Saturday, March 12, 2005
Reflections on Time and Matter, Zeno and Motion, Infinity and Continuity
One more set of reflections on the arrow paradox, infinity, infinite subdivisions, time, matter. This is the 4th post on this subject. This is the first, second, and third (if you'd like to find out where I am coming from).
I don't think neither motion nor time are discontinuous.
I think the problem with Lynds is his conception of finite subdivisions in the microcosm of time. I also think that matter and time are distinctively different things. I dont know quantum mechanics, so what happens to matter at the most micro level is not something I would venture to speculate on too much.
But the problem with applying quantum mechanics to time seems pretty clear to me (quantum mechanics here meaning equating time to matter and subdividing time to an instant with no duration, therefore conceiving of time as something that is made up of discontinuous "particles" or "instants").
The problem I see with this concept of an instant with no duration is that this is no longer an infinite subdivision. Infinity presuposes something that hits no end, no barrier, no wall, it just keeps going. Lynds has hit a finite point, which he says the instant is so small it no longer has a duration. That's finite, that's a wall, that is no longer an infinite subdivision continuum. If something, including time, can be subdivided infinitely, the subdivision cannot stop, ever, so it does not hit a non-duration instant. The instant just keeps getting smaller and smaller, infinitely. I believe his mistake is at thinking time behaves like matter, where in the micro world things almost disintegrate altogether, all those quantum particle questions and behaviors (see a very nice educational site on this: The Particle Adventure).
My thought however is that time is not matter and it also does not behave like matter. Time is continuous, regardless of how much you subdivide it.
Which begs the question: if time is continuous and moving, has it always been moving and will it continue endlessly? My answer is yes. Perhaps in a circular way, which is the only way our logic allows me to think about infinity with any kind of linear progression, otherwise you fall off the logical plane. An infinite line is a circle.
.
I don't think neither motion nor time are discontinuous.
I think the problem with Lynds is his conception of finite subdivisions in the microcosm of time. I also think that matter and time are distinctively different things. I dont know quantum mechanics, so what happens to matter at the most micro level is not something I would venture to speculate on too much.
But the problem with applying quantum mechanics to time seems pretty clear to me (quantum mechanics here meaning equating time to matter and subdividing time to an instant with no duration, therefore conceiving of time as something that is made up of discontinuous "particles" or "instants").
The problem I see with this concept of an instant with no duration is that this is no longer an infinite subdivision. Infinity presuposes something that hits no end, no barrier, no wall, it just keeps going. Lynds has hit a finite point, which he says the instant is so small it no longer has a duration. That's finite, that's a wall, that is no longer an infinite subdivision continuum. If something, including time, can be subdivided infinitely, the subdivision cannot stop, ever, so it does not hit a non-duration instant. The instant just keeps getting smaller and smaller, infinitely. I believe his mistake is at thinking time behaves like matter, where in the micro world things almost disintegrate altogether, all those quantum particle questions and behaviors (see a very nice educational site on this: The Particle Adventure).
My thought however is that time is not matter and it also does not behave like matter. Time is continuous, regardless of how much you subdivide it.
Which begs the question: if time is continuous and moving, has it always been moving and will it continue endlessly? My answer is yes. Perhaps in a circular way, which is the only way our logic allows me to think about infinity with any kind of linear progression, otherwise you fall off the logical plane. An infinite line is a circle.
.
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