A Rational Cosmology: The Transmission of Light

Essay XLVII

This is Essay XLVII 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.

Given that motion, along with its measure, speed, is a property of entities, and light is not an entity, it may be asked how this view of light is reconcilable with the conventional scientific notion that there exists a "speed of light," often thought fundamental in numerous post-Classical physical calculations.

At this point in the analysis, we should wish to neither advocate nor refute definitively whether or not the "speed of light" is a true or a false concept. Rather, we should determine whether it is a feasible one according to the ubiquitous truths we have hitherto explicated about light. If so, we should formulate a theory of how the idea of a "speed of light" might be explained by the understanding of light as relationship.

Furthermore, this approach will enable us to determine precisely which parts of Einstein's relativity-based ideas concerning the "speed of light" are in fact flawed and can be ruled out by cosmological examination.

Conventional scientific wisdom will tell us that light in a vacuum "travels" at some 3*10⁸ meters per second, a quantity that has seemingly been verified by observation and experiment. This simple but misleading expression reinforces further the fallacy that light is an entity capable of "traveling."

Since light is not an entity, it cannot "travel" or exhibit motion qua entity. A more appropriate word to use for the phenomenon of light emitted by a source entity "reaching" a target entity would be "transmitted." Light is transmitted from the source to the target, since transmission can occur with respect to other existents than entities.