Commentary on the Physical
Elements of the "Spacetime Map"
(revised Nov., 2010)
John A. Gowan
email:
jag8@cornell.edu
johngowan@earthlink.net
Spacetime, Light, Entropy
The basic pattern of the "Spacetime Map" is a "bull's-eye" of concentric circles representing a "light Universe" of expanding, 4-dimensional (4-D) spacetime, a Universe containing only light (electromagnetic radiation) and no matter (and consequently no gravity and no local time). Each circle represents all of 3-D space at a particular instant after the Big Bang, and because these circles are concentric on the beginning point of the Big Bang, the space represented by the line of any circle is all of the same age (since it is all the same distance from the origin). Time is present only implicitly as "frequency" in electromagnetic radiation, and in a global sense as one of the controlling parameters (gauged by the electromagnetic constant "c") of the universal spacetime metric (for example, the rate of expansion, cooling, and entropy increase).
Total energy is conserved in the "light Universe" - the product of the temperature of spacetime multiplied by its volume remains the same for every stage of the expansion. The expansion is driven by entropy, the 2nd law of thermodynamics, which demands that the capacity for "work" by the Universe decreases as time passes, and the most obvious way for this incapacitation to occur is by the expansion and cooling of the volume of spacetime. The intrinsic motion of light is the spatial entropy drive of free electromagnetic energy as "gauged" or regulated by the electromagnetic constant "c" ("velocity c"). The presence of free energy (light), space, time, entropy, and a governing metric are all explicitly implied by this expanding, cooling, and energy-conserving pattern, the metric of spacetime providing the conservation mechanism which integrates space, time, light, energy and entropy. In the case of light, the electromagnetic or spacetime metric relates space and time such that one second of temporal duration is metrically equivalent to (approximately) 300,000 kilometers of linear space (distance); and such that frequency multiplied by wavelength = c. This particular regulatory principle is only one among many other conservation laws, principles, and symmetries of the electromagnetic field and spacetime discovered by science since the time of Galileo. We have no idea how many more remain to be discovered.
Another aspect of energy conservation in the light Universe, of equal importance to the expansive principle of entropy, is symmetry conservation. Both entropy and symmetry conservation work together in the expansive principle of the Cosmos to ensure that it proceeds in a manner that conserves total energy. The entropy drive and symmetric, "non-local" energy state of light, as well as the symmetric metric of light's spatial conservation domain, are all "gauged" (regulated and scaled) by the electromagnetic constant "velocity c".
One obvious way this cooperative effect occurs is through ensuring the symmetry of the metric - that the relationship between space and time, as well as their absolute measure, is the same everywhere and does not vary through time or due to the entropic expansion. This symmetry is exampled by the "inertial forces" of the metric and can be thought of as a natural conservation mechanism suppressing the appearance of explicit local time and "rogue" or sourceless gravitational fields.
Another symmetric property of light supporting energy conservation is less obvious and was discovered by Einstein. This is the suppression of the time dimension to an implicit state by "velocity c". Light's "clock" is stopped - light has no time dimension and furthermore, light has no "x" dimension (distance) - meter sticks shrink to nothing in the direction of light's propagation. Distance and time do not exist for an individual particle of light (a photon). This results in a crucial symmetry condition for light, its "non-local" symmetric energy state, which results from the fact that since the x and t dimensions do not exist at velocity c, light has forever to go nowhere, and consequently (in its own reference frame) light is everywhere simultaneously within its entropic conservation domain of space.
The energy content of light or free electromagnetic energy is symmetrically distributed throughout spacetime - everywhere, simultaneously. Light's symmetric energy state and entropy drive are therefore inextricably linked since both are gauged by the electromagnetic constant "velocity c" - a fact of utmost consequence for our discussion and understanding of the origins of gravity.
Light is a 2-dimensional transverse wave whose intrinsic (entropic) motion sweeps out a 3rd spatial dimension at a rate or "velocity" controlled by the spacetime metric. The "non-local" character of light was recognized by Einstein as light's "infinite" velocity and as the "speed limit" of the Cosmos, and was mathematically formalized by Einstein in his equation for light's "Interval". In both Special and General Relativity, light's "Interval" = zero, the formal expression of light's non-local character. (The "Interval" is a measure of spacetime which is invariant for all observers regardless of their relative motion. Light's "Interval" is zero because light is 2-dimensional, moves at velocity c, and has no x or t dimensions.) This non-local attribute of light constitutes a symmetric energy state on at least two accounts: the asymmetric time dimension is suppressed, and (in its own reference frame) light's energy is equitably distributed everywhere throughout spacetime simultaneously.
We say that "velocity c" is the "gauge" magnitude of light's "non-local" symmetric energy state, and that this gauge is a symmetry condition imposed upon light by the metric of spacetime, to ensure total energy conservation. Without this metric symmetry gauge, every photon might have its own unique velocity, and spacetime could not function as a closed, self-consistent, entropic conservation domain, or the integrated and cohesive energy-conserving dimensional arena of our experience.
