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Articles by Sam Baron
What Is Time?
1 Introduction What is time? A natural approach to answering this question is to let your favorite theory do the work: an A-theory, say, or a B-theory. Thus, time is an A-series; or it is a B-series. However, this approach struggles with a basic observation: time appears to be multiply realizable. A world with an A-series is a world with time; but so is a world with a B-series, as is a world with a C-series, as is a world with spacetime.
South by South-East Asia
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Spacetime does not exist
Einstein’s picture of spacetime, a four-dimensional fabric uniting space and time, breaks down at the smallest scales, where quantum mechanics takes over. For decades, physicists have searched for an account of how spacetime “emerges” from this deeper quantum reality. But philosopher Sam Baron argues that the whole idea of spacetime “emerging” from something else makes no sense.
How forced labour commitments are reshaping market access across South-East Asia
As the Trump administration conditions market access on forced labour commitments, such commitments have moved from the margins of trade policy to its core. Nowhere is that shift more consequential – or more contested – than in South-East Asia. On 12 March, the US launched new investigations into some of its largest trading partners, examining whether they had failed to impose or effectively enforce bans on the importation of goods produced with forced labour.
From Sister Cities to Strategic Partners: The L.A.–Mumbai Economic Opportunity
Los Angeles and Mumbai have been official sister cities since 1972. For over five decades, that designation has meant something closer to ceremonial kinship than strategic partnership: a banner unfurled at cultural festivals, a handshake commemorated in occasional press releases, but very little else. A convergence of new institutional developments suggests the conditions to give the relationship strategic depth are now in place, and the cost of continued inaction is no longer negligible.
From Sister Cities to Strategic Partners: The L.A.–Mumbai Economic Opportunity
Los Angeles and Mumbai have been official sister cities since 1972. For over five decades, that designation has meant something closer to ceremonial kinship than strategic partnership: a banner unfurled at cultural festivals, a handshake commemorated in occasional press releases, but very little else. A convergence of new institutional developments suggests the conditions to give the relationship strategic depth are now in place, and the cost of continued inaction is no longer negligible.
In India-US deal, there is a dangerous asymmetry. California can bridge the gap
This quiet risk was thrust into the spotlight earlier this month. Following the conclusion of trade negotiations and the announcement of a long-awaited trade “deal” between the United States and India, the American President announced a framework in which India would purchase $500 billion worth of American goods over five years — including energy, aircraft, precious metals, technology products, and coal — a sum so large that it almost exceeds India’s annual federal budget.
¿Y si el tiempo no existiera?
¿Cómo puede ser eso y qué significaría? Nos llevará un rato explicarlo, pero no se preocupe: aunque el tiempo no exista, nuestras vidas seguirán como siempre. Una crisis en la física La física está en crisis. Durante el último siglo, más o menos, hemos explicado el universo con dos teorías físicas de gran éxito: la relatividad general y la mecánica cuántica. La mecánica cuántica describe cómo funcionan las cosas en el mundo increíblemente diminuto de las partículas y las interacciones entre ellas.
Are our thoughts ‘real’? Here’s what philosophy says
You can doubt just about anything. But there’s one thing you can know for sure: you are having thoughts right now. This idea came to characterise the philosophical thinking of 17th century philosopher René Descartes. For Descartes, that we have thoughts may be the only thing we can be certain about. But what exactly are thoughts?
Are our thoughts ‘real’? Here’s what philosophy says
You can doubt just about anything. But there’s one thing you can know for sure: you are having thoughts right now. This idea came to characterise the philosophical thinking of 17th century philosopher René Descartes. For Descartes, that we have thoughts may be the only thing we can be certain about. But what exactly are thoughts?
Are a Machine's Thoughts Real? The Answer Matters Now More Than Ever.
You can doubt just about anything. But there's one thing you can know for sure: you are having thoughts right now. This idea came to characterise the philosophical thinking of 17th century philosopher René Descartes. For Descartes, that we have thoughts may be the only thing we can be certain about. But what exactly are thoughts?
