Let There Be Light

Light's determinate geodesic path through space and time at constant velocity, c, represents the most fundamental action of mainstream science. In fact, science only know that the world exists because observers see light traveling at constant velocity and that constant velocity means that energy is equivalent to mass and also that space and time shrink and dilate with increasing relative velocity.

Discrete aether defines the action of light instead as an oscillation of aether with matter and not time and matter oscillates in a universe of matter bonded by light exchange. Bonded by aether exchange light moving through space and time bonds matter with light photon exchanges are stationary aether oscillations in the primitive coordinates of matter and action and it is the decay of aether shrinkage everywhere that observers see stationary aether oscillations that they call light. The observers of the universe flow to the aether oscillations of stationary light by aether exchange and it is not light that moves to observers from sources.

The equivalence of matter and energy is also fundamental in aethertime as it is in spacetime, but instead of space and time, it is the action of aether exchange that defines light as an oscillation. And it is from aether decay that space and time emerge from the action of aether.

We only know about the universe because of our encounters with light and so we quite naturally think of light moving from sources to observers in rather straight determinate paths. Thoughts that observers and the universe somehow shrinks toward the light are already confused concepts because of the use of terms that presume space and time. When we interact with a photon of light from a source, for some very short quantum decay time our matter becomes part of the source and the source becomes part of us. Therefore that quantum phase decay time is a very important part of physical reality.

Since energy is equivalent to mass, the energy of light is equivalent to an aether exchange oscillation with the aether field. Thus the action of light is equivalent to an exchange of aether at a frequency, ω, relative to the universe phase decay, m_dot. Time and space both emerge from the natural oscillation and decay of the universe and that natural spontaneous oscillation and decay is the way things change.

Photons in science are states of vacuum oscillators and those oscillators fill empty space with an infinity of ground state energies. Aether photons are also an oscillation, but now of the very large but finite number of aether particles that make up the universe. Aether does not fill the empty vacuum of space over time but instead our notions of space and time emerge from the oscillation and decay of aether particle phase.

Instead of filling space with an infinity of vacuum oscillators for the action of photons of light, space and time emerge from the action of light as aether and the action of aether is what defines space and time in aethertime.

Ancient versus Today's Warrior Stories

Ancient warrior stories like that of Achilles in Homer's Iliad involve three different periods. The period of the Trojan war some 3200 years ago, some 400 years after the Trojan war 2800 years ago when Homer wrote his story, and today, when people still read and retell Achilles warrior stories like they happened yesterday. A recent essay in Aeon goes into much detail about Achilles' honor and propitiation where honor means redressing insult with anger by killing and pillage and propitiate means gaining the good will of the gods, usually also by killing and pillage but also by compassion and friendship within your own warrior culture. In modern times people still retell these ancient warrior stories and therefore in some sense continue to perpetuate these stories.

The Aeon essay retells stories about the brutality of warriors like Achilles, but also relates the compassion and friendship within Achilles' warrior culture. It really is not that clear that honor and propitiation are much more than justification for the angry selfishness of killing and pillage of one group by another group...or is it purely defense? Really, there are a large number of justifications for the selfish killing and pillage of war but the main one always seems to be competition for limited resources and a desire to acquire wealth and power, whether defensive or offensive. After all, the defense of one's own property and life is also the provenience of the warrior.

Civilization today faces yet another paroxysm of warrior stories driven by a different ideology than Achilles, but with much the same result...lots of people die with lots of property destroyed or taken from them by warriors for one reason or another. There seems to be issues with honor today as well as propitiation driving today's warrior cultures, and yet the essay does not draw the obvious comparisons of warrior stories of the past with those of today.

It seems that this retelling of Achilles' warrior stories after 2800 years avoids the obvious comparisons to the warrior stories of today. Killing for insult out of anger takes lives and property and fulfills one group's selfishness while sharing of the spoils and cooperation fulfills another group's compassion. However, only a very small fraction of people are part of today's warrior stories and the rest of us just read and repeat stories we hear from storytellers.

The obvious follow-on issue is the continuing desire of civilization to retell these ancient stories in all of their guises and therefore provide the seed for future warrior paroxysms. After all, people retell the stories that move them and forget the stories that do not move them. In a sense, the continuing popularity of warrior stories reflects a fundamental dynamic between compassion and selfishness that is as valid today as it was for Homer in his Achilles.

Wars then are not really an aberration of human nature but war is a part of human nature and warriors provide just another way for civilization to redistribute limited resources among different peoples with different ideologies. As civilization advances now to 7 billion people, it is clear that the warrior cults are a very small fraction of people but still a large number of people like to hear and retell warrior stories. Warrior stories still persist today because there are still limited resources and therefore conflicts among ideologies and warriors still one way to reallocate resources and power by killing and pillage.

Do We Matter in the Cosmos...

There are certain transcendental beliefs that are a part of existence: being, identity, beauty, truth, and feeling. A recent Aeon essay Do we matter in the cosmos  by Nick Hughes opens with several sweeping statements of how insignificant is the matter and action of civilization and earth relative to the total matter and action of the universe. Hughes never mentions the role of transcendent belief and in particular, that he first of all has being, an identity, knows beauty, acknowledges truth, and certainly has feelings as well. With these transcendental and therefore cosmic beliefs not measurable by Science, Hughes concludes that he is insignificant. After all, Science tells us that civilization is only ~10,000 years within a universe of billions of years it would seem all of civilization is therefore insignificant. It would take 100,000 years to cross our galaxy traveling at the speed of light and so with the limitations of matter and energy, people cannot visit other stars in the galaxy in the same way that people visit other places on earth.

The essay does not mention the transcendentals at all and mentions causality briefly. Hughes does not evidently believe in the uncertainty of quantum futures and the fact that our matter is quantum entangled with all of the matter in the universe. Quantum phase noise plays a particular role in our differentiation of a classical determinate reality from the many possible futures of the actual quantum reality in which we actually live.