An important further connection to recognize is the role of time as the (implicit) entropy driver of the intrinsic motion of light. We noted above the metric relation that frequency multiplied by wavelength = c, the velocity of light. It is obvious that time is present in this equation as "frequency", and space is present as "wavelength"; so spacetime itself is implicit in the formulation of "velocity c". Spacetime is created in the Big Bang by the intrinsic motion of light, as regulated by the electromagnetic and metric gauge "velocity c". "Velocity c" is the electromagnetic symmetry gauge of the spacetime metric, but it is more than this, because the intrinsic motion of light also causes the expansion and cooling of the Cosmos. Therefore, "velocity c" is both the symmetry and the entropy gauge of the spacetime metric with respect to free energy and light, functioning to regulate the expansion and cooling of space such that both the 1st and 2nd laws of thermodynamics are observed, as well as "Noether's Theorem" (symmetry conservation). The role for metric symmetry in this process, as provided by "inertial" forces, and by the non-local character of light which causes the vanishing or suppression of an explicit or local time dimension (and its associated or "rogue" gravitational field) should be obvious. This is the "global" or overall picture of the symmetric energy state and entropic expansion of the "light Universe" - a spatial conservation domain for free electromagnetic energy. (See: "A Description of Gravitation".)
The "Intrinsic" Motion of Light
Let us look now more closely at the microscopic picture, at the quantum level, concerning the curious notion of the "intrinsic" motion of light. The "intrinsic" dimensional motions of light, time, and gravity are all entropic motions, the entropy drives of free energy, bound energy, and the gravitational conversion force between them, respectively. The dimensions of spacetime are energy conservation domains created and maintained by entropy, the 2nd law of thermodynamics, which serves the 1st law (energy conservation), by establishing a dimensional domain (spacetime) in which energy may be used and transformed while simultaneously being conserved. This is the function of entropy, to make energy available for use and transformation in a lawful, non-abused, and totally conserved way. (See: "Spatial vs Temporal Entropy".)
We are only allowed to use energy because entropy prevents us from abusing the privilege, by ensuring that energy conservation is always observed whenever energy is used and transformed (for example, no perpetual motion machines, and no machines which produce net energy are allowed). This entropy law is enforced primarily through the "intrinsic motion" of the basic energy forms, producing in the case of light or free energy the expansion and cooling of the Cosmos. In the case of bound energy or matter, the intrinsic motion of the time dimension functions as the entropy drive, producing, expanding, aging, and diluting history, the temporal analog of space and the conservation domain of matter's causal information field, or "causal matrix" (historic spacetime). At the quantum level, this intrinsic motion is produced by the interaction between frequency and wavelength (recall that frequency multiplied by wavelength = c), and the principles of symmetry, entropy, and energy conservation.
We must visualize this interaction in terms of these three basic energy principles (Noether's Theorem plus the 1st and 2nd laws of thermodynamics). The time element ("frequency"), which is asymmetric in that it is one-way, "chases" the spatial element ("wavelength"), which is symmetric in that it is "all-way", in an attempt to achieve an explicit or manifest condition (time is trying to manifest). The spatial element "flees" the temporal element in an attempt to retain its dominant and symmetric state; at "velocity c" this goal is achieved, and time is suppressed to an implicit state. The "wavelength dominant" or symmetric entropy state is also the lowest energy state for the entropy drive. However, since the time principle is embedded in the electromagnetic wave as part of its very nature ("frequency"), we have the classic "bur under the saddle" situation which results in light's self-motivated, endless, and hence "intrinsic" motion. (See: "The Conversion of Space to Time".)
This primordial and ongoing struggle between asymmetric and symmetric forms of entropy drive and energy is the basis of light's intrinsic motion and a fundamental example of the archetypal struggle between "good and evil", or the manifest vs unmanifest world. This contest is paralleled by the struggle of matter to manifest from the virtual realm of particle-antiparticle pairs, but this too is suppressed by the symmetry restraint imposed by matter-antimatter annihilations due to electric charge - another example of the symmetry role played by light and the electromagnetic constant c. (Time and matter will nevertheless find a pathway to manifestation through breaking the symmetry of the particle-antiparticle pairs of the quantum particle "sea" (via the weak force) during the early micro-moments of the "Big Bang"). (See: "The Origin of Matter and Information".)
The origin of light's intrinsic motion lies in a symmetry condition imposed by the spacetime metric that results in the suppression of local, explicit time and simultaneously produces the entropic spatial expansion of the Universe. Time is the entropic driver of the Universe, whether implicit in light or explicit in matter; symmetry conservation is the regulator of the dynamic; energy conservation is the consequence. (See: "Symmetry Principles of the Unified Field Theory".)
The role of gravity does not exist until the creation of matter. Gravity enables the creation of the material cosmos by providing sufficient negative energy to exactly balance the positive energy of matter. After the creation, gravity functions to convert the entropy drive of free energy (light's intrinsic motion) to the entropy drive of bound energy (time's intrinsic motion), and vice-versa. This is simply accomplished by switching from implicit to explicit time, via the gravitational annihilation of space, revealing the implicit temporal entropy drive of space and light, which consequently and subsequently, in metrically equivalent terms, becomes the explicit entropy drive of history and matter. (See:"The Conversion of Space to Time".)
Three Symmetries of "Velocity c" - Plus Light's Entropy Drive
Spacetime "Interval" = 0, Particle "Number" = 0, Metric "Curvature" = 0
1) At "velocity c": time, distance (in the "x" dimension, or direction of propagation), and the "Interval" of light = 0 (as per Einstein's Special Relativity). In addition to the metric suppression of the asymmetric time dimension, light's "zero interval" constitutes the formal basis for light's "non-local" energy state, a symmetry of the distribution of light's energy everywhere simultaneously throughout space, and regardless of the entropic expansion of the Cosmos. Light is non-local, atemporal, and acausal.
2) Metric symmetry - as gauged by "velocity c" and manifest through "inertial forces". In the "light Universe", the absolute measure as well as the metric relationship between space and time is the same everywhere and at all times, regardless of the Cosmos' entropic expansion (which affects only volume). This is equivalent to a suppression of "rogue" or sourceless gravitational fields (and the suppression of explicit, local time). "Curvature" (acceleration) of the spacetime metric = zero.