Are our thoughts 'real?' Here's what philosophy says
You can doubt just about anything. But there's one thing you can know for sure: you are having thoughts right now. This idea came to characterize the philosophical thinking of 17th century philosopher René Descartes. For Descartes, that we have thoughts may be the only thing we can be certain about. But what exactly are thoughts?
Are our thoughts 'real'? Here’s what philosophy says
Artist's recreation of the famous sculpture by Auguste Rodin, "The Thinker". (Image by Zyanya Citlalli on Shutterstock) You can doubt just about anything. But there’s one thing you can know for sure: you are having thoughts right now. This idea came to characterize the philosophical thinking of 17th-century philosopher René Descartes. For Descartes, that we have thoughts may be the only thing we can be certain about. But what exactly are thoughts?
Are our thoughts ‘real’? Here’s what philosophy says
© 2025 Tolerance.ca ® Inc. All reproduction rights reserved. All information reproduced on the Web pages of www.tolerance.ca (including articles, images, photographs, and logos) is protected by intellectual property rights owned by Tolerance.ca ® Inc. or, in certain cases, by its author. Any reproduction of the information for use other than personal use is prohibited.
Are our thoughts ‘real’? Here’s what philosophy says
You can doubt just about anything. But there’s one thing you can know for sure: you are having thoughts right now. This idea came to characterise the philosophical thinking of 17th century philosopher René Descartes. For Descartes, that we have thoughts may be the only thing we can be certain about. But what exactly are thoughts?
Trump's return heralds a new era of trade tensions for Japan
Following Donald Trump’s resounding victory in the U.S. presidential election, Tokyo is preparing for substantial shifts in trade, international security and foreign policy. Particularly top-of-mind in Tokyo is how a second Trump administration will approach international trade and foreign direct investment issues.
Trump's return heralds a new era of trade tensions for Japan - Sam Baron
Aa Aa Aa - A + Following Donald Trump’s resounding victory in the U.S. presidential election, Tokyo is preparing for substantial shifts in trade, international security and foreign policy. Particularly top-of-mind in Tokyo is how a second Trump administration will approach international trade and foreign........ © The Japan Times visit website
Three groups of cicadas emerge together for first time in 1,547 years
It’s a big year in America – for wildlife as well as for politics. I’m talking about periodical cicadas. These curious creatures spend most of their lives in the ground, emerging after 13 or 17 years to eat, breed, die and repeat the cycle. For the first time in more than 200 years, two specific broods of the 13- and 17-year cicadas have emerged together: Brood XIX, in the southeastern United States, and Brood XIII, found in the country’s Midwest.
Prime time for cicadas: What a once-in-1,547-year bug population surge tells us about the nature of reality
It's a big year in America—for wildlife as well as for politics. I'm talking about periodical cicadas. These curious creatures spend most of their lives in the ground, emerging after 13 or 17 years to eat, breed, die and repeat the cycle. For the first time in more than 200 years, two specific broods of the 13- and 17-year cicadas have emerged together: Brood XIX, in the southeastern United States, and Brood XIII, found in the country's Midwest.
Prime time for cicadas: what a once-in-1,547-year bug population surge tells us about the nature of reality
© 2024 Tolerance.ca ® Inc. All reproduction rights reserved. All information reproduced on the Web pages of www.tolerance.ca (including articles, images, photographs, and logos) is protected by intellectual property rights owned by Tolerance.ca ® Inc. or, in certain cases, by its author. Any reproduction of the information for use other than personal use is prohibited.
Prime time for cicadas: what a once-in-1,547-year bug population surge tells us about the nature of reality
It’s a big year in America – for wildlife as well as for politics. I’m talking about periodical cicadas. These curious creatures spend most of their lives in the ground, emerging after 13 or 17 years to eat, breed, die and repeat the cycle. For the first time in more than 200 years, two specific broods of the 13- and 17-year cicadas have emerged together: Brood XIX, in the southeastern United States, and Brood XIII, found in the country’s Midwest.
