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Theme. As we navigate through life, we model time as flowing. The present divides the past and future and we attribute very different properties to the two continually updated realms. This model is very important to us, as it is connected to notions of the self, agency and freedom. Despite its importance, this intuitive “flow of time” seems to clash with time as it is modeled in physics. Is the clash genuine? And if so, can the sciences of the mind (cognitive science, psychology, neuroscience) help explain why creatures like us would model time as we do? How much of the flow of time lies in the external world and how much is a contribution by the observer? By bringing together physicists, philosophers and psychologists, this workshop hopes to make progress on these questions.

Organizers. Craig Callender and Ann Thresher, UC San Diego 

Sponsor. This workshop is made possible by a generous grant from the Foundations Questions Institute.

Registration. The talks are free and open to the public. However, due to limited seating, you must register with the conference organizers to attend. Please contact Craig Callender (ccallender@ucsd.edu) or Ann Thresher (athreshe@ucsd.edu) to check if there is space.

Speakers

Anthony Aguirre

Department of Physics, UC Santa Cruz

Valtteri Arstila

Behavioral Sciences and Philosophy, University of Turku

Maria Balcells

Philosophy, Bucknell University

Lera Boroditsky

Cognitive Science, UC San Diego

Dean Buonomano

Neurobiology and Psychology, UCLA

Sean Carroll

Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy, CalTech University

Eugene Caruso

Behavioral Science, University of Chicago

Natalja Deng

Philosophy, Yonsei University

Alison Fernandes

Philosophy, University of Warwick/Dublin

Akiko Frishhut

Philosophy, Akita International University

Rick Grush

Philosophy, UC San Diego

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Christoph Hoerl

Philosophy, University of Warwick

Jenann Ismael

Philosophy, University of Arizona

Jim Hartle

Physics, UC Santa Barbara

Teresa McCormack

Psychology, Queen's University Belfast

Kristie Miller

Philosophy, University of Sydney

Laurie Paul

Philosophy, North Carolina

Carlo Rovelli

Centre de Physique Théorique, Marseille

Meghan Sullivan

Philosophy, University of Notre Dame

Katharine Tillman

Psychology, UT Austin

Virginie van Wassenhove

Cognitive Neuroscience, CEA/DRF/NeuroSpin, INSERM Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit

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Participants include: Juliette Benitez (Euclid Lab), Craig Callender (UC San Diego), Ann Thresher (UC San Diego), Eddy Chen (Rutgers), Jim Weatherall (UC Irvine), Mahmoud Jalloh (USC), Bixin Guo (USC), John Dougherty (UC San Diego), Jennifer Carr (UC San Diego), Matthew Piper (UC San Diego), Adrian Bardon (Wake Forest), Graham Peebles (Akita International), Paul Skokowski (Stanford), Uma Karmarkar (UC San Diego), Blythe Greene (UC San Diego), and more.

Spacetime Location

Date: May 3-4, 2018

Location: Martin Johnson House, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, UC San Diego

https://scripps.ucsd.edu/about/venues/martin-johnson-house/directions

Program

To get a pdf of the slides (when available), please click on the paper titles

May 03, 2018

9:30 AM

Welcome and Introduction

Craig Callender

10:30 AM

Reverse-engineering the Self

Laurie Paul (with Tomer Ullman and Josh Tenenbaum)

11:15 AM

Coffee

11:30 AM

A Two Systems Approach to Temporal Cognition

Christoph Hoerl & Teresa McCormack

12:15

Eugene Caruso, Allison Fernandes, Meghan Sullivan

Moderator: Adrian Bardon

1:00 PM

Lunch

2:30

An Outline for a Theory of the Experience of Temporal Flow

Rick Grush

3:15 PM

4:00 PM

Coffee

May 04, 2018

9:45 AM

Time, Space, Language, Culture

Lera Boroditsky

10:30 AM

Getting it Wrong to Get it Right: How Should We Understand "Illusions" of Time and Change?

Maria Balcells

11:15 AM

Coffee

11:30 AM

The Development of the Mental Timeline

Katharine Tillman

12:15

What Does the Neuroscience of Time Reveal about the Physics of Time?

Dean Buonomano

1:00 PM

Lunch

2:15 PM

Panel: Physics and Manifest Time

Anthony Aguirre, Natalia Deng, Jenann Ismael, Akiko Frishhut

3:15 PM

The Refutation of the Cartesian Theater in Time and Observer, a Case of Emperor's New Clothes?

Valterri Arstila

4:00 PM

Coffee

4:15 PM

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