Give me that extra time dimension then, Alamo-Girl! It seems clear to me that a more elaborated concept of time, “a much better theory” needs to be found in order to explain such things as duality, non-locality, and superposition, which have been observed under laboratory conditions. Even under laboratory conditions, these phenomena would seem to require superluminal velocities in order to occur. I gather the speed of light is posited as a universal constant/constraint in relativity theory, such that were two entangled particles from “opposite ends of the universe” to get together for a spontaneous “love fest,” and this happens instantly, spontaneously, we can’t explain under either Newtonian or Einsteinian theory how that could have happened.
In such scenario, travel time would be nil; time would seem to be a null factor with respect to such effects – if we understand time as measurable in terms of particular configurations of velocity and mass, moving from point A to point B through a topography featuring other “massive” (more or less) objects capable of “exerting gravity effects on passing bodies.” And thereby causing the space through which the primary “space-time body” is moving “to curve.” Which would seem to suggest that a more massive body can affect the mass and velocity of “passing” objects moving relative to it.
I’m with you, Alamo-Girl: Geometry is the very language we need to describe such relations. Geometry seems to propose most useful language for describing the features of the reality that man and nature seem to be commonly, collectively subject to.
I figure that the various geometries as originally conceived and described were personal visions – from Euclid and his ancestors in Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Plato, et al., to the present day. That is, a novel geometry elaborated represents the singular vision of the particular geometer who articulated it. And in an honest culture, such products of mind and spirit are not any kind of fly by night routine.
Just to give an example: Reimann conceived a particular geometry that flew in the face of Euclidean orthodoxy. Apparently, this was a gift received via imagination and experience. Yet far from being a merely “subjective belief,” it appears that Reimann’s geometry referred to real things far beyond Reimann’s “subjectivity.” For when Einstein needed a conceptual base for his speculations into relativity theory, he picked Reimann’s geometry “right off of the shelf”: For it furnished “the best description” of what Einstein in his deepest, most intense mediations and reflections “encountered” as “already out there” in reality. Thus I imagine the geometer as a type may be more artist than scientist. And so given their invaluable achievements, both Reimann and Einstein were great artists as well as great scientists/mathematicians.
Alamo-Girl, you and Thermopylae have broached a number of issues today that I want to think about some more before I reply. When I come back, maybe the problem would be: “What must have been loaded into the Singularity of pre-Space/Time-Zero, such that a living universe of the particular configuration we now observe (in all its harmonious branches) could possibly become the way that it is, and continue to maintain in that way?”
This to me is the single most fascinating question that can be asked.
The string theorists are trying to work this problem from the inside out. Do you suppose there is any way this same problem could be worked from the outside in?
That is from the Whole to the Part, instead of the other way around?
Just wondering, asking. But then I must be famous for my dumb questions by now. Oh, well…. Good night to dear A-G and T! God bless you and all of yours….
I love the description of the geometers as artists. They strike me as "visionaries" who have a spooky ability to answer questions not yet asked.
But I digress (again)...
On the non-locality space/time issue, I thought y'all might like to read an excerpt on two common explanations (the first is a description of non-locality for Lurkers):
Splitting a single photon of well-defined energy into a pair of photons with initially undefined energies, and sending each photon through a fiber-optic network to detectors 10 km apart, researchers in Switzerland ... showed that determining the energy for one photon by measuring it had instantaneously determined the energy of its neighbor 10 km away
Physics: David Bohm. Understanding David Bohm's Holographic Universe
David Bohm believes the reason subatomic particles are able to remain in contact with one another regardless of the distance separating them is not because they are sending some sort of mysterious signal back and forth, but because their separateness is an illusion. Bohm postulates that the ultimate nature of physical reality is not a collection of separate objects (as it appears to us), but rather it is an undivided whole that is in perpetual dynamic flux. For Bohm, the insights of quantum mechanics and relativity theory point to a universe that is undivided and in which all parts merge and unite in one totality. This undivided whole is not static but rather in a constant state of flow and change, a kind of invisible ether from which all things arise and into which all things eventually dissolve. Indeed, even mind and matter are united. Bohm refers to his theory as the holomovement. The terms holo and movement refer to two fundamental features of reality. The movement portion refers to the fact that reality is in a constant state of change and flux as mentioned above. The holo portion signifies that reality is structured in a manner that is very similar to holography. Bohm says that the universe is like a hologram.
Path integral formulation (Feynman)
In one philosophical interpretation of quantum mechanics, the "sum over histories" interpretation, the path integral is taken to be fundamental and reality is viewed as a single indistinguishable "class" of paths which all share the same events. For this interpretation, it is crucial to understand what exactly an event is. Despite its general unpopularity, the sum over histories method gives identical results to canonical quantum mechanics and also explains the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox without resorting to nonlocality. This makes it the only form of the theory which can explain this paradox without breaking locality.
BTW, I strongly believe that God limited our vision and minds to 4 dimensions to accomplish His will concerning us. After all, faith is the evidence of things not seen. Praise God!!!