Hello Doug,
I am not "physics nick," although I appreciate the support!
I love the theoretical physics community--Einsetin, Wheeler, Bohr, Dirac, Fermi, Feyman, Born, Heisenberg, Maxwell, Faraday. I love reading their original papers and marveling at their eloquent use of language, which is used to make clear and elucidate eternal equations, while you use it to confound the simple and obscure beauty! Doug--do you have a physics degree? It doesn't seem so. Other than John Baez, who hasn't really ever advanced physics, have you read foundational papers of *real* physicists?
You write, ""Focuses" is the key word here. Obsesses is another word that comes to mind. The essay is supposed to be on "the nature of time," but his essay has nothing to say about time other than to substitute x4 = ict for it. He asserts that "time is an emergent phenomenon resulting from a fourth dimension expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions at the rate of c," and states that this constitutes a postulate.""
YES! My essay is *ALL ABOUT* the *VERY NATURE OF TIME!*
Time is not the fourth dimension, but rather it is a parameter that emerges because the fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions.
My essay provides a *physical* mechanism accounting for time and all its arrows and assymetries across all realms!!:
The fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions at the rate of c, as a wavefront with wavelength of the Planck length.
The MDT essay states, "The time on a watch or clock, whether linked to an oscillating circuit, quartz crystal, or unwinding copper spring, is based on changes in energy, which is based on the emission and propagation of photons. Photons surf the fourth expanding dimension, and thus time inherits properties of the fourth dimension, but time is not the fourth dimension. Past, present, and future are but states contained in our mind--past is what we remember--order stored in our brains. The present is physical change that creates the order in our brain. The future is but in our imaginations--changes we can potentially effect which will be recorded in the order of our memories. In relativity we often equate one second of time with 3x108 meters--the distance traveled by a photon in one second. This is because photons are matter surfing the fourth dimension which expands at c." --http://fqxi.org/community/forum/topic/238
How can you dismiss these revolutionary insights, Doug? It is interesting that you defend the absolute failure of string theory and the current "theoreticl physics community," who have never advanced physics, and have actually impeded advancement over the past thirty years via snarky fundraising games, while rejecting the simple elegance and beauty of MDT. This is quite an intellectual feat, you are pulling off, and I imagine that it must require one to have no advanced degree in physics, as that is who the string theory regimes and quantum gravity gangs have resorted to recruiting these days.
"Come support our regime with your handwaving, physicless, degreeless snark, and we will give you a postdoc and tenure as physics dies!"
I stand by my paper, as does Einstein:
"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."
"The primary invariant is c--all matter and/or photons--be it propagating through space or time, or some combination thereof, always move at the rate of c through space-time, and this reality arises because of the deeper physical invariance of a fourth dimension that is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions at the rate of c. To be stationary in the three spatial dimensions means to propagate at the rate of c through the fourth dimension, as a stationary clock ticks away this distance at a maximal rate, as the photons in the unwinding clock's spring travel at c relative to the stationary clock. To be stationary in the fourth dimension means to propagate at the rate of c through the three spatial dimensions, as does the ageless photon. Ergo the fourth dimension is expanding at the rate of c relative to the three spatial dimensions."
Doug--you write, "Consequently, the expanding sphere is simply a measure of the expanding volume of Euclidean space over time, or a three-dimensional, constant, motion. Of course, I don't have any problem with this concept, if it is correctly characterized. It is only the characterization of it as a new, fourth, dimension that moves and replaces time that I have a problem with. Not only is there is no need to introduce this confusion into the theoretical picture, it actually makes it impossible to treat it seriously, in my opinion."
No. No. No. No. The spacetime of General Relativity--of which special relativity is a special case of--is non-Euclidean. Your words crack me up as they remind me of the papers produced by one of those random buzzword generators--it's as if you typed in a bunch of Baez's work into one of these random-essay-generating programs, and it spat out your essay.
And MDT does not create confusion! No! It introduces clarity and order while providing a massive unification, all based on a simple *physical* model, marking it as a most unique essay in this conest, as it provides a *physical* mechanism for time and change, based on a hitherto unsung universal invaraint--the fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions.
