tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708273719674528189.post3437316925888573370..comments2024-03-22T00:20:38.510-07:00Comments on Adam Riggio writes: Blocked From Freedom, Research Time, 17/09/2013Adam Riggiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14606510835439580828noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708273719674528189.post-64755786886484524502013-09-18T09:05:11.640-07:002013-09-18T09:05:11.640-07:00Very kind, thank you. I can't immediately thin...Very kind, thank you. I can't immediately think of where one would find any great discussion of the philosophical side of Hamiltonian mechanics (the physics are in any standard classical mechanics textbook), but if I come across something I'll let you know.Iain Colemanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14539286303757409401noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708273719674528189.post-18976195982924688422013-09-17T15:29:44.769-07:002013-09-17T15:29:44.769-07:00I hadn't come across that notion before, Iain,...I hadn't come across that notion before, Iain, and thank you very very much. I'll put that on the list of things I should look into, as it seems its fundamental concepts could apply to a lot of my different projects.<br /><br />Just read the latest Relative Dimensions post too, and it's another excellent essay.Adam Riggiohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14606510835439580828noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708273719674528189.post-41979549589777389162013-09-17T14:47:32.150-07:002013-09-17T14:47:32.150-07:00Leaving relativity aside for the moment, it may be...Leaving relativity aside for the moment, it may be interesting/fruitful to consider the Hamiltonian formulation of mechanics, which replaces the Newtonian formulation of evolution of a system in time from given initial conditions with the solution of the global system given its boundary conditions. This has the advantage that, unlike relativity, it straightforwardly carries over into quantum mechanics, in the form of Feynman's path integral approach.Iain Colemanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14539286303757409401noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708273719674528189.post-53355566584028168252013-09-17T08:19:43.535-07:002013-09-17T08:19:43.535-07:00Hell, I knew I shouldn't have skipped over int...Hell, I knew I shouldn't have skipped over interval talk. I was mostly just aiming to reach the philosophical implications (determinism by existence of all events in spacetime v. determinism by causal necessity) and moved too fast. <br /><br />The truly radical movement in Einstein's relativity was the new concept of interval, that distance in space and distance in time aren't categorically different. Come to think of it, that's a much easier way to explain the basics of my approach to the implications of the block time concept outside straight philosophical ontology.Adam Riggiohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14606510835439580828noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708273719674528189.post-49488587267524087572013-09-17T07:49:57.298-07:002013-09-17T07:49:57.298-07:00I'm not following your account of past, presen...I'm not following your account of past, present and future in special relativity. The spacetime interval is invariant, and the sign of the interval determines whether the interval is timelike or spacelike. Causal relationships are only possible between events separated by timelike intervals. Thus each event has a past and future, defined by timelike separations, and an elsewhere defined by spacelike separations. The time order of events separated by spacelike intervals is not absolute, but this is of no physical significance as the two events can have no causal relationship with each other.<br /><br />At least, until someone invents faster than light travel, at which point all bets are off... Iain Colemanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14539286303757409401noreply@blogger.com