Time Study- a sociological examination.

Harpers Magazine
Re: The Accidental Universe, by Alan Lightman Dec. 2011

The Multiverse explanation that incorporates the finding that minor changes in our universe's elemental physical qualities would make life impossible, actually makes intuitive sense. But with acceptance of this, those who have mastered the arcane skills of theoretical physics are facing an existential shock; the essential element of science, objective verifiability, is now impossible.

Released from this grounding of science, that which separates it from philosophic speculation, there is a return to the casuistry of closed self verification by those in the priesthood, this time not based on acceptance of visions of ancient seers, but of mastery of mathematical proofs such as that of string theory, the reality of which is acknowledged to be untestable.

The recent PBS Nova episode of "The Fabric of the Cosmos : The Illusion of Time" illustrates this. With reference to Einsteinian discoveries of anomalies of the time space continuum that do exist, but are beyond anything that humans could possibly experience, the host, Brian Greene, dismisses our intuitive understanding by proclaiming, " That means past, present, future…all equally real; they all exist."

He, and his fellow supporters, as in an infomercial selling the latest supplement, continue to hammer home the point, "Just the way an entire movie exists on celluloid, think of all moments of time as already existing too. The difference is that in the movies, a projector lights up or selects each frame as it goes by, but in the laws of physics, there is no evidence of something like a projector light that selects one moment over another. Our brains may create this impression, but in reality, what we all experience as the flow of time really may be nothing more than an illusion."

There are eminent theoretical physicists who refute such pop science on its own terms, but they are difficult to locate, as this claim of release from the harsh reality of existence-- that the past may not be changed and the future is unknowable, doesn't sell books or attract viewers-or students for that matter. The Nova program is not rogue science, as it is funded by The National Science Foundation, and more importantly, The U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science.

Of course if the position of the program were to be true, the future being "equally real," then our efforts to avoid nuclear catastrophe, global warming and pandemics are wasted, and we should all relax and let the inevitable future play itself out, perhaps only purchasing Dr. Greenes latest book to guide us through the experience. As war is too important to be left to the generals, science is too vital to be left to scientists; especially those whom when faced with the limits of their ability to answer ultimate questions, have reverted to that which it had previously been the antithesis of, a theology extrapolated from quantum mechanics verified by a mathematics that is true only unto itself.

The discipline that has defined the twentieth century, explained the structure of the cosmos, has subtly shifted to something quite different. It is no longer the rejection of the dogma of religious verities, but simply another version of it, with conclusions just as absurd, but unchallenged by those who are intimidated by the reference to theories made scientifically meaningless by ignoring objective validation, that which had differentiated this enterprise from fantasy.

Al Rodbell