http://www.univer.omsk.su/omsk/Sci/Kozyrev/paper1a.txt
POSSIBILITY OF EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF PROPERTIES OF TIME
[Unpublished article by N. A. Kozyrev: English title as
above; Pulkovo, "O VOZMOZHNOSTI EKSPERIMENTAL'NGO
ISSLEDOVANIYA SVOYSTV VREMENI", Russian, September 1967,
pp 1-49]
Part 1.
Theoretical Concepts
Time is the most important and most enigmatic property
of nature. The concept of time surpasses our imagination.
The recondite attempts to understand the nature of time by
the philosophers of antiquity, the scholars in the Middle
Ages, and the modern scientist, possesing a knowledge of
sciences and the experience of their history, have proven
fruitless. Probably this occurs because time involves the
most profound and completely unknown properties of the
world which can scarcely bne envisaged by the bravest
flight of human fancy. Past these properties of the world
there passes the thiumphal procession of modern science and
technical progress. In reality, the exact sciences negate
the existence in time of any other qualities other than the
simplest quality of "duration" or time intervals, the
measurement of which is realized in hours. This quality of
time is similar to the spatial interval. The theory of
relativity by Einstein made this analogy more profound,
considering time intervals and space as compo- nents of a
four-dimensional interval of a Minkowski universe. Only the
pseudo-Euclidian nature of the geometry of the Minkowski
universe differentiates the time interval from the space
interval. Under such a conception, time is scalar ( scalar
= weight ) and quite passive. It only supplements the
spatial arena, against which the events of the universe are
played out. Owing to one scalarity of time, in the
equations of theoretical mechanics the future is not
separated from the past; hence the causes are not separated
from the results. In the result, classical mechanics
brings to the universe a strictly deterministic, but
deprived, causality. At the same time, causality comprises
the most important quality of the real world. The concept
of causality is the basis of natural science. The
natural scientist is convinced that the question
"why?" is a legitimate one, that a question can be found
for it. However, the content of the exact sciences is much
more impoverished. In the precise sciences, the legitimate
question is only "how?". i.e., in what manner a given
chain of occurrences takes place. Therefore, the precise
sciences are descriptive. The description is made in a
four-dimensional world, which signifies the possibility of
predicting events. This possibility prediction is the key
to the power of the precise sciences. The fascination of
this power is so great that it often compels one to forget
the basic, incomplete nature of their basis. It is
therefore probable that the philosophical concept of Mach,
derived strictly logically from the bases of the exact
sciences, attracted great attention, in spite of its
nonconformity to our knowlege concerning the universe and
daily experience. The natural desire arises to introduce
into the exact sciences the principles of natural
sciences. In other words, the tendency is to attempt to
introduce into theoretical mechanics the principle of
causality and directivity of time. Such a mechanics can be
called "causal" or "asymetrical" mechanics. In such
mechanics, there should be be realizable experience,
indicating where the cause is and where the result is. It
can be demonstrated that in statistical mechanics there is
a directivity of time and that it satisfies our desires. In
reality, statistical mechanics constructs a certain bridge
between natural and theoretical mechanics. In the
statistical grouping, an asymmetrical state in time can
develop, owing to unlikely initial conditions caused by the
intervention of a proponent of the system, the effect of
which is causal. If, subsequently, the system will be
isolated, in conformity with the second law of
thermodynamics, its entropy will increase, and the
directivity of time will be associated with this trend in
the variation of entropy. As a result, the system will lead
to the most likely condition; it will prove to be in
equilibrium, but then the fluctuations in the entropy of
vaious signs will be encountered with equal frequency.
Therefore, even in the statistical mechanics of an isol-
ated system, under the most probable condition, the
directivity of time will not exist. It is quite natural
that in statistical mechanics, based on the conventional
mechanics of a point , the direction of time does not
appear as a quality of time itself but originates only as a
property of the state of the system. If the directivity of
time and other possible qualities are objective, they
should enter the system of elementary mechanics of isolated
processes. However, the statistical generalization of such
mechanics can lead to a conclusion concerning the
unattainability of equilibrium conditions. In reality, the
directivity of time signifies a pattern continuously
existing in time, which, acting upon the material system,
can cause it to transfer to an equilibrium state. Under
such a consideration, the events should occur not only in
time, as in a certain arens, but also with the aid of time.
Time becomes an active participant in the universe,
eliminating the possibility of thermal death. Then, we can
understand harmony of life and death, which we perceive as
the essence of our world. Already, owing to these
possibilities alone, one should carefully examine the
question as to the manner in which the concept of the
directivity of time or its pattern can be introduced into
the mechanics of elementary processes...
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