a top-down way the possibleoutcomes of the measure- ment and their probabilities. I will argue that more generallythe possible events that can occur in a system and their probabilities are the resultof top-down influences from the wider context. In this way the microscopic level of asystem is causally open to influences from the macroscopic environment. In conclusion,indeterminism and irreversibility are the result of a system being embedded in a widercontext.

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