Website de Steensplinter

de Steensplinter — Geology and a cosmology of the obvious

10.1 cosmology

• spiral galaxy NGC 3370
(courtesy Hubble Newscenter)

notes
15    Monads, organisms sensu Whitehead,
     particles, strings, loops.
16    See Scientific American, special issue:
     `Beyond Einstein', september 2004.

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contents

(website version 2.30 - august 2007)

cosmology

     1. cosmology
     2. continued

Regard the universe - past plus present -
as a four-dimensional object (substantivalism),
which grows and expands like a tree,
because of a succession of four-dimensional processes,
many of which add three-dimensional records
to those already laid down by previous processes.

     The only items admitted are:
     • the initial singularity
     • a four-dimensional substantial universe
     • four-dimensional shape/time processes
     • three-dimensional records.

The structure of this universe
     can be thought to be continuous (fields)
     or discrete (quanta¹⁵)
     or both simultaneously.

The form of this universe, past plus present,
     can be thought to conform to the requirements
     of general relativity and/or quantum mechanics,
     the two cosmologies that have been confirmed by
     experiment and observation,¹⁶

with the exception that it stops at the present:

     t h e r e i s    n o    f u t u r e !

The present,
     - i.e. the four-dimensial universe now -
     moves ever further outward by means of a succession of processes
     taking place in this present.

processes
     these four-dimensional processes
     can be constructive or destructive.

constructive processes
     leave three-dimensional records in an interval of time,
     or change the shape of pre-existing three-dimensional records
     leaving a three-dimensional record of this change.

destructive processes
     can destroy or delete records,
     left by previous processes.

three-dimensional records
     can be material records, having substance:
     such as galaxies, star-clusters, etc. in the universe around us.
     or as continental crust on our planet earth.

information
     material records also contain elements of form (information);
     this information exists in the record in a purely physical manner
     and can be deleted or changed by later processes
     or can be preserved.

records without substance
     are records of pure form,of pure information
     such as footprints
     and all mental records.

continued