Holographic space and time: Emergent in what sense?

Abstract

This paper proposes a metaphysics for holographic duality. In addition to the AdS/CFT correspondence I also consider the dS/CFT conjecture of duality. Both involve non-perturbative string theory and both are exact dualities. But while the AdS/CFT keeps time at the margins of the story, the dS/CFT conjecture gives to time the “space” it deserves by presenting an interesting holographic model of it. My goals in this paper can be summarized in the following way. First, I argue that the formal structure and physical content of the duality do not support the standard philosophical reading of the relation in terms of grounding. Second, I put forward a philosophical scheme mainly extrapolated from the double aspect monism theory. I read holographic duality in this framework as it seems to fit the mathematical and physical structure of the duality smoothly. Inside this framework I propose a notion of spacetime emergence alternative to those ones commonly debated in the AdS/CFT physics and philosophy circles.