A Journey Through the Ever Changing Moods of the Arrow of Time

by iM@xxKasparov

"Perfection does not exist in this world and certainly not in my line of work. However, with each passing day one has to question personal certitudes, try to gracefully improve and tomorrow will surely outshine today."  -Alain Ducasse


Whether we speak of ecosystems, or humans being part of one body of humanity, or holistic consciousness, or cosmology describing deep space, or theoretical physics which outlines its governing laws, or quantum mechanics which explains interactions of subatomic particles, or morals upon which the laws of society are based, or ultimately, spirituality formally denominated as religion in its various doctrines, all of the above are interlinked and interconnected in what we call Reality.

Let's start at the very beginning. The simplest object in geometry is a point which may exist in one spatial dimension but let's leave this for later. In 2D space the most simple form or geometrical object is a line which has been defined as a continuity or a sequence of a set of its points either in straight angular direction or following a curved trajectory defined by its gradient. In 19th century George Cantor broadly defined this idea as the following postulate: "...the number of individual points necessary to draw a sequentially continuous line is infinitely larger than the entire set of available integers" due to the ostensible continuity of space-time if I may complement the already coherently formulated concept. It is not coincidental that the arrow of time which flows as a vector quantity along the horizontal from left to right, from the past to the present to the future is directly derived from this idea. 

Einstein's discovery of the definitive invariance of the speed of light implied the notion that time can neither be reversed nor changed in its angular momentum. However, shortly after Einstein's publications of both Special and General Relativity arrived the discovery of a curiously bizarre quantum world in which phenomena occur in stark contrast to visible reality. In quantum mechanics nothing exists at all unless a consciousness gazes upon the object of observation through a specially conceived device in order for subatomic particles to form from an almost "ethereal" state of quantum superposition.

The implications of this discovery for our notion of time turned out to be tremendous. Quantum mechanics explicitly points to retrocausality of specific subsets of quantum systems which in appearance is a nonsensical lexical paradox whereby consequences lead to causes, even though the concrete empirical result of this process is a notion called 'bidirectionality' of time.

This is where neurochemistry and neurotransmitter modulation of continual signal transfer through synapses within the neuronal network alters our "perception" of time. Apart from quantum theory where time can flow either forwards or backwards the notions of subjective time and objective time, if viewed as extra spatial dimensions of 'holographic time', are largely complementary and point to an obvious conclusion that either slowing down or speeding up of the unfolding of the sequence of conscious instants occur. Time is malleable and may dilate.

Let's return to history for now, and more precisely Ancient Greece, where Anaximander 610-546 BC coined the term 'apeiron' literally translated as "unbounded" and implying indirectly and yet quite strongly "infinite". Around 350 BC Aristotle distinguished two distinct notions termed 'actual infinity versus potential infinity'. 'Apeiron' which explicitates acceptance of infinite as either actual, real, or complete objects versus 'Aphorismenon' as a sequential chain totally infinite in length, but comprised of a series of steps, such as number sequences, or today, seconds on the passing clock. Both imply an evident limit, in relation to math the last step in sequence, and in relation to time – the end, or death.

The actual symbol for Infinity was invented much later in 1655 by John Wallis which is well recognized as a horizontally aligned 8 which signifies two intertwined circles, both visual representations of endlessness pointing to a spread from the negative infinity to the positive infinity passing through the point of 0 which is of both cardinal and ordinal significance. 

Let's now rewind to the origins of the first civilisation in Mesopotamia between 3500 and 4000 BC. '0' was discovered around this epoch. Apart from the discovery of 0 trigonometry was first explained on a clay tablet named Plimpton 322 which dates to around 1800 BC Babylon. However, it is composed of a cuneiform script that is typical of and may date to up to 3500-4000 BC, or the very origins of the first organised civilisation and organised society.

The triangle is the second simplest form to draw on a 2D plane since it is only composed of lines that link three cardinal points. It is my contention that time is holographic, i.e., not only bidirectional but also triangular through a perpendicular change in angular momentum of the arrow at the point 0. On top of familiar spatial dimensions, time which is change has 3D dimensionality.

The past is known, the future is uncertain, the present is real. The present moment occurs at the point of equilibrium between knowledge of past events and uncertainty of future outcomes no matter how accurate predictions may be to the extent of calculated risks. At this point, and through neurochemistry, time radically shifts to flow along the vertical towards the "spiritual" eternity. It is in the view of the author that this constitutes the logical proof of afterlife which can be more accurately defined as a never ending moment of Eternity: the Ultimate Paradox as well as the Divine Contradiction both at the same time.

