…more than diving into a cauliflower…
In this post I want to do some conceptual groundwork in order to be in a better position
to grasp what is meant by ‘spacetime’.
Spacetime is potentially boundless on all spatial and temporal scales
(a sense of boundlessness is what the endless cauliflower is alluding to).
But boundlessness is weird, unconscionable.
All things have bounds don’t they?
How, then, can boundlessness exist in nature?
Spacetime = (space + time) | greyness = (black + white)
Thinking of spacetime as a sort of undifferentiated ‘greyness’ might be the solution to the ‘infinity problem’. A boundless greyness that has no internal or external differentiation (and thus its existence is moot). However, ‘within it’ are two contrasting integrals: blackness and whiteness. Once these twin potentials have been revealed, actualised, then even the greyness itself comes into its own as a third consequence: the division into black and white can be reversed into grey. Black and white are contrasts. When and where they meet are their contrasting boundaries. Grey on its own, eternal, isn’t a contrast, there are no bounds, it lacks meaning, we might say that such a monism can't really exist.Spacetime is like greyness. On its own there is no contrast, there are no bounds, its very existence becomes a moot point.
However, it is ‘constituted’ by two mutually contrasting integrals: space and time.
What is black / white?
Within the specific context of electromagnetic radiation, white is light — extreme intensity of energy frequency and amplitude. By contrast, black is dark – no energy, flatness.NB, even here the contrast is between active wave-frequency contradistinction itself and ‘grey’ similitude of blackness.
What is space / time?
Within the all-encompassing context of the entire universe, space is everything that is non-temporal. By contrast, time is everything that is non-spatial. Yes, it’s a circular definition, but there’s only that circle, the mutually generating contrast is an ‘internal’ play — as all meanings are — parts of a whole.If space and time are ‘undifferentiated’ we can call that ‘spacetime’. The amalgamation of words conveys similitude (as if another term for grey were ‘blackwhite’).
But, just as with black and white, to emit space-proper and time-proper there must be a differential that ‘pulls them apart’ as separate things.
The differential between black and white is light (contrast in EM frequency).
The differential between space and time is scale (contrast in spatial and temporal attributes).
What is the spatial / the temporal?
Firstly, I think that it is best to cleanse the concepts of space and time, because they are currently too wrapped up with abstracted spacial and temporal.Here I intend to use the term space as actual entity; typically a cubic measure of air, a room for storage, a vacuum jar, that ‘stuff’ which exists between stars — space is all about volumetric entities.
On the other hand, the spatial is a nominalised adjective, derived from the noun.
It conveys the essential relational attribute of space-entities — the spatial is all about relations (minus time-scale relations).
Ditto for time as actual event; typically a date, a period of history, the movement of the second hand around my stopwatch — time is all about chronological events.
On the other hand, the temporal is a nominalised adjective, derived from the noun.
It conveys the essential relational attribute of time-events — the temporal is all about relations (minus space-scale relations).
What is entity / event?
Another conceptual dichotomy to clarify before tackling spacetime itself.All entities are wrapped-up in processes of some sort. In other words, all entities entail events; all events entails entities (although entity has metaphysical and epistemological primacy).
Entity is very similar to my definition of space:
- Entity = a spatial difference that makes difference (in space).
- Space = a spatial difference that makes a difference (on the spatial scale).
Event is very similar to my definition of time:
- Event = a temporal difference that makes difference (in time).
- Time = a temporal difference that makes a difference (on the temporal scale).
I think that the “difference that makes difference” idea gets to the very essence of what an entity or event is. Differences themselves are as crucial as what is being differentiated — relational attributes (the spacial + the temporal) effectively are the entity/event.
What is spacetime?
Firstly, let’s acknowledge that this term comes with a fair bit of baggage. We probably ought to dust-down Einstein’s meaning as our ‘standard spacetime’ as described in special and general relativity. It was a consolidation of Hermann Minkowski’s earlier mathematical model, Einstein adapted it for the physical sciences.Is spacetime an entity/event (space + time) or a potential for entities/events to emerge?
Is it spacetime itself that we are focused on or it’s ‘attribute/action’ ~ spacetime curvature?
Is its curvature analogous to back+white emerging from greyness?
If it is analogous to ‘greyness’, then it's not really ‘spacetime’ (space + time) but an amalgamation of potential attributes (the spatial + the temporal) — let's call it ‘the spatial-temporal’.
“Spacetime curvature” becomes spatial-temporal divergence, which effectively generates localised space and time, entities and events, realised bounds within what would otherwise be unrealisable boundlessness. It is these local divergences of spacial scale from temporal scale that cause all manner of further natural reactions; contractions and expansions, attractions and repulsions, from the simple to the complex — including ourselves and all that we experience ‘out there’ in the universe.
P.S.
This is another link to my topic “Fundamentally, is there only ‘spacetime’?” on Objectivism Online Forum where I (A.C.E.) attempt to clarify three concepts (space, time, entity) before tackling any definition of ‘spacetime’ itself:
http://forum.objectivismonline.com/index.php?/topic/31612-fundamentally-is-there-only-‘spacetime’/&page=3