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Saturday, March 06, 2004


"ALL THE TIMES IN THE SAME TIME"
 




PART ONE : TOWARDS A NEW FORM OF PHYSICS

'And you cannot move at all in Time, you cannot get away from the present moment'.

'My dear sir, that is just where you are wrong. That is just where the whole world has gone wrong. We are always getting away from the present moment.'

H. G. WELLS (The Time Machine)





INTRODUCTION : IS GOD MAD?

Certain accredit to Eratosthenes and others to Aristotle the idea that the Earth is round. However, it is highly likely that the Pythagoreans were already considering this two or three centuries earlier. After all, the horizon is perceived by the eye as being curved and boats seem to sink into the sea as they disappear into the distance. Is it not also true that when one climbs to the top of a mountain, one can see further and further into the distance, and in all directions?

Yet two thousand years later when Christopher Columbus left to look for what he believed was the new route to the Indies, people still believed that his adventure ... and the World ... would both end at the limits of the Sargasso Sea.

It is not an exaggeration to say that all of the mad ideas that have punctuated the history of mankind, to claim that we live on a sphere was without a doubt the wildest. The Universe had to have a top and a bottom, therefore the Earth had an upper and lower part. However, as everyone knows, things are made so that what is up always falls downwards. Therefore, unless one is lucky enough to be born at the very top of the sphere, we will unavoidably slide and fall towards the infernal abyss. To pretend that men could live on the other side of the World head down and with their feet in the air was so crazy that you would have to be possessed by the Devil not to realise that it was nonsense.

The incongruity of an idea stems from its discord with what is considered as being true. If, however, one can replace this truth with one that is less restrictive, then the notion of absurdity disappears. Thus, when Isaac Newton explained that a force of attraction, called Gravity existed, which meant that "down" was under our feet and above our heads was "up", it seemed totally normal that we could amble so freely on a sphere. Yet to this day we still experience the same gut terror as our ancestors when as children we learn that the Earth is round and also the same inner relief that we were born "on top"!



Indeed, of all the madcap ideas, the Earth being round had to take the biscuit. All of which did prevent it from being true.

The craziness of an idea does not prevent it from being exact. Scientific history is one long succession of absurd ideas only a few of which turned out to be sound. But even then, people had to accept them...

We can already affirm with the greatest of convictions that the idea that we are going to defend here is most probably even crazier than the idea that the Earth is round.

We are talking here about the simultaneity of times.

In other words, together we are going to see that it is totally reasonable to believe that all times exist at once. Or, to be more precise, to accept that whilst you are reading these lines there is another "you" who has just walked into the bookshop to buy this book and another "you" already turning the last page. One is being born and the other dying.... Have I made myself clear?

Every chain of reasoning needs to have a starting point. Ours will be the paranormal. Do not worry, this does not mean that we will ask you to believe in such phenomena. The author has merely chosen this path which he knows well, but others no doubt exist which are closer to your own beliefs or more closely linked to a scientific perspective. All roads lead to Rome, so for those who want to visit the Eternal City, it does not matter which journey leads you there. Once you have completed your visit, you can always take a different route home if you did not enjoy the outward journey.

The paranoramal path could, however, be criticized for developing hypotheses based upon facts which are themselves questionable. Our ancestors who reasoned upon the Earth's roundness were at least sure that the Earth existed. The same cannot be said for our choice here.

However, this should not discourage us. To develop models from purely theoretical data is not a first in science. The family of elementary particles was given coherence due to the idea that they were made up of hypothetical quarks, fundamental particles which it is impossible to isolate because they stick together more strongly when you try to separate them! We suggest that there exists an anti-time unfolding opposite to ours. In all seriousness we imagine that there are parallel universes, with tree-like branches being constantly created. All of which accompanied by a Big Bang or Big Crunch! What can be said about "wormholes" allowing for shortcuts through time? And what should we think of the fluctuations in the vacuum where the "folds" would be creators of matter? Finally, how can we accept the extraordinary quantum mechanics theory which explains so many things but with staggering consequences that would make Einstein shiver?

We could spend a whole book just listing the theories which stem from other theories, which in turn stem from others, and so on... However, this in no way means that science is but a house of cards which could crumble at the slightest breeze. The hypotheses maintain each other and are also based on observation and laboratory experimentation. They are sufficiently entwined so that should a wall fall down, the rest of the building would hardly be affected. The demolished wall will be replaced by another with a more futuristic design and then work will continue.



Some subjects are damned from the outset. The same applies for the most controversial paranormal phenomena. Why is this so? Firstly, because we have such great difficulty in getting them into a laboratory. Secondly, which is worse, because they go against our scientific knowledge and are a real challenge to the most elementary common sense.

But what is common sense? What is reasonable and what is not? In whose name can we declare that one thing is sensible and another folly? We have a terrible tendency to behave as if we had created the universe, as if we knew all about its ins and outs, when in fact our ignorance far surpasses our knowledge. And we pontificate : this is true, this is false...

This attitude has, of course, an explanation. We live in a universe that we do not understand and which is totally beyond us. We ask of science that it reassures us, and scientists want this above all. Is God mad? Does everything that surrounds us have a meaning? Science answers : yes, there are laws; yes, there is a logic; no, God is not mad.

Yet this certainty crumbles when it is presented with a daring hypothesis. Something new means something dangerous. Are you sure that this is but a crack in the building? Maybe everything will collapse? Can you confirm that God is not mad? To tell the truth no one can confirm anything - either that God is mad, or that he is sane, or that the words mad and sane have a sense, or that God exists, or that to exist means anything. We are but puny humans on a small sphere lost in phenomenal infinity. And we scratch our heads.

Scratching our heads is exactly what we shall do throughout this book. After all, what else can we do?

...more...




Posted by: slÖ / 2:11 PM


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