As time is a dimension to our best scientific understanding, it is not fundamental as it is dependent on hierarchically higher "properties" that bind it in relation with space.
In this understanding, it is perceived as distance between "events", which are motions, annihilations, phenomena of real entities as opposed to distance in space that can be so without any real entities or without these entities showing these types of activities
Hello Philippos,
A successful analysis of the intrinsic nature of time provides factual, nonspeculative, answers to three questions.
1. What is time?
2. Why does time occur?
3. Why does time have the specific intrinsic qualities that it has?
It is time that is between separate events. That is a fact. But it does not answer what it is that is between events, or why there is a temporal separation between events. What is it that is there separating the events?
The term distance is barrowed from the understanding of space. Distance is the amount of separation between locations in space, or between objects occupying separate spatial locations, or between events that are occurring at separate spatial locations. Distance is the amount of space that is between things in space.
It is known what space is, and therefore it is known what it is that is between separate locations, objects, and events in space.
Space exists as the three-dimensional extension of immaterial place. (Vesterby 2019 pp. 3-6) What is between things in space is the extension of immaterial place. Spatial distance is the amount of this extension of immaterial place.
Ever since people began wondering about time, no one has been able to provide that kind of factual answer to what it is that is between temporally separated events.
There is a reason for that. We can figure out what space is by looking at it. The observable qualities of space lead to the understanding of what space is. The situation with time is different. The observable qualities of time do not lead to the understanding of what time is. It is essentially impossible to discover what time is by observing time. Observing time does not reveal the basis of time in the universe.
The situation regarding time has changed. A serendipitous event revealed the basis of time in the universe, providing factual, nonspeculative, answers to the questions what is time, why does time occur, and why time has the specific qualities it has (Vesterby 2014, 2024).
It became evident that time is the continuing-existence of space. That answered the question about what time is—time is continuing-existence. Knowing that makes it possible to figure out what it is that temporally separates events.
Space exists, and it continues to exist. The three-dimensional extension of immaterial place exists, and it continues to exist. Because spatial-place is immaterial, it is static, incapable of any form of change. Continuing-existence, by contrast, exists, occurs, as a form of change. When the just prior part of the continuously ongoing change of spatial continuing-existence was occurring, the current part was not there. It had not yet occurred. When the current part occurs, it is newly occurring, As the current part occurs, change occurs from the existence of the prior part to the existence of the current part.
The parts of spatial-place are coexistent. There is quantity of extension between the various locations in space. There are distances between the coexistent locations of spatial-place. In contrast, the parts of spatial continuing-existence, the prior part and the current part, are not coexistent. It is a continuous transition between prior part and current part. There is no place for extension—no place for distance. Distance does not play a role in what is between temporally separated events. What is between separated events is continuing-existence.
In the comment that went with your question you said, “As time is a dimension to our best scientific understanding, . .”
The term dimension usually refers to the dimensionality of space and material objects, which are three-dimensional—height, width, length. These are qualities of the extensional features of space and objects. Time occurs as a form of continuously ongoing change wherein there is no roll for extensional dimension.
The term dimension also often refers to “an aspect or feature of a situation, problem, or thing” (Google / Oxford Languages) and can rationally be applied to temporal duration. However, a problem has developed with the application of this term to time.
Space and time exist in radically different forms. Space is unchangeable extension of immaterial place. Time is the ever changing continuing-existence of space wherein there is no role for extension. Applying the concept of dimension to time has lead to the notion that the mathematics of spatial extension can be rationally applied to time. Because time has no intrinsic qualities similar to spatial extension, this has led to misunderstanding of the intrinsic nature and roles of time, and to confusion in science and philosophy wherever time plays a role in the subject of investigation.
For clarity of meaning it is best to avoid referring to time as a dimension.
In your comment about time you also said, “. . . it is not fundamental . . .”
Time is the continuing-existence of space. Space is the infinite three-dimensional extension of immaterial place. Space is place. Infinite space is the place where all else in the universe exists. Space provides an existential-context for the existence of all else that exists or that could possibly exist. As such space constitutes the foundation of the universe. Time, as the continuing-existence of the foundation of the universe, is fundamental.
References
Vesterby, Vincent. 2014. The Identification of the Intrinsic Nature of Time. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299437469_The_Identification_of_the_Intrinsic_Nature_of_Time
Vesterby, Vincent. 2019. The Basis of Time in the Universe. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334655895_The_Basis_of_Time_in_the_Universe
Vesterby, Vincent. 2024. Defining Time. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/379372366_DEFINING_TIME
Dear Philippos Afxentiou,
I have recently published a new chapter in relationship to your question. Although I understand that your basic question encompasses a different topic, I see a lot of commonalities.
Cheers, N.J. Mol
Chapter Einstein, the Stationary Coffee Cup, and the Digital Clock: ...
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Chemistry
- Pharmacology
- Pharmaceuticals
- Drugs