In the end, though, Hughes essay does conclude that even though civilization is not very massive compared to the universe, the neural resonances and Grand Narratives of civilization are most of what matters to us here on earth. So even though the size of the universe boggles the mind... so what? Likewise, the microscopic size of matter also boggles the mind... so what?

"And whether or not they are objectively valuable, the ends that matter to us, the things that we care about most – our relationships, our projects and goals, our shared experiences, social justice, the pursuit of knowledge, the creation and appreciation of art, music and literature, and the future and fate of ours and other species – do not depend to any considerable extent on our having control over a vast but largely irrelevant Universe...Most of what matters to us is right here on Earth."

The essay argues that the time and space of the universe makes people and civilization seem insignificant in comparison since we cannot personally visit most of the universe. Hughes does not mention that the size of the atom is a microscopic world that we also cannot personally visit either. We also cannot visit the tens of thousands of miles of the vast matter of inner earth nor can we visit Venus' surface or the surface or interior of the sun. So there are a lot of places that people cannot visit and yet there is no mention of our insignificance as a result of not being able to visit the sun or the center of the earth.

People tell stories and share experiences about their discoveries and these narratives limits the possible futures that people discover. Travel across the universe requires the matter equivalent energy of the universe and a journey to the our galaxy center and back would not take 58,000 years for those travelers at the speed of light. A the speed of light, a traveler would only experience a moment of time in such a journey. Even at less than light speed, a space ship accelerating at 1 g and then using the supermassive black hole to slingshot a return to earth would only take about 25 years. Of course, during that journey earth would still age 58,000 years according to relativity and the spaceship would therefore return to a very different earth.

Also, the matter equivalent energy needed to maintain 1 g acceleration for 15 years is beyond science today but there might be ways to use galaxy spiral gravity waves to boost future journeys at this scale, so called gravitization waves. Gravity waves, after all, are something that science is just learning about and so maybe we can catch a gravity wave and surf our way to the galaxy center. It would take the matter equivalent of ~600 MW nuclear reactor to accelerate a 100 MT ship at 1 g for a year. After all, spacecrafts already use the gravity assist of earth and other bodies to accelerate and so future spacecraft may surf gravity waves for space travel.

We do matter in the cosmos since it is us who determines what matters to us and not anybody outside of our own local universe. The definition of a universe is the matter and action that we affect and that in turn affects us during our lives. The universe that we imagine does not exist until we experience that universe and so we are in fact the most important part of our own universe since neither it nor its uncertain future would exist without us observing it.

The Answer...to the Meaning and Purpose of Life...

It is really a pleasure to discover the unification of charge and gravity forces and maybe one day others will experience a similar pleasure of discovery...and maybe not. But at least the pleasure is out there waiting for another's discovery.

The pleasure of discovery is a key fundamental purpose and gives meaning for all that we do. The discovery of the role of quantum phase decay in both gravity and charge is very gratifying even though no one else on the planet seems to appreciate the simplicity of aethertime decay.

It is truly amazing how resistant mainstream science is to the existence of an expanding force along with a shrinking space and time. Even the very smartest people cannot seem to see how the simple aethertime principle of phase decay now shows how the universe really works. Space and time are very useful notions that are limited in that the universe is actually made up of matter and action from which space and time emerge.

We get meaning and purpose in our lives by choosing a future from among many possible quantum futures. The emotions of the primitive mind determine choice and the pleasure of discovery tempered by an anxiety about the very real dangers of the unknown are part of life's primal meaning. But it is phase decay that creates our classical reality and quantum phase decay that makes choice fundamentally unknowable.

Aethertime's simple quantum phase decay will simply end many careers in string or loop quantum theories. The purpose of whole institutes becomes moot with such a simple solution as quantum phase decay. Quantum phase decay is related to the ratio of gravity to charge forces as shown below and so gravity force is simply related to charge force wrapped around the size of the universe. While science now defines the universe size in terms of space and time, matter us what truly defines the universe size.

It is from the action of the gravity matter of the universe that classical space and time both emerge and so relativity is a consequence of gravity mass action. While general relativity states that gravity matter distorts space and time, gravity is not a result of spacetime distortion but rather it is actually the other way around. In other words, the mass actions of the universe quantum phase decay do not really exist in space and time, mass and action exist like the simple yin and yang of the Dao. Space and time both emerge from the actions of matter, which makes gravity simply the quantum action of matter wrapped by the amount of universe matter. The same discrete quantum aether particle exchange becomes the basis for both quantum charge and quantum gravity.

All atoms produce quantum phase noise as a result of the quantum action of electrons and protons and neutrons. Quantum phase noise is what makes our classical reality real since it is by quantum phase decay that superposition and entanglement collapse into classical reality. What mainstream science does not yet recognize is that even gravity is a result of an intrinsic quantum phase as shown below.

Trapped in a Shell of Continuous Space and Time

We largely exist as conscious beings trapped in a shell of continuous space and time that we call our universe. However, the universe includes other sources besides space and time and our true primitive reality consists of discrete matter and action from which emerge space and time. Most macroscopic action conforms to the limitations of our space and time shell, but there are actions that go beyond space and time. The actions of black holes, for example, as well as the actions of very small scale. In fact, the feelings that we have about the world are not limited by space and time and it is by those feelings that we can know more about the primitive reality of matter and action.

Matter and action both obviously exist and describe not only the matter that makes up a static world, but also the action that is how matter changes. Instead of a reality where matter and action occur within space and time, our true reality is matter and action. We want to make reality as simple as possible but cannot seem to break out of the shell of space and time to better understand matter and action from which space and time emerge.

Space and time allow us to know certain limited things about the universe and then we need to use feeling to understand the parts of the universe like quantum phase that we cannot know directly. By subjective feeling, we can learn how to choose among many possible quantum futures despite a classical anxiety about the unknown. Just like we feel pleasure in the discovery by our choices, we also feel anxious about the possible dangers in those choices.

