The origin and development of time

Abstract

This paper is in the internalist tradition, in which a system is modeled as if the modeler were inside of it or part of it, as in, e.g. cosmology, or in the autopoiesis discourse of Maturana and Varela. Internally, no distinction can be made between exogenous and endogenous sources of variety and change. We acknowledge, however, that since language use is itself an externalizing practice, we will always have to struggle to remain inside as we continue to theorize. We will use concepts from Peirce, in particular, his general metaphysical categories, Firstness, Secondness and Thirdness, as well as the semiotic concepts of meaning, reference and representation. We will also use the complex causal model of Aristotle (material/formal, efficient/final causes). Our most important tool, however, will be the classification of tenses, as in past/present perfect/present/present progressive/future.We will attempt to show a logically plausible sequence in a local material system from a primordial present tense of pure duration (primal Firstness) perturbed by fluctuations (material causality) which stimulate the linked processes of semantic concretization and syntactic integration (delivering Seconds), from which emerge, respectively, the present progressive and present perfect tenses, which together initiate measurement directed at detecting and realigning internal inconsistencies with respect to a forming internal record (imposing formal causality), giving rise to habits and valuation (Thirdnesses). The finalistic tendency toward equilibration is never finished, resulting in an internal record. As this record accumulates, the resulting growth of the system generates a past tense, within which are formed generalized facts and universal maps (more Secondness) which, by reflection, generate a particular relevant Firstness for the maturing system. Efficient causality emerges internally from contingent collisions of events on parallel tracks, and arises externally from events at other locales at various scales. These prod a system forward in its finalistic tendencies to attain internal consistency. Once the past tense has emerged from the present perfect, valuation based in measurement projects a future tense by way of anticipation (formulated in the past progressive), wherein are projected external final causes (working in the future progressive tense).

Natural hierarchy emerges from energy dispersal

“…According to this view the hierarchically integrated systems have emerged and evolved increasingly more effective in leveling differences and gradients in energy densities. The presented account is in agreement with the earlier reasoning, namely that various evolutionary processes naturally emerge with hierarchical organization (Brooks and Wiley, 1986;Brooks, 2000;Chaisson, 2001;Lorenz, 2002;Matsuno and Salthe, 2002;Matsuno and Swenson, 1999;Salthe, 1985Salthe, , 1993Salthe, , 2004Schneider and Kay, 1994;Ulanowicz and Hannon, 1987;Weber et al, 1989). Thus, the following description that emphasizes energy dispersal by gradient reduction as the motive force behind the hierarchical organization is not new but equivalent to the maximum entropy production principle (Dewar, 2003;Jaynes, 1957;Lucia, 2008).…”

Information and the Regulation of a Lower Hierarchical Level by a Higher One

“…It would form a temporary, dynamically maintained, higher level framework whereby the prawn engages its fellows during schooling. Using narrative forms, it could be represented as the present moment actively mediating between the present progressive and present perfect tenses [11]. It could as well be represented in this biological case as the construct:…”

Yet another time about time … Part I: An essay on the phenomenology of physical time

“…Vrobel suggests to unify Merleau-Ponty's phenomenological notion of nowness as a 1 st person's perception of depth (associated with individually registered superposition of events) involving the rationalization of systemic blind spots (Merleau-Ponty, 1945) and the one of temporal length ("cogent moment", Salthe, 1993) or duration (associated with the individually registered successive flow of events, Vrobel, 2013) from the perspective of the obserpant, the observer-participant who represents the model of the system itself (Vrobel, 2015). This approach is supposed to deliver an integral description of the subjective reality under investigation involving these two locally experienced (and possibly a few more) temporal scales ("timescales", Pattee, 1973) and tenses (Matsuno & Salthe, 2002) into one overall "fractal dimension" of superposed and sequenced events, known as density of time (Vrobel, 2007). These new scales of time are proposed to replace the single dimension in Einstein's relativistic model.…”