3) Matter-antimatter symmetry. Electric charge motivates the annihilation of particle-antiparticle pairs, whether "virtual" or "real". The photon is the field vector (force carrier) of electric charge, moving at "velocity c", so the annihilation takes place within Heisenberg's time limit for virtual reality. Light protects its own symmetric energy state through suppression of bound energy, matter, and mass (and the gravitational field and other explicit charges associated with matter): mass and particle "number" = 0. (See: "The Tetrahedron Model.")
4) The entropy drive of light, free energy, or electromagnetic radiation. The intrinsic motion of light is the entropy drive of free electromagnetic radiation, creating space and causing the expansion and cooling of the Cosmos (visible through large telescopes as the "cosmological redshift"). The electromagnetic constant "c" is the gauge of both the entropy drive and the "non-local" symmetric energy state of light. The energy gauge "c", inadequately conceived as a "velocity", is always in the service of energy conservation. Entropy and causality, as well as energy and symmetry conservation, all require "velocity c" to be an effectively "infinite", absolute (non-relative), and invariant velocity.
Matter, Time, Gravity
So long as the Cosmos consists only of light, the spatial entropy drive of free energy (the intrinsic motion of light as gauged by "velocity c") remains dominant. But with the weak force breaking of the symmetry between particle-antiparticle pairs (essentially the breaking of the symmetry between matter and antimatter or the Universe-Antiuniverse pair), isolated atoms of matter are created and some of the free energy of the light Universe is transformed into the bound energy of matter. With the creation of matter also comes the creation of bound energy's entropy drive, the intrinsic motion of matter's time dimension, which is just the explicit form of the same temporal element that in its implicit condition drives the expansion of the light Universe. Thus the change from the intrinsic motion of light (the entropy drive of free energy) to the intrinsic motion of time (the entropy drive of bound energy) is nothing more nor less than the quantum mechanical (or gravitational) "switch" from implicit to explicit time. (See: "Gravity diagram No. 2".)
The energy difference between implicit time (S)
and explicit time (T) is equal to -G:
S - T = -G. (See: "The
Conversion of Space to Time").
Gravity enters this picture as the entropy conversion gauge regulating the energy differential between the entropy drives of free and bound energy, the intrinsic motion of light vs the intrinsic motion of time. Gravity converts either entropy drive to the other (an example of the reverse transformation is the gravitational conversion of mass to light in stars). Just as "velocity c" is the gauge of the metric relation between light, space, and time, so "velocity G" (the universal gravitational constant G, the "intrinsic motion" of gravity), is the gauge of the entropic relation between mass, space, and time. (See: "The Half-life of Proton Decay and the 'Heat Death' of the Cosmos".) The intrinsic motion of light creates space; the intrinsic motion of time creates history; the intrinsic motion of gravity converts space to time and vice versa. (See: "Entropy, Gravitation, and Thermodynamics".)
Gravity creates time from space, and gravity's "negative energy" character may be seen as the energetic cost of creating matter's time dimension (or equivalently, as the interest which must be paid on the time-deferred symmetry debts (charges) of matter), slowing the expansion of the Cosmos in consequence. (See: "The Double Conservation Role of Gravitation".) The spatial entropy drive of light ultimately funds the temporal entropy drive of matter. The gravitational creation of bound energy's temporal entropy drive (T) from free energy's spatial entropy drive (S), is essentially the gravitational transformation of space into history. The expansion of history (historic spacetime) replaces the simple expansion of space. The spatial expansion of the Cosmos decelerates accordingly. Conceptually:
-Gm(S) = (T)m
-Gm(S) - (T)m = 0
Matter, History, Causality
The creation of matter profoundly affects the symmetry of the bull's-eye pattern of the "Spacetime Map" for at least three reasons: time, gravity, and the unique reference frame seen by massive observers in relative (rather than absolute) motion. Matter is local, temporal, causal; light is non-local, atemporal, and acausal.
Time is the primordial entropy drive of matter, creating history, the temporal analog of space. (See: "Spatial vs Temporal Entropy".) The intrinsic motion of time is the metric equivalent of light's intrinsic motion, meaning that the natural unit of space is 300,000 kilometers (~3/4 of the Earth-Moon distance) - if we choose one second as the natural unit of time. In the Map we plot years of time vs light years of space (the distance light will travel in vacuum in a year). The nearest star is about 4 light years away; our galaxy is about 100,000 light years in diameter, and our nearest (large) neighboring galaxy, Andromeda, is about 2.2 million light years distant. This means we see Andromeda not as it is today, but as it was 2.2 million years ago, and vice versa. Everything we see is in the past to a greater or lesser extent depending on distance, because the speed of light, while "infinite" in its own reference frame (which has neither time nor distance), in the reference frame of a material observer such as ourselves has a finite speed, although it is nevertheless a "non-ordinary" or "absolute" velocity, as Einstein discovered.
The dimensions are always at right angles to each other, and time, the 4th dimension, is at right angles to all three spatial dimensions, a fact which we cannot comprehend spatially so our minds interpret it temporally (as a type of oriented (one-way) motion rather than an oriented direction). It required the genius of Einstein to realize that time is a 4th dimension and interchangeable with space. On the Map we plot the single dimension of time at right angles to all three dimensions of space, which means that all three spatial dimensions are collapsed into a single line. Thus on the Map we have two moving (expanding) coordinates at right angles to each other, one moving in time and the other moving in space, both driven by entropy, the expansion of space vs the expansion of history. Together they create our expanding Universe of historical spacetime.
