TO: Craig Callender, Institute for Practical Ethics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093
FM: Bruce E. Camber
RE: Articles about Callender, and with others, i.e. Can Time Be Saved From Physics?, John Farrell, 2019; your arXiv collection, i.e. What becomes of a causal set? (2015); your books particularly What Makes Time Special?, Oxford University Press (2017); Physics meets philosophy at the Planck scale (PDF), Cambridge University Press (2001); your homepage(s), also within FQXi, Publications, Twitter (tweet by Bokulich), Wikipedia, YouTube: On time (w/Ashar Khan, Aug 16, 2022); The philosophy and ethics of science (2021) and Is Time real? (2015) (Closer to Truth)
URL for this page: https://81018.com/callender/
Third email: 30 September 2023 @ 3 PM
Dear Prof. Dr. Craig Callender:
Since my last note, I have rightly or wrongly become more and more convinced of the primacy of our most ubiquitous-and-versatile pi among all the dimensionless constants. My questions for you are most peculiar; I identify three facets of pi — continuity-symmetry-harmony — that seem to bridge the finite-infinite divide. What are those three facets of pi if not infinite? Might the three be used as a tight little definition of infinity? Might the three be essentially responsible for values?
I hope you have been well. My wife (who grew up in San Diego) remains entirely envious of anybody living in San Diego!
Warmly,
Bruce
Second email: Thu, Aug 18, 2022, 4:47 PM
Hi Craig,
I got distracted three years ago and never completed my page about your work to my satisfaction. There are over ten references to that work throughout my little website so that reference page is long overdue. In time, most of those references will first point to: https://81018.com/callender/ and in that way I’ll be forced to keep it up.
Have you ever seen my little chart on ethics? It’s probably sophomoric, but I like it and it helps me: https://81018.com/ethics/
I hope you are well and doing fine. My wife who graduated from Hoover High just across from SD State is so envious, but being from Boston-Cambridge with old connections throughout MIT, Harvard and BU, it is like on the other side of the world. for me. I tried it for over eight years but business interests pulled me back into the middle (Dallas)!
Best wishes,
Bruce
PS. If you ever want anything added, updated, or deleted from that page about your work, just say the word and it’ll happen. -BEC
First email: Wed, Jul 10, 2019, 10:34 PM Slightly Updated
Dear Prof. Dr. Craig Callender:
I tried posting this note in response to your article FQXi , “Can Time Be Saved From Physics?” (which I would add, and Mathematics; and then answer, “No.” And, it shouldn’t. We adopted our commonsense view of time from within the absolutes of Newton’s 1687 work. We know that he did not have all the answers!
Why can’t we use the Planck base units as a starting point? Here is a copy of my post:
Planck Time (tP) opens basic questions. First, tP is a direct correlation and necessary relation with a length and light in much the same way Einstein’s well-known equation, e=mc 2 necessarily and dynamically relates mass, energy and light. These four Planck base units are each natural units using only the most fundamental universal constants to define them. Could it is the very first moment in time? Could the universe start cold? If so, then what might be the first expression of these five facets of our reality first manifest? Could it be a sphere? John Archibald Wheeler imagined quantum foam. Others are suggesting that we call these spheres planckspheres. What if there is an application of cubic close packing of equal spheres (ccp) at this scale and the stacking amounts to a doubling? Within 202 doublings of base-2 notations these Planck base units have become the age of the universe, the size of the universe, the total mass of the universe, and the total energy of the universe, and yes, it is still happening right now. The universe is expanding! Exploring such a simple model has been our effort since December 2011: https://81018.com To see a chart of the numbers and to get a sense of the emergence and natural inflation: https://81018.com/chart/
I would be very pleased to hear from you.
Thank you.
-Bruce
Physics Meets Philosophy at the Planck Scale:
Contemporary Theories in Quantum Gravity, Callender, Craig; Huggett, Nick (Editors). Cambridge University Press, 2001. ISBN#:052166280x
Introduction Craig Callendar and Nick Huggett
Part I. Theories of Quantum Gravity and their Philosophical Dimensions:
2. Spacetime and the philosophical challenge of quantum gravity, Jeremy Butterfield and Christopher Isham
3. Naive quantum gravity (PDF), Steven Weinstein
4. Quantum spacetime: what do we know? Carlo Rovelli
Part II. Strings:
1. Reflections on the fate of spacetime, Edward Witten
2. A philosopher looks at string theory, Robert Weingard
3. Black holes, dumb holes, and entropy, William G. Unruh
Part III. Topological Quantum Field Theory:
1. Higher-dimensional algebra and Planck scale physics John C. Baez
Part IV. Quantum Gravity and the Interpretation of General Relativity:
1. On general covariance and best matching Julian B. Barbour
2. Pre-Socratic quantum gravity, Gordon Belot and John Earman
3. The origin of the spacetime metric: Bell’s ‘Lorentzian Pedagogy’ and its significance in general relativity, Harvey R. Brown and Oliver Pooley, 17 Aug 1999
4. Quantum spacetime without observers: ontological clarity and the conceptual foundations of quantum gravity, Sheldon Goldstein and Stefan Teufel
5. On gravity’s role in quantum state reduction, Roger Penrose
6. Why the quantum must yield to gravity, Joy Christian
Time to Think, John Farrell, September 17, 2020