The universe of matter and action includes sources of quantum phase noise that we can never really directly know because of the limitations of consciousness. However, the feelings that we have do entangle with the quantum phase noise that is part of our consciousness as well as part of every sources. Sources whose action that we can observe become part of our spacetime reality while sources that we only feel and believe in become part of our quantum phase reality.

The electron and proton of a hydrogen atom is an example of a source that we can know in space and time. However, the quantum gravity phase noise associated with the actions of the electron and proton represents a very weak noise that entangles all matter. An observer sees the atom but can only feel the entanglement of quantum phase noise as shown. This entanglement is what makes reality seem real since all macroscopic sources under very rapid phase decay.

Rapid quantum phase decay for large sources is what makes reality appear to behave so classically and gives us the feeling of space and time. Each discrete moment of reality involves a superposition of not only past actions, but also of possible futures. When we choose a particular future, the other possible futures rapidly decay away and that one future becomes the next discrete moment.

When we choose to break or not break an egg, there is a very short time that a superposition reality exists before the future that we choose becomes reality.

Theory of Everything

Frank Close’s new book Theories of Everything is good, short, and to the point. Nima Arkani-Hamed wrote a similar albeit less historical essay in Daedalus in 2012 The Future of Fundamental Physics. Their basic conclusion is that science is locked up in a shell of space and time and has thus far not been able to find a way within space and time to a TOE that unites gravity and quantum. And thanks to Woits Not Even Wrong blog and his review of Close's book

Of course quantum gravity is the key to a TOE that unites gravity and charge, but understanding quantum gravity will also lead to an understanding of the quantum nature of consciousness. As Close suggests in his book and also Arkani-Hamed states in his 2012 Daedalus essay, science needs an understanding of the universe of matter and quantum action instead of the closed shell of a universe of space and time.

Our intuition of a classical universe with cause and effect is a very useful way to predict macro action, but fails for micro quantum action. Evolution has selected our neural mind with a classical spectrometer that does not measure quantum phase decay. Evolution’s classical consciousness allows us to keep track of sources in space and time quite well.

Unfortunately, that same intuition is what locks us all up inside of a shell of continuous space and time, which appear to be the places and durations of source change. How matter changes, though, is really called action and therefore all motion in space and time emerges from the action of mass and all action is limited by a discrete quantum step as an exchange of a particle of matter. Therefore the quantum universe is a simple matter spectrum of action that involves shrinking matter and expanding force. Thus it is from the differential of action with matter that both space and time emerge as very useful ways for consciousness to keep track of source actions.

Close notes that the Higgs field sound a lot like the aether of early science and yet if the universe were made of aether and action instead of space and time, aether would not actually fill space. Rather it would be from the action of aether that space emerges and the same aether that makes up atoms also makes up the space between atoms. Instead of atoms existing in the continuum of space and time, space emerges from the discrete action of aether. Particular aether actions make up electrons, protons, and neutrons and then other aether actions make up the space and time between atoms.

Atoms change by aether exchange and particular kinds of changes we call motion in continuous space and time. General relativity works well at many scales because it is based on the basic notions of a space and time shell within which light speed is constant and mass depends on relative velocity.

Making Reality Real

What is it that makes reality real? Most people basically believe that there is a classical reality in the sense that they firmly believe in actions that they see or observe are made of mass and further believe that other people believe the same way. Such classical observers further believe that the actions that they see come from something and do not come from nothing and so there is a cause for everything that happens in the universe.

The observers who believe more in the things that they feel as opposed to the things they see do not believe that other people necessarily feel the same way that they feel about their beliefs. Since these subjective observers believe in feelings and things that they cannot see as well as things that they can see, they believe some things can then come from nothing and that there are supernatural reasons for some things that happen in the universe.

Reality generally meets the expectations of a classical observer that every action has a knowable cause except that that observers do not normally sense source properties like quantum phase decay. Quantum phase decay throws a few quirks into a determinate classical reality in that quantum phase decay represents unseen time and space dimensions apart from classical matter and action. The microscopic quantum motion and phase of charge in every atom and molecule means that there are corresponding gravity fluctuations or quantum phase noise everywhere that has the same phase as the quantum charge motion. This quantum phase noise is then a part of reality that people do not sense or know but quantum phase noise still exists.

Observers and all of the sources they observe are made of the same charge and quantum phase noise that makes up all of the universe. A quantum observer necessarily exchanges matter and bonds with a source and that bond necessarily involves some amount of quantum phase coherence as well. That is, quantum observer phase becomes coherent with source phase and forms a superposition state that may decay away or even persist for billions of years.

Although gravity actions are largely classical, there is an underlying quantum gravity action that has the same phase coherence decay as quantum charge. The coupling between charge and gravity action is very subtle and difficult to sense and therefore to know. Neural action potentials are examples of this very subtle coupling between gravity and charge neural action has a lot to do with making reality real.

Consciousness in particular involves neural action potentials that choose gravity actions and those quantum choices are what make classical reality real for people. However, while classical observers readily see the causes and results of classical action, they do not always see or understand the causes and results of neural action. Why observers and animals make the choices that they do is not always apparent nor are all of the neural actions that result from memory of sensation but that do not immediately result in action.

Thus quantum consciousness links quantum charge and classical gravity. Quantum consciousness is the only way that science can ever understand the underlying quantum gravity of classical gravity and relativity.

Biphoton Inspiral

The matter-energy equivalence principle shows that the energy of a photon of light is equivalent to mass and the mass of an atom therefore increases when it absorbs light. In fact, the sun's gravity bends the path of a photon just like a the sun's gravity bends the path of a passing asteroid and so sufficiently energetic photons will attract each other and merge into matter. The Higgs boson at 125 GeV collision of two protons is consistent with the inspiral merger of two photons, a biphoton, at 125 GeV to make two hydrogen atoms along with a lot of other particles.

Just like the inspiral merger of two black holes, a photon pair inspiral merger is what makes up each particle of matter with complementary photons trapped in each others gravity wells. Thus all matter is equivalent to a bound photon pair resonance that we interpret as electrons, protons, and neutrons of matter.

