Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia; Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.
Post 129.June 4, 2023
Time is Energy
Time is the currency of Physics
In april/may 2023Philosophy Now magazine, the question of the month is "what is time?" And the very first reply gave me food for thought along Enformationism lines : "Time needs to exist for change to happen. This means time must have existed before the Big Bang." Since the same can be said for Primordial Energy, could we say that Cosmic Energy is the cause of Causation?¹ In the Big Bang theory, “The key assumption of this model is that just before the Big Bang, space was filled with an unstable form of energy, whose nature is not yet known”². [my bold] You’ve heard that “time is money”, but did you know that Time is Energy?
Ancient philosophers did not have a modern mechanical understanding of Energy, but Plato & Aristotle introduced the Greek term Energeia (worker) to explain physical changes. The English word Work, meaning “to produce desired results”, implies that the worker is the cause of those effects. Therefore, perhaps the pre-bang Energy was some kind of hired laborer, similar to Plato’s anthropomorphic, demiurge⁴(craftsman ; artisan), or to his abstract principle, First Cause⁵. In all these attempts to understand Cause & Effect, the causer is always somewhat mysterious. Even today, we define Energy, not in terms of what it is, but of what it does. So, Doing (action) seems to be the job description of the Cosmic Worker. I wouldn’t describe that pre-bang artisan as “unstable” though, but merely not-yet employed. In other words : Potential⁶.
From a cosmological perspective it seems that Time (pro-gressive change³) is one activity that Energy is working on. Ironically, we typically think of Time as a fundamental feature of reality. But, it may be merely an effect of something even more essential : the cosmic power of Causation. The Enformationism thesis refers to that mysterious eternal Essence mostly by job description, not by personal name. Therefore, I refer to the role of Energy in & after the Big Bang as EnFormAction (the power to enform and transform). Prior to the BB though, the causal potential must create the the malleable substance (generic matter), that will later be transformed into all the various forms we encounter today. From that initial condition, I can go on to equate Generic Information⁷ with Cosmic Time. Yet again, that is a counter-intuitive notion, which only makes sense in the light of a cosmic Information theory : everything in the world is a form of Information/Energy.
The Time Question reply also said that "Time may be considered a one-way valve, preventing us from going backwards". Ironically, by equating Time with Energy, some scientists have proposed that Entropy is, in effect, Energy (change) going backwards. Yet we are not used to thinking in those terms. Perhaps, because Energy (positive change) and Entropy (negative change) typically cancel each other out, so that the net Energy state of the universe is a balanced equation. Clock time goes in circles, zero back to zero.
Blog Post 129 continued . . . .
1. What are the causes of causation? : “Causality (also called causation, or cause and effect) is influence by which one event, process, state, or object (a cause) contributes to the production of another event, process, state, or object (an effect) where the cause is partly responsible for the effect, and the effect is partly dependent on the cause.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causality
2. Primordial Energy? : “But what was this primordial form of energy? And where did the "seed" of space and energy come from in the first place? How did the universe as a whole begin?” https://lweb.cfa.harvard.edu/seuforum/bb_whatpowered.htm
4. Demiurge : “In the Platonic, Neopythagorean, Middle Platonic, and Neoplatonic schools of philosophy, the demiurge is an artisan-like figure responsible for fashioning and maintaining the physical universe.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demiurge
5. First Cause : “I show that the First Cause is not a series of changes (= events) describable by physical laws; rather, it is initially changeless and brought about the first event with the physical laws.” https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-94403-2_6
6. Potential : “Potential generally refers to a currently unrealized ability.” ___Wiki
7. Generic Information : Simply the general power or potential to cause formal or structural change in the real world. It includes changes of Mind.
A philosophical worldview or belief system grounded on the 20th century discovery that Information, rather than Matter, is the fundamental substance of everything in the universe. It is intended to be the 21st century successor to ancient Materialism. An Update from Bronze Age to Information Age. It's a Theory of Everything that covers, not just matter & energy, but also Life & Mind & Love.
WHAT IS ENERGY? It’s not a particular thing, but a transferable (hence not intrinsic or inherent) property, ability, quality, that is quantifiable only in its effects. “In physics, energy is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy
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