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Dynamics, the physical change in time and a pillar of natural sciences, can be regarded as an emergent phenomenon when the system of interest is part of a larger, static one. This ‘relational approach to time’, in which the system’s environment provides a temporal reference, does not only provide insight into foundational issues of physics, but holds the potential for a deeper theoretical understanding as it intimately links statics and dynamics. Reinforcing the significance of this connection, we demonstrate, based on recent progress (Gemsheim and Rost 2023 Phys. Rev. Lett. 131 140202), the role of emergent time as a vital link between time- independent and time- dependent perturbation theory in quantum mechanics. We calculate first order contributions, which are often the most significant, and discuss the issue of degenerate spectra. Based on our results, we envision future applications for the calculation of dynamical phenomena based on a single pure energy eigenstate.

In a class of quantum gravity approaches it is indicated that our observable world emerges out of a fundamental structure that appears highly resistant to any clear spatial or temporal interpretation. In this work we are examining an analogue quantum system that appears to simulate such an unintuitive structure: the emergence of the so called topological phase of matter depicted by the Chern–Simons gauge theory. By investigating the proposed analogy from the lens of category theory, we offer a clear interpretation of the way in which space and time act at the fundamental level.

Time is one of the undisputed foundations of our life in the real world. Here it is argued that inside small isolated quantum systems, time does not pass as we are used to, and it is primarily in this sense that quantum objects enjoy only limited reality. Quantum systems, which we know, are embedded in the everyday classical world. Their preparation as well as their measurement-phases leave durable records and traces in the entropy of the environment. The Landauer Principle then gives a quantitative threshold for irreversibility. With double slit experiments and tunneling as paradigmatic examples, it is proposed that a label of timelessness offers clues for rendering a Copenhagen-type interpretation of quantum physics more “realistic” and acceptable by providing a coarse but viable link from the fundamental quantum realm to the classical world which humans directly experience.

Learning to predict events in the near future is fundamental to human and artificial agents. Many prediction techniques are unable to learn and predict a stream of relational data online when the environments are unknown, non-stationary, and no prior training examples are available. This paper addresses the online prediction problem by introducing a low complexity learning technique called Situation Learning and several prediction techniques that use the information from Situation Learning to predict the next likely event. The prediction techniques include two variants of a Bayesian inference technique, a variable order Markov model prediction technique and situation matching techniques. We compared their prediction accuracies quantitatively for three domains: a role-playing game, computer network intrusion system alerts, and event prediction of maritime paths in a discrete-event simulator.

The paper attempts to take seriously one of the main claims of the final part of Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, where the hero-narrator announces his intention to give his work a form that usually re- mains invisible, namely the form of time. Our question will therefore be what structure this form has and how it permeates the whole novel. Starting from the hypothesis that the Proustian conception of time can be metaphorically described as a constellation, I will try to show that this constellation can be understood as a connection of two forms of temporality that are clearly present in the book: (1) the simultaneous qualitative time of ‘the hour’ on the one hand, and (2) the successive temporality, with its related destructive effects, on the other. If those aspects of time are considered together, the reader is confronted with a more complex idea of time as a changing constellation of relations. In the main part of the paper, I will try to show that this conception admits to thinking of time regained not only as rediscovery of the solipsistic time of the hero-narrator but also as time shared on a deeper level with others. And since the notion of joint attention is, at least I suppose, necessary for the constitution of genuine intersubjective time, I will try to show that at the central place of the novel, namely the Venice episode, Proust is concerned precisely with the question of the emergence of time from a singular moment of shared attention.

The paper proposes a re-assessment of Reichenbach’s ‘causal’ theory of time. Reichenbach’s version of the theory, first proposed in 1921, is interesting because it is one of the first attempts to construct a causal theory as a relational theory of time, which fully takes the results of the Special theory of relativity into account. The theory derives its name from the cone structure of Minkowski space–time, in particular the emission of light signals. At first Reichenbach defines an ‘order’ of time, a ‘before-after’ relationship between mechanical events. In his later work, he comes to the conclusion that the ‘order’ of time needs to be distinguished from the ‘direction’ of time. He therefore abandons the sole focus on light geometry and turns to Boltzmann’s statistical version of thermodynamics. However, as Einstein pointed out, the emission and reception of light signals have thermodynamic aspects. When this is taken into account, Reichenbach’s ‘causal’ theory turns out to be an entropic theory of time. It also emerges that Reichenbach discusses phase space and typicality arguments in support of his dynamic view of time. They provide a better understanding of the notion of entropy. This unifies his approach and helps to answer some of the standard objections against a causal theory of time.

