The first talk of our seminar series – by Nick Huggett – is on Wednesday February 3rd, at 9.15 CST.

Laws for Nowhere: the standard concept of law is, I suggest, significantly spatiotemporal, posing the question of how there can be laws in non-spatiotemporal theories, and most pointedly how laws could hold in non-spatiotemporal regions of spacetime. I describe a couple of quantum gravity models of the Big Bang (in string theory and group field theory), in a provisional attempt to demonstrate how such questions might arise.

Please come via zoom, or watch on Facebook. Details at https://www.centerphilsci.pitt.edu/cosmology-beyond-spacetime/.

UPDATE: Participants please register here: https://pitt.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_BYAmu_RxTeCCSU7JXYk_Ig

We are happy to announce an online seminar series that we are running in conjunction with the Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh, featuring talks by Francesca Vidotto, Lee Smolin, Chris Smeenk, Fay Dowker, on the intersection of quantum gravity and cosmology. The first lecture is on February 3rd. Full details are here: https://www.centerphilsci.pitt.edu/cosmology-beyond-spacetime/

Please join us via zoom!

We are very happy to announce a one-year postdoc at UIC for next year, funded by the John Templeton Foundation. Full details are available here: https://jobs.uic.edu/job-board/job-details?jobID=141437. Please pass on to anyone qualified who may be interested.

We are pleased to announce a talk by Mike D. Schneider (Pittsburgh), Trans-Planckian Philosophy of Cosmology, on November 25, 2020, at 11.15am Chicago time (5.15 UTC), via zoom. Find full details at https://beyondspacetime.net/about/space-and-time-after-quantum-gravity/speakers/. Hope to see you there!

Or follow our YouTube livestream: https://www.youtube.com/c/BeyondspacetimeNet

• Wednesday, 11 November 2020 over Zoom at 17:15 UTC — Robert Brandenberger (McGill): Is inflationary cosmology consistent with fundamental physics?

Abstract: The inflationary scenario has become the paradigm of early universe cosmology. However, recently challenges have been raised as to whether the scenario can be compatible with fundamental physics. I will review the inflationary scenario, introduce the challenges (Swampland Criteria and Trans-Planckian Censorship Conjecture (TCC)), and show that there are alternatives to inflation which are in agreement with current observations, and also satisfy both the swampland criteria and the TCC.

Zoom Meeting ID: 915 9958 6401
Password: 599357

https://unige.zoom.us/j/91599586401?pwd=MmZHelhVVjJ2cmVUUzJMMUVWenhTdz09

Or livestream on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/BeyondspacetimeNet

All the videos from the FCQG meeting of January 2020 are now available on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVzK6UpZmNq3ddJJvX70VjK-g615qLT7y. Enjoy!

We just posted the second set of talks from the January meeting onto our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVzK6UpZmNq3ddJJvX70VjK-g615qLT7y

Ivan Agullo, Daniel Sudarsky, Elias Okon, Richard Dawid, Juliusz Doboszewski, and Alexei Starobinsky.

We are very happy to announce the first set of talks from the conference that we co-organized in January 2020, held at NYU Abu Dhabi. So far talks by: Daniele Oriti, Baptiste Le Bihan, Béatrice Bonga, James Read, Chris Smeenk, Robert Brandenberger, and Mairi Sakellariadou, with more to follow soon. Go to our YouTube channel.