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    The label 'time machine' should not be restricted to devi... — Carmelics
    Home/Modality & Possibility
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    The label 'time machine' should not be restricted to devices operating within a finite spatial range, because adopting a more liberal stance avoids various complications while still sufficing to elicit key points about time machines.

    Modality & Possibility
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Restricting 'time machine' to finite spatial range introduces various complications.
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    • 2.A more liberal stance (allowing infinite spatial spread) still suffices to elicit key points.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.A definition that permits infinite spatial spread conflates time machines with global spacetime topology changes, obscuring the causal agency of a localized device.
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    • 2.Earman, Smeenk, and Wüthrich's analysis requires that a time machine's compactly generated Cauchy horizon be traceable to a bounded region, grounding causal responsibility in a finite source.
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    • 3.Permitting unbounded spatial influence dissolves the distinction between a device causing closed timelike curves and a spacetime that merely happens to contain them.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Pragmatic convenience in avoiding definitional complications is insufficient justification when the complications themselves encode physically meaningful constraints.
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    • 2.The finite-range restriction reflects the requirement that a time machine be an intervention in spacetime, not merely a description of it, a distinction central to interventionist accounts of causation from Woodward onward.
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    Topics

    Modality & PossibilityCausation

    Key Terms

    Necessary and sufficient(describes the relationship between a particular's existence and a statement's truth)
    Necessary means something must happen for a result; sufficient means something alone is enough to guarantee that result.
    elicit(describing how the definition helps us understand key points about time machines)
    To bring out, reveal, or draw forth; in this context, it means to help us understand or explain something.
    finite spatial range(describing the physical limitations of a device)
    A limited area of space; in other words, something that only works within a certain distance or location rather than everywhere.
    liberal stance(referring to how we define what counts as a time machine)
    A broader, more flexible interpretation or definition of something, rather than a strict or narrow one.

    Related

    A definition that permits infinite spatial spread conflates time machines with g...A more liberal stance (allowing infinite spatial spread) still suffices to elici...Earman, Smeenk, and Wüthrich's analysis requires that a time machine's compactly...Permitting unbounded spatial influence dissolves the distinction between a devic...
    +3 moreShow less
    Pragmatic convenience in avoiding definitional complications is insufficient jus...Restricting 'time machine' to finite spatial range introduces various complicati...

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: time-machine
    View source passageHide passage
    The issue that must be faced now is what further conditions must be imposed in order that the appearance of CTCs to the future of \(\Sigma_0\) can be attributed to the operation of a time machine. Not surprisingly, the answer depends not just on the structure of the spacetime at issue but also on the physical laws that govern the evolution of the spacetime structure. If one adopts the attitude that the label “time machine” is to be reserved for devices that operate within a finite spatial
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    The finite-range restriction reflects the requirement that a time machine be an ...

    Similar

    Restricting 'time machine' to finite spatial range introduces various ...80%If time-machine spacetimes are highly non-generic, the concept of a ti...78%Deutsch-Politzer spacetime is not a plausible candidate for a time mac...76%A Thornian time machine cannot operate in a spatially open universe wh...74%
    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit