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Dear Dr. E (the real one),

As you see, the anonymous coward did his hit-and-run thing again. Someone forged your identity, just like several posts back, copying excerpts from your earlier posts. I know you wouldn't have done this, since we tacitly yet honestly and sincerely agreed that you wouldn't be posting rants and quotations about Western cowboys and ancient heroes as replies to my posts.

To the anonymous coward:

Whoever you are, take note: you can't fool me! I know it's you, the forger, and this became obvious to me the moment you switched from physics to cowboys and cattle, Homer, King Leonaides, and Socrates. And you did it in too obvious a manner, anonymous coward. Dr. E would never be so inconsiderate to dump into our faces a full 11 pages of irrelevant junk. Taking advantage of Dr. E's obvious temporary inattention to this discussion, you grabbed the chance to fool everybody again. But you can't fool Dr. Kyle Gallahue, the physicist! Get out of our way, anonymous wretch!

To the real Dr. E (again):

I'll be waiting until you come back, Elliot, and inform our readers that the above two posts aren't yours, as I'm sure they aren't. All the best to you, in case you are sick or something and couldn't check your blog recently.

Kyle

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300 and Fistful of Dollars are actually two of my favorite movies! I'd give anything to watch Westerns with Bohr & Gamow! How cool would that be! Sometimes I actually wish that MDT wasn't right, and that we did, in fact, live in a block universe, so that I could travel back on Michio Kaku's/Paul Davies' time machine and watch a western or two with Bohr. And we'd invite Boltzman too. It's sad that Boltzman passed on never knowing how great a success his theory was to become. Would be fun to travel on back and meet King Leonidas too.

One of the great things about MDT is that it is helping fellow physicists in solving long-recognized problems and resolving paradoxes. The EPR Paradox is resolved via the inherent nonlocality of the fourth expanding dimension (which desribes the photon perfectly), and Godel's problems with time in the block universe that relativity seemingly implied are done away with.

A great book that everyone should read is Lee Smolin's THE TROUBLE WITH PHYSICS: THE RISE OF STRING THEORY, THE FALL OF SCIENCE, AND WHAT COMES NEXT.

Here are some quotes from your rockin' book and my responses:

"Thus all the theories that triumphed had consequences for experiment that were simple to work out and could be tested within a few years. This does not mean that the theories could solved exactly--most theories never are. But it does mean that physical insight lead immediately to a prediction of a new physical effect." -Lee Smolin, The trouble With Physics, The Rise of String Theory, The Fall of Science, and What Comes Next

MDT presents a new, deeper, hitherto unsung physical invariance from where all of relativity arises. It also explains physical phenomena such as entanglement and action-at-a-distance as never before, with teh very sme postualte and euqation that account for relativity. And thus it also unifies relativity and QM with a simple *physical* model, which alos accounts for time and all its arrows and assymetries across all realms. MDT shows that quantum mechanical, relativistic, and entropic phenomena derive from the same underlying physical reality--a fourth dimension that is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions.

Lee writes in TTWP, "Whatever else one says about string theory, loop quantum gravity, and other approaches, they have not delivered on that front. The standard excuse has been that experiments on this scale are impossible to perform-but, as we've seen, this is not the case. So there must be another reason. I believe there is something basic we are all missing, some wrong assumption we are all making. If this is so, then we need to isolate the wrong assumption and replace it with a new idea." -Lee Smolin, The trouble With Physics, The Rise of String Theory, The Fall of Science, and What Comes Next

The wrong assumption originates from the confusion of time with the fourth dimension. Time is not the fourth dimension, but it is an emergent phenomenon that arises from a fourth dimension that is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions. Time inherits certain properties of the fourth dimension, but the over-extending of the dimensionality of time has lead to troubling and ridiculous situations such as Godel's block universe, wherein time is frozen; and wherein the past, present, and future already exist.

The fourth dimension expands at the rate of c in units of the Planck length. Thus macroscopic objects rarely ever enter into the fourth expanding dimension deeper than the Planck length. A photon is matter that surfs the expanding fourth dimension, jumping from crest to crest of all the tiny expansions of the fourth dimension which manifest themselves as expanding spheres of locality in the three spatial dimensions. Thus a photon appears as a nonlocal, spherically-symmetric expanding wavefront of probability in the three spatial dimensions. Furthermore, a photon does not age as it stays in the exact same place in the fourth expanding dimension, causing its nonlocal, expanding probability wave to translate with a velocity of c in the three spatial dimensions. The expansion of this nonlocal, spherically-symmetric probability distribution that desribes the photon's motion is a most fundamental clue that practically screams at us that the fourth dimension is expanidng relative to the the three spatial dimensions, as a photon remains stationary in the fourth dimension, and thus a photon's spherically-symmetric expanidng wavefront defines a locality in the fourth dimension, no matter how large it gets. Ergo nonlocality and entanglement.

Lee Smolin continues in TTWP, "What could that wrong assumption be? My guess is that it involves two things: the foundations of quantum mechanics and the nature of time. We have already discussed the first; I find it hopeful that new ideas about quantum mechanics have been proposed recently, motivated by studies of quantum gravity. But I strongly suspect that the key is time. More and more, I have the feeling that quantum theory and general relativity are both deeply wrong about the nature of time. It is not enough to combine them. There is a deeper problem, perhaps going back to the origin of physics." -Lee Smolin, The trouble With Physics, The Rise of String Theory, The Fall of Science, and What Comes Next

MDT takes us back to the origin of physics, and it presents us with a fundamental view of reality that conforms to all experimental evidence, while not only resolving the paradoxes of the non-locality of the EPR effect and Godel's block universe, but unifying the resolution within a simple physical postulate. Before Einstein's relativity, space and time (as well as matter and energy) were considered to be disparate entities. Einstein's relativity united them, and suddenly time was mistakenly seen as the fourth dimension, rather than as an emergent property of a fourth dimension expanding relative to three spatial dimensions. Then, when Einstein correctly saw that all moving objects are shortened when energy is added-when they are rotated out of the three spatial dimensions and into a fourth dimension-just as a far-away ruler appears shortened as it is rotated, Einstein had the genius to call upon a the four-dimensional formulation of space-time.

However, this lead to confusion; as Einstein did not see that macroscopic object's-rest masses-never enter the fourth dimension deeper than the Planck length. Hence the past and future do not yet exist, but only the present. Nor did Einstein realize that the fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions-a simple postulate with far-reaching consequences.

Both Einstein and Minkowski wrote x4 = ict, but they never saw that this naturally implied dx4/dt = ic.

And Einstein's Relativity may be derived from dx4/dt= ic, which represents a more fundamental invariance of this universe--the fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions. Einstein introduced relativity as a principle--as a law of nature not deduced from anything else, and well, I guess I was dumb enough to ask, 'why relativity?' And I found the answer in a more fundamental invariance--the fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions, or dx4/dt = ic.

And not only can all of relativity be derived from this, but suddenly we are liberated from the block universe and time and progress in theoretical physics are unfrozen. And change is seen in a most fundamental equation that weaves change into the very fabric of space-time, where it needs to be, as change pervades every realm of physics and all acts of *physical* measurement. And suddenly we have a *physical* model for entropy, time and its arrows and assymetries in all realms, free will, and quantum mechanics' nonlocality, entanglement, and wave-particle duality. The fourth expanding dimension distributes locality, fathering time. MDT accounts for the constant speed of light c--both its independence of the source and its independence of the velocity of the observer, while establishing c as the fastest, slowest, and only velocity for all entities and objects moving through space-time, as well as the maximum velocity that anything is measured to move. And suddenly we see a *physical* basis for the dualities--for space/time, wave/matter, and energy/mass or E=mc^2. Energy and mass are the same thing--it's just that energy is mass caught upon the fourth expanding dimension, and thus it surfs along at "c."

Dr. Lee Smolin continues in TTWP, "Around the beginning of the seventeenth century, Descartes and Galileo made a wonderful discovery: You could draw a graph, with one axis being space and the other being time. A motion through space then becomes a curve on the graph. In this way, time is represented as if it were another dimension of space. Motion is frozen, and a whole history of constant motion and change is presented to us as something static and unchanging. If I had to guess (and guessing is what I do for a living), this is the scene of the crime". -Lee Smolin, The trouble With Physics, The Rise of String Theory, The Fall of Science, and What Comes Next

MDT unfreezes time, liberating us all with free will-the free will to move beyond ST & LQG, which are not inextricably locked into the fixed future of the block universe as Brian Green et al might have you suppose. Neither the future nor the past exists. Motion is inherent in the underlying four-dimensional space-time geometry, as the fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions.

Finally a postualte and equation step forth to weave change into the fundamental fabric of space-time!

Einstein noted that all objects are moving through space-time at the velocity c. This never changes. An object stationary in the three spatial dimensions is translating through the fourth dimension at the rate of c. An object stationary in the fourth dimension-a photon-is translating through the three spatial dimensions at the rate of c. Hence it is obvious that the fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions.

String Theory's greatest contribution to physics has been the utter rejection of the obvious, the denial of common sense, and the institutionalization of thousands of mediocrities to ignore or shout-down any physics that might get in the way of their vast commercial industries which must trump truth-their salaries, benefits, and science-fiction books. Indeed, ST gives full license to make one's ignorance one's arrogance, and thus it is the breeding ground for those with ambitions overshadowing their talents.

Lee Smolin writes in TTWP, "We have to find a way to unfreeze time-to represent time without turning it into space. I have to idea how to do this. I can't conceive of a mathematics that doesn't represent a world as if it were frozen it eternity. It's terribly hard to represent time, and that's why there's a good chance this representation is the missing piece." -Lee Smolin, The trouble With Physics, The Rise of String Theory, The Fall of Science, and What Comes Next

MDT unfreezes time, as well as progress in theoretical physics, and liberates us from the block universe!

There actually is no problem with the representation of time in physical theories, but only within the interpretations and extrapolations of modern theorists. Time, as it is defined, works perfectly in quantum mechanics and relativity, as it does in Newtonian mechanics and classical electrodynamics. Hence our cars and computers which work perfectly well each and every day.

However, when the notion of time is warped and extrapolated to suit the fantasies of prominent physicists who ignore login, reason, and experiment, in order to create wormholes and time machines, it only goes to show that time is not the fourth dimension, but an emergent property of a universe wherein a fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions.

