Re: Bitstrings, Ontological Status and Time

From: Hal Finney <hal.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Sat, 7 May 2005 11:48:30 -0700 (PDT)

Time is just a coordinate, in relativity theory. The time coordinate
has an opposite sign to the space coordinates, and that subtle difference
is responsible for all of the enormous apparent difference between space
and time.

Granted, relativity theory is not a complete and accurate specification
of the world in which we live (that requires QM to be incorporated),
but it is still a self-consistent model which illustrates how time can
be dealt with mathematically in a uniform way with space. Time and
space are not fundamentally different in relativity; they shade into
one another and can even change places entirely, if you cross the event
horizon of a black hole.

In fact, one can construct models in which there are more than one
dimension of time, just as we have more than one dimension of space.
How would your renaissance philosphers deal with two dimensions of time?
I think their ideas are obsolete and have no reference or value given
our much deeper modern understanding of these issues.

Hal Finney
Received on Sat May 07 2005 - 14:55:33 PDT