Re: religion

"Oliver Wong" <owong@castortech.com> wrote in message
news:XnQwf.73038$OU5.31017@clgrps13...
>
> "Alistair" <alistair@ld50macca.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:1136900927.606227.97620@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com... 
>
>    I think there are some very large conceptual problems with a volume of
> space without time surrounded by a volume of space *with* time. First,
> let's assume a discrete change from time-ness to timeless-ness, and a well
> defined border between the two regions of space. Any matter (e.g. the
> atoms that make up the matter that composes the organism) attempting to
> enter the region would be unable to do so, because to do so would change
> the contents of space at that point, and change implies the existence of
> time. So if that point of timeless space had matter, that matter could
> never be moved, and so you could never, for example, push that matter
> aside to insert your finger. If that point contaiend empty space, that
> empty space could never be filled. So what would happen if you tried to
> touch this empty space? Would you feel something pushing back to stop you?
> It seems to simply not make sense.
>
>    A more "realistic" situation would be a continuous transition between
> time and timelessness. For example, well outside the boundaries of the
> timeless space region, time progresses "normally", but as we approach,
> time seems to progress more and more slowly, until at some point it the
> progression of time reaches zero, and we are in the timeless-region of
> space. Like Zeno's paradox, an organism trying to enter this region of
> timeless-ness could always get closer, but never actually reach that
> point.
>
>    Isn't this what is thought to happen near a black hole anyway?
>
>    - Oliver
Three comments on a very lucid and thought provoking post... :-)

1. Space, by definition, is space, so 'empty space' is technically redundant
and space is never 'empty' anyway...there are quantum fluctuations in the
virtual and real fields.

2. I can't accept space without time; I can accept void or nothingness
without time, but space is actually 'something'.

3. Xeno's paradox is demonstrably incorrect. Ask anyone who ever walked past
a tortoise going in the same direction :-)

Pete.

PS yes, time is believed to stop at the event horizon of a BH. (There is
still some debate about this...)


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