As we are the Earth-observers of the Map, we must choose some unique orientation on the page which represents our particular historical view of the Universe, and lay down our right-angled space and time coordinates accordingly. It is simply a matter of convenience where we choose to do so, but once that convention is established, it fixes the remainder of the Universe relative to our own position and view. For example, 3/4 of the Map immediately becomes superfluous (from our point of view) once we have chosen a position for our particular 90 degrees of the circle. It is a limitation of our mapping procedure that we cannot simultaneously represent the perspective of all possible observers in the Universe; in fact, we are limited to a single, reciprocal pair, but that is sufficient to establish the validity of our mapping procedure. We choose, purely for our own convenience, to align our space and time coordinates with the major and minor axes of the paper on which it is drawn.
With matter and the physical observer comes time, mass, charge, causality and history, a unique perspective (reference frame), relative rather than absolute motion, and local rather than global forces, including gravity. Gravity, according to Einstein, is a "warpage" or acceleration of the spacetime metric, affecting both space and time in metrically equivalent amounts, and so may be represented in our map by (slightly) bending the paper on which it is drawn, or more accurately, by transferring our grid lines to the appropriately curved gravitational surface, just as a cartographer of the Earth transfers a flat map of its surface to a globe. Current research indicates that the Universe is essentially flat, so (as currently understood), no curving of our flat map seems to be necessary. Note that with matter comes Einstein's equation E = mcc, a 4th example of the universal gauge function of the electromagnetic constant c. The four principle conservation parameters of the "Tetrahedron Model" (entropy, causality, symmetry, and energy conservation) are all gauged by "velocity c". (See: "The Tetrahedron Model".)
Negative and Positive Energy
It is currently and widely believed that during the "Big Bang", the positive energy of the universe was precisely balanced by the negative energy of gravity, allowing the creation of the Cosmos from zero net energy, perhaps as a quantum fluctuation within a "false vacuum" ("inflation"). Whatever the details, the positive/negative energy balance seems a very reasonable and likely criterion for the initial condition (along with zero net charge, etc.), with the positive energy in the form of compact, massive particle-antiparticle pairs of matter and antimatter. Assuming that this original negative gravitational energy is just as permanently conserved a feature of the universe as its positive energy component, we see that regardless of its evolutionary course and particulars, the cosmos begins, evolves, and ends in a state of zero net energy, balanced between the positive energy of matter on the one hand, and the negative energy of gravity on the other. This means that when matter and antimatter annihilate in the "Big Bang", the gravity associated with their mass does not go away, anymore than their positive energy goes away. The negative gravitational energy was apparently originally contained in the metric structure of spacetime, while the positive energy was contained in its massive particles.
When the positive energy is transformed from mass to light (from bound to free electromagnetic energy) in matter-antimatter annihilation reactions, where does the balancing gravitational energy go? Single photons do not (cannot) produce a gravitational field, so it appears that the negative gravitational energy is conserved in the metric of spacetime (where it originated) as a sort of negative energy "cosmological constant". Gravity is transformed from the particular to the general, having only a global presence rather than a local presence, just as time has a global rather than a local presence in the metric of the light universe. These two parameters (gravity and time), in fact, are most likely the same thing at global scale, just as they are at local scale. Hence when matter is annihilated, its local energy becomes global, its local time becomes global, its local entropy drive becomes global, and its local gravity becomes global - all stored in one form or another (perhaps even the same form) in the global metric of spacetime. We see the universe "accelerate" as the local gravitational field is transferred to its global counterpart when local matter is converted to global light (as in the stars, etc.).
The Light Line
We now come to the mapping phenomenon of the "light line", which represents our complete 4-D view of the Universe from the present moment to the Big Bang. The construction of this line and several proofs of its validity are presented in the text of the Map and I will not repeat them here.
The "light line" divides the Universe into equal haves of past and future - a result which is necessitated by the reciprocal character of our astronomical observations. For example, we see other observers in their past, and vice versa, so equal futures must also exist for both, since our today lies as far in their future as their today lies in our future, and these future distances are evidently exactly equal to the past distances that we mutually observe. The "light line" and other constructions in the map are only possible because, due to the discrete beginning of the Cosmos in space and time (the "Big Bang"), all parts of the Cosmos - or at least all potential observers - are of the same age.
The causal integrity of the Universe is the basis for the popular notion of "Karma", which turns out to be quite accurate. We are all immortal in history, and "no sparrow falls but the Father knows". Furthermore, it is not just today that is causally linked to the past, but the future is (at least partially) linked as well. We all know that causes we set in motion yesterday may have effects not only today but for years to come. In this regard, we note that in the map our time line intersects the light line of every possible observer in the Cosmos at some point between today and the "Big Bang", so the past and the future, although separated by the light line of today's experience, are nevertheless causally related at some point in their history.
This is not to say the future is already locked into an immutable causal mould - the causal web is so complex that we can typically modify it in many ways with inputs today to influence the outcome tomorrow. Some actions, of course, are irreversible: having jumped off the bridge, regrets are useless when halfway to the water.
The Time Line and Causality
The "time line" in the Map represents our historical travel via the intrinsic motion of the time dimension (See: "The Time Train"). Because we are plotting years against light years, time and space are accorded equal weight as dimensional mapping parameters. In the map, the entropic expansion of history as driven by the intrinsic motion of time is metrically equivalent to the entropic expansion of space as driven by the intrinsic motion of light. Of course we cannot see our own time line or our own history (except in a mirror). But many things are real which we cannot see, and our historical domain - the semicircular area in the Map beneath our light line and above our time line - remains perfectly real. The reality of today depends absolutely on the continuing reality of yesterday - they are causally linked. Furthermore, our yesterday is another's observer's today, and vice versa. In fact, the causal linkage of the Universe is complete, initiated by the period of thermal equilibrium (which lasted about 300,000 years), during the plasma era of the Big Bang. Throughout the plasma era, all parts of the Cosmos were in thermal contact with one another.
