Lugano Philosophy Colloquia. Marta Pedroni

Marta Pedroni (University of Geneva)

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 [email protected] 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.