Hi Paul,

Just out of curiosity, have you ever read Hilary Putnam's (1967) "Time and Physical Geometry"? I think he did a really good job of showing what the problem is with the common idea of what SRT is supposed to describe. If you haven't read the paper, I suggest starting with the second last paragraph, and then going back and trying to see how he gets there from the start.

Daryl

Daryl

OK. Though I am somewhat inclined to believe what Einstein said it was.

Paul

Daryl

Putnam might have had an inkling of the 'right' answer, but not of the proof. Forget SR, and all these other mangled approaches. It is very simple, reality is a sequence, so there is only one at a time. Timing is extrinsic to reality, not intrinsic. It being a methodology for rating the speed at which alteration occurs, ie between realities, not of a reality.

Paul

Paul,

I'm confused by your response. Putnam argues, on the basis of a few seemingly realistic principles, that we live in a four-dimensional world. He therefore directly opposes the three-dimensional presentist picture that you and I favour. However, his argument is reasonable and it's important to understand if you're going to go about making contrary claims like "reality is a sequence, so there is only one at a time". In my essay, which you're welcome to read, I've shown how SRT can be reconciled with the description of an absolute present (which, by the way, continuously endures), through a reconception of "simultaneity" that's consistent with intuition; and, in effect, that Putnam was wrong in his assessments of Aristotle and Absolute Simultaneity, which he found to be incompatible with SRT.

Daryl

Daryl

The key point here is this 'red herring' of trying to reconcile with SR. Because people are trying to reconcile with something which is not actually SR, ie 1905. Einstein clearly states what SR constitutes (see my post in my blog 13/7 11.24). In sum, it involves no dimension alteration (ie fixed shape bodies), light that travel at a constant speed and in straight lines (ie no gravitational forces)and only uniform rectilinear and non-rotary motion (ie in effect, stillness). So Euclidean maths is applicable. The other more subtle point is that although not overtly stated, there is still 'time' in SR, but it has been 'written off' against a level of dimension alteration that is omnipresent. In other words, a non-existent variance has been negated by an irrelevant variance. It being irrelevant because it is omnipresent and therefore makes no relative difference.

My "picture" just looks 'presentist'. Physical reality has no 'time' in it. Only the relative size/shape of physically existent phenomena which comprise it. That is, space, as such, does not physically exist. [There are more than 3 dimensions, that just being the minimum one can conceptualise and remain consistent with what that feature is in physical reality]. Physical reality involves alteration, therefore it is a sequence. Sequences can only occur 'one state at a time', because the predecessor must cease in order that the successor can occur. So, phyical reality only has the relative shape/size (colloquially refered to as space but physically it is dimension)of that which constitutes it, not time. And it can only exist in one specific physically existent state at a time.

There cannot be an "absolute present" which "continuously endures". Because that would mean one physicaly existent state which never ever changes. But I suspect you did not mean this. There is only a 'present', ie that which physically existed as at any given point in time. There is a sequence of 'presents'.

Poincare and his incorrect definition of simultaneity is the seat of the problem (see my post 11/7 19.33 in my blog).

Incidentally, all this is not my essay, it is an essay that I could have otherwise have written.

Paul

Daryl

I have re-read your essay, and would say this.

Section 3 alludes to a truth, physically. But the problem (1st para) is not contrariness to Relativity. It is contrariness to the explanation of Relativity (ie Poincare's simultaneity and Minkowski's spacetime model). Both of these being incorrect representations of physical reality. Relativity, in its 'raw' form, may or may not, be correct.

In other words, you are correct to alight on 'time' as being a problem in the current explanations of what you are considering. But the real issue is how physical existence must occur, which then reveals why 'time' is a problem. That is, there is no more a 'cosmic time' than there is any other 'form of' 'time', in it. There is only timing. A measuring system which calibrates rate of change (ie between realities). The physically existent phenomenon is different existent states, which demonstrates alteration, which occurs at a rate. Not 'time'. The concept of 'time', as usually expressed, is false, because there is no physically existent phenomenon which corresponds with that.