Lee Smolin continues in TTWP, "One thing is clear: I can't get anywhere thinking about this problem within the confines of string theory. Since string theory is limited to the description of strings and branes moving in fixed background spacetime geometries, it offers nothing for someone who wants to break new ground thinking about the nature of time or of quantum theory. Background-independent approaches offer a better starting point, because they have already transcended the classical pictures of space and time. And they are simple to define and easy to play with." -Lee Smolin, The trouble With Physics, The Rise of String Theory, The Fall of Science, and What Comes Next

Indeed String Theory has banned asking the questions that MDT addresses, such as "What is the nature of the physical framework underlying the observed phenomena of relativity and quantum mechanics?" String theory has bred an entire generation of physicists who believe that politics, hype, and name-calling are to be preferred over logic, reason, and truth to advance physics. String Theory, though funded with hundreds of millions, yet lacks the simple truth and beauty of this postulate and equation--"the fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions. dx4/dt =ic." It is almost as if simple postulates and equations representing simple physical truths have been banned form physics, along with physics.

Dr. Smolin continues in TTWP, "I won't say any more about this, because I want to move on to a different question. Suppose an intellectually ambitious young person with an original and impatient mind wants to think deeply about the five great questions. Given our failure to solve any of them, I can't imagine why such a person would want to be limited to working in any of the current research programs. Clearly, if string theory or loop quantum gravity by themselves were the answer, we would know it by now. They may be starting points, they may be parts of the answer, they may contain necessary lessons. But the right theory must contain new elements, which our ambitious young person is perhaps uniquely qualified to search for." -Lee Smolin, The trouble With Physics, The Rise of String Theory, The Fall of Science, and What Comes Next

Everyone should read George Orwell's Animal Farm.

Perhaps the excessive funding of theories never backed by experiment, nor logic, simplicity, elegance, and reason for that matter, has resulted in institutions that now oppose the advancement of physics. Remember how in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 the firemen existed to light fires and burn books, and not to save them? Well, is it any wonder that Esinetin's 1912 Manuscript is never assigned by the current regime, nor any of the other foundational papers? Imagine a school that assigned the foundational papers in every class! Why not learn relativity from Einstein's 1912 Manuscript? Perhaps then we'll see that he never said that time is the fourth dimension, but rather that x4 = ict.

With mortgages to be paid and families to be supported, who can afford truth and beauty after investing thirty years into mythology and groupthink? Smolin is to be commended for firing a warning shot across the bow of all young physicists--letting them know that they, if they are to be true physicists, are essentially on their own. For the advancement of science has ever been the domain of the individual, as has the creation of all lasting art, philosophy, literature, and culture. Make no mistake-the individual truth seeker is not alone in the context of the greats-they stand upon the shoulders of giants-but they are often alone in the context of their contemporaries. String Theory, by deconstructing great physicists and science, has tried to invert this, placing politics over philosophy and money over meaning, and that is why they are destined to fail. For as Shakespeare said, "foul deeds will rise, thou all the earth overwhelm them, to men's eyes."

Smolin continues in TTWP, "What has my generation has bequeathed to these young scientists? Ideas and techniques they may or may not want to use, together with a cautionary tale of partial success in several directions, resulting in a general failure to finish the job Einstein started a hundred years ago. The worst thing we could do would be to hold them back by insisting that they work on our ideas. So the question for the last part of the book is a question I ask myself every morning: Are we doing all we can to support and encourage young scientists--and, by the virtue of this, ourselves--to transcend what we have done these last thirty years and find the true theory that solves the five greatest problems in physics?" -Lee Smolin, The trouble With Physics, The Rise of String Theory, The Fall of Science, and What Comes Next

Well, I guess the jury is still out on all this. But Max Planck warns us about the centralization of funding and power, as well as the micromanaging of curiosity:

"New scientific ideas never spring from a communal body, however organized, but rather from the head of an individually inspired researcher who struggles with his problems in lonely thought and unites all his thought on one single point which is his whole world for the moment." --Max Planck

"A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it." --Max Planck

"Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds." --Einstein (e.g. Boltzman, Bruno, Galileo, Socrates, Dante, Jesus)

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing." --Einstein. And the big questions which have driven science have always been asked by an individual.

"Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity." --Einstein. It is interesting to point out that neither ST nor LQG really have equations, nor meaningful postulates, for that matter. Contrast this to MDT: dx4/dt=ic: the fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatail dimensions.

"The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge." --Einstein. Yes--the truth does set us free, from the block universe and frozen time and progress in theoretical physics.

Best,

Dr. E (The Real McCoy)

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Ahem...

Given that there were no "disowning statements" by the real-real-real McCoy (a.k.a. Dr. E) regarding the previous posts for several days now, I have to admit only one possibility: that they were written by Dr. E himself. So I now turn to talking to him again.

Dear Elliot,

You seem to have misunderstood my tolerance limits. I was willing to give it a try and understand your ideas about space and time, but I thought we had agreed on some rules. Instead, you violated those rules, posting again in a self-unrestrained manner, repeating yourself for the umpteenth time, quoting the quotations you have posted time and again, to the point of inanity. Very well, as you wish, Elliot. However, do you remember the dictum "The customer is always right?" In this case, the customer is I, wanting to "buy" your views. I really wanted it. If you don't want to sell, suit yourself, or rather, from now on speak only to yourself. It's not my fault if you're a bad seller--indeed, the worst I've ever seen.

Focusing for the last time on physics, here is what I see: I asked you how relativity follows from your MDT, and what did I get as an answer? "Consider a 4D universe in which the fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions: dx4/dt = ic. Ergo Einstein's Relativity." You repeated this non-sequitur ("Ergo Einstein's Relativity") four times. Well, sorry to inform you, but from what you've shown in your essay so far, Einstein's relativity most definitely does NOT follow from your dx4/dt=ic. What follows from that relation is something like x4=ict+C, where C is some constant that depends on initial conditions. But that's NOT relativity. Special relativity follows partially from s=ct, which weaves space and time into one inseparable whole, not from x4=ict, which keeps s (three dimensional space) separable from t, thus implying a Galilean geometry for 3-d space + 1-d time--an absolute, Newtonian time, mind you. You've misunderstood the role of x4=ict in Einstein's 1912 paper. I would advise you to take another look at that paper and try to understand it better, had you not convinced me by now that you can't understand anything deeply, and you're prone to misinterpret everything--even my intention to understand you. You'll misinterpret that, too, lumping me into the mass of your supposed "prosecutors", who supposedly want to quiet your voice.

No Elliot, I really wanted to understand you, but you don't seem to be able to help your case. I asked you to show me how relativity follows from your only assumption, and instead of that you asked me to find it out by myself: "Read my paper and Einstein's 1912 Manuscipt[sic] of Relativity and you will see that it really is that simple", you wrote. This, Elliot, is as if you want to sell some miracle toaster, which you advertise as loud as you can, and when the customer comes and asks you to explain how your wonder toaster works, you tell him "Go and figure that out by yourself, you idiot! And buy my toaster now!" Well, I guess I'd be a true idiot if I bought your toaster under such circumstances.

In any case, my conclusion is you can't understand many things. Most important, you can't understand what the people who want to converse with you are asking from you. Keep talking then, but this time only to yourself. (I don't know if you noticed, but for the past several days you've been talking only to me and none else.)

Bye-bye blog,

Kyle

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The late professor J.A. Wheeler--"the last notable figure from the heroic age of physics lingering among us -- a man who could claim to be the student of Bohr, teacher of Feynman, and close colleague of Einstein"--was a very, very humble man, considering his massive accomplishments; and very kind to give me the time of day, with that eternal twinkle in his eye, which shines on, even though he has departed this world. So often it is that the

Greats have Great Humility, and Benjamin Franklin's thirteenth, and most important precept, was "Humility: Imitate Scorates and Jesus."

I remember Wheeler clenching his fist one day while looking out the window of his Jadwin Hall office, and stating that "today's world lacks the noble," and then turning and smiling and saying, "and it's your generation's job to bring it back." I was just a twenty-year-old junior, nodding silently and anxiously in agreement, and those words have stayed with me and meant more and more over the years, as they seem to explain so much about postmodern life--our disregard for the classical eternities and Einstein's 1912 Manuscript (which I get the feeling nbody here has yet read, or is going to read), and our arrogance that has lead to the current financial crisis/wealth transfer to the top, the breakdown of the family, and the resounding lack of progress in physics, other than the progress that has been made by deconstructing the classics, which tends to work better in realms that do not require empirical evidence.

I also remember standing in PJ Peebles' office that year, when I had him for quantum mechanics, and asking him, "when a photon is emitted from a light bulb, do we really not know where it's headed? Is it really just a probabilistic wave expanding at the rate of c?" "Yes," he said. And that stuck with me, because this is what quantum mechanics telles us. And relativity tells us that the ageless photon stays in the exact same place in the fourth expanding dimension. Ergo the fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions. dx4/dt = ic. It really is that simple, and yet the world yet refuses to see. But the world shall.

It was many years later that I wrote that equation down, but somehow I sensed it that year, walking between Peebles' and Wheelers' offices. Somehow I sensed the block universe did not exist, and I knew that someday I would rise to free time and liberate us from frozen time and frozen theoretical physics.

Legend has it that Einstein eventually came up with relativity because he so often contemplated what it would be like to catch up with light--a pursuit which began in his childhood. I often wonder, had Einstein known that light actually propagates as a spherically-symmetric probabilistic wavefront at the rate of c--had he actually known quantum mechanics--would he have seen that the fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions, or dx4/dt=ic?

What's really funny to me is not that people try to refute MDT, but that they try to refute the timeless, ageless photon, free will, quantum entanglement, nonlocality, entropy, time and all its arrows and assymetries, simple math, elegance, relativity, and novel physical theories that come with a postulate and equation.

MDT: The fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions: dx4/dt = ic

What's even funnier to me is that while refuting the obvious, profound, and simple, people stubbornly want to hold onto the block universe, time travel into the past, wormholes, tiny little vibrating strings and loops that make different colors of light travel at different c's, hyperspace, and other complete and unadalturated mythologies which don't make logical sense, and which have no empirical basis whatsoever. I have often made the joke that parallel universes, which are supposedly always popping in and out of existence, exist just long enough for theoretical physicists to get tenure, but disappear before the experimentalists can get tenure.

And yet, I maintain that physics ought be about *physics.*

Hundreds of years from now someone will read these words and know that one lone cowboy stoop apart the madding crowd to state what he sees, to state what he saw.

