The World Inside Our Heads and the Real World Out There

The WIOH is made of stories using language, thoughts, mathematics, maps and models. As we become more sophisticated, it is the World we live in most of the time. We think the WIOH is the RWOT but it isn't - it's more like a sort of map.  As our knowledge advances, the WIOH expands - the map explains more about the RWOT in a way we can understand. Will it ever match the RWOT - Like the maps made by Borges' cartographers which grew bigger and bigger until they became as big as the real world?
The RWOT on the other hand just IS. It is indivisible, it does not contain 'things' or phenomena - these are all made up in the WIOH. It just IS.

Time granules

1. Suppose time is granular (ie atomic, discreet or digital) so the Present Moment is a granule of time.
2. The present moment is different for each observer
3. If there was a present moment granule in which nothing happened, time would stop - it would not be able to proceed to the next moment.
4. But in a movie - if two frames are identical, the film does not come to a halt. That is because it is being run through a projector which has its own time-agenda.
5. As the present moment is different for each observer (2) perhaps that is what keeps things rolling along just like in the projector.
6. In other words Time does not stop for one observer because it is kept going by all the others.
7. Only if they all stop, time ends.

Purpose

What is a knife?

What is its purpose?

What is  a  tree?

What is its purpose?

What is a man?

What is his purpose?

In order to define something we might consider a number of aspects – description, concept, function, potential and purpose. A thing is easier to define if it has a function or purpose. Eg. Cheese-grater - a device for grating cheese.

A function is just a description of what the thing is doing in a particular context – it can have a function without having a purpose. Eg. Tree, spider, man

Purpose implies intelligence and time. A fire extinguisher has a purpose, even if it never functions (ie puts out a fire)

A ladder, a spider’s web, a symphony, a heart, an iPad all have a purpose.

God (the human invention) has a purpose – to inspire, act as a moral compass, give humans a purpose. But God (the supreme being) cannot have a purpose as he was not designed by someone else. As the old hymn goes: ‘God is working his purpose out as year succeeds to year’.

Energy is a concept (ie something we have conceived) the concept of energy has a purpose (to clarify our understanding of the universe). Energy itself does not have a purpose (though it does have a function).

This applies to other concepts eg: matter, time and space.

When is now?

When we look at a scene, we are constructing an understanding of what we see from past experience (is that a tree on the horizon or a pylon?). We can’t look in two directions at once, we have to take time to construct the picture (we look over here, then over there – even if we don’t move our head, our eyes scan the scene).

Yet we perceive this as experiencing the landscape in ‘the present’. This is sometimes called the ‘spurious present’ – “the interval of time such that events occurring within it are experienced as present”. This is by contrast to the ‘real present’ which is supposed to be dimensionless.

In the diagram, the point at which the two cones meet (at the observer) is supposed to represent the real (objective, dimensionless) present.

Spot the difference

In an infinite set of things, some will be what Turing called ‘arbitrarily close’ – in other words indistinguishable. How many will depend on our accuracy of observation.

To test this for yourself, see how many differences you can spot in the drawing below.

Time and multiple universes

An infinite number of universes which contain nothing is the same as one universe which contains nothing. In other words - nothing.

The same goes for identical universes. The idea of two identical universes is ridiculous. There can only be one universe until an event happens. Then, time is created and another universe along with it. Or – time is the same as a multiplicity of universes.

There can’t be a period of time in which nothing happens. A universe in which nothing happens has no time and so does not exist.

Adam and Eve had an infinite amount of time to live uneventful lives. It was not until they ate the apple that things stated happening – and time began.

The Brick

In the 1950s an avant-garde artist makes his film ‘The Brick’. To make the film, he sets up a brick in artificial light and, with the camera on a static tripod, films it for one hour.

The film is rediscovered and shown in an art cinema. It causes a sensation and runs for a week. The projectionist is bored and sometimes runs the film backwards. Then he makes a still slide of the first frame and shows it for an hour.

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Suppose we take a snapshot of the universe in State A, then another in State B. If A and B are indistinguishable then nothing has happened (or time has not passed – which amounts to same thing).

There are many objections to this thought experiment – eg:

1.   Where is the camera which takes the snapshot? Is it ‘outside the universe’?

2.   If time does not pass between State A and State B, how can we take the second snapshot?