Science & Time - Part I

So here it is. My first post on this blog on Science. Yes, it's about the ultimate problem that science and religion (and for that matters, human beings) want to solve - How was the world when we did not exist? What made the universe, how will the future be. Time has always been a mystery to the man. Religion described it in its own ways, by describing God as the supreme power, and science assumes it as an implicit part of everything that happens in this world, in a complex quantity as space-time.

Let's look at an argument that came up few months ago in a Cab discussion. The assumption here is that calculus and mathematics are correct, and that they do not break down in front of time itself.

We believe in present time, by which I mean that we have an ability to express the world around us at the current time. Now, this means that everything in this world can be expressed at the current time in a mathematical form. Moreover, any real phenomena has to take a non-zero time to change it's state. For, if it took exactly zero time, it would have two different values at a single point of time. This proves that the functional representation of any real world phenomenon is continuous and differentiable in time. While saying this, I would like to mention the following:-

1. I'm not assuming the knowledge of the function itself, only that it exists and it is differentiable in time.

2. The function need not be time-invariant. It only complicates the situation, but still, at any point of time, the function will have a value...

Let me elaborate the second point above. It's clear that whatever the function be, it'll have a value at every instant of time. Now, the question remains is that are these values predetermined in time? Knowing the values is not important here, though.

Let us try to disprove that the value is predetermined. Let us assume that there is at least one such function whose value at at least one instant in time is not predetermined. This can happen only when:-

1. No other function depends on this value, or the dependent function will also possess this property, and this extension can continue indefinitely. This would eventually mean that even the functions are not predetermined, which breaks the definition of a function. This is not allowed since we believe in mathematics.

If no other function depends on this value, the value and the associated phenomenon will be isolated from this world. This is the concept of "parallel untangled universes", and since they're untangled, there's no sense of knowing the time in other world, as it would not affect our world. In simple terms this value (and therefore the associated function) and the phenomenon gets excluded from our analysis

2. The value is a singularity, such as infinity. In that case, the value cannot be expressed, and therefore it is not predetermined. Moreover, this assumption does not break the association of this value with other functions, as there can be a function that transforms an infinity into a finite value.

So, from above, it seems clear that "except at singularities" every function and it's values are predetermined. This means that every finite thing in this world is predetermined, by some unknown mechanism. Interestingly, it means that if you know the current space-time position of an object, and you can avoid singularities, you can attempt to know the space-time at any other time, since it's predetermined.

This brings us to our first milestone: That efforts of astrology and science in trying to determine past / future values of a phenomenon are not futile. In the next article of this supposedly long (still unknown how long, but you see, it's predetermined) series, I'll talk about validity of our assumption and the corner case of singularity that has surfaced.

Wanna go back to school...but...

Here's a dilemma I'm in these days. I wanna take up some courses that've interested me for long, but neither can I afford to leave my job (even temporarily, there's so much work), nor do I want to, as I love the work I'm doing. Now I wish if I can continue education while at work, in some way...

Let me talk about what I want to study. The first one on the list is Finance & Economics. Investments, macro-economics and especially stock markets have fascinated me so much in the past couple of years. I'd say maybe recession is attributed for this taste to have developed. I don't mean to say that I wanna quit as an engineer and go learn fund management in a B-school, but I'd love to read more about this field - managing investments, what economics means, what's all about central banks controlling rates n all...wow, it's all so cool, definitely better than circuits (Yeah, I would have laughed at hearing myself saying this a few years back, but yes, it's no joke today).

Next comes History & Religion. Yeah, I've always loved this subject and discussions, they're my all time favorite. I remember while in 9th standard at school, I had a debate with almost my whole class over existence of God, and me and my friend Shreyashi were confronting the rest of the class. I want to delve deeper into the logical reasoning behind the upcoming of various religious beliefs and traditions. I wanna know what was the society before the religion, whom did the childhood friends of Lord Rama / Krishna pray? How did Christainity evolve? Of course my current knowledge about world religions is quite limited, and I'm very keen to expand that. I seriously wanna take up this study, but I feel it's gonna be a full fledged course in itself...

Finally, surprisingly, comes Modern Physics. Yes, of late I've being going away from pure sciences, into stuff such as society, economy, religion etc. But then, I've had a long science background, and something I got a very limited exposure to while even in college was Modern Physics. I was fascinated by alll those dangerous looking equations, but then, I feel it's the bridge between one of the biggest conflicts of all times - the science and religion. Both Modern Physics and Religion try to answer one basic question - the evolution of universe, and the history of time. I feel excited about this subject despite the abtruse mathematical nature, and I'd want to spend some time delving into it's intricacies. Especially, I love all the paradoxes that come up due to the gap between what quantum theories predict and what the common perception is.

Finally, the question remains, how and when to pursue this interest. I'm not sure if reading part time after job would work, maybe taking a couple of months break from jjob would do. I'm not sure, let's see what can I do about it...