Functional differential equations. 5: Time travel and life

C. K. Raju

Centre for Studies in Civilizations in New Delhi

Physics must be non-mechanistic to account for everyday experience. Existing physics becomes non-mechanistic if advanced interactions exist. Advanced interactions are usually eliminated on metaphysical grounds of “causality”, but we explain why that is not valid. Admitting advanced interactions involves no hypothesis, but only an acceptance of the most general formulation of physics, using mixed-type FDEs. If advanced interactions are rare, the resulting physics remains approximately mechanistic. The mixed-type FDE model readily resolve various paradoxes of time travel. Specifically, time machines are impossible, since realistic time travel implies spontaneity (different from chance). The novel features of this model can be expected to be especially prominent at the microphysical level of biological macromolecules and single particles.