I’m not a trained scientist, but I do have an abiding interest in it.
So, this is a post that is basically an examination of crackpot physics. In this case, a physics of my own creation. It comes out of a basic question / misunderstanding regarding time and probability in quantum physics.
One thing has never been adequately explained to me, and this lack of understanding / lack of an answer has led me to some conclusions. The primary conclusion is that time doesn’t exist, and even our notion of change is illusory. How I got there is a bit complex, so I would rather begin with where I started – this one thing that has never been adequately explained to me. I am more than happy to accept my ideas as sheer crack-pottery. Seriously. I’m not a physicist. I am also more than happy to change / filter / abandon them as necessary. That said, I like thinking about things and following my logic as it flows. If I’m right (which I doubt – I’m rarely right about anything) I will be terribly amused.
So, to the root conundrum:
It goes like this – in quantum physics everything is reduced to a matter of probability. A classic example is Schroedinger’s Cat. The particle emitted that kills the cat is subject to probability. The “superstate” of the cat is of no consequence here – I’m not interested in that. What I am interested in is its probabilistic nature going forward in time. There is moment A when cat goes into box. There is Moment C when box is opened. In between is Moment B when/if the particle is emitted that trips the mechanism that kills the cat. Moment B is subject to probability. You can put the cat in a number of times, and, randomly according to a certain set of probabilities, nothing happens – you get a live C. Then at a particular iteration of B, randomly according to a certain set of probabilities, something happens, and the cat is found to be dead at C – a Dead C (_at) (Sea) (dumb pun) (Great Band).
Physics prides itself on being time independent – the equations should run forward and backward in time. The problem is, probability has a one way arrow. Let’s look at the iteration of B that resulted in the Dead C, and rewind it: Box is opened, Cat is found to be dead, Cat is dying, poison is released, trigger releases poison, trigger is set off by particle emitted, particle is emitted, mechanism is turned on, cat is put in box. This is completely deterministic. The dead cat can only reverse into a live cat. There is no reversal of events that is probabilistic. Probability only works in one direction. Its reverse is rigidly deterministic. Which means that physics is not time independent – it doesn’t run in reverse if there is a probability involved. It doesn’t work equally in reverse, because probability only works in forward gears, not reverse. There is no reverse where someone puts a dead cat in the box, turns on the mechanism and opens the box to see that cat is indeed (still) dead. Only live cats are put in the box. So, quantum physics isn’t correct – it doesn’t work in reverse because probability only works in one direction.
The Madness Continues:
Rather than say “well it’s all forward and all probabilistic, I suppose” and get on with it and merrily accept the complex and profound theories of greater minds than my own have spent their lifetimes considering, it is much more fun to trace the trajectory of these ideas and see where it goes. Thus, I think it is more likely that the time reverse thought problem is actually true: there is no probability – the universe is completely deterministic. The problem is that time, as we experience / understand it, isn’t fully dimensional. A dimension, say this line, A: <————————> goes in two directions, in this case, left and right. We say it is one dimensional. We like to think that the left arrow points to the past, and the right arrow points to the future, and each dash is a unit of Planck Time between. But time doesn’t go into the past. It goes into the future. It looks more like this: ——————>, not <———————>. This means that time (or what we understand and experience as time) is only half dimensional.
However, there is a problem: it seems that we can collapse it down to zero. This we know from action-at-a-distance (AAAD). When the polarisation shifts on one end, the other end shifts also, instantaneously. Time: Zero. As time and space require each other, then this means Space: Zero as well. Time: Zero is also acquired at c, but only relatively. With AAAD it is absolute – it is simultaneous in all frames regardless of velocity. Given these contradictions, it is simply better to assume that time, as in a sequence of changes in the thermodynamics of the universe expressed in space, is simply an illusion enforced by our particular state. At best it is simply how we measure change – however, because time does not exist change itself is an illusion: the universe is static and unchanging.
The universe can be seen as a great flower. We think it is unfolding as our state traps us in a seemingly half-dimensional time in a three dimensional space. Imagine a very thin slit of a light travelling along the flower petal. We get used to the undulations and colour of the travelling light against the flower and we think that time exists. This thin light is our condition. In fact, there is no thin slice, but it’s all we have. In one narrow way that has nothing to do with physics, Schroedinger’s cat is like Nansen’s cat – an object of a desired outcome. Schroedinger lets the universe decide if it lives or dies, Nansen demanded answers from the squabbling monks, who failed him, forcing him to kill the cat.
No one asked the cat. Not the monks, not Nansen, not Schroedinger.
I am hoping someone can explain a proper answer to me. Otherwise, this is my answer and I’m stickin’ with it, crack-pottery and all.
I bet the cat knows….
Here kitty kitty!
novalark 