1999/03/08 by X. de Hemptinne, de Hemptinne, X.
Physics and Astronomy · #Chaotic Dynamics (nlin.CD) #Complex Systems and Dynamics #FOS: Physical sciences #Origins and Evolution of Life #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #chao-dyn #nlin.CD
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.chao-dyn/9903010
REVTEX, 25 pages, to appear in edited book by Patrick Baert "Time in modern intellectual thought"
arxiv created 1999/03/08 · openalex publication_date 1999/03/08 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Time can be defined as the duration between events. It is irreversible. When used as a variable in quantifying the changing properties of matter, this irreversibility of time is incompatible with Newton's deterministic mechanics and with its quantum mechanical prolongation. Experimental evidence, involving rejection of the traditional isolation paradigm, points to a solution of this paradox. No system may be thought of as isolated. Irreversibility is imported from ``elsewhere''. The popular objection of the followers of determinism, consisting in extrapolating local behaviour to the scale of the universe and stressing alleged contradictions generated by the non-isolation hypothesis, is intellectually unacceptable. It is unjustifiable to draw conclusions by extrapolating beyond the domain of scientific observation.