highly recommend Martin Amis' Time's Arrow
Posted on 01/07/2004 2:10:38 AM PST by kattracks
Now, tell me again, evolution does not deal with the origin of life?
ev·o·lu·tion ( P ) Pronunciation Key (v-lshn, v-) n. A gradual process in which something changes into a different and usually more complex or better form. See Synonyms at development. The process of developing. Gradual development. Biology. Change in the genetic composition of a population during successive generations, as a result of natural selection acting on the genetic variation among individuals, and resulting in the development of new species. The historical development of a related group of organisms; phylogeny. A movement that is part of a set of ordered movements. Mathematics. The extraction of a root of a quantity.
You will notice that evolution cannot occur, nor claims to occur, until life exists. This is fundamental to the process. Life must exist. No life = no evolution. Scientists or whomever that comment on abiogenesis are not discussing evolution, they are discussing origins. I don't care if they are "High Priests" of Evolution or Christianity, when it comes to abiogenesis, it's not Evolution.
"Formation of memories" implies time in its very construction. "Formation" indicates a process requiring a time difference (delta-T).
Barbour suggests that "The Arena" consists of every possible configuration of subatomic particles in "spacetime". "Time" in his view--if I have him correctly--is simply a selection process of some sort among "slices" of the arena. The circularity is that this idea seems to me to require an "instruction pointer" to order the "nows" (which he cutely terms 'time capsules'). "Motion" of this "instruction pointer" is what I refer to as the necessity of "meta-time" in his theory.
I wrote him (after reading the book twice) with many questions. I think a bot responded: "The questions you pose are deep. I hope someday soon to have time to begin to answer them" (irony is mine). I suspect that if I had emailed him that time was made of peanut butter, I would have received the same response!
--Boris
--Boris
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