The idea that spacetime is not fundamental comes in several versions, depending on which aspects of space, time, or spacetime are called into question. Philosophically, such views can be framed as elimination, reduction, or derivativism — each offering a different metaphysical picture of how the world is structured. But what are the broader implications for physics, and for philosophy? A...
I will give an introduction to how quantum gravity emerges from string theory and, furthermore, a relatively simple quantum system of an N x N matrix. In the large N limit, it was conjectured that matrix quantum mechanics describes full M-theory in eleven dimensions. This idea is closely related to the quantization of membranes in M-theory. I will then discuss recent progress on how...
