A New View Of Time To Tame Quantum 'Weirdness'
Objective, Subjective Time Defined; Classical Physics Emerges From Quantum Mechanics
Einstein believed time flow is an illusion. He said, "You have to accept the idea that subjective time with its emphasis on the now has no objective meaning .... the distinction between past, present and future is only an illusion, however persistent." This is a quote from "God and The New Physics;" by Paul Davies (Touchstone, Simon & Shuster, Inc., New York, 1984).
I certainly agree. If time really does not flow but only seems to do so, that leaves us with "objective time." While Einstein said subjective time is an illusion, he did not say time itself is an illusion.
Objective time must then refer to what has happened since the universe was, in effect "wound up" with the Big Bang, and what has happened and continues to happen as the unwinding continues. So it is the progression of entropy, the movement of matter and energy to its lowest possible state of organization, that must represent objective time.
Our observation of such movement and changes in the universe surely is what Einstein meant by "subjective time." Thus our minds create a necessary mental illusion to give us a sense of past, present and future, even though as I believe, only eternity exists. Or to put it another way, "only things exist."
A Philosophical Analysis Of Objective and Subjective Time
Space time addresses: On our human scale of everyday life where classical/relativistic physics holds sway, time flow is observed when one space time address of an object or event is compared with another. Objects and events can thus be assigned an identity, and can be accurately "located" in the subjective past, present or future by the observer.
Subjective Time: The illusion of movement in time is essential for us to make sense of our environment and is created mentally by our thought processes. However, the movement and change we observe is embedded in the physical objects being observed. Such movement does not occur in a fourth time dimension but instead moves only through the three space dimensions.
Objective Time: Resides only in matter and energy. Objective time embedded in physical objects consists of a partial record of how matter has evolved, moved and changed and how energy has been emitted in the universe since the Big Bang. Objective time can be observed in changes that result from cause and effect or statistical causation.
Causation: Macrocosmic level causation of such movement can be either be cause and effect or statistical. Quantum scale causation is only statistical. Even the location of a quantum level object or event is also statistical rather than individual. Thus the illusion of time flow is not directly observed on the quantum scale and events can be observed as occurring nonlocally.
Uncertainty, no addresses: On the quantum scale, spacetime addresses aren't available to an observer because of the uncertainty principle. Objects and events cannot be assigned accurate spacetime addresses by an observer since they lack individual identity and locality. Thus, spacetime addresses are not available to create a mental perception of time flow and subjective time is not observed.
Classical Physics Emerges From Quantum Mechanics
Science writer Timothy Ferris in his excellent book "The Whole Shebang," says in a chapter on "Quantun Weirdness," that quantum mechanics works normally on its own scale, but gets "weird" at its interface with classical physics. However, if time's subjective and objective nature is applied to quantum mechanics, I believe much of the "weirdness" is eliminated.
On the microcosmic quantum scale, I've concluded that subjective time does not exist. It is impossible to establish spacetime locations because of the uncertainty principle. Both objective and subjective time, therefore, spring into existence at the point in scale where classical physics emerges from quantum mechanics and leaves the uncertainly principle behind.
Thus classical physics is an emergent quality of the change upward from the microcosmic to macrocosmic scale. Quantum mechanics is like the tiny pixels or brush strokes of a photograph or painting which appear as random patterns until the larger image they create appears and replaces them with the upward change of scale.
Since classical physics does emerge from quantum mechanics, then logically a quantum mechanical universe would exist first following the Big Bang, and classical physics would appear after the universe cooled and expanded sufficiently for its macrocosmic state to form. This implies that gravity would be only a feature of the macrocosm and would not be present in the early quantum mechanical fireball of the Big Bang .
New Analysis of Time
OBJtime.htm/posted 8-12-01, revised 12-8-01,
12-23-01