The Ultimate Meaning of Life and a Philosophical Cosmology to an Immanent Time Reborn

[RaptorWizard]

Time Reborn: From the Crisis in Physics to the Future of the Universe

What is time? This deceptively simple question is the single most important problem facing science as we probe more deeply into the fundamentals of the universe. All of the mysteries physicists and cosmologists face—from the Big Bang to the future of the universe, from the puzzles of quantum physics to the unification of forces and particles—come down to the nature of time.The scientific case for time being an illusion is formidable. That is why the consequences of adopting the view that time is real are revolutionary. Lee Smolin, author of the controversial bestseller The Trouble with Physics, argues that a limited notion of time is holding physics back. It’s time for a major revolution in scientific thought. The reality of time could be the key to the next big breakthrough in theoretical physics. What if the laws of physics themselves were not timeless? What if they could evolve? Time Reborn offers a radical new approach to cosmology that embraces the reality of time and opens up a whole new universe of possibilities. There are few ideas that, like our notion of time, shape our thinking about literally everything, with huge implications for physics and beyond. Was Einstein wrong? At least in his understanding of time, Smolin argues, the great theorist of relativity was dead wrong. What is worse, by firmly enshrining his error in scientific orthodoxy, Einstein trapped his successors in insoluble dilemmas as they try to devise timeless laws explaining the origins and structure of the cosmos. How, Smolin asks, can such laws account for the highly improbable set of conditions that triggered the Big Bang jump-starting the universe? How, Smolin further wants to know, can scientists ever empirically test their timeless cosmic hypotheses? With rare conceptual daring, Smolin beckons toward a new perspective for doing cosmological theory, a perspective allowing Leibniz’s principle of sufficient reason to open surprising possibilities. This horizon not only readmits time as a reality; it enshrines time as the reality, the indispensable point of flux allowing everything else, including the laws of matter and energy, to evolve and change. Embracing time as real, Smolin asserts, will allow cosmologists to convert laws once regarded as timeless into the contingent data they need to develop testable new theories of galactic evolution. Contrary to Plato and Einstein, theoretical physicist Smolin (The Trouble with Physics) asserts that ‘not only is time real, but nothing we know or experience gets closer to the heart of nature than the reality of time.’ Though time has always been a quantity to measure, the author explains that in the 17th century, scientists began wondering whether ‘the world is in essence mathematical or it lives in time.’ Newton’s laws of motion made time irrelevant, and ‘Einstein’s two theories of relativity are, at their most basic, theories of time—or, better, timelessness.’ Galileo and Descartes, on the other hand, insisted that time should be regarded as another dimension, and in 1909, mathematician Hermann Minkowski developed the theory of ‘spacetime,’ a feature of the universe shaped by gravity. Smolin asserts that current-day cosmology has hit a wall because physicists refuse to understand that physical laws must ‘evolve in a real time.’ Changing that perspective, he says, will revolutionize everything from string theory to the stock market. Although the distinctions in point of view aren’t always clear, Smolin makes an energetic case for a paradigm shift that could produce mind-boggling changes in the way we experience our world. If the cosmos were empty, space would exist, but there would be no time. So time is inextricably bound up with the material universe, a real phenomenon at the heart of nature. This turns out to be controversial since the great thinkers from Plato to Newton to Einstein taught that time is an illusion that humans must transcend to achieve true understanding. Smolin disagrees, maintaining that embracing its reality is the key to solving the great problems in physics. He makes a case that Newton’s paradigm—knowing the forces acting on any system allows us, following natural laws, to predict its future state—is a fallacy. It works for limited areas and short periods but fails on universal scales. Applying his deep mastery of cosmology, quantum mechanics, general relativity and all the diverse attempts at quantum gravity, in Time Reborn Lee Smolin weaves a convincing and entirely new view of reality. He shows us how contemporary physics eliminates time and argues persuasively that any adequate cosmology rests on making time and ‘now’ fundamental.

