Cognitive Labs

Time reconsidered. I recently trimmed some geraniums and, with hands extended at eye level and reaching for them, the rays of the waning sun drifted through the green stems of the plant and illuminated the red and orange petals.

Then I had that familiar sense of deja vue, here was a scene altogether familiar; I had experienced in entirety either exactly the same way before, accessed it in the realm of dreams sometime in the past but only just now recollected, or read in a book, with actions carried on by a protagonist.

Suddenly while contemplating this the bands of color, varied like a rainbow or spectrum paraded in front of my eyes.

The thought wavelengths! popped in my head. It's obvious. The answer is staring us right in the face, almost too close for us to see it.

Physicists are now hinting at the 'pixellation' of the cosmos and I had the ill-mannered thought (probably not unique, but here it is) that time itself may be structured along two fundamental dimensions. Physicists from Einstein onward have written about the plastic nature of time and indeed, it's well established that time is relative to the position of the observer .




Here's an example sometimes used since the 1960's (and regrettably no closer today than in old books from the 1970's). During a supposed trip to Alpha Centauri at a reasonable fraction of the speed of light, say 40-50% as speculated from the hypothesized attainable velocity of the interstellar ramjet, time passes much faster for the crew than for people back on earth.

This effect is even seen at slower speeds within our own solar system at the millisecond level when communicating with probes.

Physics also does not rule out time's essential malleability, e.g.,past and future are human concepts that are observed from our perspective, seeming to be constant laws like gravitation but in fact are not.

Yes, time can be measured linearly as in the variable t but directionality (e.g., past, present, future, is not axiomatic). We also believe that around the edges of black holes the linear nature of time is disruptible.

Why is that? It's almost imponderable.

However, let's look at the nature of light.

On the one hand, light has wavelengths - very long spans measured from the peak of one wave to the next, like the spikes on a lemon meringue pie - to the hundreds of meters and kilometers in the low-end optical (red) and below, including infrared and radio. On the other hand, light has very short wavelengths in blue, violet, ultraviolet, up through gamma rays, etc.




We already know that the amazing spectrum gives us a look at chemical composition of ignited gas and materials, but what if time also had a dual or tripartite nature?

That is, it can be measured (linear) but also has a wavelength-based spectrum, such that events in the past are shifted one way and events in the future are shifted in another direction. Let's assume that the human concept of "past" time with short wavelengths exists simultaneously with the long wavelength "future" time which appears not to have happened yet because of the slowed down intervals.

Going from the past to the future is simply a matter of moving along this continuuum from longer and slower wavelengths (the future) on the one hand and shorter and faster wavelengths in the past. The meeting point or defined gap between these two asymptotes constitutes our very limited observed perspective of the "present" state of time.

The dimension of linear time from a human perspective is simple one "play" setting on the cosmic time player, while the media itself, a ripped, mixed, and burned file of all time can be accessed either at the point of shorter wavelengths (the past) or longer wavelengths (the future). In this conception time is not a "river," which is solely dependent upon human perspective, but more like a circle with no beginning an end. Everything that exists (past, present, future) can be plotted somewhere along the circle.

Of course, we would need to work out the calculus that will connect this wavelength observation to modern physics.

If you think about it, this theory in a cursory sort of way might point to an answer to some of those stumbling problems of time plasticity which standard physics cannot rule out and in fact acknowledges. We also would need to amend natural philosophy.

If so, how do we explain the so called "time paradox problem," that is time travelers going back in time and influencing events which will make the present as we know it, impossible. This is a literary convention from Wells through the travails of Andrew Harlan in The End of Eternity (Asimov) and again in the Terminator series, to name a few.

The answer is, if a theoretical time traveler has the apparatus or perceptive ability to surf along the continuum as defined here, like bouncing from node to node on the Internet, there is nothing we (meaning contemporary humans so cognitively equipped existing at the asymptotal point of convergence) can do about it.

Rather, one could assume that intervention from 'travelers', agents (like agent smith) or something else yet unimagined is the norm and has been throughout time.

Reality, instead is turned on its head and it's actually a reverse paradox.

It would indeed be unexpected if time-travelers, controllers, or a computer program that had the ability, and even the mandate, to influence events instead willingly opted-out of this exercise of controlling power. One could assume that the responsibility for managing the universe would not be given away lightly. By the simple fact of its existence such an external agency impacts reality.

This theory of time (considered purely for entertainment's sake) might work within the recently contemplated cosmic hologram concept but also within normal physics, i.e., the universe just exists, either as steady-state or cyclically via the big bang, and with the potentially helping hand of quantum mechanics.

The question is whether this notion of time conflicts with observations and already derived fundamental laws and furthermore, how do you make a time-player allowing you to access different areas on the disk/points on the circle? That might be a problem for the future.

But, its fun to think about it and keeps your brain buzzing like running and yoga even without red bull.

Labels: asimov, asymptote, bussard, dejavue, spectrum, wavelength

Psychohistory is a fictional blended science introduced in Isaac Asimov's Foundation universe, combining history, sociology, psychology, and statistics to predict with great accuracy the behavior of masses of people. While spelled out in the 1950's when the series was first published, it is reminiscent of political polling and also informational trend analysis - what is echoed today in Internet search frequency and analytics. Since the 50's, the concept has been played out in numerous fictional derivatives.

In Asimov's Foundation, analysis of the psycho dataset revealed the coming onset of a Seldon crisis, a vortex of chaos descending on society that would lead to a 30,000 year Dark age. However, by archiving all the world's knowledge in a library location at the edge of the galaxy, the 'Encyclopedists' would trim the period of decay to just 1,000 years, rejuvenating civilization.

If Asimov were alive today, he might have added genetic analysis as an additional behavioral variable in psychohistory, with genes impacting collective action just like they do physical characteristics and portend future health proclivities. By training, he was a biologist.

In fact in one of his books aimed at a youth audience, he addresses the issue of genetic determinism by putting dialog in the mouth of a Sirian human, representing totalitarianism, and the protagonist, representing liberalism:

"We have kept our descent pure; we have not allowed the weaklings in, or those with poor genes. We have weeded out the unfit from among ourselves so that we are now a pure race of the strong, the fit, and the healthy, while Earth remains a conglomerate of the diseased and deformed . . . .

"To the Outer Worlds, Councilman Starr, Earth is a terrible menace, a bomb of sub-humanity, ready to explode and contaminate the clean Galaxy. We don't want that to happen; we can't allow it to happen. It's what we're fighting for: a clean human race, composed of the fit."

Starr, speaking for Asimov, retorts:

"Composed of those you consider fit. But fitness comes in all shapes and forms. The great men of Earth have come from the tall and the short, from all manner of head shapes, skin colors, and languages. Variety is our salvation and the salvation of all mankind."

Labels: asimov, psychohistory