Photons travel at the speed of light, c, and the photon pair emits a gravity wave as they inspiral and eventually merge into matter at an event horizon. But matter is not stable until certain photon thresholds and so the electron is the simplest photon superposition. Spinning black holes are large matter accretions that likewise involve the inspiral of photons.

The biphoton nature of matter is completely consistent with the electrons, protons, and neutrons that science observes along with the particle zoo of higher energy matter. The biphoton hydrogen exists because of the emission of a Rydberg photon at the CMB creation, where all matter condensed from the primordial cold photon vapor. The Rydberg photons of all matter exist today as the CMB and their entanglement with matter today is what we call gravity, the basic force that holds biphotons together as matter.

Charge force is then a particular resonance between the electron and proton biphoton that satisfies the quantum action of the Schrödinger equation and h/c². The Rydberg biphoton is the archetype of the universe and forms the inner and outer forces that science calls charge and gravity. While the Rydberg photon emitted at the CMB creation is responsible for gravity, the Rydberg photon exchange is the bond between an electron and proton in hydrogen.

Entanglement of Quantum Feeling

A quantum theory of feeling needs to define the nature of superposition and entanglement for people's feelings for each other. Any choice that you make in life involves the superposition of two possible outcomes; one to excite action and the other to inhibit action. Therefore quantum feeling necessarily means that choice involves the superposition or entanglement of two precursor quantum states of feeling and the subsequent decay of that precursor superposition into one outcome or the other.

Since emotion is the basic mechanism that drives feeling and therefore determines choice in the primitive brain, we need a simple model of emotion to describe quantum feeling. The integration of five emotion dimensions represents human feeling reasonably well with the notion that feeling is how we choose to excite or inhibit action and therefore feeling is singular even while emotion has five dimensions. While rational thought occupies much of consciousness, the primitive thought of emotion and memory are how people really choose with quantum free will.

The further machine of consciousness is why we are aware and why we can make choices and why consciousness fundamentally entangles quantum emotions and feelings. The emotions of pleasure and anxiety are the most important emotions that determine survival. People get pleasure in discovering the world, pleasure in breathing, pleasure in drinking, pleasure in eating, and pleasure in being with other people. However, people are also anxious about the dangers of the world, anxious about breathing foul air, anxious about bad water, anxious about toxic food, and anxious about unfriendly people. Without anxiety, people would take risks that might lead to injury or death even though people do not desire excessive anxiety.

People make choices about family and community by the bonding emotions of compassion pride and conflicting emotions of selfishness and shame. Compassion is how people bond and selfishness is how people conflict. All people must have compassion for bonding to others and yet all people must also be selfish just to survive and even more selfish to accumulate and share their wealth with even more compassion.

The further emotions of anger and serenity are very important emotions that help people set limits for other's behaviors. People get angry when they feel injustice or unfairness and people experience serenity when they are satisfied and happy with life. Jealousy and envy are different manifestations of anger as opposed to separate emotions.

We maintain a social order with the emotions of pride and shame for accepting group authority and setting standards and ethics that help people bond to those groups. Civilization's laws and norms are a kind of contract that we believe in and pride and shame are the emotions that drive choices to keep that contract.

Finally, joy and misery are sort of the kind of residual primitive emotions that help people be satisfied or dissatisfied with actions in their lives. Misery can drive people to make changes in their lives just as joy can show that life is desirable. Laughter is an expression of joy even while crying is an expression of misery. Surprise is a combination of joy and the pleasure of discovery as opposed to a separate emotion.

The emotion spectrum below shows how this set of five emotion dimensions reduces to a singular feeling and by that singular feeling, we choose to excite or inhibit an outcome action.

The primitive brain makes our decisions for us with a set of very specialized brain organs that all come together into the amygdala, which is the decision point where quantum superposition drives quantum free will. The caudate and thalmus are both important for emotion and of course, the hypocampus entangles choice with the long term memories of experience that also contribute to feeling.

While people often believe that choice emerges from the rational cerebral brain that forms the aware matter of moments of thought, science tells us that people actually choose to excite or inhibit action before they become conscious of their choice. Feeling is the way that the primitive brain makes choices and the rational brain then comes up with a story about why the primitive brain made the choice that it did.

Quantavangelism

There are really two very different approaches for predicting how things happen in the universe; classical determinism with its knowable chaos and quantum probability with its unknowable phase noise. Classical predictions are very familiar and are the typical ways that we experience the universe and every classical effect has a knowable classical cause. Quantum predictions can be quite different from classical predictions since quantum actions happen with only likely and not certain causes and therefore not absolutely knowable. The challenge for this new quantavangelism is to promote the belief that some things happen for unknowable causes. 

In a classical determinate prediction, observers and sources are completely interchangeable and all things happen with fundamentally knowable, albeit sometimes very complex and chaotic, causes. Although the chaos of classical noise does limit even what a classical observer can know, in a determinate classical universe, everything happens because of a knowable cause and even noise is ultimately knowable. Gravity action is largely classical and so how we perceive the world is also largely classical and so it is quite natural to suppose that is the way the universe must be as well. However, quantum logic tells us otherwise...

An electron always exists in a superposition of up and down spin states in an orbit around a nucleus as shown is an example of the duality of classical and quantum predictions. Classically, the electron has a knowable path as an orbit around a nucleus, but the quantum path of the electron has both wave and particle properties. The quantum electron exists in symmetric sphere around the nucleus in an S orbit is a superposition spin state, but the spin state exists in one side of a charge plane in a P orbit as up and the other side as down. 

Excitation of the electron into each successive orbit reduces the classical electron velocity by a factor of two and therefore its kinetic energy by four until eventual ionization. The complementary capture of an electron into the S ground state occurred with the emission of a photon and that photon phase entangles the spin phase of the electron. Since the universe is actually not classical, quantum observers and sources are not interchangeable for quantum probabilistic predictions.