Both Einstein and Minkowski wrote x4 = ict, but they never saw that this naturally implied dx4/dt = ic. All of relativity is right--it's just that change is now forever wedded into the fundamental fabric of spacetime with dx4/dt = ic. I know they will ignore this and continue to raise tens of millions for mytholgies, while training grad students in the art of sycophancy, thuggery, and anonimity, and picking the best to reward with a few pennies now and then from their millions, as senior citizen physicists dictate the questions, banning those who wer eborn with their own curiosities, like Einstein, Newton, Bruno, Galileo, and every other scientist and artist who has ever contributed to art and science.

And Einstein's Relativity may be derived from dx4/dt= ic, which represents a more fundamental invariance of this universe--the fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions. Einstein introduced relativity as a principle--as a law of nature not deduced from anything else, and well, I guess I was dumb enough to ask, 'why relativity?' And I found the answer in a more fundamental invariance--the fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions, or dx4/dt = ic.

And not only can all of relativity be derived from this, but suddenly we are liberated from the block universe and time and progress in theoretical physics are unfrozen. And change is seen in a most fundamental equation that *weaves* change into the very fabric of space-time, where it needs to be, as change pervades every realm of physics and all acts of *physical* measurement. And suddenly we have a *physical* model for entropy, time and its arrows and assymetries in all realms, free will, and quantum mechanics' nonlocality, entanglement, and wave-particle duality. The fourth expanding dimension distributes locality, fathering time. MDT accounts for the constant speed of light c--both its independence of the source and its independence of the velocity of the observer, while establishing c as the fastest, slowest, and only velocity for all entities and objects moving through space-time, as well as the maximum velocity that anything is measured to move. And suddenly we see a *physical* basis for the dualities--for space/time, wave/matter, and energy/mass or E=mc^2. Energy and mass are the same thing--it's just that energy is mass caught upon the fourth expanding dimension, and thus it surfs along at "c."

The biggest tragedy of postmodern physics is not that it doesn't accomplish anything, but that it has banned the asking of foundational questions, without which, nothing can be accomplished.

MDT asks, and *answers*, the following, all with its simple postulate and equation:

What is the *physical* reason for length contraction? What *physical* entities of this universe give rise to length contraction? What deeper *physical* reality dictates that any moving object must be foreshortened in the direction of its motion? What is *physically* going on on a deeper level? There must be some *primary* cause--some universal invariant--for length contraction, time dilation, entropy, entanglement, nonlocality, and time and all its arrows and assymetries, and all the dualities--space/time, mass/energy, and wave/particle.

And then, as time went on, I found I was able to answer a wide array of foundational questions with: "Because the fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimension: dx4/dt = ic." And I went back to Einstein's original words in his 1912 Manuscript and found that he had never quite provided a deeper motivation for setting x4 = ict, other than that it works! Well, x4 = ict because the fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions.

And this small recognition of a primary universal invariant answered an abundance of questions with a *physical* model. And when diverse questions spanning all realms of physics are answered by a common *physical* model, surely that points the way towards unification!

One reason I think String Theory and Loop Quantum Gravity have not made much progress is because they have not been asking the fundamental questions I enumerate below. Rather, a system is set up where grad students and postdocs apply for grants to work on questions asked by the people with the funding, who while not ebing successful at physics, have been quite successful at science fiction and raising funds. Max Planck, Joseph Campbell, and F.A. Hayek all tell us why this does not work:

"New scientific ideas never spring from a communal body, however organized, but rather from the head of an individually inspired researcher who struggles with his problems in lonely thought and unites all his thought on one single point which is his whole world for the moment." --Max Planck

And again we see the primacy of the honest individual in the classic, epic hero's journey!

"A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man." --Joseph Campbell

In King Arthur's Court, is was dishonorable for a knight to follow another knight into the woods, but rather they had to find their *own* path, like Dante did.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth

And the Nobel Laureate economist F.A. Hayek agrees!

"The tragedy of collectivist thought is that, while it starts out to make reason supreme, it ends by destroying reason because it misconceives the process on which the growth of reason depends. It may indeed be said that it is the paradox of all collectivist doctrine and its demands for "conscious" control or "conscious" planning that they necessarily lead to the demand that the mind of some individual should rule supreme--while only the individualist approach to social phenomena makes us recognize the super-individual forces which guide the growth of reason. Individualism is thus an attitude of humility before this social process and of tolerance to other opinions and is the exact opposite of that intellectual hubris which is at the root of the demand for comprehensive direction of social purpose." -F.A. Hayek, The End of Truth, The Road to Serfdom

So it is that in asking my own questions, I had to find my own way through the woods. And in Arthurian Legend, which Joseph Campbell oft talks about, it is dishonorable to follow someone else's path through the forest, but instead, one must blaze one's own trail. Dante starts off alone in this dark woods in the Divine Comedy, and Morpheus tells Neo, "there is a difference between knowing the path and walking it." "I can tell you of the way, but you must find it and walk it on your own."

Could you ever imagine Eisenstein working on something he wasn't naturally curious about? The Greats were never sycophants, but that is exactly who today's funders surround themselves with. Pete Woit blogged aboutthe sycophancy in American academia.

Here are some of the questions that are answered with Moving Dimensions Theory's simple postulate and equation: "because the fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions: dx4/dt = ic."

I know it is a crime to ask such questions, another crime to answer them, and yet another crime to answer them with a simple postualte and equation, as postualtes and equations represeting hitherto unsung *physical* realties have been outlawed, and the top grad students and postdocs are regularly sent forth to detroy them, while wearing masks, in the dark of night, for all sycophants must eventually transform into anonymous cowards,as the Nobel laureate economist hints at in his two chapters "The End of Truth," and "Why The Worst Get on Top."

But, yet, the fourth dimension moves. "E pur si muove!" as Galileo atated. We have been liberated from frozen time and the block universe! Ergo I have free will, and I shall use it to both ask and answer foundational questions in physics via MDT's simple elgance and beauty.

Below are some of the questions that are answered with Moving Dimensions Theory's simple postulate and equation: "because the fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions: dx4/dt = ic."

0. Why time? Why time's arrows and asymmetries?

0.1 Why relativity? Why the principle of relativity? What deeper physical reality underlies relativity?

0.2 Why entanglement and nonlocality?

1. Why is light's velocity a constant c? Why relativity's postulates?

2. Why is light's velocity c independent of its source?

3. Why is it that nothing can travel faster than c?

4. Why does a photon, which travels at c, not age?

5. Why does a photon's spherically-symmetric probablistic wavefront define simultaneity--a locality in the fourth dimension?

6. Why are energy and mass equivalent? Why E=mc^2?

7. Why do all of time's arrows point in the same direction--towards dissipation, decoherence, and entropy?

8. Why do so many physicists say time is the fourth dimension, when Einstein never said x4 is time, but instead said x4 = ict?

9. Why can matter can appear as energy or mass?

10. Why is it that when matter appears as pure energy, it propagates at c through space?

11. Why does all matter have particle--local--and wave--nonlocal--properties?

12. Why does all energy have particle--local--and wave--nonlocal--properties?

13. Why is it that when matter appears as stationary mass it propagates at c through the fourth dimension?

14. Why is it that when matter appears as energy, it propagates at c through the three spatial dimensions?

15. Why is it that to move at c through space is to stand still in the fourth dimension?

16. Why is it that to move at c through the fourth dimension is to stand still in space?

17. Why is it that all objects move at but one speed through space-time--c?

18. Why is the universe expanding?

19. Why does radiation expand outwards, but not inwards?

20. Why do we see retarded waves, but not advanced?

21. Why is it that entropy imitates the general motion of all radiation and the universe's expansion--a spherically-symmetric expanding wave?

22. Why is it that Huygens' Principle, which underlies all reality ranging from QED to Feynman's many-paths, to classical physics, state that every point of a spherically-expanding wavefront is in turn a spherically-expanding wavefront?

23. Why are all photons described by a spherically-expanding wavefront propagating at c?

24. Why is it that two initially-interacting photons remain entangled, no matter how far they travel apart?

25. Why is it that two initially-interacting photons remain the exact same age, no matter how far they travel apart?

26. Why is it that Young's double-slit experiments show that both mass and energy have nonlocal wave properties?

27. Why is it that the collapse of the wave function is immediate in the photoelectric effect, and all other experiments?

28. Why is there no way for an object to gain velocity without being reduced in length via relativistic length contraction?

29. Why does a photon trace out a null vector through space-time? How can movement across the universe describe a path of zero length?

30. Why does time's arrow point in a definitive direction?

21. Why does entropy increase?

32. Why do moving clocks run slow?

33. Why is time travel into the past impossible?

34. Why does free will exist?

35. Why is it that time is not frozen---how come the block universe does not exist? Why do we have free will?

36. Why does a photon's probabilistic wavefront travel at c?

37. Why is the velocity of quantum entanglement c? Why is it that only initially interacting particles can yet be entangled? Why is it that they must first share a common locality or origin, in order to share an entangled nonlocality when they are separated?

38. Why is it that in Schrodinger's equation, the first derivative with respect to the fourth dimension is proportional to the second derivative with the respect to the three spatial dimensions? Any change in position in the fourth expanding dimension is an acceleration in the three spatial dimensions.

39. Why is it that a photon emitted from the sun is red-shifted as it travels away? It's wavelength appears longer as it is measured against space that is less-stretched. A photon inherits the local geometry of the space-time where it was emitted.

40. Why do clocks in gravitational fields run slow?

41. Why are photons red-shifted as they move away from massive objects, and blue-shifted as they move towards them?

42. Why the conservation laws? Why does an object maintain its rotation in space-time, unless acted upon by an exterior force?

43. Why is the velocity of every object through space-time c?

44. Why is it that the only way to stay stationary in the fourth dimension is to move at c through the three spatial dimensions?

45. Why is it that the only way to remain stationary in the three spatial dimensions is to move at c relative to the fourth dimension?

46. Why does a photon have zero rest mass, and how does zero rest mass imply the velocity of light? None of the object's matter exists in the three spatial dimensions, but only in the fourth expanding dimension.

47. Why time's arrows?

48. Why time's asymmetries?

49. Why entropy?

50. Why is there an i in x4=ict?

51. Why is the velocity of light both independent of the velocity of the source and the velocity of the observer?

52. Why are light, time, and measurement so fundamentally related?

53. Why the - sign in-front of x4 in the space-time metric? What is different about x4?

Well, MDT answers all theses questions, and more, with a simple physical postulate and equation: "The fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions or dx4/dt = ic."

Over the years, MDT has provided a *physical* model that answered these and other questions, unifying diverse fields and physical phenomena in a common, simple principle.