Note that the Map clearly indicates we live on the edge of spacetime while the Big Bang is located at the center or beginning of spacetime. Thus we always look backward in time toward the Big Bang as we look outward in space - in every and any direction. The edge of the Cosmos is "here and now" (because "here and now" is the furthest in time and distance from the Big Bang), while the most distant galaxies are near the center of the Cosmos, near its beginning in the Big Bang. This is just the reverse of the commonly held conception that the most distant galaxies are at the very "edge" of spacetime: we are at the "edge"; distant galaxies are near the center or beginning of spacetime. Failure to grasp this simple but basic fact has very serious consequences for cosmological theory, such as the bogus "horizon" problem, and the "inflation" theory specifically designed to solve it.
The causal realm, which constitutes the "bulk" area of the Spacetime Map, is apparently 5-dimensional, the extra (large) dimension being evidently a mixture of space and time which we might conveniently refer to as simply the "causal matrix", domain, or dimension. If our light line is 4-dimensional, then the "bulk" Universe of the Map is clearly 5-dimensional, the analog of our light line "squared", essentially being composed of the light lines, the histories, and the futures of all possible observers in the Cosmos - all intertwined into a gigantic "causal matrix" whose connections, although in most cases quite tenuous, are nevertheless real. Historic spacetime is the conservation domain of matter's information field, which I refer to as matter's "causal matrix". How are we connected to the distant galaxies? Obviously by light, gravity, and the spacetime metric; and in the distant past, by contact as well, during the plasma era of the early Universe (the first ~300,000 years).
While the 5th causal dimension cannot be seen, we can certainly intuit or deduce it. For example, it is both yesterday (below our light line) and tomorrow (above our light line), and it fills the "Andromeda Gap", those 2.2 million years of spacetime that have gone missing between us and the Andromeda galaxy. We know those years are there, but we cannot see them. We see Andromeda not where it is, but where it was 2.2 million years ago. Where is Andromeda "today"? Lost to our current view, somewhere in the "Andromeda gap", because it lies in our future and their past. The reciprocal argument applies to Andromeda's current view of us. This is the nature of our deductive evidence for the causal or 5th dimension of the "bulk" Universe. (See: "The 5-Dimensional Universe of Juan Maldacena".) (Since the "Andromeda gap" or historical spacetime contains another complete set of our usual (large) 4 dimensions, there is some reason to think that our Cosmos is actually 8 dimensional. Intriguingly, an 8-D universe is a possibility encompassed mathematically by the "octonian" number system - see: Ian Stewart: Why Beauty is Truth, 2007 Basic Books.)
What we see of the Universe is just a "light show" - lights in the sky. The physical objects themselves (the galaxies) are not where or as we see them; we see them at various times during their past histories depending on their distances. Physically, they all exist "now" in the outermost spatial circle of the Map. This "universal now" we cannot see, but can access only by touch. It is where we would have to go in a rocket ship to visit the distant galaxies. This observation should jog our sense of reality. The Universe of the dimensions that we see, as Einstein well realized, is a rather strange place. It is not only our microscopic vision into the quantum realm that cannot be trusted, but our macroscopic vision into the astronomical world must be suspect as well.
When we look out into space we see a unique and curious historical slice of the Universe, because at every distance we see only a small part, one or a few galaxies perhaps, of the Universe as it existed at that particular time in its history. For example, at exactly 4 billion light years distance, we see a few galaxies of that distant era, but these are just a small subset of the entire Universe as it existed 4 billion years ago. We cannot see the remainder - the vast bulk - of the 4 billion light-year-distant Universe, because we see earlier or later universes instead, which lie at greater or lesser distances. We don't see any of our Universe in its "present moment" - everything we see exists sometime in the past. Such 2-dimensional observational shells represent the tangential "touches" of light on the actual "bulk" 4-D Universe of a particular (instantaneous) historical period. We cannot see the present Universe or any moment in its history in its entirety. Space, time, and light intersect only in our "present moment" (and in the "Big Bang"); otherwise, they exist at right angles to each other.
In the Map, our light line cuts through each concentric space line at a single point. At this point, we see a small portion of the Universe as it existed exactly then (depending on how thin we choose to slice the time line). The remainder of the space line is the "bulk" Universe of the same age, which, however, we cannot see as it then existed - it does not intersect our light line. We do manage to see all of the Universe, but we see it spread out in time as well as in space, and we never see all of it at one time or in one place.
Every observer in the Universe will see a different historical sampling of the Cosmos, but none will ever see it entire at a single historical time, all because of the finite speed of light in the reference frames of massive observers. These historical, observational slices (the light lines of the observers) are perhaps the analogs of "membranes" in string theory. (See: "The Connection Between String Theory and the 'Spacetime Map'".) And for all we know, our entire Universe may be but a "bubble" in a vastly larger (perhaps infinitely larger) "Multiverse", of which our spacetime is nothing but an electromagnetic conservation domain for information within an n-dimensional energy matrix for which size and time are meaningless.