Postmodern physicists write a lot about the "Time axis" in their papers and coffee-tabel 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. The block universe is also a human construct, which Godel had problems with. 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 wherein funding is an established part of the future which has already happened, but you get the point. All the pop-sci books and texts always have those pictures of light cones, 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, they maintain a locality in the fourth expanding dimension.
Those who argue with MDT's postulate that the fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions are actually arguing with the photon. 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, wherein time and progress in theoretical physics must remain frozen, so as to keep their perpetual-motion funding machines printing cash day and night for thier non-theories and ani-theories.
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.
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 were born 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."
Finally Doug, you write, "Given this is the case, Elliot, your hostility towards the theoretical physics community is also unwarranted. Instead of trying to force-feed your conclusions on all those who disagree with your characterization of x4, using an endless barrage of rhetoric, I recommend that you try to work out your arguments analytically, including your arguments against the assertions of others, as well as those supporting your own conclusions."
DOUG! DOUG! DOUG! PHYSICAL REALITY naturally and logically supports all of MDT's contentions! To keep it short, I will not repeat them here, but please read my paper when you get a chance.
AND DOUG! STOP SHOOTING TRUTH'S MESSENGER!! I have no hostility towards the theoretical physics community, but rather, I am but quoting the Nobel Laureates who have noted the supreme failure of the quantum gravity regimes and string theorists, whose most famous and lasting contribution to physics has been John Baez's crackpot index. We must ask, is Baez's crackpot index really worth billions of taxpayers' dollars, especially when it is used as a tool to kill physics so as to shore up funding for regimes of failure?
I am not speaking out against quantum gravity and string theory, but Baez is! As you will se below.
String Theorists and Quantum Gravitationists generally ban you from quoting Nobel Laureates in physics and talking about physics and physical reality. When you do, they shoot you--the messenger.
They do not like you talking about time, space, and causality, as they insist that such things are not real, while tiny, vibrating strings, ten to forty additional dimensions, and atoms of spacetime and "bouncing" universes *are* real. Basically it's an entire program of replacing physical reality, science, and physics with groupthink, mysticism, tyranny, PR hype, and well-funded, snarky bureaucracies--it's a cash-driven conquest. Today success is considered having one's anti-theory hyped on Fox News, while perhaps signing a book deal before one's fifteen minutes of fame expires--even though their theories state that time does not flow and isn't real. The math never adds up, and even the great John Baez has finally given up, and is jumping off the train after riding it for ten years in the block universe that MDT has freed us from:
http://www.edge.org/q2008/q08_5.html
"Loop quantum gravity was less ambitious than string theory. Instead of a "theory of everything", it only sought to be a theory of something: namely, a theory of quantum gravity.
So, I jumped aboard this train, and for about a decade I was very happy with the progress we were making. A beautiful picture emerged, in which spacetime resembles a random "foam" at very short distance scales, following the laws of quantum mechanics.
We can write down lots of theories of this general sort. However, we have never yet found one for which we can show that General Relativity emerges as a good approximation at large distance scales -- the quantum soap suds approximating a smooth surface when viewed from afar, as it were.
I helped my colleagues Dan Christensen and Greg Egan do a lot of computer simulations to study this problem. Most of our results went completely against what everyone had expected. But worse, the more work we did, the more I realized I didn't know what questions we should be asking! It's hard to know what to compute to check that a quantum foam is doing its best to mimic General Relativity.
Around this time, string theorists took note of loop quantum gravity people and other critics -- in part thanks to Peter Woit's blog, his book Not Even Wrong, and Lee Smolin's book The Trouble with Physics. String theorists weren't used to criticism like this. A kind of "string-loop war" began. There was a lot of pressure for physicists to take sides for one theory or the other. Tempers ran high. . .
I realized I didn't have enough confidence in either theory to engage in these heated debates. I also realized that there were other questions to work on: questions where I could actually tell when I was on the right track, questions where researchers cooperate more and fight less. So, I eventually decided to quit working on quantum gravity.