Now as MDT unfreezes both time and progress in theoretical physics, it will be opposed by many. Furthmore, as MDT explains away wormholes and time travel into the past, which have never been seen but yet form the foundations of many modern religions adhered to by geometric mystics and soothsayers, it will be opposed even more. As MDT provides a simple equation and postulate that hearken on back to the heroic age of physics, instead of presenting indecipherable math that can be used to raise massive funding for some groupthink Matrix/corporate-state/MTV show, it will be opposed even more, by those in The Matrix who have nothing to gain by simple truth and beauty, and so much to lose--their illusions of grandeur.

I think all the questions started back in the late eighties/early nineties with "why length contraction?"

Why does an object become foreshortened in the direction of its motion? Why is it that the only way for something to move is to become shorter in the direction of its motion?

When I wondered about this, as when I pondered all the above questions MDT answers, I tried to envision the *physical* structure of space-time and reality that would account for the behavior. For ultimately physics is about physics, and sometimes, a mathematical equation comes forth which supports the physical reality--in this case of a ofurth expanding dimension: dx4/dt= ic.

And here is how it worked out while contemplating the physical reality underlying relativistic length contraction.

Consider a ruler--it gets shorter as it moves due to length contraction.

But wait, does not a ruler also appear shorter as it rotates? Consider a ruler at the end of a football field, parallel to the field goals. As it rotates, it will appear shorter and shorter to us, as we stand at the other end of the field, looking on. Have you ever noticed this illusion, as a rotating radar on a distant ship looks like something that keeps contracting and expanding? It is hard for us to tell it is rotating--rather we might actually guess that it is actually getting physically shorter and longer.

These youtube videos almost illustrate this rotating radar effect:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd6ZxHk2-zA&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMlsmqWSo8A&feature=related

And I saw that relativistic length contraction is a rotation of sorts. The ruler is rotated out of our three spatial dimensions. But what is it rotated into? It is rotated into the fourth dimension. But why, when this happens, does the ruler always, always propagate in the direction of its foreshortening? Well, it is because the fourth dimension--the dimension which the ruler is being rotated into--is moving! Thus relativistic length contraction is always, always accompanied by a change in velocity.

Rotate something into the fourth dimension, and it gains a translational velocity. Give something a translational velocity, and it will appear foreshortened in our three spatial dimensions. All because the fourth dimension is expanidng relative to the three spatial dimensions or dx4/dt = ic.

Then, right after I pondered length contraction, the - sign in the space-time metric puzzled me. Why does x4 have a - sign in-front of it? How is x4 different from the three spatial dimensions? What is a photon telling us by defining a null vector? A photon can cross the universe, and yet not travel at all? Ahaha! For in the fourth dimension, it has not moved, as the fourth dimension has been moving with it, just as a surfer stays with the wave they ride. This brings de Broglies' pilot waves to mind...

Well, that's some of the story behind MDT. A very early version of it appeared in my 1998 dissertation:

http://elliotmcgucken.com/dissertation.html

And I am forever indebted to J.A. Wheeler, through whom I first encountered not only these questions, but the courage to ask them. Wheeler always used to say, "I want to know what the show is all about, before it's out." And not only were foundational questions allowed and encouraged in his office, but one could not enter nor leave without naturally asking them. His Great Spirit has moved on, and while the past is no longer real, the immortal soul is, as Socrates concludes:

"I think Socrates, said Cebes, that even the dullest person would agree, from this line of reasoning, that the soul is in every possible way more like the invariable than the variable.

And the body?

To the other.

Look at it in this way too. When soul and body are both in the same place, nature teaches the one to serve and be subject, the other to rule and govern. In this relation which do you think resembles the divine and which the mortal part? Don't you think that it is the nature of the divine to rule and direct, and that of the mortal to be subject and serve?

I do.

Then which does the soul resemble?

Obviously, Socrates, soul resembles the divine, and body the mortal." --The Phaedo

For some reasons I wrote a lot of sonnets that first year in grad school--often during quantum mechanics. At the end of the semester, when the professor was passing out the exams, he looked at me and said, "You will do very well on this! You took many notes!" I guess he thought I was taking notes the whole time. I've never been much of a class learner, but I made up for it by staying up late, reading the quantum texts. It wasn't always efficient, but here're some of the poems I wrote in quantum mechanics--I sent them to Wheeler during that first year of grad school:"

"cxl.

Now suppose we have a hole in a slate,

A photon from a source passes on through,

And it darkens a grain on a film plate,

To say it went through the hole would be true.

Several photons pass through, we wait a bit,

And quite a simple pattern we do see,

A bright spot directly behind the slit,

Fading away as you move outwardly.

We choose to add an additional slit,

The photon seems to have a decision,

It must choose one of them through which to fit,

For photons are not allowed to fission.

But now there are fringes, common to waves!

In this manner, can particles behave?

cxli.

What's seen is an interference pattern,

Which is common to every type of wave,

On the vast ocean or from a lantern,

This is the way every wave does behave.

Though you think particles blacken the spot,

Between the source and plate light is a wave,

As to its whereabouts we can say not,

Such is the way reality behaves.

These ghostly facts are true of all matter,

Electrons and protons and you and me,

We're but empty waves that somehow matter,

Striving to comprehend reality.

Wavy winds blow, our consciousness is lit.

It makes up our mind, our minds make up it.

cxlii.

"The question is to be or not to be,

Whether it is nobler within the mind,

To believe in indeterminacy,

Or refute that God plays dice in the wind.

Are there many worlds, or only just this one?

And is Schrodinger's cat alive or dead?

Of p and x, can we only know one?

And of Wigner's good friend, what can be said?"

He smiled and said, "no question, no answer,

This above all, science holds to be true,

Love is in the mind of the romancer,

And the kind of love determines the view."

He looked up to the sky, a sky few see,

A sky filled with a child's curiosity."

Best,

Dr. E (The Real McCoy)

  • [deleted]

Speaking of sonnets, your sonnet reminded me of this one:

I saw you starting for another war,

The emblem of adventure and of youth,

So that men trembled, saying: "He forsooth

Has gone, has gone, and shall return no more."

And then out there, they told me you were dead,

Taken and killed; how was it that I knew,

Whatever else was true, that was not true?

And then I saw you pale upon your bed,

Scarcely two years ago, when you were sent

Back from the margin of the dim abyss;

For Death had sealed you with a warning kiss,

And let you go to meet a nobler fate:

To fight for hearth and home, O fortunate,

To die in battle with your regiment.

--- Maurice Baring (1874 - ? )

8 days later
  • [deleted]

Dear Dr. McGucken,

slowly doing my best to read all the entries here. yours i found a very interesting expansion of Einstein's work. i'm still thinking about it. i see what's happening with the math, thanks for pointing that out. the interpretations of the significances are still rolling around in my head. no comments on that at the moment. i did have a concern about the observations on free will. if you go tying your free will to whatever scientific theory is currently in fassion, you've just thrown away what little of it you may have had to start with.

it's a jail break, man; i'm here to spring ya. ca'mon, let's get movin'. you can finish the equations later...

:-)

matt k.

  • [deleted]

Thanks the words Matt.

Yes--the typical view held by contemporary physicists is that of the block universe. In fact, up until now and MDT, I think pretty much everyone who has embraced Einstein's relativity has embraced the block universe, which pretty much denies free will. How strange that physicists, who strive and work for Truth each day, have renounced free will! Perhaps that is why there has been so little progress in theoretical physics over the past thirty years. Everyone is just reasoning that it's all fate anyway, and time is frozen, so why try that hard? Why not just write coffeee-table physics books about wormholes/time travel into the past (even though without free will, how could we choose to build a time machine?). Why not just build vast empires out of postmodern math, and hire grad students and postdocs (who get a tiny portion of the funds) to laugh at/snark true theoretical physicists and their free will, logic, and reason?

The great thing about Moving Dimensions Theory is that it allows us to keep all of relativity while also granting us free will and liberating us from the block universe.

Wish I could buy everyone a beer to celebrate our newfound free will! Perhaps now they can no longer argue that string theory and loop quantum gravity are our fate for the next four thousand years, as they are pre-embedded in the future of our block universe.

And too, in addition to exploding the block universe myth and unfreezing time, MDT provides a *physical* model accounting for change, entropy, relativity, quantum mechanics' nonlocality and entanglement, and time and all its arrows and assymetries across all realms. Furthermore, Huygens' principle, which manifests itself in all realms from classical waves to Feynman's many-paths interpretations of quantum mechanics, is given a deeper foundation--a raison d'etre--a fundamental source--and this is the same fundamental source underlying relativity and quantum mechanics' nonlocality and thus QM's probabilistic nature, as the fourth expanding dimension distributes locality.

MDT's great uniter and unifier is a fundamental invariant of the universe that has hitherto been unsung--the fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions, or dx4/dt = ic.

Too, too many postmodern theories suggest that we should get rid of time, free will, nonlocality, causality, change, and even space! Yes--too, too many modern theories suggest that we should get rid of *physics* and *physical reality*, so that we can keep funding bureuacracies! Too, too many postmodern physicists have long ago given up trying to explain entanglement, nonlocality, entropy, and time and all its arrows and assymetries with a *physical* model. Too, too many physicists have chosen to ignore Godel's problems with the block universe and time, while losing the sense of wonderment when considering action-at-distance, nonlocality, and the EPR Paradox.

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed." --Albert Einstein

Yes--entanglement, entropy, time, nonlocality, Huygens' Principle, relativity--how mysterious are all these! And yet if you ask foundational questions such as *why* entanglement, *why* entropy, *why* time, *why* nonlocality, *why* Huygens' Principle, *why* relativity, the richest, wealthiest establishment in the history of physics, which also happens to be the establishment which has contributed the least (perhaps money cannot buy physics and philosophy?), sends forth anonymous postdocs and grad students to launch the snarky, ad-hominem attacks they perfect under the guidance of their pseudo-physicist political mentors.

But hey--everyone's got to make a living.

Behold MDT--the great unifier and invariant source underlying all these *physical* phenomena--in relativity and quantum emchanics--in statistical mechanics and entropy.

For the first time in the history of relativity, *change* has been *physically* woven into the fundamental fabric of spacetime, with dx4/dt = ic. And that's where change needs to be! For can you name any branch of physics in which change, and time, do not exist? Without change, no measurement can be made.

MDT is unique in that it offers a *physical* model underlying entropy, entanglement, and nonlocality, and too, all of relativity can be immediately derived from its simple postulate and equation.

I expect MDT to bring additional boons for years to come!

