| Subject: NATO Workshop 'The Nature of Time: Geometry,
Physics & Perception'
Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2001 18:45:51 +0100 From: "Dimiter G. Chakalov" <dchakalov@surfeu.at> To: Ian Thompson <I.Thompson@surrey.ac.uk> CC: Ntina <k.savvidou@ic.ac.uk>, sisir@isical.ac.in, jdhsmith@math.iastate.edu, aaer@psychology.su.se, stuckeym@etown.edu, George.Jaroszkiewicz@nottingham.ac.uk, msaniga@astro.sk BCC: [snip] Dear Ian, Thank you for your email from Tue, 11 Dec 2001 23:12:22 -0000. I found in the past Bergson a bit too difficult to digest, but you have convinced me that I should try harder. Regarding my tentative talk "Two Modes of Time: Biocausality", at the NATO Workshop in May next year (pending confirmation for admission), let me clarify an important issue: I have borrowed the terminology of two *modes* of time (and their association as the 'time of being' and the 'time of becoming') from the pioneering research of Konstantina Savvidou [cf. Ref. 1 and references therein]. My efforts are targeting a broader framework, which might include all research studies on two kinds of time [e.g., Refs. 2-6], and most importantly the legacy of Dennis Sciama [Ref. 7] and Ernst Mach [Ref. 8]. I believe we need a theory that can incorporate *dynamically* the response/feedback from 'everything else in the Universe' in each and every local point of interaction (local mode of time or 'time of becoming'), human brain included. I believe can suggest just a very general framework for this immensely complicated task. As to the Platonic realm, Jung's archetypes, and Popper's World III, I believe that, physically, the only avenue we could try to explore is some sort of a 'pipeline' of the human brain, which is "placed" in the putative global mode of time (also 'time of being'). This pipeline facilitates the neural correlates of our subjective, non-physical world, but *not* the Platonic realm itself. Here I rely (blindly, I confess) on the phenomenon of mental reflection/qualia: everything we keep in our subjective world does have neural, and hence physical, correlates. To explain the 'download' of the Platonic realm in the brain, we can only seek some mechanism for facilitating the *conversion* of the Platonic realm into neural correlates, -- nothing more. Hence I need two modes of time, for both 'download' and 'upload'. I do believe that we live in a Machian Universe in which everything is interconnected. That's the issue of time, I believe, and I am trying to elucidate it by examining the amazing ability of the human brain to act on itself -- we think about the brain, with the brain. This too needs two modes of time. For example, think of the human conscience as an omniscient statement evaluator. It can assign truth values to any proposition, but can we locate it in the brain? I don't think we can. Only its neural correlates spread all over the brain. I think the main problem for explaining the time comes
from our brain. It is extremely difficult to think
of an entity, residing in the global mode of time,
which is both 'one' and 'many' ('the set of all sets is a set'), both 'here'
and' there', or both 'up' and 'down'. Our brain stubbornly resists to
such "weird" notions. Wolfgang Pauli called this situation
(explaining the notion of spin) 'klassisch nicht beschreibbare
Zweideutigkeit'. These are fascinating issues indeed
[Refs. 9-10], and I have great expectations from the
forthcoming NATO Advanced Research Workshop 'The Nature of Time: Geometry,
Physics & Perception',
Best regards, Dimi
References [Ref. 1] C.J. Isham, K.N. Savvidou. Quantising
the Foliation in History Quantum Field Theory.
[Ref. 2] R. Booth.
Machian General Relativity: a possible solution to the Dark
Energy problem, and a replacement for Big Bang cosmology.
Robin Booth: "In Section "Time", an alternative spacetime structure was described, which potentially allows processes to occur 'simultaneously', but at different time coordinates. (...) The spacetime structure also offers the intriguing possibility that processes operating in the cosmological reference frame, i.e. across the whole Universe, can occur in the same time as local processes occurring in the atomic reference frame. If this were to be the case, then it provides a mechanism for explaining the apparent paradox of action-at-a-distance and non-locality associated with Quantum Mechanics." [Ref. 3] R.H.A. Farias, E. Recami. Introduction
of a Quantum of Time (chronon), and its Consequences for Quantum Mechanics.
R.H.A. Farias and E. Recami: "There are three equations, -- retarded, symmetric, and advanced Schrödinger equations, all of them transforming into the (same) continuous equation when the fundamental interval of time (that now can be called just tau) goes to zero." [Ref. 4] H. Kitada, L.R. Fletcher. What
is and What should be Time?
[Ref. 5] H. Kitada. A possible solution
for the non-existence of time.
[Ref. 6] G.D. Warren. Coexistence of Global
and Local Time Provides Two Ages for the Universe.
[Ref. 7] G.F.R. Ellis. Cosmology and Local
Physics.
[Ref. 8] G. Burbidge. Quasi-Steady State
Cosmology.
[Ref. 9] J. Baez. A Chat With Penrose.
June 10, 1996,
[Ref. 10] A. Ashtekar. Mathematical Problems
of Non-perturbative Quantum General Relativity.
A. Ashtekar: "At a fundamental level, since there is no
background metric, there is no a priori notion of
time either. What does dynamics and evolution even
mean if there is no background space-time? How is time born in the framework?
Is it only an approximate concept or is it exact? If it is approximate,
is the notion of unitarity also approximate? Why then do we not
perceive any violations? These questions naturally lead one
to the issue of measurement theory. Constructing a
mathematical framework is only half of the story.
We need a suitable framework to discuss the issues of interpretation as
well. In absence of a background space-time geometry, the Copenhagen
interpretation is of very little use. What should replace
it? The probabilities for an exhaustive set of mutually
exclusive alternatives should add up to one. n quantum mechanics, this
is generally ensured by using an instant of time to specify such alternatives.
What is one to do when there is no time and no instants? These are
fascinating
issues."
|