In other words, a quantum observer of an electron path or spin cannot predict a precise but only a likely quantum future for that spin. Quantum observer and source are inextricably entangled in the surreal quantum world. Although the chaos of classical noise also limits what a quantum observer can know about a source, in addition, there is quantum phase noise. Unlike the chaos of classical noise, quantum phase noise entangles an observer with a source in ways that the observer cannot ever know. Fundamentally this means that there are quantum effects for an action that do not have knowable causes.

Things happen in the universe because of the actions of both classical gravity biphotons and quantum charge photons. Since gravity biphotons and charge photons are very different magnitudes of force, mainstream science treats them as two very different forces and this also means that there are two very different kinds of observers; one for classical gravity and another for quantum charge. Without a unified photon exchange force that explains both gravity and charge, a classical observer will not see a source the same way as a quantum observer sees the same source.

CSL Quantum Phase Noise versus the Classical Noise of Chaos

Quantum phase noise is what drives all action in the discrete aether universe and one of the consequences of the decay of quantum phase noise is that both a source and observer mass wavefunctions collapse even while their charge and gravity forces expand. In a related description decay of quantum phase noise, continuous spontaneous localization (CSL) arbitrarily creates a phase noise decay time and characteristic distance in order to collapse quantum wavefunctions for macroscopic objects and reality even without an observer. The CSL assumptions vary, but one proposed decay time is 1e-17 s-1 at a length of 1e-5 cm, which compares very well to the quantum aether values of 0.81e-17 s-1 and 0.7e-5 cm as the figure below shows. In fact, the inverse universe age is 0.23e-17 s-1 and so is also very close to the discrete aether decay time for good reason.

What is really amazing is that a combination of the fundamental distance of 70 nm and time of 3.9 Byrs actually explains wavefunction collapse without any additional parameters. These values come from existing universe constants and so require no further justification. However, the further assumption that this wavefuction collapse also occurs for the wavefunction that represents the universe as a kind of self energy correction. This means that the universe collapse rate is what drives both gravity and the universe scale and charge at the atomic scale.

Unlike CSL, though, the discrete aether decay and length simply arise from the assumptions of a fundamental aether decay from the ratio of gravity and charge forces at the hydrogen atom radius. That time constant can also define the universe age and so there are no new constants in discrete quantum aether...just reinterpretations of some "constants" of mainstream science. The LISA Pathfinder spacecraft helped further bound the universe collapse rate and size along with the gravity wave detectors as the figure shows.

The aether decay constant comes from the ratio of gravity to charge forces between two hydrogen atoms and is

𝛼_dot = m_H² G / (q² c² 1e-7) c / r_B = 0.81e-17 s-1

and is the frequency of the Bohr atom fluctuations, c/r_B, scaled by the ratio of gravity to charge forces. The characteristic time, t_C = 3.91 Byr, is like a time for the universe to change.

When two atoms are far apart, gravity noise dominates over charge noise and where gravity noise equals charge noise represents a characteristic distance, r_C. At the radius where gravity force equals dispersion or van der Waals force between two hydrogen atoms, gravity noise then equals charge noise. The dispersion radius of two hydrogens is where dispersion and gravity energies are equal and is at

r_d = (3/4 E_H a_p² / G / m_H²)^1/5 = 0.7e-5 cm = 70 nm, 

where a_p = 3pe_or_B³ is the hydrogen atom polarizability.

Thus, the very nature of discrete quantum aether shows the inherent property of phase decay and phase decay drives both gravity and charge forces just at very different scales. The Hubble constant in aethertime is just simply H = 𝛼_dotc, the product of the aether decay and the speed of light in this epoch.

Here is a graph that shows the decay of the international standard for mass, the IPK, over the last century or so relative to a series of sister standards that are used for calibration. Primary and secondary standards are carefully cleaned before each use in a rigorous procedure that does alter the standard's mass. Therefore specialists have carefully designed a cleaning procedure that does not change the mass of these secondary relics and as a result, the secondary standards on average do not change mass. However, adjusting the cleaning procedure can therefore hide the intrinsic decay of matter.

In contrast to the fixed mass of the sister standards due to cleaning, the IPK has only been cleaned and measured the three times as shown and so the IPK shows the decay of mass predicted by the universal mass decay constant, m_dot, as shown. The m_dot equation depends on the fundamental constants of charge, q, speed of light, c, fine structure constant, α, and charge cross section, A_q. The m_dot constant represents a fundamental aether decay of the universe that drives both charge and gravity forces. Ironically, while mass decays, charge and gravity forces grow in contrast to the prevailing notions of mainstream science.

Classically, there is no way for matter to decay by decoherence although mass is equivalent to the energy of light and so mass can transform into light and light back into mass as well. The transient species called positronium is a bound state of an electron with its antimatter positron decays by quantum phase noise into two photons of light after less than a microsecond. By the principles of microscopic reversibility, two photons can collide and produce postronium or indeed many different kinds of matter.

However, classical matter cannot decay by quantum phase decoherence into nothing since there is no classical meaning for quantum phase noise. Thus the classical universe is in some sense ultimately driven by noise and not by purpose. The butterfly effect is a an example of classical noise from the flapping butterfly wing and that even that slight noise can effect the course of a hurricane. Noise is what limits the precision of any measurement of a source property and when the fluctuations of noise dominate purpose, the noise of classical chaos drives purpose, not choice.

A person's success in life is obviously due to a superposition of past choices and actions. However, a focus only on the past suggests that any success in life would be due to blind luck of birth and that even further back, it is the blind luck of creation that would determine a destiny of any success in life. This classical and determinate notion of fate or karma presumes free will is an illusion because it is only the superposition of the past that determines all choice for any action. Of course, the chaos of noise does still limit the precision of measuring action and so even a determinate future can still be difficult to predict with certainty.

A person's success in life, though, is not just due to a superposition of past choices and action, but that success is also due to choices from a large number of possible futures as well. What makes up a person's success or any action is then a superposition of both the past and the future possibilities and so any particular future is not then determined only by blind luck or birth or creation. We choose a future by the action of free will and the entanglement of free will is not an illusion of the chaos of classical noise. Instead the action of free will emerges from the noise of quantum phase entanglement.

