Essay Abstract

Relativity is mainly based on the principle of the constancy and invariance of the speed of light. Although this has been proved experimentally, there is yet no philosophical explanation why this speed can never be surpassed. This article introduces the concept of the duality of time, based on the Re-creation Principle of the Single Monad Model that was first introduced in 2005. This model reduces "matter" and "space" into "time" by explaining how the physical multiplicity is perpetually being constructed by a metaphysical monad which is spreading chronologically over the inner dimensions of space, and then extending over the outer dimension of time to create the dynamic universe. This innovative concept, which has an intrinsic arrow of time, will solve the problem of entropy and explain causality and nonlocality and why the speed of light is the maximum cosmological speed limit. It will be shown that each metaphysical point is continuously and sequentially blinking between rest and light speed, which makes the cosmos literally like a digital machine where the physical properties of particles, such as mass and energy, result from averaging these fluctuations that occur in the inner metaphysical level of time and then evolve over the outer physical level.

Author Bio

A writer and researcher in philosophy, physics and cosmology. He studied physics in the University of Aleppo, then he got the Master's degree in Microelectronic Engineering and Semiconductor Physics from the University of Cambridge in the UK in 1992. After a period of work in the field of teaching, he studied Islamic philosophy, where he received a PhD from the University of Exeter in 2005. He published many books including: Ibn Arabi - Time and Cosmology, and The Single Monad Model of the Cosmos. He is currently working in UAE University.

Download Essay PDF File

I would like to thank FQXI for publishing this article.

I would like also to thank the readers for taking the time to read it, and I welcome any comment or criticism.

For more information about the Single Monad Model: http://www.smonad.com

For more information about Ibn Arabi: http://www.ibnalarabi.com

For more information about the author: http://www.mhajyousef.ibnalarabi.com

    Dear Dr. Yousef,

    Please excuse me for I do not wish to be too critical of your fine posted comments.

    Only nature could produce a reality so simple, a single cell amoeba could deal with it.

    One real visible Universe must have only one reality. Simple natural reality has nothing to do with any abstract complex musings about the supposed constant speed of light.

    The real Universe must consist only of one unified visible infinite physical surface occurring in one infinite dimension, that am always illuminated by infinite non-surface light.

    A more detailed explanation of natural reality can be found in my essay, SCORE ONE FOR SIMPLICITY. I do hope that you will read my essay and comment on its merit.

    Joe Fisher, Realist

    Thank you dear realist Joe Fisher... I like serious critical comments, they are more useful, but I am not sure if you really read my article carefully because you seem to have posted the same comments to other articles as well.

    Anyway, in general your conclusion is really correct: the reality of nature is so simple that a single cell amoeba could deal with it. Thus, nothing is more simple than a Single Monad, being a massless and dimensionless metaphysical essence from which all the multiplicity in nature is continuously emerging and spreading over the dimensions of space and time.

    The complex physical particles and objects as well as all living creation are all the multiplication of this single entity, or its spatial and temporal images. This innovative concept is actually attributed to Enoch and it is rooted deep in the history of Sumerians and Babylonians and it has been inherited by the Greeks, namely: Parmenides, and then later transferred to many other philosophers and sages, though it had been widely misinterpreted. My role was only to analyze it and compare it with the recent experimental results and test it against the main problems in physics and cosmology. As far as I can see, it can solve and even eliminate many of the major problems, such as the problem of entropy and the arrow of time, dark matter and dark energy, and even the cosmological constant problem, to mention just a few.

    Dear Mr. Yousef,

    You are a philosopher, with extraordinary observations in your work. Surprise me that you do not have the references of Leibnitz and Bošković. By reading you and Ibn Arab once again I see that I was right that I noted in my essay:

    "All I would say has already been told countless times and all my attempts at philosophy would thus be a repetition of what had already been stated."

    So I read what Ibn Arab speaks of Circular Time and Cyclical Time ...

    Since I got better at math I am also expressed mathematically by introducing the concept of Time Cycle for 13.7 billion years (instead of the age of the Universe).

    Do you agree with the position Ruder Boskovic "Now, although I do not hold with infinite divisibility, yet I do admit infinite componibility".