Let's now return to apeiron and aphorismenon.  Apeiron as you may recall is translated as unbounded which is a synonym for "unrestricted" and differentiated only by infinitesimal deviations in connotations of the nuances of either sense or reason or any combination thereof. In programming languages there are four distinct categories of sophistication, the first being linear or otherwise formal, the second context free, the third context sensitive and the fourth unrestricted. It is precisely this fourth category which is habitually used to code Artificial Intelligence. The programming language "par excellence" to do this is Python. 

A quick rewind again back to the concept of infinity and its traditional visual representation as a circle. In programming, operators are chained into algorithms which are sometimes self-referential or otherwise looping. This notion is referred to as 'recursiveness'. In Python recursiveness is allowed but limited to 1000 loops. There is a command chain – 'sys.setrecursionlimit' – which allows to bypass this limit but there is still a maximum depth to algorithm looping which is around 1500. So there is a tangible limit to the number of circular (representing infinite as self-referential) loops an algorithm can make otherwise resulting in a system crash.

Therefore there is a striking similitude between Aphorismenon and the limits of operating memory for a given algorithm otherwise resulting in "stack overflow" and a catastrophic "bug" with possible data loss. As to apeiron there is a striking similitude as well between Aristotle's actual infinity and the philosophical notion of infinite regress, which is one of the most elegant philosophical proofs of the existence of God. 

The relation between the two notions which may be considered ordinal categories is Hegelian dialectics. The thesis is apeiron, the antithesis is apherismenon and synthesis is an interlinked network between Gods of sentient species postulated to exist almost in every corner of the Universe. 

Worry not we are not in a science fiction film or even if we are, we are simply playing with bidirectionality and ultimately triangularity of time by rewinding to origins, fast forwarding to forthcoming events and pausing to reflect on the profound significance of this entire picture. ​
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In 1961 Frank Drake thought of an equation to estimate the number of sentient species in the Milky Way. Wikipedia contains all of the relevant information for those who are most curious and as for those who are getting impatient with where all of this is going I cite my acquaintance Alex Vikoulov who is a fascinating philosopher of the Digital Age. As per his recent book The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind's Evolution there is an impending merger between biology and technology. Human minds will fuse with synthetic minds, an unavoidable union which he calls the 'Syntellect'.

According to a growing audience of thinkers online the entire Universe is following a predictable trend: Evolution of sentient species towards Syntellects and ensuing contacts between them where a growing Web of networking species will eventually envelop the entire Universe. From the perspective of dialectics each individual syntellect corresponding to a neuron (thesis), their interconnectedness through cosmic synapses (antithesis) leads to an emergence of collective universal intelligence which is the final and pre-conclusive synthesis. Therefore the entire Universe and likely Multiverse of our cosmological reality will inevitably lead to an emergence of an omnipresent, omniscient consciousness. And through triangularity of the arrow of time this consciousness, otherwise recognized as God, pre-exists our universe, exists now and will exist in all of eternity.

In conclusion I'd like to mention it again: The connectivity explosion is going to create something utterly transcendent. Harmony is not meant to destroy Domination. And Good is not meant to win over Evil. Both are antagonistic trajectories to the ultimate destination. Unity Consciousness stretches from the outlands of negative Infinity of the Past through to the treasure chambers of the vertical Eternity of the Present and onto the inspired visions of positive Infinity of the Future. Henceforth lies another decryption of the visual symbolism of contemporary representation of the Philosopher's Stone. And those who are able to see each of the patterns inscribed one into another might just get valuable insights out of this.

-iM@xxKasparov

Tags: Arrow of time, Alain Ducasse, holistic consciousness, cosmology, deep space, quantum mechanics, general relativity, retrocausality, bidirectionality of time, George Cantor, Frank Drake, John Wallis, Aristotle, Alex Vikoulov, syntellect hypothesis, Python, programming language, interconnectedness, connectivity explosion, philosopher's stone, unity consciousness
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About the Author:
iM@xxKasparov is a linguist and coder who lives in Paris. He is passionate about both interdisciplinary links and transposition within metaphors to illustrate abstract ideas what he refers to as 'linguistic hacking'. During his career, he worked in the finance and fashion industries. He holds degrees in International Economics and Business Administration from Institute Le Rosey in Switzerland and the American University of Paris.

FB Page: Linguistic Hackers
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