Einstein's theory of relativity is widely held to be in conflict with our intuitive experience of a present moment, a “Now”, during which actual events seem to occur. Einstein showed us that if we define “simultaneity” in terms of time coordinates, so that “simultaneous” means “at the same time”, then observers in different states of motion will not agree on judgements of simultaneity. Many authors take this to mean that there is no way in which observers can agree on which events belong to a common “Now”, and therefore no way to represent judgements of “nowness” in space-time. Some, including Einstein himself, have even taken this to imply that our sensations that time passes, and that there is an objective difference between past, present, and future, are merely illusions. By using a thought experiment involving telepathic twins borrowed from science fiction author Robert Heinlein, I show that there is a sensible way to free ourselves from the rarely questioned assumption that “simultaneous” has to mean “at the same time”, and therefore a way to recover a possible structure that can live in space-time and represent the “Now”. I also briefly discuss applications of this model to the problem of finding a relativistic model of wave function collapse in quantum mechanics.

Date:Thursday, December 5, 2002
Time: 4:30 PM
Place: Concordia University (Building H), 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W., 6th Floor (Metro station Guy-Concordia, exit Guy Street)
Room: H-631
Contact: (514) 848-2595