Vlad,

Reading the abstract, I remember why I hesitated. To me, an ontological memory would be a form of platonism and I have issues with the various forms of that. For one thing, given my views on time, past and future are not ontologically real. In this current essay, I do make the argument that perspective is inherently subjective and thus epistemic. There is no such thing as an absolute perspective/"God's eye view." An ideal is not an absolute. The concept of memory simply doesn't apply to the ontological level, because memory is information and the creation of new information requires erasing old information, since the medium of energy is conserved. This effect creates the "arrow of time." Past is erased in order to create present, which is then erased in order to create future. As I point out in the prior contest, the "thread of time is woven from strands pulled from what was previously woven and eventually the past becomes as unknowable as the future."

I will read your entry, but if I find I can't agree with the premise, I can't score it. (I'm only giving high scores to those I agree with and not scoring others, to counteract those fools giving everyone else low scores. )

Regards,

John

Dear Merriman:

I must say that I agree with most of your essay, is excellent with, the exception of the "time" subject.

"This process is what we call time. The presence of the energy is like the hand of time,

constantly moving onto the next configuration, as these forms, as their own units of

time, come into being and dissolve."

"While we have this sense of forward motion through the events, it is the presence of

the energy that is constant, so it is the events forming and receding, going future to

past. As when the unit of time that is our lifespan is over, we too recede into the past".

In my essay I explain that what people call "time" in fact is "motion" and "motion" precedes energy or is energy. "motion" existence needs of something that moves, "motion" is a quality or property of every physically existing thing, and not the quality itself, but the things that moves, change to different configurations and forms. If you mean changing to the next configuration and forms are the "time/motion units" of those configurations, I am not agree time/motion . "Time" probably born as a system to measure "motion" created by men "time units" which I say are "motion units" also were created by men. What I think probably are the same are "motion" and energy, and I am not sure, I don't think is probable but it is maybe possible that energy can dissolve.

There is not forward motion through the events, events usually change and transform in the place were they are. If energy is constant, then would not dissolve. Events always change like everything else. Future and past don't has physical existence they only exist in our minds, when we are considering them. When our period of transformation as living beings finish, this is our duration ,we recede into the past into the minds of living beings.

Héctor

    George,

    Thank you as well. It does seem as though we are futilely knocking our heads on the wall, but eventually it is one more bubble that will pop and someone has to call these people to task. History will be more kind to our efforts, than theirs.

    Regards,

    John

    Hector,

    I think we are very much in agreement on the issue, just looking at it from our different perspectives. Motion creates change and time is a measure of change.

    Keep in mind that essay is addressed to the vast majority of people for whom time is not only primary, but primal. The temporal sequence is the basis of narrative and linear logic, which are foundational to humanity. It is no wonder it should be including in theory of elemental nature. Time is as every bit as real as temperature and that is what regulates our bodies, as time forms our minds. People are much further up the scale of emergence than qualities such as time and temperature.

    Hello John,

    Probably because you were one of the earliest entrants I am just getting to read your worthwhile essay.

    In your list of binary relationships would you consider including existence/non-existence. It appears more fundamental because something exist before you start asking whether it is black or white or what do you think?

    But I agree that no essence of one of the pair without the other.

    All the best,

    Akinbo

    *You may want to read and rate my essay, and the judgement that followed in the case of Atomistic Enterprises Inc. vs. Plato & Ors delivered on Jul. 28, 2013 @ 11:39 GMT.

      Akinbo,

      You raise quite a number of deep questions in your essay and that is the main reason I chose not to tackle it, time being a significant constraint for me. I will though go through some issues on your thread.

      As for being/non-being, it is likely the most primal dichotomy and far more complex than all the others. A bottomless void of interrelating issues.

      Notice that sentence doesn't even make sense, using void, not pit, but that is the degree of the problem.

      John,

      I found your approach to the topic at hand succinct, logical, and intuitive and would like to rate your essay highly. However, before I do may I run some questions by you via email? Please let me know at: msm@physicsofdestiny.com

      I look forward to hearing from you.

      Regards,

      Manuel

      It would appear the last several days of posts have vanished. This is a test.

      Dear John

      It seems that our conversation was erased. Do you have any idea what happened?

      With respect to the conversation, I remember you mention that you chose energy because it is conserved. There are some other quantities that are conserved such as momentum, but momentum although a physicial quantity is not a substance. Are you having in mind that energy is some sort of substance? This is one of the reasons, I prefer to select matter (in the sense of Aristotle) and not energy.

      Regards

      Israel

        Israel,

        That was weird. It seems all posts of the last two days have vanished, but they managed to replace the missing scores. Just my luck, as I went from a 4.2 to a 3.9. Oh well.

        I pick energy because it really has no features, other than dynamic and conserved. This makes it a perfect dichotomy for information, which is the very nature of definition, is necessarily inherently static and according to all experience, if not various physics theories, is mostly not conserved. In fact, the creation and transmission of information requires erasing prior information, as in, "You can't have your cake and eat it too." As in you can't have something, without using all necessary input. Since it is conserved, the energy cannot manifest both prior and succeeding forms, thus no "blocktime." This creates the asymmetric "arrow of time," as the energy is not going to turn on itself.

        So in order to have information, you need energy to manifest it and if you have energy, it must have some form, ie. information. So it's not as though I see energy as something substantial, but as the yang to the yin of information. Can't have one, without the other.

        Matter, on the other hand, is a conceptually a composite of energy and form.