  • [deleted]

Hello again Dr. McGuckin,

re:

For the first time in the history of relativity, *change* has been *physically* woven into the fundamental fabric of spacetime, with dx4/dt = ic.

that's part of what i've been considering in the implications. yes. i saw that. was even thinking '∆ as an emergent phenomenon' might be...

bit i don't want to go being presumptuous here, i'm no mega-mind.

still thinking about it.

matt.

4 days later
  • [deleted]

Hello Matt!

Yes indeed, ∆ (change) is finally fundamentally woven into the fabric of spacetime with MDT!

And too, MDT explains why there is no need to quantize gravity, while also accounting for the Gravitational Redshift!

Please check out & enjoy the attached paper which has figures I could not include in the text here:

MOVING DIMENSIONS THEORY EXAMINES THE GRAVITATIONAL

REDSHIFT, LIGHT CLOCKS, AND WHY GRAVITY IS NOT QUANTIZED:

ALL HAIL THE UNIVERSE'S FUNDAMENTAL INVARIANT: dx4/dt = ic

by Dr. Elliot McGuckenAttachment #1: MOVING_DIMENSIONS_THEORY_EXAMINES_THE_GRAVITATIONAL_REDSHIFT_MCGCUKEN.pdf

  • [deleted]

Dear John Merryman,

John--above you have been saying something, and I think I finally see what you mean! I finally saw it when you wrote to Doug, in Doug's forum, "You propose something similar to Dr. E's theory of the expanding fourth dimension. As I pointed out to him, if, as he seems to suggest, this expanding wave is light, or represents light, than according to Einstein, light is the constant and gravity is actually shrinking the three dimensional geometric space, relative to this standing wave."

Where did Einstein state this? That's awesome, as it's exactly what MDT states in the attached mini-paper! If you can give me the source for "according to Einstein, light is the constant and gravity is actually shrinking the three dimensional geometric space, relative to this standing wave", that would rock!

John--I think this is what you've been trying to say to me above.

In the attached mini-paper, I show how the gravitaional redshift and the gravitational slowing of clocks both arise from a more fundamental invariant--the fundamental invariant which also happens to define Planck's length and the velocity of light: The fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions at the rate of c, manifesting itself as a spherically-symmetric wavefront in our 3D, which has a wavlength of Planck's length. This is the "invariant standing wave!"

Please see the attached mini-paper to see how MDT explains the gravitational slowing of clocks, the gravitational slowing of light, and the gravitational redshift; with simple diagrams superimposing an invariant, standing wave over space which can strecth! with these diagrams, MDT explains why clocks run slower in stronger gravitational fields where space is stretched. It shows that time, as measured on a clock, is also stretched, but only because of an underlying invariant which is never stretched--the expansion of the fourth dimension relative to the three spatial dimensions--which manifests itself as a standing sine wave in the figures. For even though time and space are stretched, the expansion of the fourth dimension remains invariant: dx4/dt = ic. And too, it shows that space is continuous, and all quantization arises from the quantized invariant expansion of the fourth dimension relative to the three spatial dimensions, or dx4/dt = ic. The invariant wavelength of the fourth expanding dimension, which is Planck's length, chops measurements of space--of time, energy, and momentum--into units of the Planck length, while providing the fundamental wave nature that gives rise to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle in all realms, as well as Hugens' Principle in all realms.

So it is that the absolute invariance of the expanding fourth dimension, whose wavelength and rate of expansion never changes, when superimposed on continuous space that can be stretched by a mass, results in clocks ticking more slowly in stronger gravitational fields.

Yes--entanglement, entropy, time, nonlocality, Huygens' Principle, relativity--how mysterious are all these! And yet if you ask foundational questions such as *why* entanglement, *why* entropy, *why* time, *why* nonlocality, *why* Huygens' Principle, *why* relativity, the richest, wealthiest establishment in the history of physics, which also happens to be the establishment which has contributed the least (perhaps money cannot buy physics and philosophy?), sends forth anonymous postdocs and grad students to launch the snarky, ad-hominem attacks they perfect under the guidance of their pseudo-physicist political mentors.

But hey--everyone's got to make a living.

Behold MDT--the great unifier and invariant source underlying all these *physical* phenomena--in relativity and quantum mechanics--in statistical mechanics and entropy.

For the first time in the history of relativity, *change* has been *physically* woven into the fundamental fabric of spacetime, with dx4/dt = ic. And that's where change needs to be! For can you name any branch of physics in which change, and time, do not exist? Without change, no measurement can be made.

MDT is unique in that it offers a *physical* model underlying entropy, entanglement, and nonlocality, and too, all of relativity can be immediately derived from its simple postulate and equation, as can the gravitational slowing of clocks and light, as well as teh gravitational redshift.

I expect MDT to bring additional boons for years to come!

Thanks for the conversations, and thanks for the reference, John! Would love to see where Einstein states, "light is the constant and gravity is actually shrinking the three dimensional geometric space, relative to this standing wave.""

Best,

Dr. E (The Real McCoy)Attachment #1: 1_MOVING_DIMENSIONS_THEORY_EXAMINES_THE_GRAVITATIONAL_REDSHIFT_SLOWING_OF_CLOCKS.pdf

  • [deleted]

Dr. E,

I'm lousy on specific references, as most of the reading I did was decades ago, but it is rather explicit in his need to add the cosmological constant to keep gravity from shrinking space to a point and the fact that his constant is the speed of light. So basically I see your theory as viewing it from the opposite perspective, that the three dimensional space is the constant and light is the expanding fourth dimension of time. My theory is in the middle, that relative to light, space is collapsing, while relative to space, light is expanding. Thus the cosmological redshift is an optical effect cause by the opposite effect of gravity.

Since I have to go to work right now, I'll post two pieces I wrote. The first from Doug Bundy's thread;

"I certainly didn't set out to disagree with the cosmological standard model when I first tried to make sense of it, but one particular observation has led me to where I am now. It is that, "Omega=1."

If, as tests by COBE and WMAP would seem to prove, the rate expansion of space is evenly balanced by gravitational contraction, Lemaitre's Big Bang theory doesn't make sense. If the expansion of intergalactic space is offset by the contraction of gravity, then there is no overall expansion, because these gravitational wells are effectively consuming the expanding space. When this first occurred to me, it seemed some sort of cycle would better explain the situation, where the mass falling inward, expands back out as energy, until it cools and starts to collapse again. This would logically explain why these opposing effects are in overall balance.

It seems quite likely that the cosmic redshift is evidence of Einstein's cosmological constant, which was originally proposed to balance the universe and prevent gravity from causing it to collapse. So I find it interesting that the effect attributed to dark energy has been found to fit the cosmological constant. If space, or the path light travels across it, expands at a constant rate, this would cause redshift to compound, so that the further light travels, the greater the multiplier effect and so the faster the source appears to recede, until it appears to be traveling away from us at the speed of light. Obviously this creates a horizon line over which visible light will not pass, though black body radiation would.

The original understanding of galaxies simply flying away from each other was modified to say that space itself has expanded from an initial point because it would otherwise appear that we are at the center of the universe, given that other, non local galaxies are redshifted so that they all appear to be moving directly away from us. It seems to me the flaw in this logic is that the speed of light should have to increase accordingly, since it is our constant measure of space, but this doesn't make sense. If two galaxies are x lightyears apart and the universe doubles in size, are they 2x lightyears apart? If so, that's not expanding space, but an increasing distance in stable space. If they still appear x lightyears apart, as the speed of light increases along with the expansion, by what measure are we saying the universe is expanding, since no matter how big it gets, everything still appears the same distance apart?

The question of what might cause light to redshift and thus our perception of space to expand is an open question. For one thing, I think that light must effectively travel as waves and it is only when it contacts some sufficiently opposing force that if effectively "condenses" out as a quanta of light, or photon. For one thing, this would explain why light remains so focused when it travels over billions of light years. If it were traveling as discrete particles it would seem the potential for scattering would be much greater and there would be enough instances of diffused light to measure this. It might explain redshift as well. The idea of "tired light" was dismissed for the very reason that light was so clear and if anything had interfered with the photons to slow them, the scattering would be apparent, but if light travels as a wave, the further it expands, the more area it has to cover and this increase in volume would reduce the energy of a wave, but not its focus, as that would quantize out as an individual photon."

This is from Kyle Miller's thread. It repeats somewhat. but expands the point a little more;

"My first clue was learning that the expansion of the universe is effectively balanced, or nearly so, by the force of gravity; Omega=1. Gravity and the expansion co-exist, so if they cancel each other out, it's a complimentary cycle, not a sequential one. Think of the model of gravity as the ball on the sheet of rubber. Where there are not gravitational objects, would the sheet be flat, or would it be pushed the other way in reaction to those areas where there are gravitational wells? Yes, the space is expanding, but it's also collapsing into these wells at the same rate. It's like running up a down escalator. The floors are not actually moving apart because you have to cover more space, since that space is folding into the floors(and being pushed back out as radiation). So light that crosses space is stretched, but it's a front of a wave that is also falling into all the innumerable gravity wells along the way, so it is both stretching and collapsing. (Of course we are only measuring what collapses into our telescopes and that has climbed a long way.) The light is being continually stretched and the further it travels, the more this effect is compounded. The redshift light is further redshifted so that eventually the source seems to be receding at the speed of light and this creates a horizon line over which visible light cannot go, only black body radiation. Thus other galaxies are redshifted directly away from us, proportional to their distance. Big Bang Theory tries to explain why other galaxies are redshifted such that they appear to be all moving away from us and not have our position as the center of the universe by saying that it is space itself which is expanding. The rising loaf of bread analogy. The problem with this argument is that if space is expanding, than our only real measure of space, the speed of light, should increase proportionally. Example; If two sources are x lightyears apart and the universe were to expand to twice its previous size, should they be 2x lightyears apart, or should they still be x lightyears apart? If they are 2x, that's not expanding space, that's an increasing distance of stable space. If they still appear x lightyears apart, as they should if space itself is expanding, than the whole argument is meaningless in the first place, as it wouldn't explain redshift. So yes, our measure of space expands for the light which crosses these enormous distances, but it is effectively an optical effect on that light, just as the bending of light around a gravitational object is an optical effect that causes the source to appear to move from our perspective, not because it does move. I realize I'm going way out on a limb here, if you haven't followed the history of the Big Bang theory and all the questions raised and the logical patchwork required to save it, from Inflation Theory to Dark Energy. Not to mention all the minor fudges required to fit the age of its processes into 13.7 billion years. I must say though, that it is a masterwork of math, but than so were epicycles.

