I don't think the argument intended zero-dimensional "moments", or a particular quantification, as such.
It was given to me in a much less formal format; it's also possible my rendition remains a bit hokey. :) — jorndoe
An odd argument I came across recently:
1. if the universe was temporally infinite, then there would be no 1st moment
2. if there was no 1st moment, then there was no 2nd moment
3. if there was no 2nd moment, then there was no 3rd moment
4. ... and so on and so forth ...
5. ... then there would be no now
6. since now exists, we started out wrong, i.e. the universe is not temporally infinite
EDIT: Post 17 or thereabouts below has an extended rendition of the argument
Sound argument? — jorndoe
References please.... — apokrisis
But you can provide a reference to support your clam about this being a fact? This is something you know because it has been reported somewhere credible you can now point too? — apokrisis
No, the government and even large corporations like Google censor the internet to prevent any such information from becoming widely known. — wuliheron
US federal government has finally admitted they have classified a few jokes as "Vital to the National Defense — wuliheron
So how did you yourself become acquainted with this fact that you cite so often in your posts? — apokrisis
You've written that the government has finally admitted this. You quote some actual words. So where and when did this happen? Tell us the story of how you come to know about this unusual fact. — apokrisis
:-| Wuli, I admit that this isn't my field, but this really sounds to me like the ramblings of a person with mental illness. The Tao Te Ching theoretically contains instructions on how to build an AI and construct a TOE? Whaaa...A ten year cross disciplinary study of the I-Ching concluded it was word perfect for introspective purposes making it ideal for AI and theoretical physics research. One of the few things you can learn online about fuzzy logic is that it is of intense interest in both fields. My own expertise is a mastery of the Tao Te Ching and, theoretically, a complete word perfect set of 430 poems extrapolated from the text can describe both how to build an AI and construct a theory of everything. Thus far, to the best of my knowledge people have only managed to write perhaps 150 or so that are word perfect and complete, but that's because nobody has the philosophy worked out yet and they don't comprehend the logical or mathematical foundations. — wuliheron
Wuli, I admit that this isn't my field, but this really sounds to me like the ramblings of a person with mental illness. The Tao Te Ching theoretically contains instructions on how to build and AI and construct a TOE? Whaaa... — Arkady
Ok, this doesn't sound any more sensible to me (it doesn't help that you claim to have shopped this idea around to the CEO of Google...), but, as I said, I'm out of my element here. Could you provide some links/references to what you're talking about? — Arkady
A modern version of this argument is used to show the Big Bang could never have happened. If eternal Time exists (in big-T Newtonian dimensional fashion), then there would have had to have been an infinite amount of time elapsing before - suddenly, in a bright flash - our Universe got created. So therefore never enough time could pass to arrive at that point.
A better answer is that the Big Bang was the start of time, as well as space. So we can't think of the pre-Bang as a temporal dimension - except in some far simpler metaphysical sense yet to be articulated scientifically. — apokrisis
Some Eastern thinkers suggest that time had no beginning, but I am not sure if that is possible logically. It seems like trying to draw a circle but without beginning it somewhere. The idea of eternal recurrence may have some bearing, but it still seems that there must be some kind of start. But, it could be that there is no end, but even this is hard to know with any certainty — Jack Cummins
1. if the universe was temporally infinite, then there would be no 1st moment
2. if there was no 1st moment, then there was no 2nd moment
3. if there was no 2nd moment, then there was no 3rd moment
4. ... and so on and so forth ...
5. ... then there would be no now
6. since now exists, we started out wrong, i.e. the universe is not temporally infinite — jorndoe
1. if the universe was temporally infinite, then there would be no 1st moment
2. if there was no 1st moment, then there was no 2nd moment
3. if there was no 2nd moment, then there was no 3rd moment
4. ... and so on and so forth ...
5. ... then there would be no now
6. since now exists, we started out wrong, i.e. the universe is not temporally infinite — jorndoe
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