Speaker
Description
The nature of time and its genuine passage are central problems at the interface of physics and philosophy. Inspired by Nicolas Gisin’s argument that free will is essential for rational reasoning and therefore implies the reality of temporal passage, this study examines how the structure of time may be understood in universes admitting Closed Timelike Curves (CTCs), and what implications such scenarios may have for quantum indeterminism. Using conceptual analysis and thought experiments grounded in quantum theory and general relativity, I analyze how indeterministic quantum events interact with the idea of creative time – a conception of time in which genuinely new events come into being – in spacetimes containing CTCs. Particular attention is given to how the openness of both the future and the past might be understood from this perspective. The analysis identifies conditions under which Gisin’s account of real temporal becoming remains philosophically and physically consistent, while highlighting potential tensions between a creative conception of time and the possibility of time travel. Within this framework, the coherence of free will appears as a related question emerging from the underlying ontology of time. These considerations illuminate the interplay between temporal ontology, quantum theory, and the conceptual foundations of time in physics.