The Web of Time
Visions in Astronomy, Cyberspace, and Metaphysics.
Images of the Universe; mathematical and computational models; speculations on the nature of reality; quotations from the literature. WARNINGS: Reality under construction; just a little heavier on graphics than on the mind.
| Universe will restart using production code as soon as the beta we're currently using crashes. -- Taki Kogoma |
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... a picture, incomplete yet not false, of the universe as Ts'ui
P�n conceived it to be. Differing from Newton and Schopenhauer,
... [he] did not think of time as absolute and uniform. He believed in
an infinite series of times, in a dizzily growing, ever spreading
network of diverging, converging and parallel times. This web of time -
the strands of which approach one another, bifurcate, intersect, or
ignore each other through the centuries - embraces every possibillity.
We do not exist in most of them. In some you exist and not I, while in
others I do, and you do not, and in yet others both of us exist. In
this one, in which chance has favored me, you have come to my gate. In
another, I say these very same words, but am an error, a phantom.
- Jorge Luis Borges, The Garden of Forking Paths.
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I N T R O D U C T I O N
Why is there something instead of nothing? What is reality?These kinds of question tantalise me almost every day. I can't just brush them under the carpet of religion, and let God worry about them. I worry about them. And many great thinkers have worried about them too, from the ancient philosophers to modern scientists. Well, nobody has yet come up with anything much more convincing than Douglas Adams' "42" (The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy), but there are several fascinating speculations that draw on the concepts of cosmology, virtual reality, quantum mechanics, science fiction, mathematics, and many other domains where intellectual pioneers are exploring the frontiers of possibility.
The paradigms for reality they have produced include:
a machine;
a quantum fluctuation;
a mathematical theorem;
a computational process;
a collapsed quantum wave;
a cosmic code - a message;
an uncollapsed quantum wave; and
a selection from all logical possibilities.
For example, the currently prevailing cosmological theory of the
creation of the universe precedes the
My own personal favorite from this grab-bag, is based on Hugh Everett's Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics, which postulates existence as an uncollapsed quantum wave, i.e. a superposition of all possibilities. This solves the problem of "why this particular reality?" with a Borgesian-like infinity of realities, and the fact that we perceive only one, is simply illusion. The popular counter-argument to the MWI is that it contradicts Occam's Razor - a fundamental scientific principle of methodology which favours simple models over complex ones. The MWI depends on the existence of an infinity of universes to explain the one we see. Personally, I feel that it does accord with Occam's Razor, but at a more fundamental level: reality and existence are fully unconstrained; but intelligence can only evolve to perceive them, in pockets and cracks here and there. There is something, because there is everything. Letting everything logically possible exist is far simpler than all the laws of physics and mathematics needed to describe the specific universe we do inhabit.
Recalling that matter is, at bedrock, built of subatomic particles that
are themselves understood in terms of force fields, that we model with
mathematical formulae, then one approach is to say that logic and
physical causality are one and the same - there's really no dualism at
all.
The roses in my garden look "real" but ultimately they - and the whole
universe - exist as the broken symettries of the perfection of
"nothing". As John Barrow notes, "something" exists because "nothing"
is unstable. Well, I always knew that, but I still wonder what
"nothing" understood by "unstable". Nothing, probably.
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M A T H E M A T I C S
| Roger Penrose:
It is the Mandelbrot set's `mathematician-independence' that gives it
its Platonic existence. Moreover, its finest details lie beyond what is
accessible to us by use of computers. Those devices can yield only
approximations to a structure that has a deeper and
`computer-independent' existence of its own.
I do appreciate, however, that there may be many other viewpoints that
are reasonable to hold on this question.
...
There are also differences of viewpoint concerning the lengths to which
one may be prepared to carry one's Platonism - if, indeed one claims to
be a Platonist.
G�del,
himself, was a very strong Platonist.
- The Emperor's New Mind, OUP, 1989. |
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C O M P U T A T I O N
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Paul Davies:
There is evidence that even a system as simple as three bodies moving
under mutual attraction (e.g. two planets orbiting a star) possesses
the property of computatonal universality. If so, then by appropriately
choosing the positions and velocities of the planets at one instant,
the system could be made to compute, say, the digits of pi, or the
trillionth prime, or the outcome of a billion-glider collision in the
Life universe. Indded, this seemingly trivial trinity could even be
used to simulate the whole universe if, as some enthusiasts claim, the
universe is digitally simulatable.
- The Mind of God, Simon and Schuster, 1992. |
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S I M U L A T I O N
| Heinz R. Pagels:
A good simulation, be it a religious myth or scientific theory, gives
us a sense of mastery over experience. To represent something
symbolically, as we do when we speak or write, is somehow to capture
it, thus making it one's own. But with this appropriation comes the
realization that we have denied the immediacy of reality and that in
creating a substitute we have but spun another thread in the web of our
grand illusion.
