Philosophy of Physics Seminar (Thursday - Week 2, TT22)

The realisation of Mach's principle relies on group theory, which makes it is possible to construct consistent theories in which all absolute elements are eliminated. However, the direct removal of scale leads to a theory that cannot describe the observed growth of structure in the universe. I will suggest that the problem can only be resolved if a group invariant called complexity that measures the variety of the universe is identified with time itself. This radical step, which eliminates all absolutes because the complexity is also an intrinsic scale, permits highly predictive consistent description of classical Newtonian universes and may do the same for Einsteinian universes. Such a theory also includes intriguing quantum hints.