Say the universe is explainable as a convection cycle. Galaxies would be the gravitational vortexes into which matter falls and energy radiates away from. That which falls into the black holes is ejected as electron jets out the poles. On the other side of the cycle is the cosmic background radiation that has traveled over that previously mentioned horizon line and cooled to the point it is only stable to the "dew point" phase transition of 2.7k. Above that and it effectively condenses out as particles. How does radiation condense? Consider that it effectively travels as a wave, yet when we try to measure it, it strikes our sensors as particles/photons. Just as moisture in the air condenses out as drops of water.

Now put it into the relationship of order and energy, as I defined them in terms of the two directions of time; The energy is constantly going onto the future, as the information defining the units of time fall away into the past. Everything is ultimately only the energy, just as time only exists as the present, but as this energy is constantly radiating out as waves and collapsing back down as particles, it creates this dichotomy of the pure energy and the information it creates and which defines it. These are the two directions meeting in the middle. Just as the energy is constantly expanding and gravity is constantly collapsing, it is a simultaneous process."

I'll try putting it in more context after work.

  • [deleted]

An interesting article on the Cosmological Constant;

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/fundamentals/mg20026801.500-why-einstein-was-wrong-about-relativity.html

  • [deleted]

Hi Dr. E,

I apologize for taking so long to answer the comment you posted in my forum. My trouble with MDT is right at the beginning. Since the foundation doesn't make sense to me, it becomes very tedious to wade through all the rest, because I can't find the faith that it will be worth the effort. Can you understand that?

The trouble I encounter is in trying to understand what you mean by moving dimension. There are 5 dictionary definitions for dimension:

1. A measure of spatial extent, especially width, height, or length.

2. Extent or magnitude; scope. Often used in the plural: a problem of alarming dimensions.

3. Aspect; element: "He's a good newsman, and he has that extra dimension" William S. Paley.

4. Mathematics

a. The least number of independent coordinates required to specify uniquely the points in a space.

b. The range of such a coordinate.

5. Physics A physical property, such as mass, length, time, or a combination thereof, regarded as a fundamental measure or as one of a set of fundamental measures of a physical quantity: Velocity has the dimensions of length divided by time.

The first and the last two are the applicable ones here, I believe, but maybe you have another one that would help more. Taking the first definition, your reference to moving spatial extent, seems appropriate, but, then, since velocity has dimensions of length divided by time, not height and width too, if that is the definition to use, you are referring to scalar motion, as I do, which doesn't seem to be the case.

In Einstein's work, the most appropriate definition is probably 4a, but his work doesn't contradict any of the others either. In your case, you seem to want to use the word dimension as if, instead of a property of something, used as an adjective, it has an existence in it's own right, used as a noun. If, as Einstein said, x4 = ict is a replacement for time, then the problem is solved, and we can move on from there, but I don't think this is what you mean, because ict/t = ic = is/t would be even harder to explain, as a dimension of something.

As something that exists and can move, dimension would have to occupy a position in space and time, and a change in that spacetime location would constitute its motion. However, if it's not something that changes location, then the other possibility is that it grows relative to its unchanging spacetime location, which sort of brings us back to the meaning of changing dimension.

See what I mean? If I can't get my head around what the concept of a moving dimension is, I can't entertain how it could be the solution to solving physics challenges. So, if you can help me understand that, I should be able to move to the next step.

  • [deleted]

Thanks Doug & Happy Hallowween,

Tonight I will be dressing up as a cowboy physicist in honor of Bohr and Gamow--please find the photo attached--if you look closely, you can see the dx4/dt=ic onmy shirt. Halloween is a great time of the year where we get to pretend that we live in a parallel universe where tenure for hyping parallel universes/multiverses doesn't exist, but where, instead, *physical* theories such as MDT are given precedence over bouncing universes, tiny, little vibrating strings, hyperspace, time travel, wormholes, postmodern math, groupthink, tyranny, fiat physics, the 10^99 indecipherable arxiv.org papers, and mysticism. Imagine a parallel universe where we weren't imprisoned in a block universe, where time and progress in theoretical physics were unfrozen, and where simple logic, reason, and math rescued that most bueatiful, subtle damsel in distress--physics. Without such heoric efforts, physics is transformed into the girl in the attached picture. You can tell she was once very pretty.

Regarding your questions about Moving Dimensions Theory, Doug, are you familiar with General Relativity? I would highly recommend:

http://www.amazon.com/Gravitation-Physics-Charles-W-Misner/dp/0716703440/

http://www.amazon.com/Journey-Gravity-Spacetime-Scientific-American/dp/0716760347/ (I highly recommend this book Doug! It is writen for laymen and a more general audience & too, my name is in the acknowledgements--the only time I have ever shared a paragraph with Einstein--haha)

You write, "As something that exists and can move, dimension would have to occupy a position in space and time, and a change in that spacetime location would constitute its motion."

This is exactly how Einstein's General Relativity defines dimensions!

Einstein's General Relativity is built upon the fact that dimensions bend, warp, and move. GR is built upon a stage in which the dimensions themselves move. So MDT is nothing all that new--just a little new, in proposing that the fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions at the rate of c, thusly exposing the universe's hitherto unsung fundamantal invariant-- dx4/dt=ic --from which the following logically and naturally arise:

1) time and its arrows and assymetries in all realms

2) entropy

3) relativity & E=mc^2

4) quantum mechanics' nonlocality, entanglement, and probabilistic nature

5) Huygens' principle in all realms (from Feyman's many-paths to classical waves)

6) the gravitational slowing of light and time and the gravitational redshift

7) free will and our liberation from the block universe circa 2005

8) and finally change is woven into the fundamental fabric of spacetime, where it needs to be, for change pervades all realms of physics, as it is impossible to measure anything without change!

9) Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle

It is simply amazing to me how many modern physicists with Ph.D.'s ignore General Relativity, which is, in fact, built upon moving dimensions. And of course special relativity is but a special case of general relativity, so it is quite amazing how many Ph.D.'s are trained to ignore Einsetin's relativity and quantum mechanics (trained to ignore foundational quaestions and foundational papers such as Einstein's 1912 Manuscript on Relativity), so as to become useful idiots and anonymous snarkers working for groupthink regimes that raise vast amounts of capital for the antitheory masters at the top, who oft attempt to dictate curiosity. But as Wheeler always said, "No question, no answer!" No wonder there has been no progress in theoretical physics for the past thirty years!

The very title "Moving Dimensions Theory" was never meant to be all that bold--it was certainly never meant to inspire such emotional fear and hatred (the fact that it does tells you somethig about today's postmodern "physicists"), but rather MDT was a humble salute to one of the world's best-tested, and most miraculous theories--General Relativity. Many say that had Einstein not come up with special relativity, somebody would have, as Poincare and Lorentz and others were pretty much there. But, it was Einstein's lone, heroic, painstaking, exhausting efforts by which General Relativity was born, so it all became Eisntein's Relativity. And again we see how science depends upon not groupthink and communal efforts--upon PR and multi-million-dollar hype--but upon the resolute, immutable *character* and vision of the heroic *individual*!

As you probably know, General Relativity has passed experimental test, after test, after test, from explaining the anomaly in Mercury's orbit, to predicting the bending of starlight by our very own sun. Here is the 1919 photograph offering irrefutable proof that dimensions can bend and move (also attached):

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Eclipse-test-of-relativity.jpg

Mass curves space-time, so as the earth revolves about the sun and moves through space, the earth bends and warps the dimensions as it moves through them, streching dimensions at it passes through them, and releasing its grip on the dimensions as it sails on by. Ergo dimensions move.

To deny that dimensions move would be to deny Einstein's Relativity which stands forth as one of the greatest and most revolutionary achievements in physics of all time.

It is interesting that Einstein introduced relativity as a principle--as a primary law not deduced from anything else.

Well, I guess I was dumb enough to even ask, "why relativity?"

And I found the answer in a more fundamental invariance--the fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions, or dx4/dt = ic. Change is fundamentally embedded in space-time. And not only can all of relativity be derived from this, but suddenly we have a *physical* model for entropy, time and its arrows and assymetries in all realms, free will, and quantum nonlocality and entanglement. MDT accounts for the the constant speed of light c--both its independence of the source and its independence of the velocity of the observer, while establishing it as the fastest, slowest, and *only* velocity for all entities and objects moving through space-time, as well as the maximum velocity that anything is measured to move. And suddenly we see a *physical* basis for E=mc^2. Energy and mass are the same thing--it's just that energy is mass caught upon the fourth expanding dimension, and thus it surfs along at "c."

On page 37 of "Einstein's Mistakes, The Failings of Human Genius," by Hans Ochanian, we read,

"Einstein acknowledged hid debt to Newton and to Maxwell, but he was not fully aware of the extent of Galileo's fatherhood. In an introduction he wrote for Galileo's celebrated Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, he faults Galileo for failing to produce a general mathematical proof. Galileo regarded relativity as an empirical, observational fact, that is, a law of nature, and Einstein's own formulation of the Principle of Relativity three hundred years later imitated Galileo's in treating this principle as a law of nature and not as a mathematical deduction from anything else."

Well, MDT provides a more fundamental law with an equation: dx4/dt = ic, from which relativity is derived in my paper. And an added benefit are all the other entities dx4/dt=ic accounts for with a *physical* model, from entropy, to qm's entanglement and nonlocality, to time and all its arrows.

At last, we have been liberated from the block universe and frozen time, as well as frozen progress in theoretical physics!

Thanks Doug, and Happy Halloween!

Tonight I will be dressing up as a cowboy physicist in honor of Bohr and Gamow--please find the photo attached.

Definitely get your hands on: http://www.amazon.com/Gravitation-Physics-Charles-W-Misner/dp/0716703440/

http://www.amazon.com/Journey-Gravity-Spacetime-Scientific-American/dp/0716760347/ (I highly recommend this book Doug! It is writen for laymen and a more general audience & too, my name is in the acknowledgements--the only time I have ever shared a paragraph with Einstein--haha)

Dr. E (The Real McCoy)Attachment #1: comicon_433.87454.jpgAttachment #2: 774pxEclipsetestofrelativity.jpg

  • [deleted]

Dr. E,

Thanks for the response, recommendations and pictures. I hope you had a happy Halloween.

There seems to be a miscommunication on this point of the moving dimension. Einstein clearly identifies x4 with the time dimension. Time changes in every reference frame in such a way that the constant c is invariable in each. However, in your theory you have five dimensions, three of space, one of time and one of something else called the "moving dimension."

