Beyond the Dynamical Universe

I will outline arguments from the book "Beyond the Dynamical Universe" (forthcoming with Oxford University Press) that mysteries from quantum mechanics (e.g., measurement problem, no counterfactual definiteness) and general relativity (e.g., paradoxes of closed timelike curves) result from dynamical explanation in the mechanical universe and are easily resolved using adynamical explanation in the block universe. As an example of adynamical explanation, the Relational Blockworld (RBW) interpretation of quantum mechanics based on spatiotemporal ontological contextuality will be presented. RBW provides a realist psi-epistemic account of quantum mechanics as called for by Leifer. I will survey the RBW explanations of entanglement, environmental decoherence, quantum non-commutivity, quantum versus classical behavior, and the Born rule, and review new approaches to unification, quantum gravity and cosmology (no non-baryonic dark matter and no cosmological constant) suggested by RBW.