Second Coming: Extending the Entertainment

What is the nature of time?

In the novel, Paul Genet tells his story to the abbot of a monastery he seeks to join. After Paul finishes, the abbot asks Paul questions to further help decide whether to admit him or not. Here, Paul comments on the nature of time. (In the novel, time ends for Paul when he realizes that, in a balanced quantum universe, all events are always happening.) —Editor

Abbot: What is time?

Paul: Haven’t you heard? Time is what keeps everything from happening at once. That’s supposed to be funny, but what’s funny is that everything does happen at once.

How so? In a non-local¹ quantum universe, all things are One through balance. All events are the cause of all other events simultaneously in a universe operated by balance. To experience past-future, you must break the symmetry of balance. With two or more (Many), time and space manifest.²

How do you break the symmetry of balance? All you need is a processor with sufficient capacity. A human brain will do. Once you distinguish between self and other, you have broken the symmetry of all things One through balance. My friend, Preacher John, says, “Time is the effect of self-other (subject-object) split.”

The second law of thermodynamics, acting on our physical brain, gives us the experience of time flowing. This is why the “arrow of time” only points toward the “future.” However, because all events exist simultaneously in a non-local balanced universe, it is possible, in principle, to experience any time or any place. Of course, such an experience would be an essential part of balance. All events are necessary—and none are contingent—in a non-local quantum universe.

If you are still trying to get your mind around the idea of everything happening at once, think of a movie on a DVD disk. The entire movie is happening at once making it possible to experience any scene in any order. However, to experience a given scene, you must break the symmetry of the whole movie (One) into its component frames (Many). You might say that frames are what keep the whole movie from happening at once. Except, of course, the whole movie is happening at once.

“Which came first, the chicken or the egg?”  Can you guess the answer? Of course, you can. Neither the chicken nor the egg comes first because everything is simultaneous in a non-local quantum universe where all is One through balance. The chicken-egg conundrum exists only if you break the symmetry of balance.

¹ Non-local in quantum physics means instant connections across the universe as if time and space did not exist. Increasingly sophisticated scientific experiments since 1982 have verified non-local connections which Einstein called “spooky action at a distance.” Of course, instant connections are not spooky at all if you view all things as One through balance. —Editor

² Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman once tried to imagine the universe as existing with only a single electron. He quickly realized that radiation exchange would be impossible for a single electron. One is the same as Nothing. Something is only possible with two or more. Thus, One and Many—Nothing and Something—are binaries, each necessary in defining the other as left is necessary for right and up is necessary for down. —Editor

What is memory if all events are not past or future but are simultaneous?

Balance as the operating principle of the universe | Balance as the non-local hidden variable of quantum physics

Okay, so time doesn’t exist in Paul’s universe, but time certainly exists in the real universe—doesn’t it?

“Any successful merger of quantum theory with general relativity will inevitably describe a universe in which, ultimately, there is no time.” Discover Magazine

“For those of us who believe in physics, this separation between past, present and future is only an illusion.” —Einstein New York Times

Second Coming protagonist, Paul Genet, answers questions about his universe:

Why is there something rather than nothing?

What is the true nature of existence?

Has the Universe been replaced by a Multiverse?

Does God exist in the balanced universe of Paul Genet?

Does life exist elsewhere in the universe?

Is the universe a computer?

Will there ever be a coherent theory of quantum gravity?

Are superstrings the theory of everything?

Is Schrödinger's cat both alive and dead in a balanced quantum universe?

What is memory?

What is the origin of language?