On Friday September 28th, Professor Lee Smolin of Harvard University spoke at Dartmouth on the concept of time and the evolution of the laws of nature. Professor Smolin, a theoretical physicist, opined that scientific laws must change to describe the universe in its entirety.
Together with his colleague, Professor Roberto Managbeira Unger, Smolin attempted to address the definition of a scientific law. “Must laws be timeless or can laws change over time?”. He described the concept of Newtonian paradigm, the standard explanation of modern physical science based on the premise that the entire physical world is composed of systems with states that are affected by dynamic laws. In Newtonian paradigm, a theory must cover all the possible states a system can be found in at a fixed time and how these states change over time.
Smolin believes that the application of subsystem Newtonian paradigm theories and laws to the universe is incorrect. According to Smolin, the application of subsystem laws to the universe is a cosmological fallacy which results in gaps and irrationalities called cosmological dilemmas. Smolin states that scientific laws, as the most fundamental descriptions of nature, must be applicable to the whole universe and not just to subsystems. Smolin stated that “a truly fundamental theory must be a cosmological theory or it neglects the interactions between subsystems and the environment.” Newtonian paradigm subsystem theories, as a result, are only approximates.
The two main assertions of modern physics is that time is an illusion and that our universe is just one of many universes. Smolin and Unger, on the other hand, believe in “monoworldism,” a theory that purports that there is only one universe and everything that happens in it is casually connected to what we see. They reject the idea that time is an illusion and believe that the reality of time means that everything that is real exists at the moment or the present. They emphasize the importance of the present and argue against the irrelevance of time to physics. Smolin also states that a moment is actually a succession of moments, and that all that exists is what exists at the moment. Smolin believes that laws must evolve with time so that scientists and researchers can explain the evolution of natural laws.
Time Reborn is Professor Lee Smolin’s less dense introduction to his and Professor Roberto Managbeira Unger’s concepts.
Smolin, Lee. “Time and the Evolution of Laws of Nature.” Celebrating the Legacy of E.E. Just. Dartmouth College. Haldeman Center, Hanover, NH. 28 September 2012.