A Rational Cosmology: The Impossibility of a Universe Without Time

Essay XXVII

This is Essay XXVII of Mr. Stolyarov's series, "A Rational Cosmology," which seeks to present objective, absolute, rationally grounded views of terms such as universe, matter, volume, space, time, motion, sound, light, forces, fields, and even the higher-order concepts of life, consciousness, and volition. See the index of all the essays in "A Rational Cosmology" here.

It has already been demonstrated that, whenever the magnitude of some quality of some entity is altered, explaining such changes in the absence of a time scale is impossible. However, it shall also be shown here that, even were all the entities in the universe to enter a period of absolute stasis, they would continue to accumulate the quality, time, uniformly, and their relation via a time scale would remain inescapably necessary.

Let us presume that two entities, A and B, enter absolute stasis (say, by coming to exhibit an absolute zero temperature by some means) simultaneously. Even now we see the need to relate them by a time scale, since we would observe a far different phenomenon had A and B not become static simultaneously, that is, had A experienced changes in its qualities while B experienced none, or vice versa.

However, one might ask, would one need a time scale to relate A and B after the instant at which they had become static? After all, their qualities would not change by definition after said instant. Yet, we know from simple observation of the phenomena around us, that stasis is not the only condition accessible to an entity. As a matter of fact, we have yet to observe a truly static entity in every respect.

Thus, we may assert knowledge of the fact that A and B do nothave to remain static once they become static; some set of future circumstances is possible that would render them dynamic entities (i.e., entities with some changing qualities).

However, if this possibility exists, it also implies that A and B can become dynamic simultaneously, or at varying times, with A remaining static while B resumes a changing mode, or vice versa.