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james.goetz
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Anthony Aquirre and Steven Gratton in 2003 developed a speculative physics hypothesis that includes a timeless generation of time. [1] However, Aquirre in 2007 argued against his 2003 hypothesis of timeless origins while hypothesizing the notion of a past infinite time's arrow. [2] This post briefly examines the possibility of an infinite time's arrow and concludes that an infinite time's arrow is impossible, which was first proposed in the sixth century AD by John Philoponus [3]. Similarly, an infinite time's arrow is incompatible with scientific theory.
The conundrum of time's beginning involves the controversial notion of infinity because an infinite sequence of events would never end in at least one direction. For example, assuming the observed spacetime continuum began fourteen billion years ago and the continuum never ends with a Big Crunch or Big Rip, [4] then the continuum always continues with an ever-increasing finite age.
Similarly, there could not have been an infinite past time's arrow. For example, if there was infinite past time, then an infinite past time would precede every point in continuum history while an infinite sequence could never pass for any point in history to exist. Likewise, there was no (1) infinite past sequence of vacuum fluctuations or (2) infinite past cycles in a cyclic universe.
Some scholars stated to me in personal communication that infinite past time is possible because of different theories of time. For example, various philosophers challenge all empirical observations of cause and effect while proposing that all appearance of such sequences is essentially an illusion in an eternalist/block universe. Such eternalist theories ultimately propose radical simultaneousness of all supposedly past, present and future events while denying all distinction between the past, present, and future. [5] This rejection of sequences disputes the proposed impossibility of infinite past time, but at the expense of rejecting the notion of time's arrow. Also, rejecting the notion of time's arrow incidentally disputes every theory involving cause and effect, which includes all scientific theory. In this case, nobody can possibly disprove that the universe is an eternal block while the appearance of time is merely an illusion, but such philosophical theories are incompatible with the notion of science.
1. Aquirre, Anthony, and Steven Gratton. 2003. "Inflation without a beginning: a null boundary proposal." http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0301042.
2. Aquirre, Anthony. 2007. "Eternal Inflation, past and future." http://arxiv.org/abs/0712.0571.
3. Wildberg, Christian. 2007. "John Philoponus." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/philoponus/.
4. See Big Crunch and Big Rip in Caldwell, Robert R., Marc Kamionkowski and Nevin N. Weinberg. 2003. "Phantom Energy and Cosmic Doomsday." http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0302506.
5. See Markosian, Ned. 2008. "Time." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/time/.
The conundrum of time's beginning involves the controversial notion of infinity because an infinite sequence of events would never end in at least one direction. For example, assuming the observed spacetime continuum began fourteen billion years ago and the continuum never ends with a Big Crunch or Big Rip, [4] then the continuum always continues with an ever-increasing finite age.
Similarly, there could not have been an infinite past time's arrow. For example, if there was infinite past time, then an infinite past time would precede every point in continuum history while an infinite sequence could never pass for any point in history to exist. Likewise, there was no (1) infinite past sequence of vacuum fluctuations or (2) infinite past cycles in a cyclic universe.
Some scholars stated to me in personal communication that infinite past time is possible because of different theories of time. For example, various philosophers challenge all empirical observations of cause and effect while proposing that all appearance of such sequences is essentially an illusion in an eternalist/block universe. Such eternalist theories ultimately propose radical simultaneousness of all supposedly past, present and future events while denying all distinction between the past, present, and future. [5] This rejection of sequences disputes the proposed impossibility of infinite past time, but at the expense of rejecting the notion of time's arrow. Also, rejecting the notion of time's arrow incidentally disputes every theory involving cause and effect, which includes all scientific theory. In this case, nobody can possibly disprove that the universe is an eternal block while the appearance of time is merely an illusion, but such philosophical theories are incompatible with the notion of science.
1. Aquirre, Anthony, and Steven Gratton. 2003. "Inflation without a beginning: a null boundary proposal." http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0301042.
2. Aquirre, Anthony. 2007. "Eternal Inflation, past and future." http://arxiv.org/abs/0712.0571.
3. Wildberg, Christian. 2007. "John Philoponus." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/philoponus/.
4. See Big Crunch and Big Rip in Caldwell, Robert R., Marc Kamionkowski and Nevin N. Weinberg. 2003. "Phantom Energy and Cosmic Doomsday." http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0302506.
5. See Markosian, Ned. 2008. "Time." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/time/.