Now, expansion is alteration, so it has a rate of change. Expansion involves alteration in spatial position. Acceleration means that alteration in spatial position is occurring at a faster rate than it was previously. You are just(!) considering an alteration in the entirety of physical reality, rather than components thereof. The reference (in effect timing device) for this judgement is CMB. So, if one considers the entirety of physical reality as a sequence (ie one at a time), which it is, then timing that with CMB may well enable a proper explanation of expansion, and reveal the flaws in the current explanation, which presumes, incorrectly, a form of time to be an innate attribute of physical reality. [Incidentally, one of the few books I have read in the past year is The 4% Universe by Panek].

Paul

Hi Daryl,

I've read parts of your essay, and it leads me to a problem. I will try to show you the problem. Whenever people present their understandings of the universe it goes through a filter that is in my mind. This filter once offended can't be reset back into neutral. Here is an example of the filter in action. We first claim that the earth doesn't exist. now our model of the.... You see the earth not existing presents problems. So, in my efforts to tame this filter, I have in conversations said, if there is something presented in your argument that I have issues with, I will raise my hand. The hand usually goes up very early in the conversation.

So, I am trying to read your paper and I am struck by one thing first; It's not simple. It is complicated needlessly. Einstein presented special relativity simply that is part of it's genius. But that isn't the reason why I write, it is just a warning sign. I write because the hand went up, big time. Here is the offending paragraph.

"The causal and inertial structures of special relativity are thus reconciled by describing the world-lines of all observers in uniform motion through the cosmic present as their proper time axes, and rotating their proper spatial axes accordingly, so that light will be described as moving at the same rate in either direction of proper 'space'. And then, so that the speed of photons along invariant null-lines will actually be the same magnitude in all inertial frames, both the proper space and time axes in these local frames must also be scaled hyperbolically."

1) What "causal and inertial structures of special relativity"? 2) This statement shows a lack of understanding of special relativity; "thus reconciled by describing the world-lines of all observers in uniform motion". Special relativity has no "all observers in uniform motion". Two people in conversation on earth, walking towards each other, will view the galaxy in Andromeda in two completely separate light-cones. Any motion greater then zero between two observers will do this. Let me give you a hint, all observers have motion greater then zero relativity to each other. But, Ok, lets ignore that and go on. 3) "rotating their proper spatial axes" according to who's frame of reference? 4) "so that light will be described as moving at the same rate in either direction of proper 'space'", light will always be described as moving at the same rate for all observers regardless of your conditions. And then you go on and say sort of the same thing in this sentence; "so that the speed of photons along invariant null-lines will actually be the same magnitude in all inertial frames". 5) But this paragraph is then illustrated in figure 2. One problem with figure 2, the lines of A, B, and C aren't parallel. They need to be parallel if they are in uniform motion to each other in any frame of reference you choose to create.

After that paragraph, I concluded that you are saying the earth doesn't exist, blah, blah, blah.

Just in case you think I am fictional, I will tell you this. I live, according to Googlearth, 2.5 miles away from the movie theatre that had the shooting and was thinking of actually going to see "Dark Knight Rises" at that very theatre.

There is always a debate in my mind whether to keep quite and hopefully better minds then mine will correct errors, or point them out myself and appear upset at you or whoever I am posting too. I can't decide for you whether I am upset or not. I hear one of your excuses already, "not enough room". Good luck at using that one at me.

Jim Akerlund

    Jim

    The essential point here is that relativity is not a theory of observation, but a theory of referencing (the clue as they say, is in the title!). The next point, and most important one, is (see my post above to Daryl is that one needs to understand SR, as defined by the man who wrote it. And he defined what it was. At that stage, reconciling anything with SR can then be seen as the 'red herring' for which it is. But that does not necessarily then underrmine Darly's general arguement.