Quantum phase noise entangles the futures of a source and observer in ways that an observer cannot know. Therefore, quantum phase noise has no classical or determinate meaning since entanglement means that there are quantum actions that have no knowable cause. The entanglement of source and observer phase does decay over time and that decay or decoherence changes both source and observer in ways that are not knowable to the observer.

Another example of the decay of quantum phase noise is for thousands of rotating neutron stars known as millisecond pulsars. This figure shows that the average decays of several thousand millisecond pulsars decay the same as the IPK.

Yet another example is the average decay of earth's spin as shown below. Although there are many classical and chaotic actions that effect earth's spin, it is interesting that the earth's spin decay seems to be at least in part consistent with the decay of the IPK as well as the decay of the millisecond pulsars. From 1971 to 2015, there have been 25 leap seconds over these 44 years, which is 0.18 ppb/yr, which is very close to the quantum phase decay of 0.255 ppb/yr as the figure shows.

Although ocean tidal friction is often assigned to this value, tidal energy seems to be only 1.7% of the earth spin energy decay. Given an ocean surface area of 3.6e14 m2 and a mean tide height of 0.6 m, the tidal energy is 2.5e15 J/day for two tides.

In fact, there seem to be any number of measurements consistent with the quantum phase decay, which also comes with a complementary universal force growth. In fact, in order to be consistent with the Hubble galaxy red shift, force must increase with decreasing mass in this epoch of the universe.

Lunar Solation Time

Since ancient times, peoples have used the winter solstice to begin each new year but really both the sun and the moon tell time, just very differently. While Sol tells the very precise time of the atomic clock, Luna tells a much fuzzier time with her full moons due to the entanglement of moon and sun orbital motions.  The precise time of Sol is contrasts with the fuzzy Luna time and we must somehow integrate both ways of telling time.

The solstice of 2018dec21 at 2:23 pm pst happens to be within a day of the full moon of 2018dec22 9:49 am pst. Such an alignment of the winter solstice and full moon only happens once every nine years and reflects the nine year lunar solation Sar cycle. Correspondingly, the Easter moon 2019mar 21 also coincides with the vernal equinox 2019mar20. The nine-year Sar cycle is the period that relates alternating lunar and 18-year Saros solar eclipses. The Chaldeans discovered the Sar cycle 2600 years ago by careful observation and recording in the ancient city of Babylon in Iraq.

Science declares that there are exactly 86,400 seconds in each day and science declares the length of the second is exactly 9,192,631,770 cycles of the Cs-133 atomic clock hyperfine resonance at 9.2 Ghz. But the number of days in each lunar cycle varies and the length of a lunar month varies by half a day from 29.3 to 29.8 days. Over an eight solar year cycle of 99 moons, there are 7 lunar years of 14 moons each plus one leap moon to make 99 moons. There are 14 full moons for each lunar year but the lunar and solar years only approximately rephase about once every 8 solar years of 365.25 days each and 7 lunar years of 14 full moons each as the figure shows.

Okay...so this is not the most important issue facing civilization right now...that I give you. It just seems such a crying shame that the simple relationship of 99 moons to 8 solar years does not get much press.

The decay of the Kronos atomic time of the solar day is well known and seems to contrast with the equally well known chaos of the Kairos time of the lunar month. But really, these two time dimensions simply reflect the confusion that comes from the duality of matter and action and the duality of discrete quantum versus continuous classical action.

The 2019 solstice is within one day of a full moon at the minimum of lunation period starts the 99 moon period of 2019-26. The Easter moon on 31mar2018 is moon#91 of the previous 99 moon cycle and celebrates the birth of Spring as the first full moon following the 2018mar20 vernal equinox. The Easter moon 2019mar21 coincides with 2019mar20 vernal equinox just like the solstice aligned with a full moon. The lunations around the moon#99 start always involve more solar and lunar eclipses since the sun and moon spend more time at near angles.

The Pleasure of Discovery Means Living Better and Not Just Living Longer

Living longer is not always the same as living better and there is a 2016dec report that shows life expectancy in the U. S. has decreased for the first time since the aids epidemic of 1991...at mere 0.1 year. According to an NPR report, 28,000 more people died in 2015 as compared to 2014 and a CNS report suggests that the introduction of the U.S. affordable health care act may be at least partly responsible for killing these people.

However, living longer is not necessarily desirable if living longer means living in some chronic misery like the fog of dementia and so living longer is just one aspect of a desirable future. Feeling better as psychological well being, for example, increases 5 year survival rates from 65% to 78% for a sample of 6,030 older adults, for example.

<Maintaining Healthy Behavior: a Prospective Study of Psychological Well-Being and Physical Activity, Kim, E.S., Kubzansky, L.D., Soo, J. et al. ann. behav. med. (2016). doi:10.1007/s12160-016-9856-y>

A desirable future should include at least two other measures besides just living longer. Another important measure is, for example, the pleasure of discovery and compassion for others and yet another measure is earning the means and the resources for that discovery and compassion as well as to pay for sufficient health care when needed.  Both discovery and means are just as important for a desirable future as simply living longer. The human development index, HDI, includes the trimal of living longer, discovery, and per capita GDP among a number of other factors. In fact, any measure of a desirable future in a civilization should include at least these three metrics since living well is much more than just living longer.

So before going off on some singular tangent and putting more money into a healthcare system that is already very expensive, the U.S. should also consider how to increase the overall desirability of life and not just its length. People begin more rounding up along with the inexorable demographic percentages and so olders are especially sensitive to the message of not just living longer, but living better as well.

Without the selfish pleasure of discovery, a compassion for others, and some minimum skills and means, simply living longer is less desirable The friends and family that we have and the pleasure of further discovery and the ability to afford all of that is what determines purpose, not just living longer.

Math Laws and Observer Wandering

The observer holds a very important role for science since observation is key to the successful predictions of science. Yet there exists a dichotomy in science between the reality for two different observers; reality for a classical observer versus reality for a quantum observer. This conundrum is very deeply embedded into science today and is the reason that there is no common basis for gravity and charge, which is called the hierarchy problem in science.

