An experimental information gathering and utilization systems (IGUS) robot to demonstrate the 'physics of now'

摘要

The past, present, and future are not fundamental properties of Minkowski spacetime. It has been suggested that they are properties of a class of information gathering and utilizing systems (IGUSs). A human is a model IGUS robot. We provide a demonstration that what is perceived as past, present, and future is not uniquely determined from the laws of physics by constructing a robot that process information differently and therefore experience different "presents." We construct a customized virtual reality (VR) system which allows an observer to switch between present and past moments. This "robot" (human with VR system) can experience immersion in the immediate past ad libitum. Being able to actually construct an IGUS that has the same "present" at two different coordinates along the worldline lends support to the IGUS approach for explaining the psychological nature of past/present/future. (C) 2019 American Association of Physics Teachers.