    Paul

    • [deleted]

    Hello dear thinkers,

    It is interesting these cosmological analyzes.I love so much this matter, this topic. It is a little as a real dance of evolution, they build those spheres...

    Let's go for a generalization of our laws. :)

    Sometimes I say me that a lot of people have forgotten their foundamentals. The aim is to harmonize all the rational laws.The newtonian mecanic(see the correlations with my rotating spheres) and this constant of the gravitation.

    If we continue we have the special relativity and so c for the light speed. The quantum mecanic , by the help of Planck of course implies h constant. The General relativity says that the space is curved by this mass(see also my spheres).This general relativity try to link G and c , 2 constants. The quantum theory of fields, it try to unify h and c .....the aim is in fact to harmonize all the constants in pure 3D spherical evolutive system.The motions and the volumes of sphere become so essential. The rotations spinals and orbitals like the volumes are also essential. Now , how can we unify all these constants.....SPHERIZATION THEORY .....QUANTUM SPHERES.....COSMOLOGICAL SPHERES.....UNIVERSAL SPHERE. Why because we can unify the constants when we consider a different sense of rotations for hv and m.So h c and G are unified .The 4 foundamental forces are ok !!! if and only if the number of the serie of uniqueness is finite and precise, and the same for the two 3D scales. I beleive that the volumes are the keys of stability about the synchros and sortings of evolution between this light and this gravity.

    My theory is a humble harmonization optimization spherization of the relativity.That's why I have inserted the 3 main motions of spheres.c o and s .linear , spinal and orbital.The duality is easy to see with these senses of rotations, 1 for m and 1 for hv. The GR implies a pure spherization due to this increasing of mass, the mass curves the space and more we evolve, more the space is curved, If the volumes from the main central sphere are inserted with a specific serie, so we see the rule of volumes of spheres. the Universal sphere possesses a central sphere, and it is the most important volume of the serie !!!The quantum scale is in the same relativistic logic.The space time is in evolution spherization in fact. The process is rational and deterministic and under a pure isotropical homogeneity. This Universal sphere is on a specific road, the steps are precise. We can have a contraction after a kind of maximum volume.If we see the accelerations of the expansion, we can also consider the possibility to have a deceleration towards this maximum and after we can have an acceleration also in contraction and after even a deceleration towards the perfect equilibrium of cosmological and quantum spheres. We can correlate with the volume of this universal sphere, changing in times and the density.The equation of Friedman Lemaître can be optimized with my equations and the spherization like general point of vue.

    The black bodies,( so the spheres with their volumes increasing towards the centers.)are very intriguing. The cosmic microwaves background can help for an optimizations of equations. We can class the spheres and their volumes. We see our past but we can class the rational spherization of rotations of spheres.

    Best Regards

    • [deleted]

    oops sorry, this post was from me, the crazy spherical Jedi.

    Hi Paul,

    The title of Einstein's paper on SR is "On the Electrodynamics of moving bodies". That title is in no way about the theory of referencing, it is a title about observations. Poincaré also tried to describe SR but he didn't get it quite right. Einstein correctly described SR not SR was created by Einstein. If you come along and give a better description of SR (not aether) then we will be calling it Reed's better SR. SR exists independently of it's finder. Science to be understandable needs SR. It is like trying to remove oxygen (SR) from the earth (science) and still have us living on it (universe making sense).

    Jim Akerlund

    • [deleted]

    Thanks Daryl in this sort of discussion it is easy to take statements too literally and out of context. Unless I detail exactly how to restate SR and start anew it does not do me much good, even though I have a specific set of assumptions in mind. It will take too long to explain these here - basically they are the same as expounded in my Beautiful Universe Theory link in my July 18 post above. I really should do more work presenting my case mathematically!