It was very painful to do this (so painful that Baez created a crackpot index to snark physicists with ad hominem attacks), since quantum gravity had been my holy grail for decades. After you've convinced yourself that some problem is the one you want to spend your life working on, it's hard to change your mind. But when I finally did, it was tremendously liberating."--John Baez: http://www.edge.org/q2008/q08_5.html
Yes--string theory and quantum gravity seem to be on their way out, after thirty years of absorbing hundreds of millions of dollars, with nothing to show for it, but snarky groupthink regimes fighting for their version of unreality, non-theories, quotes on TV shows such as the Big Bang, and mythology.
Now I agree that it is good to fund science, such as the artificial retina I worked on for my dissertation: http://elliotmcgucken.com/dissertation.html (where the first treatment of MDT appeared in the appendix--please find a figure from the dissertation attached)
So it is DOUG, that I am not against the theoretical physics community by any means, as MDT is leading it to a brand new day, in a most heroic, and traditional way. But rather, I am against your snarky handwaving and high-school debating tacticts by which you guys advance your pseudo-science, at the expense of Einstein, Borh, Newton, and physics.
It is not I who oppose your snarky reign of handwaving hype, but the GIANTS OF PHYSICS, and physical reality:
The first page of String Theory in a Nutshell states in a footnoted sentence:
THE CASE FOR STRING THEORY:
String Theory has been the leading candidate over the past two decades for a theory that consistently unifies all the fundamental forces of nature, including gravity. It gained popularity because it provides a theory that is UV finite.(1)
The footnote (1) reads: "Although there is no rigorous proff to all orders that the theory is UV finite, there are several all-orders arguments as well as rigorous results at low-loop-order. In closed string theory, amplitudes must be carefully defined via analytic continuation, standard in S-matrix theory. When open strings are present, there are diveregences. However, they are interpreted as IR divergences (due to the exchange of massless tsates) in the dual closed string channel. They are subtracted in the "Wilsonian" S-matrix elements."
So you see, String Theory is not a finite theory, but this is generally kept to the footnotes, when mentioned at all.
A lot of Nobel Laureates have problems with String Theory:
""WE DON'T know what we are talking about." That was Nobel laureate David Gross at the 23rd Solvay Conference in Physics in Brussels, Belgium, during his concluding remarks on Saturday. He was referring to string theory. . ." --http://www.newscientist.com/channel/fundamentals/mg18825293.700
It is anomalous to replace the four-dimensional continuum by a five-dimensional one and then subsequently to tie up artificially one of those five dimensions in order to account for the fact that it does not manifest itself." -Einstein to Paul Ehrenfest
String theorists don't make predictions, they make excuses. -Richard Feynman, Noble Laureate
String theory is like a 50 year old woman wearing too much lipstick. -Robert Laughlin, Nobel Laureate
Actually, I would not even be prepared to call string theory a "theory" rather a "model" or not even that: just a hunch. After all, a theory should come together with instructions on how to deal with it to identify the things one wishes to describe, in our case the elementary particles, and one should, at least in principle, be able to formulate the rules for calculating the properties of these particles, and how to make new predictions for them. Imagine that I give you a chair, while explaining that the legs are still missing, and that the seat, back and armrest will perhaps be delivered soon; whatever I did give you, can I still call it a chair? -Gerard `t Hooft, Nobel Laureate in String Theory
"It is tragic, but now, we have the string theorists, thousands of them, that also dream of explaining all the features of nature. They just celebrated the 20th anniversary of superstring theory. So when one person spends 30 years, it's a waste, but when thousands waste 20 years in modern day, they celebrate with champagne. I find that curious." -Sheldon Glashow, Nobel Laureate
"I don't like that they're not calculating anything. I don't like that they don't check their ideas. I don't like that for anything that disagrees with a n experiment, they cook up an explanation-a fix-up to say, "Well, it might be true." For example, the theory requires ten dimensions. Well, maybe there's a way of wrapping up six of the dimensions. Yes, that's all possible mathematically, but why not seven? When they write their equation, the equation should decide how many of these things get wrapped up, not the desire to agree with experiment. In other words, there's no reason whatsoever in superstring theory that it isn't eight out of the ten dimensions that get wrapped up and that the result is only two dimensions, which would be completely in disagreement with experience. So the fact that it might disagree with experience is very tenuous, it doesn't produce anything; it has to be excused most of the time. It doesn't look right." -Richard Feynman, Nobel Laureate in Physics
"But superstring physicists have not yet shown that theory really works. They cannot demonstrate that the standard theory is a logical outcome of string theory. They cannot even be sure that their formalism includes a description of such things as protons and electrons. And they have not yet made even one teeny-tiny experimental prediction. Worst of all, superstring theory does not follow as a logical consequence of some appealing set of hypotheses about nature. Why, you may ask, do the string theorists insist space is none-dimensional? Simply because string theory doesn't make sense in any other kind of space." --Sheldon Glashow, Nobel Laureate in Physics
Even String Theory's founder, Michio Kaku, has problems with the theory: "The great irony of string theory, however, is that the theory itself is not unified. To someone learning the theory for the first time, it is often a frustrating collection of folklore, rules of thumb, and intuition. (IN OTHER WORDS IT IS NOT PHYSICS!!!) At times, there seems to be no rhyme or reason for many of the conventions of the model. For a theory that makes the claim of providing a unifying framework for all physical laws, it is the supreme irony that the theory itself appears so disunited!!"