Man's Greatest Achievement by Nikola Tesla | New York American — July 6, 1930

When a child is born its sense-organs are brought in contact with the outer world. The waves of sound, heat, and light beat upon its feeble body, its sensitive nerve-fibres quiver, the muscles contract and relax in obedience: a gasp, a breath, and in this act a marvelous little engine, of inconceivable delicacy and complexity of construction, unlike any on earth, is hitched to the wheel-work of the Universe. The little engine labors and grows, performs more and more involved operations, becomes sensitive to ever subtler influences and now there manifests itself in the fully developed being - Man - a desire mysterious, inscrutable and irresistible: to imitate nature, to create, to work himself the wonders he perceives. Inspired in this task he searches, discovers and invents, designs and constructs, and enriches with monuments of beauty, grandeur and awe, the star of his birth. He descends into the bowels of the globe to bring forth its hidden treasures and to unlock its immense imprisoned energies for its use. He invades the dark depths of the ocean and the azure regions of the sky. He peers into the innermost nooks and recesses of molecular structure and lays bare to his gaze worlds infinitely remote. He subdues and puts to his service the fierce, devastating spark of Prometheus, the titanic forces of the waterfall, the wind and the tide. He tames the thundering bolt of Jove and annihilates time and space. He makes the great Sun itself his obedient toiling slave. Such is the power and might that the heavens reverberate and the whole earth trembles by the mere sound of his voice. What has the future in store for this strange being, born of a breath, of perishable tissue, yet immortal, with his powers fearful and divine? What magic will be wrought by him in the end? What is to be his greatest deed, his crowning achievement? Long ago he recognized that all perceptible matter comes from a primary substance, of a tenuity beyond conception and filling all space - the Akasha or luminiferous ether - which is acted upon by the life-giving Prana or creative force, calling into existence, in never ending cycles, all things and phenomena. The primary substance, thrown into infinitesimal whirls of prodigious velocity, becomes gross matter; the force subsiding, the motion ceases and matter disappears, reverting to the primary substance. Can Man control this grandest, most awe-inspiring of all processes in nature? Can he harness her inexhaustible energies to perform all their functions at his bidding, more still - can he so refine his means of control as to put them in operation simply by the force of his will? If he could do this he would have powers almost unlimited and supernatural. At his command, with but a slight effort on his part, old worlds would disappear and new ones of his planning would spring into being. He could fix, solidify and preserve the ethereal shapes of his imagining, the fleeting visions of his dreams. He could express all the creations of his mind, on any scale, in forms concrete and imperishable. He could alter the size of this planet, control its seasons, guide it along any path he might choose through the depths of the Universe. He could make planets collide and produce his suns and stars, his heat and light. He could originate and develop life in all its infinite forms. To create and annihilate material substance, cause it to aggregate in forms according to his desire, would be the supreme manifestation of the power of Man’s mind, his most complete triumph over the physical world, his crowning achievement which would place him beside his Creator and fulfill his ultimate destiny.

 

[RaptorWizard]

1. Life in this world is an evolutionary process. – The world is always transforming.
2. The individuality of all beings should be accepted universally. – All beings have promise to play important roles within the evolutionary process of life.
3. Every individual being has different perspectives. – We each see reality from our own point of view.
4. What is the meaning of life? – Achieving infinite mastery of creation.
5. Life is an eternal journey. – There are always new horizons to explore.
6. What is the future of human life? – It will be contingent with what we do now.
7. How do we create the “perfect” future? – Perfection is your own vision that you desire to manifest and can “will” into being, but it cannot limit the visions of other beings.
8. Creation springs into being from a “liquid light”. – A liquid can take the shape of any creation imaginable, and the shape can be perceived if it has light.
9. Life must triumph over challenges. – Challenges are the “refiner’s fire” that forge the future and make us stronger.
10. The world system (the program of reality) is a game that challenges us. – We can rise up to higher levels by overcoming its challenges.
11. The exploration of existence has no boundaries. – New creations and coming transformations within this infinite existence will always spring into being.
12. Highly evolved civilizations will have transcended this dimension. – They can break the barriers of reality and explore other worlds out there or of their own creation.
13. The paths ahead and the directions they take will lead to any possible destination. – We are free to see and shape the limitless horizon ahead of us.
14. The core of creation is inside the mind. – It is the mover and the witness.
15. The natural order on earth is evil. – The entire globe must undergo a purifying transformation.
16. What was the 1st cause (if there was one)? – Without order nothing can exist; without chaos nothing can evolve.
17. Can mountain be moved? – Willpower is a mental force that, if intense enough, can move any event into causation.

