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. \;
\nThis 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 For more information: \;https://www.usi.ch/en/feeds/25721 \; \;
\nHere is the abstract of the talk: \; \;
\nI 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.