Three Asymmetries of "Velocity G" - Plus Matter's Entropy Drive
Time, Mass, Charge > 0; Interval, Curvature, Number > 0
1) Asymmetric "time" or history - (vs symmetric space) - is produced by gravity via the annihilation of space. Time is asymmetric in that it is a "one-way" dimension rather than "all-way" like the spatial dimensions. Time must be one-way because time establishes and maintains (in the historic domain) matter's causal relationships - which are required by energy conservation for all massive energy forms, due to their relative rather than absolute motion. Time is a symmetry/entropy debt associated with charge conservation - the time-deferred quantized charges of matter. Gravity creates a temporal dimension in which these symmetry debts (charges) can be paid (annihilated) at some future time, rather than immediately (like raw energy debts). Gravity is the entropy-"interest" which must be paid on matter's symmetry debt (conserved charges). The gravitational energy required to create matter's time dimension is drawn from the light-driven expansion of the Cosmos, which decelerates accordingly. Hence free energy's spatial entropy drive (light's intrinsic motion) ultimately funds bound energy's historical entropy drive (time's intrinsic motion). The charges of matter are the symmetry debts of light - (Noether's Theorem). (See: "The Conversion of Space to Time".)
2) Asymmetric "down" - (vs inertial symmetry) - gravity produces an energetically (inertially) preferred, asymmetric (one-way) spatial dimension ("down") directed toward the center of the field or mass. This is also an accelerated, moving dimension, violating spatial inertial symmetry. The spherically concentric gravitational field self-annihilates at its center, conserving energy and leaving behind a temporal residue which is the metric equivalent of the annihilated space. This temporal residue moves off into history, pulling more space after it, repeating the self-feeding, entropic cycle. Time and gravity induce each other endlessly. Gravity is the spatial consequence of the intrinsic motion of time. (See: "A Description of Gravitation".)
3) Asymmetric "local" mass - (vs "non-local" light) - matter/mass (bound electromagnetic energy) is immobile, local, concentrated and undistributed energy (E = mcc), which in consequence incurs a distributional symmetry debt (-Gm). The gravitational "location" charge identifies the spacetime location, magnitude, and concentration of the local symmetry debt represented by the undistributed, immobile bound energy of matter. This spatial symmetry debt and associated entropy debt (time) are simultaneously repaid by the gravitational conversion of bound energy to free energy in stars (partially) and via Hawking's "quantum radiance" of black holes (completely). Gravity is matter's memory it once was light. (See: "Entropy, Gravity, and Thermodynamics".)
4) The intrinsic motion of time is the entropy drive of bound energy and history, as well as the cause of matter's gravitational field and spatial symmetry debt. Time is the active principle of gravity's "location" charge, identifying the 4th dimensional coordinate position of immobile, undistributed mass/matter in spacetime. (See: "The Double Conservation Role of Gravitation".)
5) The final asymmetry, charge, is a temporally conserved form of symmetry; hence charge is a symmetry "debt" held through time, payable in the indefinite future. The charges of matter become explicit only in the absence of antimatter, which otherwise would balance and annihilate them. Matter is an asymmetric form of light, one half of a particle-antiparticle pair, preserved through time by charge conservation until it can pay (discharge) its symmetry debt - as by annihilation with antimatter. Gravity pays the entropy-"interest" on the symmetry debt of matter by creating time via the annihilation of space, extracting a metrically equivalent temporal residue. Gravity pays the energy-"principle" on matter's symmetry debt by the conversion of bound to free energy (in stars and via Hawking's "quantum radiance" of black holes). The financial analogy is apt, since paying the entropy-"interest" maintains but does not reduce matter's mass or symmetry debt (as in the transaction seen on planet Earth), whereas paying the energy-"principle" vanishes both mass and its associated gravitational field (as in the transaction seen on our Sun).
The Weakness of Gravity
The weakness of gravity is an enduring conundrum. The best explanation (or perhaps the only explanation) may be the anthropic one invoking the "multiverse": we can only exist to ask the question in that special Universe, perhaps one of infinitely many, where G has our observed value.
Nevertheless, without denying the plausibility of the anthropic or "multiverse" explanation, I have tried to formulate a rational explanation for gravity's weakness which relies on facts as well as theory. A similar argument is presented in various forms in several of my other papers, notably "The Half-life of Proton Decay and the 'Heat death' of the Cosmos". I will repeat certain salient points here.
The basic fact in the explanation is that bound energy (matter, people) does not fully occupy its conservation domain of historic spacetime, but rather maintains a tangential position - in the universal or eternal "now" - in relation to its historical conservation domain as created by the entropy drive of matter, time. Matter's tangential position with respect to history can be more fully appreciated by comparison with light's relationship to its own conservation domain, space.
The entropy drive of free energy, the intrinsic motion of light, creates space as a conservation domain for light, and light fully occupies that domain. Light can hardly be distinguished from its entropy drive (intrinsic motion), or its conservation domain (space), but although material observers (such as ourselves) experience a moving time dimension, we do not live in the historical domain which that moving dimension creates. Although history is the conservation domain of matter's causal information field (matter's "causal matrix"), causality, which demands history's continuing reality, also forbids our physical entry into this realm (our past) lest we disturb the future. Hence matter lives only in the "now", always contributing to history but never experiencing it. We cannot see our own past, even though we can see the past of distant galaxies, and vice versa (see: "A Spacetime Map of the Universe"). But what does this fact have to do with the weakness of gravity?
