What is the future?

University of Cambridge

Hello and welcome back to Mind Over Chatter! Please fill out our survey https://forms.gle/r9CfHpJVUEWrxoyx9 to tell us what your mind thinks about our chatter. Knowing what you think will really help us make the podcast even better… Now, on to the episode! This second series is all about the future - and in this first episode we’re going to be considering what the future even is… Have you ever wondered how time works? It turns out, the answer is a lot more complicated than we thought. Join our wondering and wonderful conversation with philosopher of science Matt Farr, professor of psychology Nicky Clayton, and professor of linguistics and philosophy, Kasia Jaszczolt. We’ll be talking about everything from physics to linguistics… and from broken eggs to Einstein’s theory of relativity. You can find us on other platforms here: https://mind-over-chatter.captivate.fm/listen This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan and Naomi Clements-Brod. Annie Thwaite and Charlotte Zemmel provide crucial research and production support for Series 2. [00:00] - Introductions [02:10] - A bit about the guests’ research [04:28] - Does time actually go from past to present to future? And does time really ‘flow’? [06:04] - The A-theory of time and John McTaggart Ellis McTaggart [07:53] - The B-theory and C-theory of time (and a little bit more about the A-theory too) [09:53] - How do B-theorists deal with entropy? Can you un-break an egg? [10:44] - The difference between the A-theory, B-theory and C-theory of time - does time have a direction? And does energy/entropy have a direction? [14:12] - Recap of the first portion of the episode, reviewing A-theory, B-theory and C-theory of time [18:58] - How the mind understands the subjective concept of time [24:24] - How languages talk about time differently and why these differences matter [27:11] - The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis and how the way you talk about language affects the way you perceive and think about things [30:21] - Recap of the second portion of the episode [34:02] - How do the mental and linguistic concepts around time fit with philosophical concepts and physics of time? [40:45] - How mental time travel works and how thinking about the past is different to thinking about the future [41:40] - All biological organisms are subject to the laws of thermodynamics so we can’t remember the future or act towards the past [42:55] - Cultural and linguistic differences in mental time travel and whether the past is behind us or in front of us [45:46] - Is there a conflict between the psychological and linguistic models of time and the way physics handles time? [48:20] - Recap of the last portion of the episode [52:44] - Closing and thank you’s If you want some more information about the different theories of time we discussed in this episode, this article by Matt helped us understand some of what was said: https://aeon.co/essays/the-c-theory-of-time-asks-if-time-really-has-a-direction