relativistic spacetime and the essence of Light
“A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm,” as Hamlet says
Overall, the theories of Special and General Relativity propose a view of the universe that is fundamentally different from classical physics and many of our ordinary intuitions about the physical world. Whereas classical physics takes as its departure point our ordinary understandings of the meanings of space, as measured by a yardstick, and time by a chronograph, the theory of relativity proposes a view of the universe in which space and time are essentially related and, in a certain sense, identical as a sound is the same as a pitch. A sound can be “warped” and “flexed,” but not without warping and flexing the pitch. While space and time share in a fluid relation of identity, both together, according to the theory of relativity, are indexed in an absolute bond to the mystical “Universal Constant”— the enigmatic “C” in the notorious equation:
E=mc²
According to Special Relativity, space and time together are a function of the observer's motion, or inertial reference frame. This means that concepts such as simultaneity and the order of events can appear different to different observers. Was Kennedy assassinated before or after a distant star went supernova? Did the king eat the fish that ate the worm or did the fish eat the worm that ate the king? We say one thing with conviction but simultaneously affirm that another observer travelling at near relativistic speeds would be liable to come to an entirely different conclusion. Does this fact constitute the corroboration, by theoretical physicists vis-á-vis the so-called “real physical universe,” of what the relativists and nihilists and sorcerers and postmodernists have been insisting all along in the realm of culture and life? Let us leave the issue unresolved for the moment. As to the question of which sequence of events is correct, the question both does and does not admit of an answer. Relatively, the answer must remain contingent on the observer’s frame of reference. Hence, relativism may indeed appear to have carried off the palm.
But there is a transcendent and unequivocal answer that I will attempt to convey. The faster an observer travels, the more his mass increases and hence the more time appears to dilate for him relative to an inertial reference frame. This is illustrated by the famous “twins paradox,” in which one twin departs on a rocket ship and returns to find his other half long since having walked out of biological life. Having established that time is a function of an inertial reference frame, and that it stretches out with increase in mass and velocity, let us then extrapolate these relations towards ever-increasing mass and velocity. It will be seen that light, eo ipso, as the Universal Constant, is a limiting case and singularity in which all time, all space, and all mass are summarised and drawn together in simultaneity.1
Hence, “the Theory of Relativity” is somewhat ironically so-called. Instead, it postulates a single absolute reference frame, that is light, against which all other reference frames are relatively measured. Photons, therefore, do not “travel” because travel is a function of space per time, and neither space nor time exist at the “speed” of light, which has no speed in itself for the same reason, but only for us. Time does not pass for light for the same reason that it does not travel. Returning to the question about the sequence posed above: “who has ears, let him hear.” Let no one tell you, however, with the mantle of scientific authority, that “starlight from distant galaxies proves the Universe is 13.8 billion years old.”2 By his own logic, the statement makes no sense without a very specific qualification. As it was written, “the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.”3
Did not the one who called himself “The Light of the World” (John 8:12, 9:5) also proclaim:
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. (Revelations 1:8)
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. (Revelation 22:13)?
According to various sources, including the Planck Collaboration, the age of the universe is estimated to be around 13.8 billion years old. This estimate is based on various observations and calculations involving the expansion rate of the universe, the cosmic microwave background radiation, and the distribution of matter in the universe. Prior to 1999, astronomers had estimated that the age of the universe was between 7 and 20 billion years, but with advances in technology and the development of new methods for measuring the age of the universe, this estimate has been refined to this current value.
1 Corinthians 3:19
time is a mode of Eternity and space dimension of Paradise
this reminded me of one of the things that blew my mind when reading Guenon for the first time, and that is really obvious but I'd never seen it: we can only measure time... through space.
great text. thank you.