A fundamental difference between gravity and charge is that while there is always an exactly knowable cause for every effect of classical gravity, there are not always exactly knowable causes for any quantum effects. Quantum states can exist as superpositions of amplitude and phase while amplitude and phase have no meaning for classical states. As a result, a classical observer sees a different reality from a quantum observer. Below is an example of the two different observers who intend to wander through one of two doors and bond to a source on the other side. The classical observer’s goal is never really precise because footsteps are not precise but the classical observer does end up bonded to a source in one place or the other and also remembers which door they came through.

The quantum observer has many more possible futures and yet may still not be able to remember the actions of exactly which door they actually took or even why they chose the door they chose.

An observer wanders toward the goal of bonding to a source by using two fundamentally different math laws to predict the future of that source. A classical observer predicts a determinate albeit somewhat chaotic path for a goal with the science of general relativity. In contrast, a quantum observer predicts many possible entangled paths and goals for quantum bonding to the same source. Each footstep involves quantum and gravity bonding and debonding until the final step bonds to the goal. The noise of classical chaos for macroscopic action usually masks the decoherence of quantum phase noise and so a classical observer can argue endlessly with a quantum observer about the uncertainty of determinate macroscopic action like a footstep. However, microscopic action can often show very little classical noise and therefore it is in the microscopic domain that quantum observers wander toward the mysteries of many possible quantum goals.

For any macroscopic person, quantum phase noise is a very small fraction of classical chaos noise and so a person’s quantum interference pattern given two possible futures is very short range. This just means that the quantum observer’s goal is nearly as imprecise as the classical observer even though a quantum observer still includes many more possible futures due to the coherence of quantum phase noise. For a pure quantum observer, phase noise dominates over classical chaos and as a result, a quantum observer may not remember which door exactly, just which door was most likely. In fact, quantum phase noise is still what makes the nature of neural choice a mystery.

It is very ironic that given classical cause and effect, it is the classic observer that points the arrow of time with the determinate paths of GR geodesics sources where choice is no mystery. The quantum observer wanders toward many more possible quantum goals along indeterminate paths and some quantum paths actually go back in classical time and exactly reverse the classical action of a source. This confuses a quantum observer about the arrow of time while a classical observer is never confused about cause and effect and the arrow of time.

Entropy is a measure of randomness and points a classical arrow of time since a classical observer calculates just one entropy as the straightforward logarithm of all possible future states, S = ln w. There is only one classical entropy and classical entropy always increases and therefore reliably points the arrow of time. Classical entropy is the same for both matter and action and since there are always more possible futures in the constant mass of an expanding universe, the increasing entropy of an expanding universe action points the arrow of time.

Classical entropy does still confuse classical observers, though, since the universe actually seems to evolve into more organized and lower entropy states despite an overall increase in entropy with the arrow of time. Stars by a large form from the chaos of hydrogen gas, galaxies form from the chaos of stars, and life forms from the chaos of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and water.

A broken egg never reassembles itself into a whole egg and that is a statement of the inexorable increase of classical entropy. The chicken that produced the egg, though, continues to evolve as a species and so the futures of chickens and eggs are all affected by any one egg that has broken. Since the broken egg did not result in a new chicken, it is the eggs that hatch into chickens that drive a decrease in classical entropy that we call life's evolution.

In contrast to a classical egg, which is always either whole or broken, a quantum egg also exists for some very short time as a superposition of unbroken and broken states. A classical observer really calculates two different and opposite entropies since there is an increasing entropy for a breaking egg along with a decreasing entropy for evolving chicken species and their eggs. This means that the increasing entropy of shrinking mass complements the decreasing entropy of increasing action and so the classical entropy Suniverse = ln waction + ln wmass= ln (waction / wmass), ~ 0.

Since classical mass is constant and does not show quantum phase decoherence, there is no classical meaning for a mass entropy different from an action entropy. For quantum gravity, though, the entropy of discrete aether flows from action to mass and that entropy and aether flow are what drive the universe into more organized states with lower entropy and so the classical universe entropy is as expected near zero. Just like the flow of classical entropy, it is the flow of quantum information that determines the arrow of time in a collapsing mass and expanding action universe.

This means that the universe mass actually collapses even while the universe action grows and it is the increasing entropy of growing action that drives the decrease of entropy for the universe of collapsing matter into ever more organized states. Despite the chaos of classical noise and the breaking of an egg, it is actually the ever present decoherence of quantum phase noise that actually keeps clocks ticking in the right direction and keeps eggs breaking and not unbreaking themselves.

Unlike the reversibility of classical time, it is the time of quantum phase decoherence that is what keeps the quantum ∆Suniverse > 0 and so classical entropy does not actually point the arrow of time after all. Two quantum clocks that begin ticking in phase will eventually dephase even without the chaos of classical noise and it is the quantum decoherence of past matter that is then what makes for more coherent future action of increased order.

The mindless noise of classical chaos contrasts with mindful coherence of quantum phase noise. Ironically, quantum phase noise leads both to indeterminate futures as well as to the flow of decreasing matter entropy into the increasing entropy of action. Although both thermodynamic and quantum laws both depend on increasing classical action entropy driven by chaos, quantum laws also show a fundamental coherence between matter and action that is the quantum phase noise of decreasing entropy.

While there is always a classical cause for the chaos of classical noise, there is no classical cause for any quantum phase noise. Quantum phase noise means that an observer phase in one part of the universe is coherent with a source phase located across the universe, which is a decrease in entropy. The action of decoherence means that these two events will eventually dephase due to quantum phase noise even in the absence of any classical noise of chaos. This means that while classical actions all have knowable causes because the classical noise of chaos is in principle knowable, there are only just mostly knowable causes for quantum action and never a completely knowable cause due to quantum phase noise.