The theory I advance in these papers (See: "A Description of Gravitation") is that gravity has two related conservation roles in nature, one the conservation of light's "non-local" spatial distributional symmetry, and the other the conservation of light's entropy drive (the intrinsic motion of light). Since both light's non-local symmetric energy state and light's entropy drive are consequences of light's intrinsic motion as gauged by "velocity c", the intimate connection between these conservation roles becomes obvious: gravity cannot conserve one without conserving the other. (See: "The Double Conservation Role of Gravitation".) The theory says that gravity conserves and transforms light's entropy drive by converting space to time. In the reverse operation, gravity conserves light's spatial non-local symmetry by converting bound to free energy, as in stars: the radiance of our Sun announces a completed symmetry circuit (see: "Currents of Symmetry and Entropy"). Space contains some of light's entropy drive - as evidenced by the spatial expansion of the Cosmos, which is driven by light's intrinsic (entropic) motion - actually visible through telescopes as the "cosmological redshift" of distant galaxies. Space is created by the intrinsic motion of light and the two are usually inseparable. Because the spatial entropy drive is produced by light's intrinsic motion, it is invariant and has no dependence upon the size or the temperature of spacetime.
When gravity annihilates space at a center of mass (for example, at the center of an atom or at the center of the Earth), a temporal residue remains which is the metric equivalent of (and derived from) the annihilated space - in fact, time is the implicit component of the entropy drive which was resident in the annihilated space. In other words, if the spatial component of a quantity of spacetime is annihilated, then the temporal component remains, and the intrinsic motion of this temporal component is the transformed (conserved) remnant of the intrinsic motion of light, which had served as the entropy drive of the annihilated space. (See: "The Conversion of Space to Time".) The difference between the entropic expansion of space and the gravitational contraction of space is simply implicit vs explicit time.
While as material observers we are well aware of the intrinsic motion or entropy drive of time (and likewise of the entropic expansion of the historical component of spacetime), we are not usually aware of the intrinsic motion or entropy drive of space (cosmological spatial expansion and cooling). However, this is the same spatial entropy drive or expansive principle which Einstein felt he had to squash by means of his infamous "cosmological constant" to make his gravitational equations behave and his Universe conform to his static expectations. We actually see this expansive element in our giant telescopes as the "cosmological redshift" causing the expansion of the Universe. We do not personally experience this spatial expansive effect because of scale, because we are made of matter rather than light, because we are gravitationally bound to our planet, and because this non-local effect is uniformly dispersed over the whole Cosmos. The spatial expansion is far too small locally to notice, and is overwhelmed in any case by local gravitational effects. We experience the inverse of spatial expansion, the contractile motion of gravitation, because the highly local gravitational force records concentrations of mass as part of its symmetry debt accounting. The cosmic spatial entropy drive is real nevertheless, and it is this component that is conserved and transformed to time (the entropy drive of matter and history) when gravity annihilates space. (See: "Gravity Diagram No. 2".)
Entropy is an energy corollary and component, as may be appreciated from the fundamental character of the "intrinsic motions" of light, time, and gravity, and its conservation is required by both the 1st and 2nd laws of thermodynamics (see: "Spatial vs Temporal Entropy"). Finally, because "velocity c" gauges both the entropy drive and the symmetric energy state of free energy, the conservation of light's entropy drive also falls (by default) under the symmetry conservation umbrella of Noether's Theorem.
We can now begin to appreciate some of the reasons for the weakness of gravity. Gravity is weak because gravity is entropy-energy. Gravity annihilates space to produce temporal entropy, but obviously there is not much entropy-energy (whether spatial or temporal) available for this purpose in the small amount of space gravity annihilates per given mass. But why does matter require such a small amount of time to satisfy the requirements of its entropy drive? Because, as belabored above, matter is only tangentially connected to its historical entropy domain. If matter were to fully occupy its entropy domain (historic spacetime) as light does its entropy domain (space), then G = c and the entropy conversion gauge of matter (G) would be of the same strength as the spatial entropy gauge of light (c). (If G = c proton decay would be instantaneous and matter would be transformed to light. If g = c we get a black hole in a material Universe; if G = c matter cannot form and we do not get a material Universe.) Gravity is weak because it creates only enough time to service the entropy drive of matter's tangential connection to its historic domain - the "present moment" or "eternal now".
The electromagnetic constant c establishes, determines, regulates, or "gauges" the speed of light, and also gauges "velocity T" (the "speed of time"), as the duration required for light to travel a given distance. G, the gravitational constant, is the entropy conversion gauge, regulating how much space per given mass must be converted to time to provide matter's temporal entropy drive. While c is the gauge of the metric relation between light, space, and time, G is the gauge of the entropic relation between mass, space, and time.
There is some similarity between this explanation of gravity's weakness and the "leaky extra dimensions" of string theory. Here we see historical spacetime as actually comprising a 5th spacetime (large) dimension (or possibly even 8 macro-dimensions) to which the gravitational entropy energy is actually bled off, but the reason for gravity's weakness is not the extra-dimensional "bleeding", but the tiny tangential connection between bound energy and history: we experience only the "eternal now", never our history. Gravity annihilates only enough space to provide the temporal entropy drive for our point-like tangential connection to historic spacetime. In the case of the Earth, this connection corresponds to the size of a black hole containing the mass-energy of the Earth - about the size of a ping-pong ball. (See: "Juan Maldacena's 5-Dimensional Geometry and the Spacetime Map".)
The tangential temporal or entropic connection between matter and historic spacetime accords well with P. A. M. Dirac's observation that the strength of the electromagnetic force relative to the gravitational force is comparable to the radius of the Cosmos relative to the radius of an electron. In this comparison, the size of the electron corresponds to the tangential "touch" of the present moment upon historic spacetime.