Este artículo sugiere que la metamorfosis de las deudas en derivados y títulos financieros, y de estos en deudas, genera redes de activos y obligaciones, que inducen la emergencia de distintos tiempos del capital, articulados en un sistema complejo, cuya dinámica hace posible sincronizarlos en forma de crisis de carácter global. La crisis se trata como un cambio de estado en un sistema complejo, precipitada por la conectividad generada por el apalancamiento creciente. Es un desarrollo de las teorías de la crisis y de la socialización de la deuda planteadas por Marx en El Capital.

This paper focuses on eight National Health Service (NHS) community midwives' experience of linear time during the third phase of a 3-year action research study. Drawing on the words of the midwives, the paper seeks to compare and contrast the ways in which they experienced this temporal framework, individually and organizationally, in their clinical practice. Midwifery work was mostly described as being bound by a ‘technical administrative rationality’ that controlled the organization of paid employment, although this contradicted a cyclical, ‘nurturing rationality’ that was rooted in relational time. The midwives struggled with, and at times resisted, a more relational approach to working when the introduction of a supportive process called clinical supervision was introduced. This approach to working contested their existing temporal boundaries and imposed its own temporal framework. Despite all the midwives commenting on the importance of making time to meet as a group, clinical supervision was experienced as creating more work. There is, therefore, justification for acknowledging that in times of turbulent change and acute staffing crises, NHS community midwives preferred to prioritize work through assembly line production rather than investing time in nurturing, supportive client and colleague relationships.

In Norway an ideology of gender equality and the universal welfare state has created generous leave arrangements for parents, both mothers and fathers, to make the combination of work and family possible.To recruit competent women and men, knowledge work organisations have to accommodate to working hours that are compatible with the responsibility for a family. In the knowledge economy in Norway we therefore find women and men with higher education trying to act out the ideals of gen- der equality at work and at home. In this paper we explore how family-friendly policies in knowledge work organisations result in family-friendly practices.We do this by analysing two R&D departments belonging to large Norwegian companies in the international market. Both had policies of gender equality and family friendly working time arrangements and career opportunities for women with reduced hours.We show how different employment relations and forms of organisation influenced the work and time practices of the research scientists. Using the concept of social contracts in em- ployment and a relational concept of time, we found that it was more difficult to realise the reduced hours in the organisation that took responsibility for the career and welfare of their employees in a long-term perspective because of the mutual trust and obligations in this relationship.The women in the organisation with more transactional relations where their employment was dependent upon the market and their short-term economic performance, were able to use their accounting system to reduce their hours.The young fathers in the same organisation who were not yet established as experts, could not use the accounting system to limit their hours like the senior women.They needed to work long hours on scientific publications to qualify as researchers to secure their employment. In Norway an ideology of gender equality and the universal welfare state has created generous leave arrangements for parents, both mothers and fathers, to make the combination of work and family possible.To recruit competent women and men, knowledge work organisations have to accommodate to working hours that are compatible with the responsibility for a family. In the knowledge economy in Norway we therefore find women and men with higher education trying to act out the ideals of gen- der equality at work and at home. In this paper we explore how family-friendly policies in knowledge work organisations result in family-friendly practices. We do this by analysing two R&D departments belonging to large Norwegian companies in the international market. Both had policies of gender equality and family friendly working time arrangements and career opportunities for women with reduced hours.We show how different employment relations and forms of organisation influenced the work and time practices of the research scientists. Using the concept of social contracts in em- ployment and a relational concept of time, we found that it was more difficult to realise the reduced hours in the organisation that took responsibility for the career and welfare of their employees in a long-term perspective because of the mutual trust and obligations in this relationship.The women in the organisation with more transactional relations where their employment was dependent upon the market and their short-term economic performance, were able to use their accounting system to reduce their hours.The young fathers in the same organisation who were not yet established as experts, could not use the accounting system to limit their hours like the senior women.They needed to work long hours on scientific publications to qualify as researchers to secure their employment.