Originally Posted By: Bill S.
Interesting that you picked that particular quote from Matt Strassler. I don't know if you looked down the discussion part of the article; but he and I (and my accidental alter-ego) had an exchange on just that point.

Edited: After I read your exchange will Matt I want to expand some things.

Matt is just echoing a thing everyone who does QFT runs across the problem that we have a reference frame we are exchanging energy that is difficult to reconcile in our time and space reference. To us that domain looks like it has no time (or all times) and spacially it is everywhere and that is difficult to imagine.

Conceptually the only real way to reconcile it is the way you did that the stopping of time in our domain is an illusion of our frame of reference the same as it is at the event horizon of a black hole.

The space part sometimes works to people if you create and use a planck distance grid and put the fields in the gaps, Brian Greene uses that one a lot.



The problem is we don't really know that is true and higher dimensions and holography are equally valid answers.

The only really important part is realizing that you are dealing with two very different "domains", the classical one we recognize and love and one very much different to ours. What these domains are is an open question to be settled sometime in the future.

Then all you need to remind yourself before trying to make things absolute like "stopping time" etc is to think about the other domain. Would and should the happening in our domain translate into the other domain.

As you know all the particles in our domain here have energy and interactions with the higgs and EM fields. So it should be obvious the amount of energy involved and bad things are going to happen if you froze time in only our domain.

For my part I seriously doubt you can actually stop time and so don't bother thinking much beyond it would be very bad.

Can I say for a layman you now have a pretty good understanding of everything from first principles. I think you probably also now realize why at times I pull my hair out with some comments.

When I look that Bill G and you basically started with very similar science understanding and both wanting to try and blend QM into your classical physics. You were stumbling around with energy and time and all sorts of weird classical descriptions of it, and now look at you. You chose to follow the science evidence, asked the questions, and resolved them in the only possible ways. You basically end up exactly where science is today. I have seen you answer questions with authority that a time ago would have caused you endless problems and recognize errors (sometimes even from scientists who should know better). You now need to stop asking me for confirmation of things you have already worked out. Trust what you can deduce logically and listen to arguments against. I am happy to act as a sounding board but I am not interested in making you agree with everything I say or think.

Last edited by Orac; 09/02/15 02:28 AM.

I believe in "Evil, Bad, Ungodly fantasy science and maths", so I am undoubtedly wrong to you.