The Chaos That Would Be: If the Arrow of Time Were Reversed
by Mark Thomas (TE Mark)
Staff Writer
SPACE MAY BE INFINITE: BUT A MERE FRACTION OF OUR IGNORANCE
“Attack ships on fire, plasma beams criss-cross the sky, clashing carnage everywhere.” (GWAR – Madness at the Core of Time)
Space is special, not just another arena. The words you delivered to their IAU conference seem empty. Especially now staring out from Command at the Russian, Chinese and Indian ships in Lunar orbit above the American south polar base – there to challenge the US’s claim of sovereignty.
And demands that the other L-7 nations dismantle their bases and leave. That Earth’s Moon is no longer open to all nations.
Laser flashes from orbit and from the surface light the Lunar silence. Even with the strikes on the geodesics sending up coils of electric dust, there’s nothing. Not a whisper. What was built over decades, and those stationed there are being shredded into atoms and scattered into luminous spirals like a Jovian aurora.
The image is profound and abhorrent. Grotesque and jarring. Weapons pulled from genius - destruction on a scale once considered unthinkable.
This is not the dream you had for them. Nor was it the vision of the Assembly that sent you. You were to guide and advance them technologically only when you were certain they’d advanced themselves – and grown to accept the responsibility of an advanced, spacefaring member.
Having returned to see them ready to throw away progress – to force your hand – to lose everything causes you to question how you assessed them. Even how you define them. Though innately barbaric, they display such passion in their arts and sciences. Their curiosity to reach beyond their reach is admirable and promising.
But with each stride, each advance, they appear incapable of shedding their primal instincts. And now, they’ve presented you with but one alternative.
Send them back to an earlier time - to begin again.
THE BEAUTY IN THE BELIEF: THAT OUTER SPACE IS SPECIAL
“In our obscurity – in all the vastness – there is no hint that help will come from somewhere else to save us from ourselves.” (Carl Sagan)
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After leaving the battle for Earth’s moon, you’re in the UN Committee room where you first presented yourself to their politicians. It was April of 1961 days after their first successful manned space flight. Quite a praiseworthy thrust given their technology of the time.
But unfortunate that the ensuing space race was driven more by a desire for supremacy and spying than science and exploration.
At the table are representatives from the same countries and others who have added space programs since you left them in 1967 after the signing of their Outer Space Treaty.
That treaty you helped orchestrate was bold, idealistic and exacting in ways, calling upon them to abandon their aggressions. Or at least leave them behind as they venture out into the expanse.
The main provisions of that treaty were: 1. Outer Space shall be free for exploration and use by all States. 2. The Moon and other celestial bodies shall be used exclusively for peaceful purposes. And 3. Astronauts shall be regarded as the envoys of mankind.
It guaranteed them as a future, peaceful partner. Though advancing technologically and militarily, they were humbled by an extraterrestrial representative. And receptive to you and your guidance.
But sitting there, it’s apparent something has changed. These are not the beings you left that day in their calendar year of 1967.
Other than the Committee’s science advisor, who you feel wants to speak out but can’t, they’re guarded and suspicious and have not abandoned their tribal natures. And you’re certain from their probing questions; they’re prepared to challenge you.
Once they’ve determined the breadth of your capabilities.
FROM PROGRESS TO REGRESSION: HOW TIME CHANGES PERSPECTIVE
“The eyes are not here - there are no eyes here – in the valley of dying stars.” (TS Eliot)
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“Our world has changed, S’ayan. We’ve changed.”
You look at the American ambassador – then glance briefly at the others. “I can see that.”
The room feels tense. And their questions: why you’ve returned, what actions you’ll take if any and what your capabilities are, though veiled are radiant. They have changed. And their technological advances have only emboldened them.
Their arrogant intransigence now speaks in place of their once willingness to accept you and your guidance.
“The battle on your natural satellite, and the weapons you’ve engineered and taken with you into space…”
“…are our personal affairs S’ayan. We accepted the Treaty, for a time. But we never accepted you as our overlords.”
You stare into the face of the Russian ambassador, who appears indignant – rooted and committed to this conflict. Validating, even more that their technology, though having advanced them technologically has not advanced them morally or intellectually.
Which has made them confident but ultimately self-destructive. And a potential danger to others. And this has further validated your decision.
“You’ve come, I think, not to stop our foolish war… Or you would have.”
You give Advisor Gonzalez an approving nod and a smile for speaking her mind in this room of reckless resolve.
“Stopping your war, would not change you.”
“But then… what? What will you do? Perhaps if you tell them – reveal what you’re capable of, they’ll listen.”
