The Larson Research Center

Currently, my RST-based essay is ranked number 2 out of more than 70 essays submitted in the FQXI essay contest on the nature of time. This ranking is somewhat flattering, but also misleading in a way, because of the dynamics created by the contest rules. 

Nevertheless, it’s been a worthwhile effort for many reasons, regardless of the contest’s outcome, even though, in the process of reading the essays and engaging in the discussions, I’m reminded of Henry David Thoreau’s acerbic, yet penetrating, social comment:

There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root, and it may be that he who bestows the largest amount of time and money on the needy is doing the most by his mode of life to produce that misery which he strives in vain to relieve.

While I wouldn’t go so far as to say that this sentiment applies perfectly to the troubled physics community, it clearly holds in some limit. Yet, paradoxically, I really feel that FQXI’s substantial contribution, marshalling the resources of the community willing to address fundamental issues, is striking a blow at the roots of the “evil” of theoretical physics, by leveling the playing field somewhat.

It is said that modern man does not face any philosophical challenge not already thoroughly explored by the ancient Greeks, and though many like to divorce physics from philosophy, in the end it cannot be done.

A case in point is clearly seen in the essay contest. The number 1 ranked essay by far is Carlo Rovelli’s essay, “Forget time.” However, the rationale for his injunction is motivated by the pursuit of a quantum gravity theory, which ultimately clashes with the essay by Peter Lynds, “Time for a Change - The Instantaneous, Present and the Existence of Time,” invoking the philosophical arguments of the ancient Greeks, concerning the paradox of the discrete and continuous notion of change. The point is, these two essays would never have been placed viz-a-viz, if it weren’t for the efforts of the Foundational Questions Institute, so maybe this is an exception to Thoreau’s conclusion.

In any case, Rovelli’s argument seems fundamental enough: General relativity shows that time is not absolute in the sense that it shows that the time of one system is a function of another’s time, or vice-versa. It doesn’t seem to matter, and, given this fact, it can be argued that a mechanical system, even a quantum mechanical one, based on a variational principle of action, can be formulated without a “special ‘time’ variable.”

This leads Rovelli to posit that time is not a preferred physical variable of nature at all, and that there are no preferred thermodynamic equilibrium states a priori, but all variables of a physical system are equivalent. In contrast, Smolin argues, in a non-contest essay, that the unit space/time progression trips up this argument, from a practical standpoint (although not in those terms of course): His argument is simply that the universe is just too big to work in terms of Rovelli’s abstractions. The limits of communication due to the speed of light in 4D spacetime, and the limits of precision in measurements, ultimately defeat Rovelli’s mathematical model, according to Smolin.

In my case, the RST posits that all observables stem from the space/time progression, which implies that the ultimate equilibrium is the equilibrium between the increase of space and the increase of its reciprocal, time, as two different aspects of the same thing, a universal change. Since this approach preempts the notion of thermodynamic equilibrium, it refers the argument over the nature of time to an even more fundamental principle of cosmology.

For the ancients, this cosmological principle was based on a revelation directly from God:

And the Lord said unto me: Now, Abraham, these two facts exist, behold thine eyes see it; it is given unto thee to know the times of reckoning, and the set time, yea, the set time of the earth upon which thou standest, and the set time of the greater light which is set to rule the day, and the set time of the lesser light which is set to rule the night. Now the set time of the lesser light is a longer time as to its reckoning than the reckoning of the time of the earth upon which thou standest. And where these two facts exist, there shall be another fact above them, that is, there shall be another planet whose reckoning of time shall be longer still; And thus there shall be the reckoning of the time of one planet above another, until thou come nigh unto Kolob, which Kolob is after the reckoning of the Lord’s time; which Kolob is set nigh unto the throne of God, to govern all those planets which belong to the same order as that upon which thou standest. And it is given unto thee to know the set time of all the stars that are set to give light, until thou come near unto the throne of God.

Here we see that the ancient idea of order is expressed in terms of different units of time; that is, the “times of reckoning,” or the times of measurement, differ one from another in an ascending order. According to this really ancient view, established way before the ancient Greeks came on the intellectual scene, there is no absolute time of reckoning, but only a relative order of such times, which accords with the findings of general relativity.

How then can this idea be reconciled with the RST? This new system of theory posits absolute magnitudes of discrete units of space and time, and thus it not only seems to be in the same predicament viz-a-viz Peter Lynds’ essay, as is the timeless quantum gravity theory of Carlo Rovelli, but it also faces the challenge of general relativity and ancient revelation, wherein both assert that time magnitudes are not absolute, but relative.

I guess it brings us to that Clintonian moment when we must insist that the answer depends on what the word “absolute” means. I’ll try to address that in the New Physics blog soon. Happy Thanksgiving America!