9:36 a.m.
We are pleased to announce that on Friday, November 17 at 17:30 (CET), Marta Pedroni
(University of Geneva) will give the talk The singular case of spacetime singularities in
quantum gravity as part of the Lugano Philosophy Colloquia Fall 2023 organised by the
Institute of Philosophy (ISFI) at USI.
This hybrid talk will take place in the Multiuso room, Theology Building, USI West Campus
and online via Zoom. If you are interested in joining it online, please write to
events.isfi@usi.ch<mailto:events.isfi@usi.ch>
For more information: https://www.usi.ch/en/feeds/25721
Here is the abstract of the talk:
I analyse the status of spacetime singularities in light of singularity resolution in
quantum gravity (QG). The avoidance of singularities in QG appears to make a strong case
for the view that spacetime singularities are nothing more than mathematical pathologies
of general relativity. However, this conclusion may be too hasty. Spacetime singularities
are more accurately understood as global properties of spacetime rather than things. Talks
about singularities are replaced by talks about singular spacetimes in rigorous
definitions. Therefore, if spacetime emerges in QG -- as it is often claimed -- then so
may its singular structure. Although this proposal is intriguing, I argue that the attempt
to (re)instate singularities in QG through spacetime emergence fails.