        Regards,

        John

        Dear John,

        Your one approach to this whole debate is interesting because it is very easy to presume meanings. What is "it" and what is "bit"? If we can agree on a definition a major part of this debate would have been resolved.

        In What a Wavefunction is I try to define too. I have download of your essay. See if you can read through mine and let have your reaction. I'll be back here to rate.

        And just in case you find it dense at first. Then please read through my exchange with Marcoen. I think it is a good starter with regard to my definitions.

        Regards,

        Chidi

        John,

        I can be fully agree with you but there are some ,,trifles,,. The ,,new bubbles,, really is not necessary. Moreover, I am calling clean the physics from a lot of bubbles, which are introduced from air.

        And I am calling to return to a normal-natural way of thinking - without new creations and new things, and this approach give us the RESULTS. However, you do not care all of this and just have attributed to me things when I am saying just the opposite!

        I am very disappointed from such level of discussion. I give you ,,high,, score!! It will be more better if you will not send to me such comment and your thanks.

        George

          George,

          There will always be bubbles. People sketch their castles out in the air, before they try building them of stone. There will always be more dream castles than stone castles though. We are in the business of popping some of those dream castles. What would you be doing otherwise, if those silly fools were not out talking up multiverses? There wouldn't be as much to make fun of. I did rate you highly as well, but I'm just trying to understand the much larger context and that includes many other people, with many other views on the subject.

          Dear John

          I just read your short and nice essay. I wish you have discussed a little bit more about why you consider energy fundamental. There are some other contestants that also adhere to this view.

          I support your view that change precedes time and not the opposite as some think. But whereas for you the energy is the main ingredient, I consider that the main ingredient is matter (matter as understood by Aristotle). The reason is that in physics energy is a derived quantity whilst matter is not. The other reason is because mathematically speaking, one of the properties of matter is mass and E=mc^2. If we agree on this, what really changes is matter. My essay from two years ago discusses that there must be a fundamental substance which I assume is matter but I'm also open to accept energy as the main essence of the universe. I think this is just a matter of convention.

          Finally, I'd like to invite you to read my essay and leave some comments. There I discuss about Wheeler's dream and propose a potential way to get out of the present crisis, assuming that space is a material field. I'll be looking forward to hearing any comments you may have.

          Regards

          Israel

            Israel,

            There is a very basic reason I use the term energy. While lacking any other particularly exacting attributes, it is primarily described as being conserved. Even entropy only applies to useful energy in a closed set. Energy is not lost, unless it is actually radiated away from that container, rather any energy gradients within the container are lost, as it reaches a thermal medium. This also means temperature is not simply an average of molecular/atomic/etc. activity, but a local entropic end state, since these component entities are actually trading energy around to reach that median.

            Now the concept of information is not something that can really be described as being conserved, even though it is inherently static and structured, except in some blocktime formulation. So if we are to use these concepts as the two halves of a dichotomy, they reflect each other quite well, with information as the defining form of energy and energy as the manifestation of information. So in order for new information to be created, as the energy, being dynamic, changes form, old information is erased. This is the solution to the "arrow of time." The sense of some eternal present, but a constantly changing and irreversible process, as the energy does not turn on itself.

            I have to admit, I haven't been engaging m/any of the regulars. Given limited time resources and even more limited capacity to think through some very dense exposition, I've been mostly "exploring." Both new ideas and different interactions are not an opportunity to be passed on.

            I'm sure I'll be by.

            Regards,

            John

            Dear John,

            Your essay to me has plenty substance although the shortness may hide this.

            I take as your conclusion the statement that:

            "So we exist as manifestations of this dichotomy of energy and information, as medium and message."

            It rings a bell because as a Mass Communication student I studied Mashall Mcluhan's thesis: "The Medium is the Message". Now you aptly bring it to physics.

            I can only say this statement is so brutally simple BUT even more brutally true.

            What more? It could become the science!

            My essay What a Wavefunction is actually elaborates on your thesis. Please do read my essay and let me have your honest comment (and rating). I will be back here to rate yours according as I have found high value.

            Bests,

            Chidi

              Typo!! The name is Marshall Mcluhan please. Just for your ref.

              Chidi

              Chidi,

              I did get into your essay and I will try it again. The problem I was having is that you use various ideas that are fraught with a lot of loaded meanings that might not be conveying what you mean them to say, to other people. I am probably like you, but a bit older and I found what I was looking for was just some very basic concepts to explain reality, without all the academic baggage.

              I think that eventually we will discover there is no such thing as a big bang cosmology and it is basically a convection cycle of radiation expanding out and falling/precipitating back down/into gravitational vortices as mass, then radiating out, or shot out the poles as cosmic rays and the cycle starts over again, eternally. That gravity is simply the vacuum effect created by this contraction of energy, much as when energy is released from mass, it creates pressure. Think atomic explosion. Radiant heat, etc. So there are a lot of concepts out there that have been created to fill the many gaps and when you try using them as stepping stones to further enlightenment, you have to be very careful they are not leading you off into the wilderness instead.

              Here is a blog post at FQXI, listing many of the recent observational problems for cosmology.

              Here is my entry in last year's, Questioning the Foundations contest, which further develops my point about time being an effect of action, thus eliminating "spacetime" as a causal property and that is the basis for an expanding universe. Suffice to say, this is a very controversial position, but then my income isn't dependent on the study of physics.

              Regards,

              John

              Dear John,

              Thank you for the two links you provided above. I will refer.

              With regard to my definition of terms you might find my exchange with Marcoen useful. Provided it does not unduly preempt your judgement.

              Regards,

              Chidi