    And with my atitude: "mass and space of the universe and any other phenomenon is finite but the number of their combination is infinite and Universe is eternal."

    I thought there are not velocity v=0, but you are precise:

    „Therefore, the universe is always coming to be in "zero time", and its points are sequentially fluctuating between existence and nonexistence, which means that the actual instantaneous speed

    of each metaphysical point in space can only change from v=0 to v=c., and vice versa.

    So it is v=0 for metaphysical point and v=/=0 for material objects. Very nice.

    Best Regards,

    Branko Zivlak

      Thank you dear Branko for the kind comments.

      Originally my paper is about 30 pages, so I had to delete many sections and cut others in order to make it fit the FQXI contest rules. That is why I removed the historical introduction which included references to the works of philosophers. In fact I held the view that although Newton's laws and theory of gravity lead to great industrial applications, but Leibniz monodology would have lead to quantum mechanics, and even quantum gravity, much earlier had it been given equal consideration. In some of the sections that I had to delete, I proved that monodology is the only way to explain E=mc^2 mathematically and philosophically, because it is based on discrete motion from zero to the speed of light (see E=mc^2).

      To answer some of your other profound questions:

      Yes I also believe that the cosmos is finite in all aspects, so there is no infinity or singularity, but the possibilities are infinite. So infinity may only be realized with the eternal flow of time, because the infinite possibilities may not exist at once or in finite time.

      With longer discussion we can argue that the future is the vacuum with infinite possibilities that can be excited to the present, the present is energy or vibrations always moving at the speed of light, and the past is void with infinite mass that may never be excited again to the present. The limited energy and masses of particles and objects that we normally encounter are relative temporal excitations from the vacuum that are always collapsing again to the become void, though their apparent continuous presence is a result of them causing new excitations that appear very similar to them because of the conservation of energy, just like when we make a tone on a string: the first vibration ceases instantly but it causes a new vibration that takes the same form until it decay due external causes.

      Therefore, you are absolutely right by saying that in practice there is no zero velocity, since there is always some motion. But also you should add that there is also no full speed of light, because it is always returning back to void by absorption for example, and that is why the speed of light in vacuum is 299792458 m/s, while I postulate that its full speed in absolute vacuum, or void, is exactly 300000000 m/s, because of the three dimensions of space to one dimension of time (I know you will say the meter and second are conventional, but this is a long argument).

      So in in the ultimate metaphysical reality everything is instantly fluctuating between real rest and the real full speed of light, but in the measurable physical world neither limits are fully realized.

      With my best Regards

      Note: the difference between vacuum and void is that vacuum is an empty "space" which can be excited into virtual particles, which is also known as quantum foam, but void is absolute "nothing".

      • [deleted]

      • Post #9

      Dear Dr. Yousef,

      I have read all but five of the essays that have been published so far and they all contain abstract musings about some sort of ficticious invisible complicated codswallop that has nothing to do with the real simple observable Universe that exists. I keep posting the same comment in the futile hope that my fellow essayist will at least look at my essay and comment on it. The real VISIBLE Universe has nothing to do with any invisible monads.

      Good luck in the competition,

      Joe Fisher, Realist

      "Consequently, there is no gradual motion in the common sense that the object leaves its place to occupy new adjacent places, but it is successively re-created in those new places, i.e. motion occurs

      as a result of change and not transmutation, so the observed objects are always at rest in the different positions that they appear in. "

      This is the old idea of Descartes, "continuous recreation of the world by an immutable God." that led to the Occassionalism doctrine.

      It was described in my 2011 essay "A Functional Virtual Reality"

      http://fqxi.org/community/forum/topic/846

      It is interesting that your essay never mentioned Descartes or even Leibniz who firts talked about Monads.

      Note that recreation is not necessary to solve Zeno's paradoxes. The block universe of Einstein resolved the paradoxes at the expense of free will.

        Dear Joe;

        Eventually the interested readers will read all the essays and it will be up to them to write the comments that reflect their opinions. I don't think pushing them to that is ever useful.

        I also wish you good luck in the competition.

