Amateur mathematician's time theories published at last

New Zealand Herald ^ | 31.07.2003 11.04 am | NZPA

[Doctor Stochastic]

You've got it backwards.

[mikegi]

Not if you define consciousness as self-awareness of a system. That is actually a valid field of scientific research with vast implications for artificial intelligence.

Don't know about this one. Can you provide a link to an overview of the problem?

Now, if you're talking about Penrose-type borderline metaphysical ruminations about quantum mechanics and sentient thought, I agree.

This is what I was referring to.

[Doctor Stochastic]

I had several papers (at least one still being referenced) published before I got my doctorate. Einstein was at least as well-connected as I was.

[LibWhacker]

Yep, he's still over there, blathering away . . . The Universe is a plutonium atom, 'ya know.

[js1138]

Penrose and Hawkings flushed down the black hole on one thread. How the mighty have fallen.

[Right Wing Professor]

Arguing that because time is continuous, therefore there cannot be specific "instants" in time is tantamount to arguing that because the set of Real numbers is continuous, specific numerical values such as "1" and "pi" can't exist.

Right. And even if you can't accept the existence of real numbers, you can take the limit of an interval of time to zero, in which case the distance between the two positions at the start and end of the interval will go to zero.

At least that's what that Newton guy tells me.

The paper itself isn't available online yet. I'll defer final judgement until I read it. in the meantime, it will be entertaining to see how many people embrace this as if it's the millenium's first paradigm shift.

[RightWhale]

This is big! So big it deserves 2 threads, maybe more, and maybe a feature article in Popular Mechanics or at least an ad in the classifieds in the back.

[jennyp]

I "got" it; I wonder if anyone else will.....

I got it too: Specific real numbers don't need any philosophical contortions to exist, even though they form a continuum from one to the "next", so why should time?

(Hey, and I didn't even finish college! WooHoo!)

[AndrewC]

even though they form a continuum from one to the "next", so why should time?

Reification.

Or is time not part of the material universe.

[Hank Kerchief]

It may be all based on consciousness and nothing or nobody to date has disproved that assertion.

I can disprove it. The assertion steals the concept of existence to assert there may only be consciousness. You cannot make the assertion without assuming the "it," which consciousness alone is supposed to "cause." If there is only consciousness, there is not "it" for consciousness of. Consciousness of nothing is unconsciousness.

First something must exsit. Then there can be beings to be conscious of it. Consciousness cannot come first. Consciousness cannot be primary.

Hank

[Consort]

First something must exsit.

It's possible that consciousness is necessary for all existence.

Then there can be beings to be conscious of it.

Then there can be beings who are aware of being conscious entities.

Consciousness cannot come first. Consciousness cannot be primary.

Yes, it can, I suppose.

[Hank Kerchief]

It's possible that consciousness is necessary for all existence.

Consciousness of what?

Hank

[Consort]

Consciousness of what?

Whatever all the ongoing consciousness (as opposed to awareness, cognizance, or just being awake) research is all about.

[Virginia-American]

...popular frauds like "the wheelchair guy" (who's never had an original thought in his life ...

How about

1) "Hawking radiation", the (so-far unobserved) radiation that comes from a black hole because of a quantum effect, and

2) "A black hole has no hair" The theorem that a black hole is characterized by its mass, angular momentum and electric charge, and **nothing more**. In particular, you can't tell if the mass that collapsed to form the hole was matter or antimatter.

AFAIK, these are original with Hawking.

[rightofrush]

bttt

[rightofrush]

This looks like an extention of the Heisenburg's uncertainty principle.

[rightofrush]

When it is posted we will probably have Fun time. (pun intended)

Didn't you mean phun?
Some time ago, I gave my tenured Phyis prof. son a tee shirt with "Physics is phun, but entropy happenes".

[rightofrush]

As far as the academics trying to keep his work from being published because he isn't credentialled, it seems to me that in physics and math, the work should stand or fall on its merits alone, not on the opinions of the author's academic credentials.

Right!
Credentials are the crutch of Social "Scientists" to give their nonsense credence.

[automated psuedo responder]

How about observer (sort of like a conscious observation of time line events), in other words conscious determination of quantum events. Without which events are indeterminate in the real world.

[js1138]

Your response time is a bit slow.