Volume 23: Pages 554-568, 2010

Four-dimensional realism and understandable models: Contributions to the block universe issue

C. W. Rietdijk ¹

¹Pinellaan 7, 2061 LH Bloemendaal, The Netherlands

(1) We go further into the explaining power of a realistically four-dimensional model of the universe. It clarifies nonlocal phenomena, retroaction, and, in principle, also consciousness. (2) Within this scope, we consider a four-dimensional imaginable picture of evolution that refers to all levels, from the micro up to and including the macro-one. It allows for “survival of the fittest” integrated with a physical variant of “intelligent design.” (3) Also we consider the hypothesis that the realistic four-dimensional universe is “simply” the concrete physical expression of everything “theoretically” true, inclusive the relations among all truths. This idea implies the universe to be just as coherent as, inter alia, logic and mathematics. (4) We find a four-dimensional extension of the survival of the fittest process that generally applies to biological evolution, microprocesses, organic macrocoherence, and the feedback trial-and-error way of “pondering and weighing” in our brain. (5) We also consider gauge invariance, an influence of the observer, and ordering patterns of events in the light of a realistically four-dimensional world. (6) Essentially, the advantage of a four-dimensional model—that is, the world as a static Minkowskian structure S of interrelated events—as compared with the current three-dimensional picture, can be illustrated by considering a house and the relations among its components. First, see those relations from the standpoint of the architecture of the house as a static integrated complex of components. Then, compare a picture of pipes, stones, planks etc., that mutually interact causally and locally as objects. Such picture is less relevant and explains less than primarily considering the house as an architectural product. Compare S and its four-dimensional coordination by natural law with the architecture, which implies more than local-causal relations among the house’s pipes, stones, etc. In the case of S, the architect is in the coherence of four-dimensional natural law. Note that S and the house are not compared here as to their (different) dimensionalities but as regards their architectures.

Keywords: Block Universe, Retroaction, Gauge Invariance, Evolution, Consciousness, Survival of the Fittest

Received: March 2, 2009; Accepted: August 2, 2010; Published Online: September 9, 2010