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Special relativity (alternative formulations)
About: Special relativity (alternative formulations) is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 3102 publications have been published within this topic receiving 55015 citations.
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TL;DR: In this article, it was shown that the fundamental laws of the universe are probabilistic and not deterministic, and that probabilism is only true if there does exist such an absolute distinction between one past and many possible future events.
Abstract: In this paper I expound an argument which seems to establish that probabilism and special relativity are incompatible. I examine the argument critically, and consider its implications for interpretative problems of quantum theory, and for theoretical physics as a whole. 1. The Argument. I begin with a simple and, I hope, intuitively clear exposition of my basic argument, designed to establish that probabilism and special relativity are incompatible. I then go on to add some refinements to the argument, in an attempt to ensure its validity, before considering its implications for interpretative problems of quantum theory, and for theoretical physics as a whole. Probabilism, as understood here, is the thesis that the universe is such that, at any instant, there is only one past but many alternative possible futures-the fundamental laws of the universe being probabilistic and not deterministic. According to probabilism, then, there is a physically real difference between past and future events-the future alone containing physically, ontologically real alternative possibilities. Because of this physically real difference between past and future, probabilism requires that, at any instant, there be a universal, absolute, unambiguous distinction between past and future-to divide off the one past from the many alternative possible futures. Probabilism, in short, is only true if there does exist such an absolute distinction between one past and many possible futures. Special relativity, on the other hand, is only true if there is no universal, absolute, unambiguous distinction between past and future. According to special relativity, given any two physical events, El and E2, having space-like separation from each other (so that they lie outside each other's past and future light cones), then there is no absolute, frameindependent way in which El is unambiguously either earlier than, simultaneous with, or later than E2. Which relationship holds depends on the choice of inertial reference frame, all such choices being physically
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