Glancing at their faces, you note their indignation that their advisor – the scientist among them would reject their misguided hubris – sense the need for humility. And it disturbs you.
How confident they’ve become. And how unwise.
Before leaving the table, you feel an urge to share what’s about to happen – what you’re planning and what you’re hoping to learn. You ask the young physicist to visit you. And smile when she accepts.
You’ve made a friend here. Someone like you. And there’s so much you wish to share with her - in the short time she has left.
THE ARROW OF TIME: UNBOUND BY PHYSICS
“So far as physics is concerned, time’s arrow is a property of entropy alone.” (Arthur Stanley Eddington)
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At the microscopic level, the laws of physics are symmetric with respect to time – they work just as well whether time runs forwards or backwards. But at the macroscopic level, processes all have a preferred direction.
Earth astronomer and physicist Sir Arthur Eddington called this “the arrow of time.”
Essentially, a universe begins with its matter and energy evenly dispersed in a dense, highly ordered, low-entropy state. From this “Hot Big Bang,” matter and energy spread out becoming increasingly disordered – clumping into stars and star systems.
On some planetary bodies, beings evolve with reality states governed by this outward movement – this direction or arrow. They perceive this expansion as forward moving time.
Their evolution, memories and the construction of their conscious experience is predicated upon this forward movement. Only the most intellectually and technologically advanced beings challenge this constraint. As some in the theoretical sciences have done here on Earth.
And this causes you concern.
REVERSING ENTROPY, THE UNIVERSE AND OUR SUBJECTIVE EXPERIENCE
“The organism feeds on negative entropy.” (Erin Schrodinger)
“The battle is not really against yourself, but against the entropy that brings disorder to consciousness.” (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi)
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This will not be the first time you’ve had to reverse the entropy of a universe to curtail a destructive species from extending their violent natures outward away from their planet. Life is rare. Intelligent life unimaginably so. Here in this universe, it’s only Earth.
With the reversal already in progress, you begin pouring over your more philosophical discussions with your mentor and colleagues about perceptions – and for what you’ll need to prepare should they begin to challenge their observations.
With time flowing backwards, and memories now becoming visions of the future; how many will question the disappearance of knowledge, technological advances, experiences and memories?
It was Ka’eth the Elder who famously wrote: “With entropy reversed, cognitive processes also reverse making the experience indistinguishable from the forward-moving reality. In effect, we begin to perceive our movement into the past as forward movement – reversing our perceptions and memory formation.”
Though most will be unaware of the change as memories and neurons rely on increasing entropy, there will be outliers – theoretical physicists and philosophers who have already postulated this premise.
And there is also their technology. Regardless of their evolutionary stagnation – they’re still destructive and building weapons, their quantum systems are capable of processing data in any direction.
They’ll be unaffected. A record of their once expanding universe that began 13.8 billion years ago will not cease to exist like the memories of that reality in the minds of the biological beings. Neither will the records of space exploration, fusion energy reactors and advanced weaponry.
There will exist dual but divergent reality states on this planet. And the confusion and chaos from this could be catastrophic.
ACCEPTING FAILURE: AS A REASON TO BEGIN AGAIN
“We’ve been busy with war instead of being busy with peace. And that’s what space travel is all about.” (Ray Bradbury)
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It was prudent of you to leave them at that meeting, not fearful of you but concerned. With hopes they would seize the moment to pause and pursue a different course.
Accessing their internet in your hotel room 3-days on to gather data from their military communications networks, you find the opposite has happened. They’ve used their technology to probe your ship for weapons. And finding none in a sense they can understand, they’ve united. Now seeing you as a common enemy and a threat.
The Americans, Russians and Chinese have moved new rockets with newer even more advanced weapons to launch pads. The Indians and Japanese are re-tasking their ships in Lunar orbit. Their new target, your vessel holding steady at Earth’s Lagrange Point L4.
Part of you sees this as an opportunity to study them. To see how they adapt with the matter and energy in their universe moving backwards to a more ordered, low-entropy state. And to see how that new state manifests.
Your mentor once said: “Reverse entropy is not like watching a film in reverse. A melting ice cube does not reform into the original cube but back into a less disordered state.”
Accepting this, you’re curious about what you’re soon to witness. More so about their cognitive processes than basic physics. What new, ordered state their thoughts will take. How they’ll begin to form new memories – possibly reimagining their past experiences as creative visions of a possible future.
And there’s that concern about their technology – which, in time will no longer exist. But during the reversal, may adequately support theories of inaccurate collective perceptions – and enigmatic memories.