- The Dreams of Reason, Bantam, 1988 |
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| John D. Barrow
Now mathematicians have begun to exploit this possibility of creating
`virtual' realities as a way of demonstrating the truth of mathematical
conjectures and exploring the possible truth of others.
...
This new approach to mathematics -- the simulation of mathematical
structures -- has played an important role for many years in the
physical sciences. Astronomers program computers to simulate the
clustering of galaxies in model universes and then position imaginary
observers within the simulation who carry out observational surveys of
their `sky' in a manner analogous to that used by astronomers with real
telescopes with the same biases and limitations built in. The resulting
catalogues of observations can be compared with those gathered by real
observers to test whether any of the model universes capture the
essential pattern of galaxy-clustering found in the real sky.
- Pi in the Sky, OUP, 1992. |
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V I R T U A L R E A L I T Y *
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Michael Heim
Our link to the solar system, the stars, and other galaxies comes
through the interface. All areas of the universe come into sharper
focus as the scientist zooms in on sources of astronomical data.
...
Through representations and simulations, we contact the world we know
and even the limits of what we know.
- The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality, OUP, 1993. |
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| Benjamin Woolley
It is not always easy even for scientists to tell whether their theories
are made valid because they accord with reality, or because they accord
with other scientists and funding agencies.
- Virtual Worlds, Penguin, 1992. |
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C Y B E R S P A C E
| cyberspace: /si:'ber-spays/ | "Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts... A graphical representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the non-space of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding..." -William Gibson, "Neuromancer" |
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Benedikt, M.:
In sum, then, it would be unwise to ignore the design of cyberspace
itself while we are engaged in the myriad considerations of particular
GUI and VR implementations. The design of cyberspace is, after all, the
design of another life-world, a parallel universe, offering the
intoxicating prospect of actually fulfilling -- with a technology very
nearly achieved -- a dream thousands of years old: the dream of
transcending the physical world, fully alive, at will, to dwell in some
Beyond -- to be empowered or enlightened there, alone or with others,
and to return.
- Cyberspace: First Steps, MIT Press. |
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C O S M O L O G Y
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John Barrow:
In recent years cosmologists have bugun to discuss the spontaneous
creation of the Universe as a problem in physics. Those who do this
assume that a future synthesis of quantum theory and relativity which
reveals how gravity behaves when matter is enormously compressed will
evade the predictions of a real singularity of the type required by the
singularity theorems. Although the assumptions of the singularity
theorems are not expected to hold near the singularity, we do not know
whether to expect a singularity or not as yet. But even in the absence
of this singularity to denote the beginning of the Universe, it has
been speculated that the application of quantum theory to the whole
Universe may allow physical content to be given to the concept of
`creation of the Universe out of Nothing'. The goal of this research is
to show that the creation of an expanding universe is inevitable.
The reason there is something rather than nothing is that `nothing'
is unstable.
- The World within the World, Clarendon Press, 1988. |
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Fred Hoyle:
The picture of the origin of the Universe, and of the formation of the
galaxies and stars as it has unfolded in astronomy is curiously
indefinite, like a landscape seen vaguely in a fog. This indefinite,
unsatisfactory state of affairs contrasts with other parts of astronomy
where the picture is bright and clear. A component has evidently been
missing from cosmological studies. The origin of the Universe, like the
solution of the Rubik cube, requires an intelligence.
- The Intelligent Universe, Michael Joseph, 1983. |
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John Barrow:
If you call a rose a thistle, then one is not seeking to rewrite any
intrinsic properties of those things we call roses: at worst a few
horticultural catalogues would need revising, but the nature of things
is not being tinkered with. But, if something has a numerical property,
then to change it requires a deep and profound perturbation to the
bedrock of reality.
- Theories of Everything, Fawcett Columbine, 1991. |
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Barrow and Tipler:
At the instant the Omega Point is reached, life will have gained
control of all matter and forces not only in a single universe,
but in all universes whose existence is logically possible; life will
have spread into all spatial regions in all universes which
could logically exist, and will have stored an infinite amount of
information, including all bits of knowledge which it is
logically possible to know. And this is the end.
- The Anthropic Cosmological Principle, OUP, 1988. |
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M E T A P H Y S I C S
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Timothy Ferris:
It may be, then, that the universe is comprehensible because it is
defective - that because it forsook the perfection of nonbeing for the
welter of being, it is possible for us to exist, and to perceive the
jumbled, blemished reality, and to test it against the ghostly specter
of the primordial symmetry thought to have preceded it.
We are, therefore we think.