What Could a Harris Administration Mean for Southeast Asia? Original
Ever since Vice President Kamala Harris broke onto the stage as the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party for president two months ago, analysts have been replete with speculation about what her administration may mean for the future of the United States’ foreign policy and international engagement.
Op die boekrak: Obsessed with a serial killer
But the Murder Club aren’t the only ones who have been tracking his every move… A local pizza delivery girl has been closely following the cases and built her own investigative report. Though dismissed as isolated crimes before, our hero, FBI agent Susan Parker, unravels a shocking trail of clues from the girl’s scrapbook that lead to the forgotten women and orphaned children left in the killer’s wake.
What is energy made of? The Conversation’s Curious Kids podcast Original
Have you seen that scene from Star Wars where Yoda uses the force to lift the spaceship out of a swamp? Its energy is so powerful, but what exactly is it made of? That’s what Ela, aged ten from Melbourne, wanted to know. And so she joined our host Eloise to ask Sam Baron, a science philosopher at The University of Melbourne, to find out the answer! You can read a print version of this story here.
Phoebe Harrop steps up to Blackbird's Kiwi boss as Samantha Wong returns to Aus
Blackbird partner Phoebe Harrop will take the helm of VC fund’s Kiwi out as its founding head, Samantha Wong, returns to Australia pending the birth of her second child. Wong announced the move back across The Ditch on Blackbird’s blog, saying “I’ve decided this is the right time for me and my family to move back to Sydney where my extended family live”.
Build Club is launching an accelerator for AI founders to take on the US
Build Club, Australia’s largest AI engineer and founder community is partnering with AWS to launch an accelerator for technical AI founders. The Build Club Accelerator is for 15 Australian technical founders – AI engineer and researchers – and will give them a springboard into the US market. Build Club founder Annie Liao said her ambition is to unearth and nurture AI talent to succeed in a highly competitive sector, but warned it’s only for founders with absolute determination and grit.
3 panel sessions to vote for at SXSW Sydney
One way South by Southwest (SXSW) Sydney is different to most tech and startup festivals is how it chooses its panels in a Survivor-meets-Eurovision way, with people asked to vote on the 1,100-odd submissions received to choose their favourite. The fortnight of voting in Session Select leads to LinkedIn being flooded with “please like me”posts from those with ideas they hope will make the cut when SXSW returns in October.
B2B food distribution marketplace Prep serves up $200,000 pre-Seed round
Food distribution startup Prep has raised $200,000 from Melbourne VC Skalata to connect major food retailers, corporates and restaurants with emerging food brands. Prep enables food producers and brands to efficiently scale B2B distribution – anywhere – for a low margin. The platform integrates with a producer’s existing ordering systems, and is five times more scalable.
_SOUTHSTART teamed up with the Adelaide Economic Development Agency to launch an accelerator for the SA capital's startups
One of Australia’s most-loved startup festivals _SOUTHSTART has forged a strategic partnership with the Adelaide Economic Development Agency to launch a new accelerator program. MASTERM!ND is a 5-month accelerator for up to 10 startups based in the South Australian capital. _SOUTHSTART co-director Danielle Seymour said the accelerator builds on the organisation’s commitment to catalysing innovation and driving tangible change.
Heatseeker is the startup you need to be a better founder and build faster
Sydney startup Heatseeker, which uses AI to simplify business idea validation and market research, has launched the alpha version of its testing platform to help founders speed up the time to product launch. Heatseeker.ai was cofounded in 2023 by serial entrepreneurs Kate O’Keeffe and Fiona Triaca. They set out to develop a way to understand different markets, at a glance, in real time, and based on actual customer interactions.
Fleet Space sent its latest satellite into orbit with SpaceX
The latest Centauri-6 satellite developed by Adelaide mining tech startup Fleet Space Technologies is now in orbit after heading skywards aboard SpaceX’s Bandwagon-1 “ridesharing” mission. The Falcon 9 reusable rocket’s payload of The Centauri-6 microsatellite brings Fleet Space’s constellation of low earth orbit satellites to seven. They’re used for minerals exploration as well as building capacity to deliver advanced satellite communications capabilities.
