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A Review
of
Henri Louis Bergson's Book
Time and Free Will
Chapter II: The Multiplicity of Conscious States - The Idea of Duration
Topic 18: Homogeneous Time and Space
by Doug Renselle
Doug's Pre-review Commentary
—
Start of Review

Chapter:

 I II

Translator's
Preface

 Bibliography Author's
Preface		 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

Chapter:

 III
18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 Conclusion Index


Move to any Topic of Henri Louis Bergson's Time and Free Will,
or to beginning of its review via this set of links
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Topic 18...............Homogeneous Time and Space

PAGE

QUOTEs
(Most quotes verbatim Henri Louis Bergson, some paraphrased.)

COMMENTs
(Relevant to Pirsig, William James Sidis, and Quantonics Thinking Modes.)

98

 "Now, if space is to be [classically] defined [see define] as the homogeneous, it seems that
Time, in so in so far as it is a homogeneous medium, and not concrete duration, is reducible to space. inversely every homogeneous and unbounded medium will be space. For, homogeneity here consisting in the absence of every quality, it is hard to see how two forms of the homogeneous could be distinguished from one another. Nevertheless it is generally agreed
to regard time as an unbounded medium, different from space but homogeneous like the latter: the homogeneous is thus supposed to take two forms, according as its contents co-exist or follow one another. It is true that, when we make time a homogeneous medium in which conscious states unfold themselves, we take it to be given all at once, which amounts to saying that we abstract it from duration. This simple consideration ought to warn us that we are thus unwittingly falling back upon space, and really giving up time. [And thus, we query, "Is all homogeneity space?"] Moreover, we can understand that material objects, being exterior to one another and to ourselves, derive both exteriorities from the homogeneity of a medium which inserts intervals between them and sets off their outlines: but states of consciousness, even when successive, permeate one another, and in the simplest of them the whole soul can be reflected. We may therefore surmise that time, conceived under the form of a homogeneous medium, is some spurious concept, due to the trespassing of the idea of space upon the field of pure consciousness."

(Our link, brackets, bold, color, and violet bold italic problematics.)

Bergson restarts his footnote counts on each page. So to refer a footnote, one must state page number and footnote number.

Our bold and color highlights follow a code:

  • black-bold - important to read if you are just scanning our review
  • orange-bold - text ref'd by index pages
  • green-bold - we see Bergson suggesting axiomatic memes
  • violet-bold - an apparent classical problematic
  • blue-bold - we disagree with this text segment while disregarding context of Bergson's overall text
  • gray-bold - quotable text
  • red-bold - our direct commentary

When newborns unfold themselves, what happens to their local times? Does a newborn predicably possess a know-ledge about classical homogeneous unilogical time? If it does, explain how. If it appears not to, why do you think that, yet still you accept (assuming you are a classicist and thingk classically) that your conception of time is homogeneous. On a related question: when does a next generation commence? Is it a homogeneous percept or a heterogeneous percept? Are there many generations, or just one classical generation every 20 years which fixes that generation for everyone who was synchronously born into it? Is time really a classically homogeneous concept? Do we map out generations in space, and count them analytically? Doug - 28Apr2002.

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99 "At any rate we cannot finally admit two forms of the homogeneous, time and space, without first seeking whether one of them cannot be reduced to the other. Now, externality is the distinguishing mark of things which occupy space, while states of consciousness are not essentially external to one another, and become so only by being spread out in time, regarded as a homogeneous medium. If, then, one of these two supposed forms of the homogeneous, namely time and space, is derived from the other, we can surmise a Priori that the idea of space is the fundamental datum. But, misled by the apparent simplicity of the idea of time, the philosophers who have tried to reduce one of these ideas to the other have thought that they could [empirically] make extensity [build up space] out of duration. While showing how they have been misled, we shall see that time, conceived under the form of an unbounded and homogeneous medium, is nothing but the ghost of space haunting the reflective consciousness."

(Our brackets, bold and color, and violet bold italic problematics.)

Doug (Now is CeodE 2008.) did this review seven years ago, in 2001.

Doug has learned much since then. Doug would say to you now that "time issi a symptom of quantum flux." How can you show us that Doug? Like this, at absolute zero temperature time is "zero." Really? N¤! Isoflux, ticking at up to Planck's rate...

...exists, so we could still ømnihtør time if we had means to uncancel isoflux. But "uncanceling isoflux" is same as "raising temperature," isn't it? So we cann¤t ømnihtør quantum~reality without raising its temperature enough to uncancel some isoflux.

All physical measurables of quantum~reality, i.e., mass, space, time, gravity, etc., are "symptoms of quantum~flux." Can you show space as a symptom of quantum~flux? How would you do that? One good way, a good approach, would be to realize that spin 1/2 flux wobbles and thus "uses, makes, creatio ex nihilo aperio: space." How can we m¤dal that? Use a flat strip of paper whose aspect ratio is about 9:1 as a metaphor of absence of space. Induce 1/2 spin in sheet of paper by transmorphing it into a Möbius strip. Spin 1/2 'wobble' con(m)sumes space and creates gravity!!! So how can we make gravity "go away?" And thence an apparency: Can we cloak fermions in a "bosonic bubble?" How much energy would it take to move a bosonic~cloaked fermion through space? What would be our fuel, fule, fool cost from Earth to Alpha Centauri and back. Could we use cloaked fermions to dead reckon our trip? How?

Doug - 1Mar2008.

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To contact Quantonics write to or call:

Doug Renselle
Quantonics, Inc.
Suite 18 #368 1950 East Greyhound Pass
Carmel, INdiana 46033-7730
USA
1-317-THOUGHT

©Quantonics, Inc., 2001-2010 — Rev. 11Dec2008  PDR — Created: 23Feb2001  PDR
(7Aug2002 rev - Assure all colons are emboldened.)
(29Dec2003 rev - Add p. 98 comments 'thingk' link.)
(23Mar2006 rev - Adjust colors. Release page constraints. Add GIF uparrows.)
(1Mar2008 rev - Reformat slightly. Add p. 99 commentary on antigravity.)
(11Dec2008 rev - Change some fonts to gifs. Reset legacy markups.)

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