What I don't understand is what this fifth dimension is, and as I pointed out last time, dimension is an adjective, a property of something else, not a thing in itself. Your response does not address this question. Referring me to Einstein is not helpful, since his theory is four-dimensional, not five-dimensional. So, when I read Einstein, his reference to the fourth dimension, as a means to make Minkowski spacetime Euclidean space-like, makes sense, but it is no help whatsoever in understanding your mysterious fifth dimension.

I can understand the expansion of time relative to the three spatial dimensions, or (dx1, dx2, dx3)/dx4, which then leads to the set of spacetime points, any one of which may be specified by x1, x2, x3, x4, subsequently. But, truly, I am confused with the attempt to attach any significance to the equation x4/dx4, which is what x4/dt amounts to, and the confusion doesn't come from what Einstein invented, but from what you have invented.

I appreciate your enthusiasm and understand your frustration, but I cannot yet explain your concept of the fifth dimension.

Peace,

Doug

  • [deleted]

Thanks for the comment Doug,

Doug, Have you read Einstein's 1912 Paper? You say, "So, when I read Einstein, his reference to the fourth dimension, as a means to make Minkowski spacetime Euclidean space-like, makes sense. . . " Can you please cite Einstein's exact words that you read? Thanks!

No--Moving Dimensions Theory does not suppose five dimensions. No, no, no. Only four. MDT simply states that given a 4D universe with x1, x2, x3, and x4, wherein x4 is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions at c, given by dx4/dt = ic, all of relativity will emerge, along with time and all its arrows and assymetries in all realms; quantum entanglement, nonlocality, and probability; the universe's expansion; entropy; and Huygens' principle in all realms. Change itself is finally embedded in spacetime! Change itself is artfully woven into the fundamental fabric of spacetime, where it needs to be!

Let me try to explain it this way, Doug:

Consider a photon emitted from a source. Quantum mechanics describes the photon's propagation as a spherically-symmetric wavefront of probability expanding at c.

Relativity tells us that the photon does not age--it stays at the exact same place in the fourth dimension.

Ergo the fourth dimension is nonlocal--it is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions at c. Ergo the spherically-symmetric wavefront of probability expanding at c, which describes the photon's propagation, yet represents a locality in the fourth dimension.

This logic fits perfectly with Einstein's 1912 paper, where he wrote x4 = ict, or dx4/dt = ic. As you can see, the fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions at the rate of c.

Now, in light of this (no pun intended), is it no wonder that two intially-interacting photons remain entangled? For even though they propagate in opposite directions, they yet remain ageless, and in the same place in the fourth expanding dimension!

And too, the photons remain in the same place in time, although time is an emergent parameter, that we can measure on watches and clocks, that arises because the fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions, carrying matter in the fourth dimension at c, which manifests itself as photons. Hence you can see why E=mc^2--energy is but matter caught upon the fourth expanding dimension.

Doug, Have you read Einstein's 1912 Paper? You say, "So, when I read Einstein, his reference to the fourth dimension, as a means to make Minkowski spacetime Euclidean space-like, makes sense. . . " Can you please cite Einstein's exact words that you read? Thanks!

Would love to see the exact words cited! Thanks! For unless I miss my guess, it seems you are reading someone who has read Einstein, but not Einsetin himself.

Please provide the exact words you read. Thanks for providing a reference to Einstein's exact words, along with the source/book/paper!

In his 1912 Manuscript on Relativity, Einstein never stated that time is the fourth dimension, but rather he wrote x4 = ict. The fourth dimension is not time, but ict. Despite this, prominent physicists have oft equated time and the fourth dimension, leading to un-resolvable paradoxes and confusion regarding time's physical nature, as physicists mistakenly projected properties of the three spatial dimensions onto a time dimension, resulting in curious concepts including frozen time and block universes in which the past and future are omni-present, thusly denying free will, while implying the possibility of time travel into the past, which visitors from the future have yet to verify.

You write, "What I don't understand is what this fifth dimension is, and as I pointed out last time, dimension is an adjective, a property of something else, not a thing in itself." No Doug--"dimension" is not an adjective. Dimensions are real. Why do you keep rejecting Einstein's General Relativity wherein he shows just how real dimensions are? Dimensions bend. They curve. Dimensions *move*. It is simply amazing to me how many people--including modern physicists with Ph.D.'s--ignore General Relativity, which is, in fact, built upon moving dimensions. And of course special relativity is but a special case of general relativity, so it is quite amazing how many Ph.D.'s are trained to ignore Einsetin's relativity and quantum mechanics (trained to ignore foundational questions and foundational papers such as Einstein's 1912 Manuscript on Relativity), so as to become useful idiots and anonymous snarkers working for groupthink regimes that raise vast amounts of capital for the antitheory/money masters at the top, who oft attempt to dictate curiosity. But as Wheeler always said, "No question, no answer!" And every, every, every single physicist who has ever advanced physics answered their own curiosity--not some random funders'. No wonder there has been no progress in theoretical physics for the past thirty years!

As you probably know, General Relativity has passed experimental test, after test, after test, from explaining the anomaly in Mercury's orbit, to predicting the bending of starlight by our very own sun. Here is the 1919 photograph offering irrefutable proof that dimensions can bend and move:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Eclipse-test-of-relativity.jpg

Please do not ignore this experimental evidence and all of Einstein's hard, grueling work in developing General Relativity, by stating that "dimension" is an adjective. It is rather insulting, when you think about it, to Einstein. GR demonstrates irrefutably that dimensions are capabale of motion and that dimensions move.

If you really, really believe that "dimension is an adjective," I would encourage you to free your mind by reading about General Relativity, starting with Einstein's The Meaning of Relativity and progressing to:

http://www.amazon.com/Gravitation-Physics-Charles-W-Misner/dp/0716703440/

http://www.amazon.com/Journey-Gravity-Spacetime-Scientific-American/dp/0716760347/ (I highly recommend this book Doug! It is writen for laymen and a more general audience & too, my name is in the acknowledgements--the only time I have ever shared a paragraph with Einstein--haha)

MDT supposes four dimensions, wherein the fourth dimension is expanding at c relative to the three spatial dimensions, given by dx4/dt = ic.

MDT simply states that given a 4D universe with x1, x2, x3, and x4, wherein x4 is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions at c, given by dx4/dt = ic, all of relativity will emerge, and all of relativity from this in my paper.

The time axis in space-time diagrams is a human construct. Hundreds of physicists/science-fiction writers write a lot about the "time axis" in their pop-sci books, but you need to keep in mind that the time axis is a human construct, and that we do not live in a block universe wherein time is frozen. Although they go on and on about time travel and time as a fourth dimension, they never match word and deed, like the ancient Greeks said we must if we are to retain our Honor, and they never travel back in time, nor come up with any practical machine nor method to take us even one second back, and too, they never see how silly a time dimension is, as it implies frozen time. The block universe is also a human construct, which Godel had problems with, and all these problems have been swept under the rug by modern (postmodern) physicists, who have frozen both time and progress in theoretical physics, so as to keep their perpetual-motion money machines pumping away so as to fund groupthink regimes built upon meaningless maths and pop-sci books which are killing the true spirit of science and culture. What is needed are brave new heroes who exalt truth and logic over mere money--and over the titles and tenure mere money buys.

Also, Einsetin never said that time is the fourth dimension in his 1912 paper, but rather he wrote x4=ict, and t and ict are very different things. It is amazing how many physicists have thrown away the ic in front of the t, and gotten tenure while conceiving of time machines they never build, and wormholes they never see, not to mention multiverses and parrallel universes and tiny little vibrating strings in their block universe (which also bounces) wherein funding is an established part of the future which has already happened for the groupthink elite, but you get the point. All the pop-sci books and texts always have those pictures of light cones, which they use to bludgeon curiosity, but what they forget is that photons do not travel in straight lines, but rather quantum mechanics tells us that photons travel as expanding spherical wavefronts of probality in our 3D. And in doing so, photons maintain a locality in the fourth expanding dimension, while propagating through the three spatial dimensions at c.

Those who argue with MDT's postulate that the fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions are actually arguing with the ageless photon--the fastest known physical entity, which yet remains stationary in the fourth dimension. And yet, the photons keep right on travleing at c--billions upon billions upon billions of them--every second, as they surf the fourth expanding dimension, while yet retaining a locality in time and the fourth expanding dimension. I would not be surprised if photons start protesting all the tenured elite who are trying to freeze them and emprison them in their block universe via groutpthink and centralized-control of curiosity, wherein time and progress in theoretical physics must remain frozen, so as to keep the cash flowing towards communal regimes and anti-theories.

Science is more of an art than a science, and it always seems to advance in manners never before anticipated by the establishment, as Planck stated. One cannot legislate, nor vote on, nor dictate the advancement of science by fiat. "One cannot pray a lie," as Mark Twain once said.

"New scientific ideas never spring from a communal body, however organized, but rather from the head of an individually inspired researcher who struggles with his problems in lonely thought and unites all his thought on one single point which is his whole world for the moment." --Max Planck

And again we see the primacy of the honest individual in the classic, epic hero's journey!

"A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man." --Joseph Campbell

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth

And the Nobel Laureate eocnomist F.A. Hayek agrees!

"The tragedy of collectivist thought is that, while it starts out to make reason supreme, it ends by destroying reason because it misconceives the process on which the growth of reason depends. It may indeed be said that it is the paradox of all collectivist doctrine and its demands for "conscious" control or "conscious" planning that they necessarily lead to the demand that the mind of some individual should rule supreme--while only the individualist approach to social phenomena makes us recognize the superindividual forces which guide the growth of reason. Individualism is thus an attitude of humility before this social process and of tolerance to other opinions and is the exact opposite of that intellectual hubris which is at the root of the demand for comprehensive direction of social purpose." -F.A. Hayek, The End of Truth, The Road to Serfdom

Doug--with our newfound freewill provided by MDT, which liberates us from the block universe while llowing us to keep all of relativity, we can become those things we seek!

Now of course we can forgive Einstein for not noting all this in his 1912 paper, as he never quite accepted quantum mechanics' reality, but for all those of us who passed undergrad and grad quantum, and for all of us who use computers which were built upon nonlocality's reality and wave/particle duality--it is time for all of us to admit that the fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions at the rate of c, and that this fundamental universal invariant gives rise to the time we measure on our watches, which we we also enjoy designating as an axis in diagrams when writing coffee-table physics books that have frozen time so as to write chapter after chapter about time travel.