The misinformation on X about the Bondi Junction attack shows how far Twitter has fallen
Twitter was once the go-to platform for real-time, breaking news stories, often led by journalists boasting verified blue ticks. But following Elon Musk’s acquisition of the platform in late 2022 and a name change to X, a series of decisions including the slashing of moderation and safety staff and the opening up of verification to anyone in exchange for a payment, have led to misinformation running riot on the site, particularly in relation to major news stories.
Can AI read our minds? Probably not, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be worried
Earlier this year, Neuralink implanted a chip inside the brain of 29-year-old US man Noland Arbaugh, who is paralyzed from the shoulders down. The chip has enabled Arbaugh to move a mouse pointer on a screen just by imagining it moving. In May 2023, US researchers also announced a non-invasive way to "decode" the words someone is thinking from brain scans in combination with generative AI.
Can AI read our minds? Probably not, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be worried
Earlier this year, Neuralink implanted a chip inside the brain of 29-year-old US man Noland Arbaugh, who is paralysed from the shoulders down. The chip has enabled Arbaugh to move a mouse pointer on a screen just by imagining it moving. In May 2023, US researchers also announced a non-invasive way to “decode” the words someone is thinking from brain scans in combination with generative AI. A similar project sparked headlines about a “mind-reading AI hat”.
Can AI read our minds? Probably not, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be worried
Health 23 hours ago 35% of American men have been dumped over common hygiene problem, reveals new study The Focus - Chaitra Krishnamurthy • 23h If you thought of relationships as complicated, wait until you hear why the majority of American men get dumped, as revealed in a new study.
Physicists Just Measured Gravity on the Smallest Scale Ever By Using a Promising New Technique
Just over a week ago, European physicists announced they had measured the strength of gravity on the smallest scale ever. In a clever tabletop experiment, researchers at Leiden University in the Netherlands, the University of Southampton in the UK, and the Institute for Photonics and Nanotechnologies in Italy measured a force of around 30 attonewtons on a particle with just under half a milligram of mass. An attonewton is a billionth of a billionth of a newton, the standard unit of force.
Why a tiny gravity measurement may be a leap forward for physics
Just over a week ago, European physicists announced they had measured the strength of gravity on the smallest scale ever. In a clever tabletop experiment, researchers at Leiden University in the Netherlands, the University of Southampton in the UK, and the Institute for Photonics and Nanotechnologies in Italy measured a force of around 30 attonewtons on a particle with just under half a milligram of mass. An attonewton is a billionth of a billionth of a newton, the standard unit of force.
Testing gravity on a small scale can resolve century-old mystery in current physics: Research
There may yet be some technological limitation that prevents us from conducting experiments of gravity at quantum scales, pushing us back toward building bigger colliders Just over a week ago, European physicists announced that they had measured the strength of gravity on the smallest scale ever.
Kitchen science - Openforum
Just over a week ago, European physicists announced they had measured the strength of gravity on the smallest scale ever. In a clever tabletop experiment, researchers at Leiden University in the Netherlands, the University of Southampton in the UK, and the Institute for Photonics and Nanotechnologies in Italy measured a force of around 30 attonewtons on a particle with just under half a milligram of mass. An attonewton is a billionth of a billionth of a newton, the standard unit of force.
Gravity Experiments on the Kitchen Table: Why a Tiny, Tiny Measurement May Be a Big Leap Forward for Physics
Just over a week ago, European physicists announced they had measured the strength of gravity on the smallest scale ever. In a clever tabletop experiment, researchers at Leiden University in the Netherlands, the University of Southampton in the UK, and the Institute for Photonics and Nanotechnologies in Italy measured a force of around 30 attonewtons on a particle with just under half a milligram of mass. An attonewton is a billionth of a billionth of a newton, the standard unit of force.
