The Production of Time

TL;DR

This paper proposes viewing quantum measurement as a sense of time, linking it to relativistic time and suggesting implications for quantum gravity and cosmic time flow.

Contribution

It introduces a novel perspective that equates quantum measurement with a sense of time, potentially resolving issues in quantum gravity and cosmology.

Findings

Measurement as a sense of time relates to relativistic time.

Proposes criteria linking measurement to stress-energy operator.

Implications for the nature of quantum gravity.

Abstract

I suggest that measurement in quantum theory should be regarded as a sense of time (of things happening), which is as important as the conventional relativistic notion of time. A key question -- of basic physical interest whether one accepts the arguments here or not -- is, What physical criteria determine when a measurement takes place? I suggest a way in which the answer to this may be bound up with the resolution of some pathologies associated with the stress-energy operator, and may at the same time determine the cosmic flow of time. The problem of reconciling the quantum sense of time (measurement) and the conventional relativistic one gives some indication that the the correct "quantization" of gravity is essentially different from that of other fields.