Can The Science and Philosophy of Information Solve The Problem of Time?

by Alex Vikoulov

"Time isn't the main thing. It's the only thing." -Miles Davis

In our day and age when the science and philosophy of information start to eclipse traditional disciplines on all fronts, the importance of asking the right kinds of questions in light of a new rhetoric cannot be overestimated. Hereafter you can find three videos with their transcripts related to D-Theory of Time, or Digital Presentism, that I cover extensively in my new book The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind's Evolution, as well as in my just-released ebook The Physics of Time: D-Theory of Time & Temporal Mechanics.
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Will We Transcend The Temporal Dimension?: "If you’re like me who loves thought-provoking sci-fi literature and movies, Interstellar and Arrival are both about transcending temporality, one through physics and the other through language. Arguably, these two outlooks on TIME reflect our current understanding as the most plausible ways to overcome the grips of impermanence.

If we look back at evolutionary emergence on our planet, the simplest organisms like primordial mitochondria, the front-runners at the onset of biological life, were able to perceive and move towards nutrients and away from environmental threats in an essentially one-dimensional existence.

In a while later, the more complex plants and animals were able to sense their environment and move around in two and eventually three spatial dimensions.

​Finally, the mathematical description of time in relativistic physics as a fourth spatial dimension implies that the more complex conscious entities like us humans, who perceive temporality, are perhaps in the process of emerging into the more advanced consciousness of ever more expansive degrees of dimensionality.”

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Video: Will We Transcend The Temporal Dimension?

​Can we make a logically consistent temporal ontology argument and formulate a new theory of time? Enter D-Theory of Time: Digital Presentism: “When we gaze up into a starry night sky, we don’t see other stars and galaxies, what we see is our story, unfolding right before our very eyes from the dimensional manifold.

The reason we have the impression the Universe is expanding and actually accelerating in its expansion is because our 3D 'movie' is getting more and more complex with passing time, and its information content grows with time as well. What we humans see with our expanding outer space and newly-created time is an algorithmic deployment of holographic information that grows in size and complexity.

Most physicists and philosophers now agree that time is emergent while Digital Presentism, also termed 'D-Theory of Time', denotes: Time emerges from complex qualia computing at the level of observer experiential reality. Time emerges from experiential data, it’s an epiphenomenon of consciousness.

​From moment to moment, you are co-writing your own story, co-producing your own 'participatory reality' – your stream of consciousness is not subject to some kind of deterministic 'script.' You are entitled to degrees of freedom.”

Video: D-Theory of Time: Digital Presentism

​The Physics of Time: What Is TIME from the standpoint of new physics? "If classical physics alone distorts our preconceptions of time, then you shouldn't doubt there is certainly much more to TIME than our linear one-directional experience. To us, humans, to be alive is to perceive the flow of time. Our perception of Time is linear – we remember the past, we live in the present, and we look forward to the future. Our spatio-temporal reality and consciousness are two sides of the same coin made of information.

​As an acronym, TIME should stand for: The Infinite Moment Experience. What we call 'time' is actually a fraction of a dimension, that is a fractal dimension. In short, our experience of time can be described as a fractal dimension, not even a half dimension – we are subjected to our species-specific algorithmic sense of how time flows.

Evidence mounts that will live in a holographic universe, where everything is holographic, including time, so Time Travel might be essentially information holoportation.

As quantum mechanics implies, the present moment you're experiencing now is best thought of as funneled from all your possible pasts as well as funneled from all your probable futures. Since time can't be absolute but is always subjective, D-Theory of Time, or Digital Presentism, revolves around observer-centric temporality.

All realities are 'observer-centric virtualities' where an entire Observer-Universe system remains in the state of quantum coherence until experienced as a Conscious Instant, or the Temporal Singularity in the framework of D-theory of Time. A series of such conscious instants constitutes a data stream of consciousness. In a real sense, your consciousness is, in actuality, mind-based computing of your experiential branch in the Quantum Multiverse.

​Your sense of time flow is a sequential change between static perceptual frames, it's an emergent phenomenon, 'a moving image of eternity' as Plato famously said more than two millennia ago." ​

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Video: The Physics of Time, eBook Trailer (inspired by Salvadore Dali's art)

​If you found ideas expressed in these videos/excerpts novel, unorthodox, unsettling or even shocking, and you want these new conceptual notions elucidated further I invite you to read more in my recently published books:

​*The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind's Evolution by Alex M. Vikoulov (foreword by Antonin Tuynman, PhD) is available on Amazon in paperback and ebook formats:
https://www.amazon.com/Syntellect-Hypothesis-Paradigms-Minds-Evolution/dp/0578451204 Matchbook option allows you to buy ebook+paperback discounted bundle. ​

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​**Barnes & Noble offers The Syntellect Hypothesis in 3 formats - ebook, paperback and hardcover: 
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1130546241?ean=2940161345597 Nook book is reflowable, text-to-speech enabled. The Syntellect Hypothesis high-quality hardcover looks fantastic! 

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​***The Physics of Time: D-Theory of Time & Temporal Mechanics by Alex M. Vikoulov, Antonin Tuynman, PhD is now available as ebook on Amazon: 
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07S3QZPQT where you can also download your free sample.
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*Image: Ecstadelic Media

About the Author:
Alex Vikoulov is a futurist, digital philosopher, neo-transcendentalist, cosmist, transhumanist singularitarian, evolutionary extrapolist, founder of Ecstadelic Media, painter and media artist, author of "The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind's Evolution." Lives in Burlingame, California (San Francisco Bay Area). More Bio...
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