        Dear Efthimios Harokopos;

        Leibniz is not the fist philosopher to talk about monads, and the main idea here is the Single Monad, not the monads in general. Moreover, this essay is dedicated to study some of the consequences of the Single Monad Model which have been explained in other publications as referenced in this essay. I have discussed the various philosophical views and the history of monadology in chapter six of my book (The Single Monad Model of the Cosmos).

        Best Regards

        Also I would like to mention that, just like the theory of monads, the doctrine of "continuous recreation" is not idea of Descartes, as he himself acknowledged. On the other hand, although the Single Monad Model view the cosmos as discrete instances in space, and therefore motion is only a change rather than transmutation, yet each subsequent instance is connected to the previous like the connection between a cause and effect, and that is because of the laws of conservation of energy and momentum. Therefore, this is different from the Occassionalism doctrine.

        I thank you Harry for your important note.

        If all physical matter and space are manipulated on the deeper metaphysical level, this means that everything is predestined. The article clearly shows that despite all the apparent motion of particles and objects, effectively everything is at rest at every instance of the actual flow of time. Therefore, because of this zero instantaneous velocity all motions instantly amounts to zero, but the changes occur as a result or re-creation. This means that the cosmos is programmed to run in the way it is running, and we are like actors simply following one manuscript, each performing his or her own role with his own goals, but leading to the final total destination.

        We can compare the cosmos to a movie or even a game that is displayed on a computer monitor, but the manuscript is manipulated inside the vertical hierarchy of this cosmic computer structure. This was already nicely demonstrated in the Allegory of the Cave in the Republic of Plato. Therefore, all the images and shapes that are displayed on the screen are pure simulation.

        If everything is predestined, what is then the role of the players and how could they become responsible for their actions!

        Well Muder this is really a very tricky question, and I am no sure if my answer will be convincing, but I will try to answer in the form of a narration I have read in this respect about (maybe hypothetical) encounter on the judgement day between God and Lucifer who asked this question: "How come you punish me for something which you have preordained on me!" Then God answer: "When did you know that it was preordained? Before or after!", Satan said: "After!" So although everything is destined to be in the way is going to be, but everyone works only according to his/her own will, because at the time they don't know what was destined to be before it is.

        Nature gives us certain limited choices and we choose to do one way or the other or even not to do, all under our own will, which what makes us responsible.

        I hope this answer is convincing, but the issue is more complicated and it may lead way beyond the theme and beyond the laws of physics.

        Thank you Dr. Yousef for answering my question. This distinction between before and after males the issue of free will and choice clear.

        Dear Dr. Yousef;

        You mention in the abstract: "This innovative concept, which has an intrinsic arrow of time, will solve the problem of entropy and explain causality and non-locality and why the speed of light is the maximum cosmological speed limit". After reading the article, I can now understand why the speed of light is constant and invariant and how non-local quantum interactions could happen without breaking the light speed limit; which I think is a great achievement.

        However, I don't know how can you explain causality, since it is itself a fundamental principle in physics and philosophy! I think that a principle can only be explained based on a deeper principle.

          • [deleted]

          • Post #20

          Indeed it is all the reason of continuous recreation that leads to all these astounding results, an even much more than what is mentioned in the abstract or even this short essay.

          So because of the fact that the recreation takes time (the inner level of time) we have a maximum cosmological speed that can never be exceeded. And because of the resulting granular structure of space-time, we have discrete change and not continuous transmutation, which explains nonlocality without breaking this speed limit. Yet also in the same way now causality is a result of the conservation of energy between the consecutive discrete frames of space so that any perturbation in one frame will require synchronization in the following frames until the specific energy is dissipated into other points of space which may also not be directly connected through space or time, but by quantum entanglement.

          Furthermore, we now don't need any inflation to explain why the cosmos is homogeneous or why its density is flat, because it is created instantaneously from the same single source, as if we have instantaneous (or eternal) inflation, which will also explain why we don't observe the magnetic monopole.

          The cosmological constant problem can also be eliminated, simply because the ground state energy is the result of one single particle and not the sum of all particles because they are created in chronological sequence in the inner level of time.

          I have tested this concept of the duality of time against all major problems in physics and cosmology, and, as far as I can clearly see, it solves them all!