|
The Animate and the Inanimate William James Sidis |
CHAPTER XVI
PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT OF REVERSAL
This matter brings up the question as to how the pseudo living analogue of a mind, this "machine for doing nothing," would conceive of its one portion of the universe. In trying to solve this question, we must remember that its memory is directed not toward the past but toward the future; because, memory being the stored-up feeling in a higher form of development, and feeling being that of reserve energy, it follows that feeling and energy must, in any organism, be directed towards that direction in time in which that organism had less reserve energy, and away from that direction of time in which the organism acquires more available energy.
Now, we know that the method by which we really distinguish between the past and the future is by the fact of our remembering the past, while the future to us is an uncertain matter. It follows, therefore, that to the pseudo-living mind, the past will be conceived of as future, and the future as past. An organism conceives, therefore, of the flow of time, in the inverse direction to that in which its memory is directed, that is, in the direction of time in which that organism builds up reserve energy into available energy. Or, since organic phenomena are found in the minority tendency of a given section of the universe, such an organism must conceive of time as flowing in that direction in which the majority tendency, that is, the general surrounding world, decreases the amount of available energy and increases the amount of reserve energy. In other words, an organic being, whether living or pseudo-living, must conceive of time as flowing in such a direction that the second law of thermodynamics prevails, independently of whether that conclusion is correct or not.
This arises from the fact that the pseudo-living organism, though existing in a world in which the second law of thermodynamics is regularly reversed, does not perceive its surroundings as they are, but, on account of the fact that it is not life, but reversed life, it perceives the world as reversed in time, its perceptions form a sort of time-mirror, which would thus produce the illusion of reversal, with the result that such a perception would show the organism itself as alive (not as a pseudo-living organism) and the surrounding world, which is really alive, as lifeless and following the second law of thermodynamics.
Thus, if we were pseudo-living organisms in a universe the exact reverse of ours, that is to say, in the corresponding part of the reverse universe, we should, as pseudo-living organisms, be under this reversal delusion and conceive of the world and of ourselves exactly as we do now, and, in fact, we would have exactly the same ideas as now in relation to everything. Thus there is actually no way for us to tell whether we are living organisms in a positive universe or pseudo-living organisms in a negative universe; in both cases, the former would be the apparent situation. Under the conditions under which a complex organization like a mind can be produced, that mind must conceive of its surroundings in such a way that the second law of thermodynamics would follow. It may be that the law is or is not a physical fact in that particular part of the universe, but conceiving of things in that manner is a necessity for an organized mind. In other words, the second law of thermodynamics is not a physical but a mental law.
However, this must be construed with limitations. There are certain physical facts as to whether the second law of thermodynamics is actually true or not in any given part of the universe. We cannot say that the real universe and the reverse universe are one and the same on the strength of this reasoning; for were we transported into the reverse universe, we should notice the difference; and similarly the pseudo-living organisms transported into our real universe would also easily perceive the difference. But the difference rather suggests the difference between right and left rather than anything else. There are many substances which form two species, one with right-handed molecules and one with left-handed molecules. The reaction of two right-handed substances is the same as that of two similar left-handed substances; but we get entirely different reactions if a right-handed substance of one kind is brought into contact with a left-handed substance of the other kind.
We must regard similarly the difference between any possible combination of events and its reverse with respect to time. They are similar, and at the same time different, in much the same manner as right and left. There is really no essential difference between the forward and backward direction in time, any more than the essential difference between right and left is an essential one. Time is really a two-direction phenomenon, and the two directions are practically interchangeable, instead of being a single direction flow with one direction essentially different from the other. The fact that the two directions of time appear essentially different is due to the fact that our mind is so constructed as to face one direction. There might seem to us to be an essential difference in space between the forward and backward directions, if not for the fact that we are able to turn around.
The pseudo-living mind is one in all aspects like ours, with the difference that it is so constructed as to face the other direction in time; and it has the illusions of difference between the two directions accordingly. To any mind, the past is merely the direction of time which the memory faces, and the future is the opposite direction of time. Hence the pseudo-living mind will see past where we see future, and vice versa. "The first shall be the last, and the last shall be the first"―for the pseudo-living mind. And the reason that there is no way of telling whether we are living organisms in a positive universe, or pseudo-living organisms in a negative universe, is that the difference is really one merely between the two directions of time, and, though those two directions are opposite to each other, they have no physical properties which are in any way different.
There are other cases of such conjugate relations, where two phenomena are different, but can be mutually interchanged without the possibility of any test to indicate the difference. The case that is nearest to that which we are considering, is that of any two opposite directions in space. If two opposite directions in space were interchanged, we should merely have a mirror world, but no different physical properties; and, if we were to suppose that, in that world, we should conceive of right as left and vice versa, there would be no way to tell such a world from the one we live in.
A much more clear-cut case of such a conjugate relation is to be found in the domain of algebra, when dealing with imaginary quantities. The quantity i is defined as the square root of -1, but we might remember that any quantity except zero has two square roots, each the negative of the other, so it is with -1; and we thus get two quantities, i and -i. Now, it makes absolutely no difference to any possible formula in connection with the theory of the imaginaries, which of the quantities we call i, and which -i; they re absolutely interchangeable; and yet the two quantities are anything but identical. For instance, the difference between two identical quantities is zero; and yet the difference between these two quantities is anything but zero, but is twice one of the quantities. The difference can be made to be twice either of the quantities, according to which is subtracted from the other.
