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Elaboration 4.2

Although virtually nothing is known about time itself, it might be useful to explore some theories, especially when derived from 'merely' manifestations of time. Just as we have no knowledge of what exactly gravitation is, but we can do a lot of calculations with regard to the manifestations of gravity that are known, just so, can we say things about, for instance the (our) subjectivity to time. Time, like gravitation, is always there, it cannot be screened-off. We are continuously subject to it, but, ... unlike gravitation, we cannot even-it away as weightless astronauts do, nor is time strictly limited to physics, as gravitation is. We are constantly aware of time, the very idea of existence is merely a synonym for extension in time, to be or not to be, is time, the words 'is' and 'are' denote time (existence), and 'follow' is, and so are all verbs, and we can not even observe a simple object save for the mental trick to make it into an event. Nouns, therefore, are time too. Yet we know not what time is. Mind too, is subject to time and extended in time, but it is absolutely a NON-physicum. This latter statement forces us to decide that time stands somewhat outside the whole universe, that is to say, outside the whole of our physical and non-physical reality. Both are subject to time. Spencer's law of evolution demands that: All structures increase in complexity with time. It is the natural conclusion from a) all causes have more than one effect and b) all effects are causes (Essay on Progress). Thermodynamic laws seem in contradiction with this. They expect a de-crease in Order. Yet, the latter are based upon the universe being a closed system (including time). When time is added continuously, from outside, a closed system cannot exist whatever the scale we take. Therefore, evolution (increase) is more basic. But what is the analog factor in the idea of a dead cat and the dead cat (physics) itself? Both are extended in time. Between two absolute incomparables, like physics and non-physics, there can be no other form of relation than, that one is the representation of the other. An idea has no form-, no likeness-, no equivalent (as T. H. Huxley thought) in common with that, what it is the idea of. The two then only share time (-structure) with each other. The two are incommensurate for the rest. There is a theory about the genesis of our universe, known as the Big Bang theory, a super dense point somewhere in space (often thought to be all space). Although there is more likelihood of such a B. B. occurring in a sequence, a pulsating universe, it does not seem necessary to suppose that before this B. B. there was no time. Time could well have been before B. B. , only matter and energy then found their existence, had a beginning. There is probably one thing we know about time, and that is its one-directioness, the arrow likeness. Never was there an effect before its cause. In fact, we are only aware of time, we measure time, just because of-, and through-, these cause-effect relations, of events. The B. B. may very well have been a point on this arrow, of which the tip represents the present, the now. In reality there is no such precise point, the arrow has no present, only a past on the line, and a future in front of the arrow. The present is only an ideational trick in order to understand this flabbergasting phenomenon, time. It is no more than a name for a thing not actually in reality. A slice of a process, a digit (idea). There is only the binary, the pair of 'in-class', and 'outclass'. Every hour that we call now because we are somewhere in it, has a future part and a past part. No matter when we make the arrow-tip as sharp as we can, in seconds, milli-seconds or nano-seconds, the phenomenon itself is not there, we only call it so. Students in fundamental ideascience soon come to surmise that an idea is basically binary (a long string of plusses and minusses). They reason as follows: Clearly, idea, knowledge, is as well classification as it is comparison. For both, a pair is needed. Comparison of X and Y is out of the question, no common factor. Only comparison between X and Not-X is possible. This 'is' classification in an in-class and an out-class. The string of the ultimate 'atoms' of idea, in 'Yesses and No's', is itself a time principle (adding 'sequence'). Ideation, now, does exactly this, it compa(i)res the two parts of the pair past - future, or past - not (yet) past, with each other and calls the result 'now'. In order to be able to do this, it has to take slices and pretend that they are internally unchangeable, digits, amorph parts of an ever changing process, (analog). Only after digitalization, can mind start to compare two digits, two seconds or two hours, and call them past or future. Mind has learned the trick of taking such a digit as long as is convenient. The year for the growth of trees, the seasons when blooming or leaves dropping is interesting, seconds when we drive our car into it, etc. There is the duration of a lecture, the accademic year, the 15 minutes pause and so on, all on the principle that they are amorph slices of a real changing process, a continuous process of adding and adding. It is usual to divide our reality in two strictly distinguished parts, the binary of physics and non-physics (mind). We cannot put time itself IN one of these two because physics as well as ideation are just as time dependent. Reality thus consists of one whole; time, which is divided in two digits, physical (existence) and mental (existence). Mind, ideation, always works in binary form, making pairs and compare them."In a lifeless universe", said Russell, "there is no 'here' and 'now'." True, here and now are structures, descriptions of structures, i.e. ideas, and a lifeless universe contains no ideas (minds, beings, opinions, appearances, forms), contains therefore no structures. To give away an idea, and idea being identical with structure, means to give away a physical, shaped into a structure (sound, ink on paper, clay tablet, etc.). A structure that the other would make (give away), when he wanted to induce that idea. Since many philosophers after Descartes are Cartesians, the problem they tinkered with could be called the Cartesian Knot. It consists of the following two (pair of) statements:
Ideas (can) represent physical entities.
and
In order to represent, the two must have some aspect in common.
It would mean more or less that an idea of very large buildings or many of them, would contain so many spores of concrete and brick that the mind cannot hold it. Or, what have ideas in common with what they represent, if it is not matter or energy? This, it was thought, must be structure, ordering, or, as the old classics said: form. It now seems a perfect way to hack at the Cartesian Knot, but it still leaves a question. Structure, indeed, is in physical reality. But, this only when there is mind, otherwise not. The common factor for both, i.e. structure, thus, is a false one. It is there, it is not the same in, but common to, both reality and ideas about reality, yet it is not the crucial factor for making ideas represent (physical) reality. As I remember doing, the proof of Pythagoras' theorem, in which unobtrusively I had used the same theorem, a circular proof, not true. We must have a factor in common that leaves BOTH parties, physics and non-physics, strictly separate, as Plato's mind/matter, or as Zeno's active/passive. We can think of nothing but time, subjection to time. It is another way of saying that ideation is solely an operation in time, nothing else. But then, structures in idea (mind) themselves MUST be structures IN time. There is no other (known) possibility. Physical structure only seems (to the mind) to be like the mental structure, in common is only time. So we have arrived at the statement that the whole universe consists of time-structures in the form of matter, energy, space (physics) and as ideas. They all are structures in time. There are then, two time-appearances, an amorph type, duration, to which all in the universe is subject, and a highly structured time, called matter, energy space, and ... mind. One may even speculate further upon where all matter, energy, and space goes to when it enters a black hole. The answer then is that they merely become UN-structured, they are converted into amorph time, into duration. What is obvious however, is that in our (wild) speculation, time is so far outside the universe that it seems fruitless to Pythagoras it as 'the square of time-space equals the sum of the x, y, z, and time squares'. It seems merely mathematical exercise. We can square the frequency of some colour but because this is only an operation of a ratio, we get not the square of say, green. In the same manner can we summate the number of apples, but multiplied by their colour frequencies first. Merely exercises.
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Next: Elaboration 4.3 Up: Elaboration 4 Previous: Elaboration 4.1
Ven 2007-09-11