Jonathan Hockey’s Reviews > A Journey into Gravity and Spacetime > Status Update
Jonathan Hockey
is on page 50 of 257
... any possible notion of externalised spacetime. An externalised spacetime union would not have all these complex dynamic features. These only come because we are dealing with a difference, not a union, and it renders us in a position where we have to gather up information and build up a piecemeal spacetime fabric from particular perspectives. This ontological deficit has still not been properly come to terms with.
— Nov 12, 2022 10:12AM
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Jonathan Hockey
is on page 53 of 257
...This impossibility has been for generations presented as actually due to the complexity of the subject and so unfortunately an almost mystical reverence has grown up around this fuzzy thinking.
— Nov 12, 2022 10:20AM
Jonathan Hockey
is on page 53 of 257
Next he has introduced the notion of interval as invariant. Of course his simplistic 2d example only has a union of 2 spatial dimensions, where the interval can correctly be called a distance, but to call it a distance in space-time is highly misleading as the interval is a difference of time and space, not a union of them. It renders an external geometrization not merely hard to visualise, but impossible...
— Nov 12, 2022 10:17AM
Jonathan Hockey
is on page 50 of 257
For if they were it would be realised that what we have here is not some simple "addition" of time, to make the union spacetime. We have an internal creation of a coherent account of time to fit with all the spaces we have information about. Combine this with the fact that there is no true spacetime on micro scale or big scale only on the nebulous "local" scale, and you have a decimation of ..
— Nov 12, 2022 10:09AM
Jonathan Hockey
is on page 50 of 257
However, in the next pages, giving a detailed account of how to "add" time, he provides a more messy and real account, with time devices needing to be installed with every event, and with information being gathered everywhere. There not being a true impartial observer who can hold "true" time, of course this is the basic Einstein, relativity of simultaneity insight. But its ramifications are not truly appreciated..
— Nov 12, 2022 10:06AM
Jonathan Hockey
is on page 48 of 257
And I think it changes completely how we need to visualise the connection between space and time. It is a much more dynamic thing than a simple union would be, and it is not amenable to a simplistic visualisation of a unified spacetime "out there" in a neutral objective space. and its where many of the later problems come, with paradoxes in general relativity equation solutions, quantum physics etc...
— Nov 12, 2022 10:03AM
Jonathan Hockey
is on page 48 of 257
...not just his interpretation. 3) I think I see the basic flaw at the foundation of this whole geometrization of a space-time "out there". He talks and Minkowski talked of a union of space and time. But this is a basic logical mistake. A union would be an addition: Space + Time, what we actually have in the 4D maths is: Space - Time or Time - Space. This is a difference, logically speaking, not a union.
— Nov 12, 2022 10:01AM
Jonathan Hockey
is on page 48 of 257
In his attempts to account for how there could be spacetime curvature, he illustrates a few weaknesses in the "mainstream" account. 1) To show sameness of curvature he contracted one spatial dimension, an alternative way to do this is with variable speed of light. 2) A third account places the curvature in our frame of reference, not in something "out there", so we have multiple ways to interpret this scenario...
— Nov 12, 2022 09:59AM
