This is not so much a criticism of what Julian Barbour says, but a criticism of science and philosophy in general, in relation to the issues of 1) A purportedly existing Platonic realm, and 2) What is movement?:
- A purportedly existing Platonic realm:
What is “absolute necessity” (08:16)? There is no such abstract, out of this world, Platonically existing thing. There is only something about this world/ universe that causes things to happen. Structure will NOT grow out of “absolute necessity”.
The only thing that can be assumed is that the universe is self-contained and self-sufficient, by definition; by definition, there is nothing outside the universe, i.e. a Platonic realm can't exist. What happens inside the universe must be ascribed to definable aspects of the universe or the definable nature of the universe.
- What is movement (05:58)?:
Also by definition, the universe must in some sense know itself (i.e. know its own particular and unique set of categories, relationships/ equations and numbers), and by definition, the universe must move itself (i.e. move its own numbers).
But when plotted on a graph, the equations, that science has derived from experiment, are likely to give the mistaken impression that movement must involve number continuums between one number and another number. However, these equations don’t even represent movement; these equations merely represent relationships, so it can’t be assumed that number continuums exist. Seemingly, movement in the universe must consist of number assignments, also known as “number jumps”. Movement is not about number continuums; movement is about number jumps, i.e. number assignments.
So, what is “a Newtonian initial condition” (05:53)? Who or what in the universe assigned the initial conditions, i.e. who or what assigned the numbers to categories like relative position or velocity, and is this “who or what” still around, still quantum-jumping the numbers? Seemingly, it can only be matter (seen as small parts of the universe) that is still around, still jumping its own numbers.
Movement in the universe, i.e. number movement, can’t just be assumed: equations can't ever represent number movement, they can only ever represent relationships. So, what is the mechanism of number movement? My view, as explained above, is that movement in the universe is initiated by matter jumping its own numbers, whereby the equations then take effect, before more number jumping takes place, which keeps the system moving.