Chemical crystallization is a very common process that occurs when a seed of matter nucleates from solution and a crystal grows from that nucleated seed by progressive bonding as a crystal replicates itself from the dissolved species. This happens in many different solutions in many different ways but it is from the aqueous solutions of a primordial goo that life has crystallized. A recursive cycle of chemical concentration as a result of evaporation of water, seeding, crystallization, and redissolution by rehydration, occurs for example, in ancient seas whose memories are now in the layers of rather pure salt deeply buried on land.

Given the free energy of evaporation and recondensation, crystals naturally and recursively seed, grow, and redissolve just as life recursively seeds, grows, and dies. In the cosmos, stars likewise recursively seed hydrogen, grow by fusing some hydrogen into heavy elements, and then redissolve back into the cosmic dust of future stars. Galaxies also seed matter, grow by fusing that matter into the spin of black holes, and then decohere or redissolve back into the actions of a future universe.

Thus chemical replication is a natural process driven by free energy that occurs with the actions of nucleation or seeding along with replication or growth followed by redissolution in recursive cycles of dissolution, seeding, growth, and redissolution. This recursion moves matter from the chaos of quantum solutions into the order of quantum bonds. The emergence of life is then simply a consequence of just such a recursion that involves the seeding, growth, and dissolution of the phosphate esters of a natural chemical called adenosine. Adenosine is a natural molecule with a five carbon sugar (ribose is made from five CO2's and five waters) bonded to a nitro-aromatic ring (adenine is made from five hydrogen cyanides) and all these species exist in the primordial goo of creations ocean. Science often sees these precursors of life in the spectra of starlight and so these species exist in the condensed oceans of planets as well.

Given free energy, adenosine with plenty of phosphate around is then the seed that replicates itself and forms naturally occurring phosphate polymers of ATP to ADP to AMP (adenosine triphosphate, diphosphate, and monophosphate) that harvest and store large amounts of chemical energy from available free energy of phosphate food and water evaporation. The chemical energy of the phosphate bond is sufficient to not only replicate itself, but also to fix CO2 and nitrate by deoxygenating water into polymers from other goo that replicates with repeated cycles of reoxidation into the highly organized goo that we call life. The chemical energy of ATP is also sufficient to evaporate and condense its own water as well.

The sun drives much of life on earth’s surface and life converts the solar energy of photons into ATP and then uses ATP to fix CO2 and nitrates into the polymers of life by deoxygenation of water. However, hydrogen sulfide, H2S, from the primordial thermal energy of earth also drives life in deep sea vents and thermal ponds where ATP forms from the chemical energy of H2S as well. In the deep sea just as on the surface, life uses ATP from H2S to fix and distill carbonate and nitrate polymers with the same deoxygenation of water that distills life on earth’s surface.

Thus science has found that certain mindless mathematical laws and chemical reactions of the inanimate universe have distilled and continue to distill life from the primordial goo of creation...all by quite natural processes. Another product of that distillation is the neural actions that allow life’s observers to wander toward a goal with the aim and intent of the mindful choices of quantum bonding and replication.

Since gravity is so very weak compared to charge, there are a very large number of quantum gravity action states that represent a huge source of information or entropy. Quantum gravity results in a complementary huge decrease in entropy by matter flowing to matter’s action. As the order of sources increase and the entropy of matter decreases, information or entropy flows as mindful quantum aether distills or fractionates matter order from the increasing entropy of the growing aether action that science calls the mindless universe. The mindful action of decreasing matter entropy and increasing source order ironically emerges from the increasing entropy of mindless action.

The neural action of memory is an inevitable consequence of the carbon-nitrogen-water replicates that we call life. A very large number of gravity quantum states provides the increasing quantum entropy of action that drives the decreasing quantum entropy of matter. The large number of neural states of life likewise provides a tremendous reservoir of information and entropy of action for the organization with decreasing entropy that we call cooperative civilization.

We call the intent and aim of neural action mindful while we call the intent and aim of classical action mindless because classical action lacks neural choice and therefore mindful consciousness. The mystery of consciousness is still too hard for science because the free choice of quantum consciousness makes no classical sense. A determinate classical universe drives all classical choice from the knowable chaos of classical noise and so it is classical chaos that provides the classical illusion of free will and free choice. An indeterminate quantum universe with both knowable classical chaos as well as unknowable quantum phase noise has no completely determinate future and there is quantum free will and free choice even without chaos.

Whether you believe in the determinate illusion of free will or in the actual mystery of quantum free will, you still have a personal responsibility for any choice that you make. Determinate intention is just the belief that there are no unknowable mysteries in the universe and all knowledge that exists is in principle knowable, just some knowledge is not yet known. Knowledge is a neural memory of events and classical knowledge therefore has no limits. However, quantum knowledge has limits and quantum intention is the belief that even though we can know much about the universe, there are inexplicable mysteries that are beyond knowing. A certain quantum knowledge does exist but science can never fundamentally know without uncertainty which means that no one can have a neural memory of such quantum knowledge.

In other words, there are some things in which we must simply believe since some knowledge is beyond measurement.

For example, we can ask the three whys; why we are here, why we are here right now, and why it is us who are here right now and not someone else. However, there are no answers for the three why’s because that is knowledge that is unknowable. We simply have to believe that we are here, that we are here right now, and that it is us and not someone else who is here right now. We also must simply believe in the duality of matter and action (or some other conjugate pair) and from believing this simple duality, we can then understand what is possible to know.

In conclusion, matter and action represent a fundamental duality of the universe and a neural mind makes up of both the matter of neuron memories as well as the action of neural potentials. Instead of the overly simplistic duality of just mind and body or spirit and material, the universal duality of matter and action is true for all observers and sources and even for the mindless mathematical laws of neural memory and action. There is no sense in separating the universe into mindless mathematical laws for the actions of sources versus mindful observer aims and intentions. We can only know that the decreasing entropy of increasing source order flows to the increasing entropy of decreasing observer action, but we must simply believe in the mystery of that action.

<essay entered into FQXi contest...but has since evolved into a lower entropy state>