You're looking at Less Wrong's discussion board. This includes all posts, including those that haven't been promoted to the front page yet. For more information, see About Less Wrong.

shminux comments on Why is the A-Theory of Time Attractive? - Less Wrong Discussion

6 Post author: Tyrrell_McAllister 31 October 2014 11:11PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (89)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: shminux 02 November 2014 06:49:47PM 2 points [-]

There are spacetimes, most notably the Godel Universe, where time is both a loop and not a loop. Some time directions (from the same spatial point) loop around, others go on forever, never getting close to the point of origin. You can still say, however, that it is compatible with the timeless B-like approach. There is no way to construct this spacetime by taking an A-like fixed spatial slice and evolving it forward in time using the Einstein equations. (There is a loophole, however, where one can lift the Godel universe from flat space using a twisted timelike fiber, but that's a different story.)