Chapter 1. Path Integrals and Point Particles: Why Strings?
" --"Introduction to Superstrings and M-Theory," page 5. -Michio Kaku
"If Einstein were alive today, he would be horrified at this state of affairs. He would upbraid the profession for allowing this mess to develop and fly into a blind rage over the transformation of his beautiful creations into ideologies and the resulting proliferation of logical inconsistencies. Einstein was an artist and a scholar but above all he was a revolutionary. His approach to physics might be summarized as hypothesizing minimally. Never arguing with experiment, demanding total logical consistency, and mistrusting unsubstantiated beliefs. The unsubstantial belief of his day was ether, or more precisely the naïve version of ether that preceded relativity. The unsubstantiated belief of our day is relativity itself. It would be perfectly in character for him to reexamine the facts, toss them over in his mind, and conclude that his beloved principle of relativity was not fundamental at all but emergent-a collective property of the matter constituting space-time that becomes increasingly exact at long length scales but fails at short ones. This is a different idea from his original one but something fully compatible with it logically, and even more exciting and potentially important. It would mean that the fabric of space-time was not simply the stage on which life played out but an organizational phenomenon, and that there might be something beyond." -A Different Universe, Reinventing Physics From The Bottom Down, Robert B. Laughlin, Winner of the Nobel Prize in physics for his work on the fractional quantum Hall effect.
"[String Theory] has no practical utility, however, other than to sustain the myth of the ultimate theory. There is no experimental evidence for the existence of strings in nature, nor does the special mathematics of string theory enable known experimental behavior to be calculated or predicted more easily. Moreover, the complex spectroscopic properties of space accessible with today's mighty accelerators are accountable in only as "low-energy phenomenology"-a pejorative term for transcendent emergent properties of matter impossible to calculate from first principles. String theory is, in fact, a textbook case of Deceitful Turkey, a beautiful set of ideas that will always remain just barely out of reach. Far from a wonderful technological hope for a greater tomorrow, it is instead the tragic consequence of an obsolete belief system-in which emergence plays no role and dark law does not exist."
-A Different Universe, Reinventing Physics From The Bottom Down, Robert B. Laughlin, Winner of the Nobel Prize in physics for his work on the fractional quantum Hall effect.
MDT delivers an ultimate theory, whereas Loop Quantum Gravity and Sring Theory only sustain a myth of an ultimate theory. And thus we are commanded from on high--from the pinnacles of the ani-theory regimes--to ignore MDT and Nobel Laureates such as Robert Laughlin, F.A. Hayek, Feynman, Einstein, Planck, and others I quote above. Welcome to the dark ages.
All this will be in HERO'S JOURNEY PHYSICS & MOVING DIMENSIONS THEORY: FROM BRUNO, TO GALILEO, TO EINSTEIN--AND YET IT MOVES!
Best,
Dr. E (The Real McCoy)Attachment #1: retina.jpg