Gravity experiments on the kitchen table: Why a tiny, tiny measurement may be a big leap forward for physics
Just over a week ago, European physicists announced they had measured the strength of gravity on the smallest scale ever. In a clever tabletop experiment, researchers at Leiden University in the Netherlands, the University of Southampton in the UK, and the Institute for Photonics and Nanotechnologies in Italy measured a force of around 30 attonewtons on a particle with just under half a milligram of mass. An attonewton is a billionth of a billionth of a newton, the standard unit of force.
Gravity experiments on the kitchen table: why a tiny, tiny measurement may be a big leap forward for physics
© 2024 Tolerance.ca ® Inc. All reproduction rights reserved. All information reproduced on the Web pages of www.tolerance.ca (including articles, images, photographs, and logos) is protected by intellectual property rights owned by Tolerance.ca ® Inc. or, in certain cases, by its author. Any reproduction of the information for use other than personal use is prohibited.
Gravity experiments on the kitchen table: why a tiny, tiny measurement may be a big leap forward for physics
Just over a week ago, European physicists announced they had measured the strength of gravity on the smallest scale ever. In a clever tabletop experiment, researchers at Leiden University in the Netherlands, the University of Southampton in the UK, and the Institute for Photonics and Nanotechnologies in Italy measured a force of around 30 attonewtons on a particle with just under half a milligram of mass. An attonewton is a billionth of a billionth of a newton, the standard unit of force.
Kishida’s puzzling decision to ax his human rights adviser
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s Cabinet reshuffle in September failed to boost his sinking popularity, with recent polls showing approval ratings at record lows. But it did signal a shift in political winds in Tokyo.
Kishida’s puzzling decision to ax his human rights adviser - Sam Baron
Aa Aa Aa - A + Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s Cabinet reshuffle in September failed to boost his sinking popularity, with recent polls showing approval ratings at record lows. But it did signal a shift in political winds in........ © The Japan Times visit website
How can you define a 'drug'? Nobody really knows
What’s a medical drug? Ask someone on the street and they’re likely to tell you it’s the kind of thing you take when you’re unwell. This understanding is wrong, as we will see. But after a thorough investigation, my colleagues and I found no other potential definitions are any better. Despite their centrality to medicine, we have no idea what medical drugs are. We can’t even tell the difference between drugs and food, let alone drugs and so-called “natural” alternatives.
How can you define a 'drug'? Nobody really knows
What's a medical drug? Ask someone on the street and they're likely to tell you it's the kind of thing you take when you're unwell. This understanding is wrong, as we will see. But after a thorough investigation, my colleagues and I found no other potential definitions are any better. Despite their centrality to medicine, we have no idea what medical drugs are. We can't even tell the difference between drugs and food, let alone drugs and so-called "natural" alternatives.
How can you define a 'drug'? Nobody really knows, argues researcher
What's a medical drug? Ask someone on the street and they're likely to tell you it's the kind of thing you take when you're unwell. This understanding is wrong, as we will see. But after a thorough investigation, my colleagues and I found no other potential definitions are any better. Despite their centrality to medicine, we have no idea what medical drugs are. We can't even tell the difference between drugs and food, let alone drugs and so-called "natural" alternatives.
How can you define a 'drug'? Nobody really knows
What’s a medical drug? Ask someone on the street and they’re likely to tell you it’s the kind of thing you take when you’re unwell. This understanding is wrong, as we will see. But after a thorough investigation, my colleagues and I found no other potential definitions are any better. Despite their centrality to medicine, we have no idea what medical drugs are. We can’t even tell the difference between drugs and food, let alone drugs and so-called “natural” alternatives.
2023/74 "Are the National Unity Government’s Responsible Investment Policies Fit for Purpose?" by Sam Baron and Ye Khaung Oo
After the February 2021 coup, Myanmar’s National Unity Government (NUG) issued new responsible investment policies that call for companies to end tax payments to the military and divest from all military-backed companies. The NUG’s policies require that if companies are unable to end tax payments to the military, then they should consider initiating a ‘responsible exit’ in consultation with the parallel government and leave the Myanmar economy until democracy is restored.
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