Because it is the conservation function of entropy to decay or degrade energy, the whole point of the creation of matter (taking the anthropic point of view) is to produce from light an energy form that does not degrade rapidly via its entropy drive (as does light). "Diamonds are forever" because atoms simply do not decay, since the temporal entropy drive (produced by gravity) is so weak. Proton decay is the ultimate form of temporal entropy, but it is so rare it has never been seen, despite extensive searches (see: "The Half-life of Proton Decay and the 'Heat Death' of the Cosmos"). The half-life of proton decay is presumed to be at least 10(35) years (ten raised to the power of 35); compare this figure to the virtually instantaneous dissipation of heat via radiant energy.
Perhaps a more compelling reason for the tangential entropic connection between matter and historic spacetime is the protection of matter's symmetry debts (charges) from the vitiating influence of entropy during the expansion and aging of the Cosmos. Symmetry conservation (and hence Noether's Theorem) would be meaningless in the absence of charge invariance. Significantly, light carries no charges of any kind.
This weak entropy drive of matter is achieved, as we have seen, by insulating matter from its historical conservation domain except for its tangential connection in the present moment or "eternal now". The time dimension moves but matter does not; the entropy drive moves but the energy form does not; history expands, ages, and decays or becomes diluted, but atoms do not. In this way an entropy drive (time), and a conservation domain (history - historic spacetime), is created for matter which is the metric equivalent of light's intrinsic motion and spatial conservation domain, even though matter itself cannot move at velocity c. Recall that Einstein discovered that to "catch up with" or stop time, we have to move at velocity c. Einstein's result shows that the "Time Train" really does move at the metric equivalent of c. (See: "The Time Train".)
The "time train" itself (the 4th dimension, time), is produced just once, with matter in the "Big Bang". Light, because it is a co-mover traveling at velocity c, can get on and off the train at will, as in the absorption and emission of photons by an atomic electron shell. Matter, however, not being a co-mover, can get off only when the train itself stops in the black hole "depot".
We do not experience the motion or energy of the "time train" so long as we sit inside and simply watch the days go by. But we must never step off the moving train, just as we must avoid the black hole, for there g = c = T, and even our atoms would undergo proton decay. In the black hole, we would become fully a part of the temporal conservation domain created by the gravity of the black hole, just as light is fully a part of its spatial conservation domain. Hawking's "quantum radiance" of black holes is the ultimate gravitational repayment of matter's symmetry and entropy debt.
The Perspective from Quantum Mechanics
There is a related, quantum mechanical viewpoint regarding the question of the weakness of gravity. We have noted elsewhere that the weakness of gravity is due to the small energetic difference between implicit (S) and explicit (T) time:
S - T = -G.
The basic relationship is: wavelength multiplied by frequency = c, in which we note that both space ("wavelength") and time ("frequency") are at least implicitly present in this description of an electromagnetic wave. Now we know that the intrinsic motion of light creates space, but that light has no time dimension, so in the normal (free) electromagnetic wave it is the spatial element which is explicit and the temporal element which is implicit. This is the symmetric, "least energy", or "ground state" energetic relationship between space and time as expressed in an electromagnetic wave (light).
The intrinsic motion of light is caused by the symmetric "wavelength" or spatial element "fleeing" the asymmetric temporal or "frequency" element. At velocity c, the temporal element is completely suppressed, which is the chief symmetry-keeping function of the electromagnetic gauge "c". Hence both entropy and symmetry, in the service of energy conservation, are the cause of light's intrinsic motion. Because "frequency" is an embedded property of the electromagnetic wave, acting as the classic "bur under the saddle", the self-motivated or "intrinsic" motion of light can never cease, lest the asymmetric temporal element find expression. However, when freely moving light is converted to immobile matter, this is exactly what happens - the "frequency" element becomes dominant and the "wavelength" element is suppressed, establishing matter's explicit time dimension and entropy drive. (The suppressed wavelength component maintains a fugitive existence evidenced as DeBroglie's mass-waves.)
In the reversal of the frequency-wavelength relationship, dominant time moves into the historic domain and pulls space after it; space is annihilated at the point-like entrance to the one-dimensional (and one-way) time line, leaving behind a metrically equivalent temporal residue, which in turn moves into history, repeating the self-feeding entropic cycle. In the temporal cycle, time "flees" space into history, exactly the reverse of light's intrinsic motion (in which space "flees" time), and the resulting spherical collapse and annihilation of space is what we observe as the action of a gravitational field. A gravitational field is the spatial consequence of the intrinsic motion of time. (See: "The Conversion of Space to Time".) In the entropic expansion of space, time "pushes" space; in the entropic contraction of gravity, time "pulls" space. In either case, time, whether implicit or explicit, is the fundamental entropic motivator of energy and the Cosmos.
The Accelerated Expansion of the Cosmos
The expansion of the Cosmos is caused by the intrinsic motion of light, the entropy drive of free energy. The "acceleration" of this expansion (as recently observed) is caused by the reduction of the universal gravitational field, as bound energy is converted to free energy in stars and quasars (or any other process converting bound to free energy). This reduction in gravitation with its consequent cosmic acceleration is the natural result of the Universe returning to its symmetric state of light in obedience to the conservation laws stated in Noether's Theorem.
It is currently thought there is approximately six times as much "dark matter" - bound energy of an unknown type - as ordinary "baryonic" matter in the Universe. This bound energy, whatever it is, will also undergo some kind of gradual conversion to free energy, in accordance with the usual (and universal) conservation laws (Noether's Theorem, for example). Summing these two contributions will be sufficient to account for the observed acceleration, without resort to ever more exotic mechanisms. "Dark energy" (proposed as the accelerating agent) is just the attrition of the cosmic gravitational field, as bound energy is converted to free energy. (See: "Does Light Produce a Gravitational Field"?)
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