In fact, we may notice that perfect interchangeability is not identity. The test of identity is, not that the two things may be interchanged in any statement without vitiating the truth of the statement, but rather that either may be substituted for the other in any statement without vitiating the truth of the statement. In applying this test for identity of A and B, we should substitute A for B without at the same time substituting B for A.
We may then say that the mind conceives of time as flowing, because the mind is not symmetrical with respect to the two directions; it faces one direction, according to the laws governing the special machines that would have to pump reserve energy, and therefore according to the phenomena manifested by reserve energy; and, under the conditions which produce such mechanisms, the resulting law is that an organized mind must conceive of time as flowing towards that direction in which is more reserve energy in that particular part of the universe. This may be either direction in time, either that which is, in our particular minds, forwards or backwards; but, if we conceive of past and future with this mental definition, the second law of thermodynamics follows as a necessary mental law. True, were we transported to negative section of the universe, we should not see things as conforming to the second law of thermodynamics; but the chances are very small that we would be able to live under those special circumstances, under which a sensitive, living air might take an aversion to our breathing it, or, what would be more likely, would send us its carbon dioxide and leave the oxygen for itself, as it would do to the pseudo-living organisms.
If we represent the percentage of "available energy" in a given part of the universe by a curve showing the variation of that percentage through time, we get a wavy curve, resembling somewhat the sinusoid. If the past is placed at the left, and the future at the right, then, as we go along the curve from left to right, the upward sections of the curve represent the negative portions, and the downward portions the negative sections. Time, then, is a two-dimension affair, like the bottom axial line; but a mind in any part would conceive of that time as a flow towards the lower part of the curve, thought that may actually take it towards the past instead of towards the future. To that mind, however, no difference is noticeable.
In the diagram the abscissa represents time, and the ordinates the percentage of available energy in the particular section of the universe. The law then is, that whatever kind of mind would be produced under the various circumstances would be so constructed as to conceive of time as flowing towards the lower part of the curve, that is, towards the troughs of the waves in the diagram; while memory would always look towards the crests of those waves. It makes no difference whether either of those directions is actual past or future, that is, on the diagram, whether these directions point towards the left or towards the right (left, on the diagram, representing past, and the right representing future). In relation to the physical time, the second law of thermodynamics may or not be true; but, as far as concerns the mental conception of time, the second law of thermodynamics must be true as a majority tendency in that particular section of the universe. Hence, in the last analysis, the second law of thermodynamics is to be interpreted as a mental law, as the law determining the direction in which a given mind will conceive of time as flowing.
It must further be remembered that time itself is not a mental phenomenon, but only the appearance of flow. There is actually no more flow in time than in space, and either direction in time may be called past and the other future, without any difference in the properties of the universe. But the actual existence of intervals of time we must assume as being a physical reality, and absolutely necessary for the explanation of physical phenomena.
Inasmuch as it makes no difference in which direction we suppose time to be running, and we may fix either direction arbitrarily without changing the physical properties of the universe, it is more convenient, in order to avoid any dispute as to the nature and direction of time, to cal that direction past in which our memory points, and to call that direction future towards which we conceive time as flowing. In relation to this direction of time, then, we may say that our own section of the universe is positive, and that in that section the second law of thermodynamics prevails.
In fact, we may readily conceive of time as a sort of fourth dimension of the universe. This could readily be done theoretically, only there is a different relation to physical objects. If we used such a conception, we should have to imagine each particle as a sort of thread infinitely extended in the time-dimension. And, further, measurements in time cannot be compared with space measurements. But, although we should not suppose that what we have is a network of threads in a four- dimensional space, yet we can use this as a possible illustration to show what a two-dimension time is.
Suppose, then, a four-dimensional space with a perfectly stationary loom, full of threads entangled in all sorts of ways. The ends of the loom we must suppose to be removed to infinity in their respective directions. If, then, we suppose a three- dimensional film to be moved downwards through this loom, the cross-sections of threads would change about so as to appear as the motion of particles. If, now, we suppose that certain sections of thread have some sort of consciousness, and can perceive what is in the film when the film passes them, and their previous condition (or, in other words, the conscious section just above that part), we should have the effect of mental activity. If instead of supposing this film, we now simply suppose that certain sections of thread are conscious, and that each cross- section can perceive only the surrounding objects of its own level and the higher cross-sections of itself, then we may say that each cross-section can perceive the higher cross-section, but not vice-versa. This would give the impression of a flow from the higher to the lower cross-sections, thus giving the illusion of one flowing and three stationary dimensions; in other words, of one dimension of time and three of space. Probably this is not the correct explanation of the conception of time, but it illustrates the fact that the two opposite directions in time are no more different than two opposite directions in space.
If we suppose, in the illustration, that any conscious bunch of thread always perceives parallel cross-sections in the direction in which the threads are less entangled, it will give the illusion of flow of this fourth dimension, but in such a direction that motion of particles will always seem to scatter. That is, if the threads in this illustration are constituted to perceive in that manner, they will not merely conceive of one dimension as being time instead of space, but they will actually conceive of that time as so flowing that the second law of thermodynamics will be true.
Though all this is but an illustration, we may conclude: The second law of thermodynamics is really a mental law indicating the direction of the illusory flow of time. Time itself really exists as a two-direction affair, and really has no more flow than space.
