The arrow of time, the nature of spacetime, and quantum measurement

This paper extends the work of a previous paper [arXiv:1108.5261v3] on top-down causation and quantum physics, to consider the origin of the arrow of time. It proposes that a past conditioncascades down from cosmological to micro scales, being realised in many microstructures and setting the arrow of time at the quantum level by top-down causation. This physics arrow of time then propagates up, through underlying emergence of higher level structures, to geology, astronomy, engineering, and biology. The appropriate space-time picture to view all this is an emergent block universe (EBU), that recognizes the way the present is di¤erent from both the past and the future. This essential di¤erence is the ultimate reason the arrow of time has to be the way it is. A bonus of this view, entailing the ongoing extension of spacetime as time ows on, is that closed timelike lines are naturally prevented (spacetime singularities will block them o¤). A conclusion of this view is that the process of state vector reduction is central to the ow of time, and is not restricte