Their collapsing rather than expanding universe and the increasing temperature of the Cosmic Microwave Background might cause their cosmologists to deduce in their equations something has changed. It will baffle them until the process is complete – and they return to an earlier time.
Medical sciences – atmospheric sciences. This is a first for you, resetting such a scientifically advanced culture. How unusual it is that they’re still manufacturing weapons.
How difficult it is to predict what they’ll observe during the reversal. Whether they’ll conclude their existence has been tampered with. And what they might do to satisfy their suspicions.
There’s a knock at your door. The one you were expecting.
THE MIND THAT OPENS TO NEW IDEAS: DISPENSES WITH FEARS
“Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will.” (James Stephens)
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Turning from the desk, you access the building security cameras. Outside your door is the Committee science advisor – the one woman at that meeting who rejected the position of the others. Who broke silence, spoke freely and asked them to listen. She’s a passionate scientist, much like you, and like you saw value in that idealistic Treaty.
You’re aware of others in the building and outside. Military vehicles – and soldiers stationed at the exits. They’re already questioning and have their suspicions.
Leaving the edge of the bed, you walk to the door and pull it in.
“You’ve been deemed a threat, S’ayan. The military has decided to hold you… and restrict your movements.”
You nod and show her in. The confusion in her face is what you anticipated. With the process accelerating, and the knowledge of your arrival becoming obscure, you prepare for a conversation that may lose purpose or become irrelevant before reaching any conclusion.
“You feel otherwise, Alejandra… and you’ve come for answers, and I believe comfort.”
The young physicist takes a seat at the table along the glass. She nods but appears hesitant. You can see in her eyes she’s struggling even now with her objective – as with each moment, her knowledge, purpose and memories are compressing. Becoming speculation.
“We had ships in Lunar orbit. Bases with… scientists and mining operations.”
“Did you?”
She thinks for a moment, then shakes her head. “No.”
You watch her for another minute while she organises her thoughts.
“The agency people and our militaries believe you’re responsible for what’s happening to our planet. Our universe and… us.”
“And what would do you feel is happening?”
“I don’t know.”
You watch her turn to the window and stare out – and begin watching the world change. “I have colleagues who have concluded that… that physics is broken. That what’s happening cannot happen.”
“If you could describe for me the visions you have of your future… and how they’re changing, you would add to the knowledge of not just this universe, or your species… but of many.”
She takes a long moment to think – before concluding the gift you’ve just offered. To become part of a grand experiment. And you can see, she is already forming new memories. Memories in reverse of the ones methodically being erased. “Will I grow younger, S’ayan?”
“I don’t know.”
“Will I lose all the knowledge I’ve gained?”
“I don’t know that either. Your atoms and the energy in you, on your planet – in your universe are returning to a more ordered state. What that state will be is unpredictable. Even by us. To you, it may seem chaos.”
She looks at you and smiles. “I guess we’ll have to wait then… And hope, I guess that we get it right next time.”
Impressed by her, you walk to the desk and sit. And take her hand in yours. “Stay with me. It won’t be long.”
WITH THE END KNOWN: THE WRITER BEGINS ENLIGHTENED
“No matter how hard the past is, you can always begin again.” (The Buddha)
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Days later you’re on the Command deck writing about your final conversation with your friend Alejandra who graciously shared her thoughts and visions of a future that was actually her past.
You learned how an advanced, thinking being – a fellow scientist perceived time and her existence. And the physics of what we loosely call reality. And you’ll forever hold dear the bond you formed in your hotel room watching her world reorder itself.
And her final words that she now believed time is an illusion. That we create it. And that our minds are capable of perceiving Time’s Arrow in both or many directions.
Looking down now at the 3rd planet in this unique system, with the continents and oceans forming and life soon to begin again, you wonder what the new inhabitants will look and be like. And what many names they’ll give to their home world.
Will they be anything like their predecessors? Aggressive, but also artistic. Barbaric but also passionate and science minded. Will they create weapons and make war on their fellow beings? Or will entropy – that random expansion that creates and guides all of us – our physics and even our thoughts and memories happen differently this time.
And you think while readying for your long journey home, what if we could control the random process we call entropy? What worlds and universes and beings would we create? How could we better guide them?
You’ll sleep now, and dream perhaps of Alejandra – a beautiful woman with such expressive visions of a past she was so anxious to relive. People and moments she treasured and wished to the very beginning; she could share with you. Without fear – only sweet curiosity.
Mark Thomas (T. E. Mark)
StorytellingScience.org