The nature of time : geometry, physics and perception ; [proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on The Nature of Time: Geometry, Physics and Perception, Tatranská Lomnica, Slovak Republic, 21-24 May, 2002

There are very few concepts that fascinate equally a theoretical physicist studying black holes and a patient undergoing seriolls mental psychosis. Time, undoubtedly, can well be ranked among them. For the measure of time inside a black hole is no less bizarre than the perception of time by a schizophrenic, who may perceive it as completely "suspended," "standing still," or even "reversing its direction. " The nature of time is certainly shrouded in profound mystery. This, perhaps, since the concept entails multifarious, and occasionally incongruous, facets. No wonder the subject attracts the serious attention of scholars on the one hand, and of the lay public on the other. Our Advanced Research Workshop is an excellent il­ lustration of this point, as the reader will soon discover. It turned out to be a unique professional forum for an unusually lively, effective and fruitful exchange of ideas and beliefs among 48 participants from 20 countries worldwide, selected out of more than a hundred applicants. The present book is based on the select talks presented at the meeting, and aims to provide the interested layperson and specialist alike with a multidisciplinary sampling of the most up-to-date scholarly research on the nature of time. It represents a coherent, state-of-the-art volume showing that research relevant to this topic is necessarily interdisciplinary and does not ignore such delicate issues as "altered" states of consciousness, religion and metaphysics. Front Matter....Pages i-xvii Internal Times and Consciousness....Pages 1-3 The Human Sense of Time: Biological, Cognitive and Cultural Considerations....Pages 5-18 The Parallel-Clock Model: A Tool for Quantification of Experienced Duration....Pages 19-26 Time in the Cognitive Process of Humans....Pages 27-31 Studying Psychological Time with Weber’s Law....Pages 33-41 Time and the Problem of Consciousness....Pages 43-51 Temporal Displacement....Pages 53-66 Discrimination and Sequentialization of Events in Perception....Pages 67-75 Time, Consciousness and Quantum Events in Fundamental Spacetime Geometry....Pages 77-89 How Time Passes....Pages 91-103 Reality, and Those who Perceive it....Pages 105-113 The Conscious Universe....Pages 115-127 Mathematical Approaches to the Concept of Time....Pages 129-130 Geometry of time and Dimensionality of Space....Pages 131-143 Time in Biology and Physics....Pages 145-152 Analysis of the Relationship Between Real and Imaginary time in Physics....Pages 153-164 Clifford Algebra, Geometry and Physics....Pages 165-174 The Programs of the Extended Relativity in C- Spaces: Towards Physical Foundations of String Theory....Pages 175-185 Time Measurements, 1/ f Noise of the Oscillators and Algebraic Numbers....Pages 187-195 Internal Time and Innovation....Pages 197-208 Quantum Computing: A Way to Break Complexity?....Pages 209-220 On the Relational Statistical Space-Time Concept....Pages 221-229 Self-Organization in Discrete Systems with Fermi-Type Memory....Pages 231-240 The Physicist’s View of Time....Pages 241-242 Thermodynamic Irreversibility and the Arrow of Time....Pages 243-250 Time from Quantum Uncertainty....Pages 251-259 The Arrow of Time in Quantum Theories....Pages 261-267 Conformal Time in Cosmology....Pages 269-276 Acausality and Retrocausality in Four- and Higher-Dimensional General Relativity....Pages 277-288 Time, Closed Timelike Curves and Causality....Pages 289-296 Is There More to T?....Pages 297-306 Global Causality in Space-Time Universe....Pages 307-313 Time at the Origin Of the Universe: Fluctuations Between two Possibilities....Pages 315-322 Quantum Cellular Automata, the Epr Paradox and the Stages Paradigm....Pages 323-340 Planck Scale Physics, Pregeometry and the Notion of Time....Pages 341-351 Causality as a Casualty of Pregeometry....Pages 353-362 Integrative Science’s Views of Time....Pages 363-365 The Aristotelian Relation of Time to Motion and to the Human Soul....Pages 367-381 The Dynamics of Time and Timelessness: Philosophy, Physics and Prospects for our Life....Pages 383-392 Spacetime Holism and the Passage of Time....Pages 393-402 The Intelligibility of Nature, the Endophysical Paradigm and the Relationship Between Physical and Psychological Time....Pages 403-416 Potential and Actual Time Concepts....Pages 417-425 Paradigms of Natural Science and Substantial Temporology....Pages 427-435 Back Matter....Pages 437-446

This book provides the reader with the most recent scholarly insights into the nature of time - undoubtedly one of the most profound mysteries that science has ever faced. The selected contributions are grouped into four conceptually different yet mutually cohesive chapters, carefully woven into a comprehensive whole that goes well beyond standard treatments. The subjects discussed include the fine structure of psychological time(s) and consciousness, novel algebraic geometrical and number theoretic models of time dimension, different arrows of time, time travel, EPR paradox, quantum non-locality, pregeometry, and a host of relevant epistemological and ontological issues. The book shows that research is becoming necessarily interdisciplinary and does not ignore even such delicate issues as "altered" states of consciousness, religion and metaphysics. Although focused primarily on an academic readership, the treatise can be read with profit by anyone fascinated by the enigma of time.