 

[RaptorWizard]

18. How should omnipotence be used? – To transcend all limitations.
19. Why is there suffering? – It gives us hope to make things better.
20. Knowledge leads to liberation. – From it we gather clues, which in synthesis illuminate our way to the sacred “treasure trove”, a place where our willpower can give us anything.
21. Existence is infinite in its expressions. – All phases of development are in realization.
22. Everything is beyond our imaginations. – Our minds are finite, but existence has no limit.
23. Knowledge charts the cosmic course to power. – It gives us directions on our journey to ultimately command creation.
24. The nature of creation is transformation. – It annihilates the old and forges the new.
25. Our perceptions of reality are incomplete. – We cannot perceive the full totality of things.
26. Perfection will never be realized. – Otherwise our world would be static and lifeless.
27. A plan should always be capable for transformation. – It should work within any context.
28. No path (that is not restrictive of other being’s paths) is wrong. – We can each walk and develop the world in our own way.
29. The mind and its will make creation dynamic. – Will moves all things into causation, and the mind experiences the changes (will is the controller; mind is the viewer).
30. Reality is a simulation that can be programmed. – A master of the system could alter it.
31. Overcoming trials leads to triumphs. – They forge barriers into stepping stones.
32. Goals give direction. – They are guiding stars that we can follow across the horizon.
33. Concepts can become anything. – They are formless fountains shining with all promise.
34. God is the witness and the word. – He speaks the codes for creation and views the systems they synthesize.

 

[RaptorWizard]

35. Knowledge dispels darkness. – It is the light at the end of the tunnel, leading to liberation.
36. All ideas have value. – They each have some levels of immanence within the totality of reality.
37. An illuminated mind can see reality and give shape to its visions. – Things (building blocks) must be perceived and connected to realize new perceptions (mental constructs).
38. Intention and motivation drive action. – What we desire and wish to do can translate into change.
39. Time is a movie. – It unfolds across the line of movement as commanded by the director, which can be fast-forwarded and replayed, or even have version dependent contingencies.
40. Anything with enough time can be done. – A thousand mile journey begins with one step.
41. The now shapes all coming transformations. – The moment has hopes to change destiny.
42. Why is there something rather than nothing? – Some things break beyond the chains of rationality; some questions remain unanswerable to reason (like birthing an eternal mind).
43. Events with no natural basis are possible. – The mind, which has no former foundation, can reach all realities (and even [at sufficiently high levels of creative power] defy logic).
44. Beauty is relative to the beholder. – There are many angles and dimensions through which we can choose to perceive and appreciate things.
45. Creation is all about cause and effect. – It is a sequence of prior things that transform into subsequent things as a natural result of willpower (the cause) and vision (the effect).
46. You have to make the rules, not follow them. – The ideal “box” should transform its own constraints in accordance with the context and what it contains, come to form a “best fit”.
47. We are being guided by good designers and misled by evil players. – The good side is the real power of creation and salvation, whereas the dark side is a cheap copy that distorts it.
48. Diversity gives us knowledge. – We understand things relative to other reference frames.
49. The secret of the “Will” is time. – Time reflects how events unfold, and the “Will” (mental intensity) is a force that will forge and determine what our destiny is meant to be.
50. What will our Heaven be? – We will step ahead of our times and break beyond all mental barriers to alter the architecture of everything.