    Cheers

    Vladimir

    James

    Not so. The title of Einstein's 1905 paper is On the electrodynamics of moving bodies. But this is not SR (see my post in my blog 13/7 11.24). The other point is that none of his theory is about observation, per se. This is a misconception based on his frequent mentioning of light, the use of phraes such as frame of reference and observer moves with, and the substitution of light for distance incorrectly in an equation (see my post in my blog 11/7 19.33)

    For now here are a few quotes where Einstein defines SR, ie it is not 1905:

    1 Einstein Foundation of GR 1916, section A, sub sec 3:"the case of special relativity appearing as a limiting case when there is no gravitation."

    2 Einstein SR & GR 1916, section 28: "The special theory of relativity has reference to Galileian domains, ie to those in which no gravitational field exists."

    "In gravitational fields there are no such things as rigid bodies with Euclidean properties; thus the fictitious rigid body of reference is of no avail in the general theory of relativity."

    3 Einstein SR & GR 1916, section 18: "provided that they are in a state of uniform rectilinear and non-rotary motion with respect to K; all these bodies of reference are to be regarded as Galileian reference-bodies. The validity of the principle of relativity was assumed only for these reference-bodies, but not for others (e.g. those possessing motion of a different kind). In this sense we speak of the special principle of relativity, or special theory of relativity. In contrast to this we wish to understand by the "general principle of relativity" the following statement: All bodies of reference are equivalent for the description of natural phenomena (formulation of the general laws of nature), whatever may be their state of motion."

    Paul

    Vladamir

    Yes, but the crucial point here is what did Einstein define SR as, after all, he wrote it! To me, alarm bells go off when somebody writes 'special', so I went to the original writings of 100 years ago and tracked what constitutes 'special'. And Einstein clearly defines it, many times, in different papers (and probably more than I have read, as I understand the concept was first mentioned before it was articulated in 1916). And it is not that which was written in 1905. The conditions invoked in 1905 and SR are different.

    Paul

    Hi Paul,

    If you want to call Darwin's theory of evolution, SR, I say go for it. You may not have a lot of takers, but that's OK.

    So, in your investigations of GR did you perchance read Hilbert's GR? The story goes that Einstein described what he was doing about space being the mediator of gravity to David Hilbert. Hilbert understood what Einstein was talking about and knew the math better and in two weeks time wrote out Hilbert's version of GR. I suspect this version preceeded Einstein's version, but the scientific community says it was Einstein who did GR. So any arguments that you quote to Einstein in your post could equally apply to Hilbert. Was Hilbert wrong? Before you answer that question, you need to really understand who David Hilbert was. I'm just warning you. But I suspect you will go on with your own answer that will have nothing to do with my question. A good way to answer posts is to answer questions that the previous post didn't ask.

    Jim Akerlund

    Jim

    "If you want to call Darwin's theory of evolution, SR, I say go for it"

    It is not a matter of what I want to call SR, it is a matter of what Einstein said it was, after all, he wrote it.

    "So, in your investigations of GR did you perchance read Hilbert's GR?"

    No. Because I have not "investigated" GR, and am not commenting on its contents. Furthermore, your point does not relate to the above, because it certainly is not the author, per se, that creates the validity of what is being said, but the correspondence of what is being said with validated facts. Now it was Lorentz (and Fitzgerald) that postulated dimension alteration, Poincare with simultaneity, etc. But the point above is that Einstein said what SR constituted, many times, in different papers, and he did not say it was 1905. That is a presumption which is being made, without any deference to what the author wrote. Neither are the two similar, when they are compared, which is also something of a 'give away'. So SR is not 1905.

    "So any arguments that you quote to Einstein in your post could equally apply to Hilbert. Was Hilbert wrong?"

    I have not said whether SR is valid or not, that is a separate issue. But if one is going to comment on it, or reconcile other ideas with it, then the best start point is to ensure that the theory is properly defined, as per what the author said it was.

    "A good way to answer posts is to answer questions that the previous post didn't ask"

    Indeed so, but as far as possible I try to avoid doing that.

    Paul

    Jim

    Another way of expressing this argument is as follows.

