Hysteron proteron

[Prashant Kumar]

The guy on the end of that paper is one half of the Elitzur-Vaidman bomb
tester duo.

It's an interesting paper, but the whole thing is predicated on this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-state_vector_formalism

formulation of QM which *assumes* a kind of presentist view of time (like
JME McTaggart's A series). What happens in TSVF is half the wavefunction is
propagating forwards in time, the half backwards, and the interference
gives you the present. There's nothing wrong with this (you can interpret
antiparticles as particles going backwards in time; this is similar),
worse, it's very pretty and reminds one of Feynman-Wheeler absorber theory
(historical connections), so many are seduced. And there's no conflict with
experimental QM. Problem is, there are literally about a dozen such
"reformulations" of QM. It's a cotttage industry.

So anyway most physicists I've talked to aren't sold. But don't worry!
We're working on time travel.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1005.2219/

As to the specific David, I think you can see the opening line of GR as a
usage of hysteron proteron. The rocket's trajectory seems to function as a
conceptual metonym: the symmetry of the trajectory is beautiful and
illusory. It blurs both past and future into present for a few moments
before the crash and light and everything is silent. The universe exists to
create and break symmetries.

P.

On 11 August 2012 12:19, Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2012/aug/03/can-the-future-affect-the-past
>
> http://arxiv.org/abs/1206.6224
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hysteron_proteron
>
> Another technique that may be worth mentioning is Pynchon's extensive
> use of the hysteron proteron -- a literary trope involving retrograde
> motion, regression, or a reversal of cause and effect. At many times
> in the story events are described in reverse order, a literary
> slight-of-hand that works to pry our linear concept of Time from its
> stubborn entrenchment. Journeys are imagined moving in reverse,
> objects are mentally disassembled, and films occasionally run
> backward. This tendency for reversal reaches its greatest
> manifestation in the fall of the Rocket itself -- the fact that the
> sound of its descent comes after its faster-than-sound impact is an
> idea that stimulates an interesting variety of emotional responses in
> the novel's many protagonists.
>
> http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_grintro.html
>
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