Norton: No time for problems

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Abstract

The Wheeler–Dewitt equation is standardly interpreted using structures defined on the space-time manifold to the effect that the dynamics of the theory seems to have gone missing. This is the first aspect of the infamous problem of time. However, some recent literature suggests that the physical states of LQG represents a structure which comes before space-time and out of which “space-time emerges.” However, if space-time is an emergent structure then the manifold on which the Wheeler-Dewitt equation is defined is not space-time, and in particular the equation does not describe the evolution of our states in time. In short: if space-time emerges then there is no time for problems (which coincidentally, turns out to be the second aspect of the problem of time).

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