Uncertainties of Space-Time (and of us with it)

Horse Head Nebula. Hubblesite.org

We do not only live in uncertain times but also in uncertain spaces. In fact, it is not only our problem, for that wonderful myth of the fabric of space-time is the picture of a very precarious situation of general instability. According to General Relativity, matter determines the geometry of space-time, so when matter moves geometry changes. On the other hand, according to Heisenberg’s principle, we cannot determine the position of matter with accuracy, i.e. we cannot establish its geometrical properties. Putting the two statements together: matter determines geometry, but the geometry of matter cannot be determined. Then, what are we talking about when we say space-time?

The problem of this wide scope uncertainty (as wide as it gets) is no other than its biblical dimensions, for both theories are the Bible of Physics and thus the very foundations of our belief in the powers of modern society. However, these declarations of modern universal law are somewhat comforting from our tiny little worm perspective: the universe has literally bigger problems than us.

I always wondered why physics insisted in talking about “well-behaved spaces”, but this fundamentally roguish wink of space-time displaces all doubts and everything else with it.

There is a simple solution for all this nonsense: space-time is a creation of life-intelligence, it is related to the autopoietic movement of life and expresses the order of life in relation to not-life, and giving so its conditions of possibility; outside this frame it only works as a projection myth.

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