Collateral Discoveries Done During Research About Time & Space

Introduction

The advances of theoretical research about time and space are mainly due to a large use of interdisciplinarity; for example, the study of geohistorical origins and the criticism of the everyday language. Beyond the major discoveries, the documentary corpus revealed information unexpected for some of them, or more or less unprecedented, or at least not clearly explained.

The Major Discoveries

We owe the first trace of time to Sumerians, between 4800 and 4500 years ago: a cuneiform sign, engraved on a clay tablet, which means lunar month [1]. This important discovery has some major consequences:

a. Time is not a physical phenomenon. It’s also established that space has no materiality: instead, they are both concepts [2].

b. Time is not the cause of aging. The aging is caused by genetic heritage, by way of life, by stresses.

c. Time and space have no physical properties. Instead, they have mathematical properties which depend of the field of study: time and space are polymorphous.

Some Collateral Discoveries

These properties lead to numerous consequences:

a) It’s necessary not to confuse passed time and past events, future time and future events, present time and present events. Passed events, present events and future events belong to reality, they are phenomenon, while passed time, present time and future time are concepts.

b) The duration of the present is not a mystery; if present means present event, its duration is evaluated with a clock; if present means present time, the duration of the present time is a pleonasm [2].

c) The erratic values of time units prove that units of time don’t exist in the nature:

First example with the duration of the day in Genesis, «and it was evening and it was morning-one day» I, 1, (5) [3]: according to a strict technical analyse of this verse, the biblical day corresponds to half a day Second example with the values of the year: The Greek biographer Plutarch (c.46-c.126) writes that in Egypt the year had one month first, and then four months. (Life of Numa, 18, 7) [4]. The Egyptians assure the Greek historian Herodotus (484-425) that they were the first to spot the cycle of the seasons, divided into twelve months. (Book II, 4) [5]. Plutarch writes that in Rome, before Caesar, the relation between year and month was very confused. (Life of Caesar, 59, 2): the year had ten months until the reign of Numa (c.715-c.672). (Life of Numa, 19, 1) [4]. Plutarch points out that among some barbarians, those who did not speak Greek, the year had three months; for Arcadians of Peloponnese the year had four months, and that of Acarnanes the year had six months (Life of Numa, 18, 6).

Plutarch reports that Philippides affirmed that Stratocles reduced the year to one month. (Life of Demetrius, 26, 5) [4]. In the Odyssey, the Greek poet Homer (9th BCE) writes this incredible verse: « when the fourth year came, when the seasons started again » (Song II). Does it mean that the return of the seasons took place every four years? If so, did the homeric year have three months? [6]. It could explain the extravagant age reached by the biblical patriachs: Adam, 930; Seth, 918; Enos, 905; Mahalalêl, 895; Yéred, 968; Hénoc, 365; Mathusalem, 969; Lamec, 777; Noé, 950; Sara, 177; Abraham, 175 [3].

d) The unappropriate use of zero: when a system does not have a parameter, we are not allowed to introduce a parameter of zero value. For example, the mass of a photon is not zero; instead, the photon has no mass [2]. « I have no boat » can’t be replaced by « I have zero boat » or by « the length of my boat is eaqual to zero »: it would be a sophism!

e) Determinism and chance are not phenomena and they are not the causes of events; instead, they are concepts [2].

f) Difference between chronological age and biological age: the chronological age is commonly called age, it is evaluated in years, months, days. The biological age takes into account the health status; it’s necessarily an estimate.

g) Biorhythm and chronobiology: the confusion between rhythm and clock makes people think that the cells, the brain, have internal clocks. It’s a mistake because the accuracy of the biorhythms is far from that of any clock: the ideas of internal clock as well as chronobiology are quite inappropriate [2].

h) The invention of speed units: walk in a day, navigation in a day, navigation in a month used by Thucydides [5] and Herodotus [7] are to be considered as the first units of speed.

i) Laws of the Universe or physical laws: most laws are (or will be) improved, some will be replaced, new laws will appear we can talk about the diachrony of laws. Therefore, expressions like laws of the Universe or laws of the nature are no more selfconsistent. They should be replaced by physical laws, laws of thermodynamics, etc. [2].

j) During the study on time and space, two concepts have been introduced [2]: the technical effect of field and the model effect of field, which warn again wrong interpretations; a technical effect of field is led by misinterpretation of reality. First example: the flow of a river make think that time passes; a model effect is led by an inappropriate use of mathematical equation. Second example: the distance travelled depends on the speed; it does not depend on the duration indicated by a clock. Third example about the alleged heterochrony: time can’t pass, and it can’t pass more or less quickly because the speed of time relative to time is a sophism.

Conclusion

These collateral discoveries appeared in the shadow of the major discoveries. But given that they bring an effective lighting, the results are to be considered as a part of the theory of time and space. Can this idea be generalized?

References

• Conteneau G (1937) The Civilisation of Assur and Babylon La Civilisation d’Assur et de Babylone Payot.
• Dassonville P (2017) The Invention of Time and Space.
• Wogue L Thora (1966) Société Encyclopédique Française.
• Plutarch (2001) Pasrallel Lives Vies Parallèles, Robert sLaffont, pp. 46- 126.
• Hucydide (1964) The Peloponnesian War La Guerre du Péloponnèse, Gallimard, pp. 395-465.
• Homer Odyssey L’Odyssée, Librairie Alphonse Lemerre.
• L’Enquête (1964) Herodotus. The Histories Gallimard pp. 425-484