My paper states that time is not the fourth dimension, but rather it is a parameter that emerges because the fourth dimension is exapnding at c relative to the three spatial dimensions--my paper states thus in the opening sentences/abstract, as well as throughout:

"In his 1912 Manuscript on Relativity, Einstein never stated that time is the fourth dimension, but rather he wrote x4 = ict. The fourth dimension is not time, but ict. Despite this, prominent physicists have oft equated time and the fourth dimension, leading to un-resolvable paradoxes and confusion regarding time's physical nature, as physicists mistakenly projected properties of the three spatial dimensions onto a time dimension, resulting in curious concepts including frozen time and block universes in which the past and future are omni-present, thusly denying free will, while implying the possibility of time travel into the past, which visitors from the future have yet to verify. Beginning with the postulate that time is an emergent phenomenon resulting from a fourth dimension expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions at the rate of c, diverse phenomena from relativity, quantum mechanics, and statistical mechanics are accounted for. Time dilation, the equivalence of mass and energy, nonlocality, wave-particle duality, and entropy are shown to arise from a common, deeper physical reality expressed with dx4/dt=ic. This postulate and equation, from which Einstein's relativity is derived, presents a fundamental model accounting for the emergence of time, the constant velocity of light, the fact that the maximum velocity is c, and the fact that c is independent of the velocity of the source, as photons are but matter surfing a fourth expanding dimension. In general relativity, Einstein showed that the dimensions themselves could bend, curve, and move. The present theory extends this principle, postulating that the fourth dimension is moving independently of the three spatial dimensions, distributing locality and fathering time. This physical model underlies and accounts for time in quantum mechanics, relativity, and statistical mechanics, as well as entropy, the universe's expansion, and time's arrows."

--http://fqxi.org/community/forum/topic/238

And yet it--the fourth dimension--moves!

E pur si muove!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_pur_si_muove

Best,

Dr. E (The Real McCoy)

P.S. Poets from thousands of years ago had a far better grasp on time than modern physicists who want to freeze us in a block universe and command us all to forget time, and space, and physics.

Thousands of years from now, who do you think will be remebered by time? Those who honor it, or those who forget it?

Age carries all things away, even the mind.

Virgil

Age steals away all things, even the mind.

Virgil

All our sweetest hours fly fastest.

Virgil

All things deteriorate in time.

Virgil

But meanwhile time flies; it flies never to be regained.

Virgil

Endure the present, and watch for better things.

Virgil

Time flies never to be recalled.

Virgil

Time is flying never to return.

Virgil

Time passes irrevocably.

Virgil

Too, too many physicists grow up never reading the Epic Poets and Prophets, and thus they lack that heroic honor which is the soul of science--that drive to exalt Truth over Travesty, and significance over semblance.

Best, Dr. E (The Real McCoy)

  • [deleted]

Dr E,

You wrote:

"Doug, Have you read Einstein's 1912 Paper? You say, "So, when I read Einstein, his reference to the fourth dimension, as a means to make Minkowski spacetime Euclidean space-like, makes sense. . . " Can you please cite Einstein's exact words that you read? Thanks!

Would love to see the exact words cited! Thanks! For unless I miss my guess, it seems you are reading someone who has read Einstein, but not Einsetin himself.

Please provide the exact words you read. Thanks for providing a reference to Einstein's exact words, along with the source/book/paper!"

Yes, I have read the 1912 paper. His exact words are from Chapter 26 of his book Relativity:

"...if we choose as time-variable the imaginary variable (-1)^1/2 ct, instead of the real quantity t, we can regard we can regard the spacetime continuum...as a 'Euclidean' four-dimensional continuum..."

But this is explained more fully in Appendix 2:

"WE can characterise the Lorentz transformation still more simply if we introduce the imaginary ct in place of t, as time-variable. If, in accordance with this, we insert and similarly for the accented system K', then the condition which is identically satisfied by the transformation can be expressed thus: 1

That is, by the afore-mentioned choice of "co-ordinates" (11a) is transformed into this equation. 2

We see from (12) that the imaginary time co-ordinate x4 enters into the condition of transformation in exactly the same way as the space co-ordinates x1, x2, x3. It is due to this fact that, according to the theory of relativity, the "time" x4 enters into natural laws in the same form as the space co-ordinates x1, x2, x3. 3

A four-dimensional continuum described by the "co-ordinates" x1, x2, x3, x4, was called "world" by Minkowski, who also termed a point-event a "world-point." From a "happening" in three-dimensional space, physics becomes, as it were, an "existence" in the four-dimensional "world." 4

This four-dimensional "world" bears a close similarity to the three-dimensional "space" of (Euclidean) analytical geometry. If we introduce into the latter a new Cartesian co-ordinate system (x'1, x'2, x'3) with the same origin, then x'1, x'2, x'3, are linear homogeneous functions of x1, x2, x3, which identically satisfy the equation The analogy with (12) is a complete one. We can regard Minkowski's "world" in a formal manner as a four-dimensional Euclidean space (with imaginary time co-ordinate); the Lorentz transformation corresponds to a "rotation" of the co-ordinate system in the four-dimensional 'world.'"You wrote:"No--Moving Dimensions Theory does not suppose five dimensions. No, no, no. Only four. MDT simply states that given a 4D universe with x1, x2, x3, and x4, wherein x4 is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions at c, given by dx4/dt = ic, all of relativity will emerge, along with time and all its arrows and assymetries in all realms; quantum entanglement, nonlocality, and probability; the universe's expansion; entropy; and Huygens' principle in all realms. Change itself is finally embedded in spacetime! Change itself is artfully woven into the fundamental fabric of spacetime, where it needs to be!"Then, since three of the four dimensions are space dimensions, the fourth dimension must be time, or the imaginary square root of -1 times ct, with which Einstein replaced the real time variable. Otherwise, ict is the fourth dimension and time is the fifth dimension. We can't have it both ways, it seems to me. Either there are four dimensions, with real time being the fourth, or, optionally, with imaginary square root of i times ct replacing it, or there are five dimensions, with the fourth being the imaginary square root of i times ct, and the fifth being real time.To tell you the truth, it seems to me that you are the one who is misunderstanding Einstein, not the rest of the world. But then Einstein wasn't God either, so we don't have to throw our own brains out the window when it comes to thinking about these things. For instance, what does the word dimension mean with respect to ordinary space? The three spatial dimensions are a means for identifying any location in a volume of space. As such, these orthogonal references serve as independent specifications, the minimum required to specify a location in space. To say they move is nonsensical. It's a classical case of a position that is so ill-conceived, it's not even wrong in the sense that it is outside the realm of arguables.Having said that, I think there could be a lot of merit to your work, if you would recognize that was is expanding (increasing) relative to the three space dimensions is time, the imaginary square root of -1 times ct notwithstanding. When you write:"MDT supposes four dimensions, wherein the fourth dimension is expanding at c relative to the three spatial dimensions, given by dx4/dt = ic."you are saying that the "fourth dimension," which Einstein clearly identifies above as a substitute for time, has a velocity, as if it were an expanding object and that its velocity is the square root of - 1 times 299,792,458 meters per second.

With all due respect Elliot, I have to ask, "Do you hear yourself?"

  • [deleted]

Gosh, this editor sucks.

I should have just provided a link to the appendix:

http://www.bartleby.com/173/a2.html

Also, I meant "the square root of -1" not "the square root of i," in the above text.

Sure wish FQXI would provide a preview capability for this forum editor.

  • [deleted]

Hello Doug,

I think I have found a source of your confusion--above you write,

"The three spatial dimensions are a means for identifying any location in a volume of space. As such, these orthogonal references serve as independent specifications, the minimum required to specify a location in space. To say they move is nonsensical."

But what happens when a gravitational mass moves though the above volume of space, or comes clsoe to it? The dimensions themselves stretch and move!

Here is an awesome video, starring David Duchovney playing Brian Greene, in which you can see the dimensions moving!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rocNtnD-yI

Start it at 6:15. When the sun is introduced onto the spacetime at approx 6:22, watch the dimensions move! This is produced by Columbia University, NSF, and one of the world's leading string theorists! Surely they would not mislead us about moving dimensions!

Then watch the Harvard physicist talk, and at around 6:35, you can see that as the earth moves through spacetime, it stretches the dimensions! Ergo dimensions can move!

Then, my favorite part--at 7:20 David Duchovney makes the sun dissapear! And how the dimensions move and then some! Look at the dimensions bending, warping, and moving!

And then, at about 0:36 into this next video, watch the dimensions themselves bend and move as the masses move through them!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxwjeg_r5Ug&feature=related

And if ths sun ceased to exist, watch what would happen to the dimensions--they would warp, bend, and move!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T884m5_QzWM&feature=related

And check out the movement of the dimensions around two oribiting stars!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUyrPDmh4rI&feature=related

As you might know, Joseph Taylor won the Nobel Prize for observing such orbiting stars and finding more experimental evidence supporting the fact that dimensions can bend, warp, and move! I had Taylor for experimental physics at Princeton, but did not know that his middle name is Hooton:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Hooton_Taylor_Jr.

"Taylor has used this first binary pulsar to make high-precision tests of general relativity. Working with his colleague Joel Weisberg, Taylor has used observations of this pulsar to demonstrated the existence of gravitational radiation in the amount and with the properties first predicted by Albert Einstein. He and Hulse shared the Nobel Prize for the discovery of this object."

Again, this is kindof boring after all the cool animations above with David Duchovney, but you can see how the earth would curve spacetime--how it would make the dimensions curve and move, as it revolved about the sun, tramping through spacetime.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacetime

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Eclipse-test-of-relativity.jpg

Please do not ignore this experimental evidence and all of Einstein's hard, grueling work in developing General Relativity, by stating that "dimensions" cannot bend, warp, and move. It is rather insulting, when you think about it, to Einstein. GR demonstrates irrefutably that dimensions are capabale of motion and that dimensions move.

If you really, really believe that "dimension is an adjective," I would encourage you to free your mind by reading about General Relativity, starting with Einstein's The Meaning of Relativity and progressing to:

http://www.amazon.com/Gravitation-Physics-Charles-W-Misner/dp/0716703440/

http://www.amazon.com/Journey-Gravity-Spacetime-Scientific-American/dp/0716760347/ (I highly recommend this book Doug! It is writen for laymen and a more general audience & too, my name is in the acknowledgements--the only time I have ever shared a paragraph with Einstein--haha)

Best,

Dr. E :)

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P.S. Surely it is now obvious, that after accepting the reality of Einstein's General Relativity, nobody can deny that dimensions can bend and move.

Best,

Dr. E (The Real McCoy)