- Coming of Age in the Milky Way, Anchor Books, 1988. |
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F I C T I O N
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William Wordsworth:
"Now, shall our great Discoverers," he exclaimed, Raising his voice triumphantly, "obtain From sense and reason less than these obtained, Though far misled ? Shall men for whom our age Unbaffled powers of vision hath prepared, To explore the world without and world within, Be joyless as the blind ? Ambitious spirits - Whom earth, at this late season, hath produced To regulate the moving spheres, and weigh The planets in the hollow of their hand; And they who rather dive than soar, whose pains Have solved their elements, or analysed The thinking principle - shall they in fact Prove a degraded Race ? and what avails Renown, if their presumption make them such ? Oh ! there is laughter at their work in heaven !" - The Excursion: Book Fourth, 1806. |
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| Carl Sagan:
The universe was made on purpose, the circle said. In whatever galaxy
you happen to find yourself, you take the circumference of a circle,
divide it by its diameter, measure closely enough, and uncover a
miracle - another circle, drawn kilometers downstream of the decimal
point. There would be richer messages further in. It doesn't matter
what you look like, or what you're made of, or where you came from.
As long as you live in this universe, and have a modest talent for
mathematics, sooner or later you'll find it. It's already here.
It's inside everything. You don't have to leave your planet to find it.
In the fabric of space and in the nature of matter, as in a great work
of art, there is, written small, the artist's signature. Standing over
humans, gods, and demons, subsuming Caretakers and Tunnel builders,
there is an intelligence that antedates the universe.
- Contact, Simon and Schuster, 1985. |
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| Lewis Carroll
`It seems very pretty,' she said when she had finished it, `but it's
RATHER hard to understand!' (You see she didn't like to confess, even
to herself, that she couldn't make it out at all.) `Somehow it seems to
fill my head with ideas -- only I don't exactly know what they are !
- Through the Looking Glass. |
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Copyright � 1995 Alan Richmond.
Reach the stars - Fly a fantasy - Dream a dream - And what you see, will be.
- The Never-Ending Story.
Part 2: Thinking the Universe
- Michael Heim
- Our link to the solar system, the stars, and other galaxies comes
through the interface. All areas of the universe come into sharper
focus as the scientist zooms in on sources of astronomical data.
...
Through representations and simulations, we contact the world we know
and even the limits of what we know.
The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality, OUP, 1993.
- Heinz R. Pagels
-
A good simulation, be it a religious myth or scientific theory, gives
us a sense of mastery over experience. To represent something
symbolically, as we do when we speak or write, is somehow to capture
it, thus making it one's own. But with this appropriation comes the
realization that we have denied the immediacy of reality and that in
creating a substitute we have but spun another thread in the web of our
grand illusion.
The Dreams of Reason, Bantam, 1988
- Benedikt, M.
- In sum, then, it would be unwise to ignore the design of cyberspace
itself while we are engaged in the myriad considerations of particular
GUI and VR implementations. The design of cyberspace is, after all, the
design of another life-world, a parallel universe, offering the
intoxicating prospect of actually fulfilling -- with a technology very
nearly achieved -- a dream thousands of years old: the dream of
transcending the physical world, fully alive, at will, to dwell in some
Beyond -- to be empowered or enlightened there, alone or with others,
and to return.
Cyberspace: First Steps, MIT Press.
- John D. Barrow
- Now mathematicians have begun to exploit this possibility of creating
`virtual' realities as a way of demonstrating the truth of mathematical
conjectures and exploring the possible truth of others.
...
This new approach to mathematics -- the simulation of mathematical
structures -- has played an important role for many years in the
physical sciences. Astronomers program computers to simulate the
clustering of galaxies in model universes and then position imaginary
observers within the simulation who carry out observational surveys of
their `sky' in a manner analogous to that used by astronomers with real
telescopes with the same biases and limitations built in. The resulting
catalogues of observations can be compared with those gathered by real
observers to test whether any of the model universes capture the
essential pattern of galaxy-clustering found in the real sky.
Pi in the Sky, OUP, 1992.
"... these people's minds will be running as computer programs
in computers whose physical speed is increasing without limit.
Their thoughts will, like ours, be virtual-reality renderings performed
by these computers.
It is true that at the end of that final second the
whole sophisticated mechanism will be destroyed. But we know that the
subjective duration of a virtual-reality experience is determined not
by the elapsed time, but by the computations that are performed in that
time. In an infinite number of computational steps there is time for an
infinite number of thoughts - plenty of time for the thinkers to place
themselves into any virtual-reality environment they like, and to
experience it for however long they like. If they tire of it, they can
switch to any other environment, or to any other number of environments
they care to design. Subjectively, they will not be at the final stages
of their lives but at the very beginning. They will be in no hurry, for
subjectively they will live forever. With one second, or one
microsecond, to go, they will still have 'all the time in the world' to
do more, experience more, create more - infinitely more - than anyone
in the multiverse will ever have done before then."
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