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Abstract

I argue that the search for an evolutionary parameter to understand the dynamics of a theory of quantum gravity is misguided. Instead of being understood dynamically, at the universal level quantum probabilities must concern histories. In particular, the most promising way forward is to think of quantum probabilities as conditional probabilities concerning (partial) histories, rather than as arising from a decohering dynamical state. This is best exemplified by the generalized HPO formalism of Isham and Linden. Philosophically, this is in accord with a recent move in the metaphysics of time in favor of a deflationary sense of temporal becoming.