    In 1905, in expounding his new theory, Einstein stipulates that only two postulates are necessary. In defining them he writes that they are "only apparently irreconcilable". This is bizarre. Here is a new theory, just two postulates, and yet the author admits to a potential problem. Which is then not formally addressed until 1916, when he expounds his real theory, GR, and reconciles that apparent irreconcilability with SR.

    In other words, 1905 is, in effect, a first draft of GR. He knows it does not 'all fit together', as written, and possibly knew why and what the resolution was. Hence his admission that there might appear to be a problem, but it is resolvable.

    And the problem is that in 1905, objects are not 'in vacuo' (there is dimension alteration, ie there is something affecting objects), BUT light is in vacuo. In other words, the two components cannot co-exist because they are not deemed to be existing under the same conditions. In SR everything is 'in vacuo', in GR nothing is.

    Paul

    Paul,

    Everyone knows that Minkowski space-time is a solution of Einstein's equations where there is no matter or curvature; so if that's what you're getting at, it's hardly a revelation. The theory is called called "special" relativity because it's a special case of the general theory of relativity. Also, just FYI, to go along with the sources you've noted above: if you haven't done so already you might be interested to have a look at what Einstein wrote in the last (fifth) appendix he added to "Relativity: the special and the general theory", entitled "Relativity and the problem of space". I think you'd find the second last section, "The concept of space in the general theory of relativity" particularly interesting (and validating).

    Jim,

    Thanks for all three of your posts, and the first one in particular. I'm trying to write a response to your questions/criticisms, but things have been very busy around here and I may not have that done today. I'm really sorry about the tragedy that happened so near to you. I can't imagine the emotion you'd be feeling at having almost been there.

    Since this thread has gone off topic, I'll just start a new one when I add my response. Really, thanks again. I'm glad you've given me this opportunity to try to make myself clearer to you.

    Sincere regards,

    Daryl

    Daryl

    No that is not what I am getting at. The points are that 1) SR is not 1905, 2) when the core concept of relativity (dimension alteration) was explained using Poincare's simultaneity and Minkowski's spacetime model, both of which are incorrect because they misrepresent time, then the physical explanation of that core concept of relativity is incorrect. But, just because the explanation is incorrect, this does not mean that the core hypothesis is. Dimension alteration may or may not occur, and may or may not do so in the way and at the calibrated level, that was proposed..

    "The theory is called "special" relativity because it's a special case of the general theory of relativity"

    It was 'special' because there was no gravitational forces involved. Einstein Foundation of GR 1916, section A, sub sec 3: "the case of special relativity appearing as a limiting case when there is no gravitation.". In other words it was a highly theoretical circumstance where objects remained fixed in dimension, light travelled in straight lines and at a constant speed, and motion only comprised of uniform rectilinear and non-rotary motion. Why? Because there was no gravitation force.

    Which, of course, Einstein knows is not the real world. So in 1905 objects were subjected to a force (later identified as gravity, in addition to some omnipresent effect which might occur as matter travels through the 'ether') which caused dimension alteration (and momentum change), and in 1916 light (having been in vacuo previously), was also brought into the same world.

    Einstein SR & GR 1916, section 22: "From this we conclude, that, in general, rays of light are propagated curvilinearly in gravitational fields. In two respects this result is of great importance...... In the second place our result shows that, according to the general theory of relativity, the law of the constancy of the velocity of light in vacuo, which constitutes one of the two fundamental assumptions in the special theory of relativity and to which we have already frequently referred, cannot claim any unlimited validity. A curvature of rays of light can only take place when the velocity of propagation of light varies with position. Now we might think that as a consequence of this, the special theory of relativity and with it the whole theory of relativity would be laid in the dust. But in reality this is not the case. We can only conclude that the special theory of relativity cannot claim an unlimited domain of validity; its results hold only so long as we are able to disregard the influences of gravitational fields on the phenomena (e.g. of light)."

    Thanks, I will have a look at that reference.

    Paul

    Daryl

    Fiddlesticks (technical word!). Have you got a ref to an on-line Appendix V?

    Paul