Friday, December 17, 2021

Two Universes: The Spacetime And Frequency Domains

Following on from yesterday's conclusions, I wondered if the two overlapping universes, one with time, and one without, but merely reflections of perspective of the same object, not a change in information; would require different language to define or work within them.

I considered that two ways of communicating would be possible; one as a slow accretion of information over time, communication as we understand, and a second 'instant' blast of information. I wondered about the constraints on this second method which might mirror the limitations of the first, and postulated that the time or space of the information would need to be specific in some other way, perhaps highly specialised, or uncertain. Perhaps an image could be seen as an instant flash of information in one time, and writing like little pieces which drip drip into our intellect.

I related these two systems to sound waves and digital signal processing. Sound waves can be represented in the time domain, as a time and amplitude wave, or in the frequency domain as a frequency and intensity wave. The frequency domain contains a 'snapshot' of the sound at a particular point, an analysis of all of the frequencies (sine waves) and how powerful they are. Both methods individually can define a sound wave but each does so in different ways.

I connected this with the universe, and realised that the scientific laws can also be represented in the 'space-time domain', as we, perhaps, commonly experience it, and in the 'frequency domain', a timeless and, so, deterministic universe. Suddenly it seemed that all equations that connect with one, such as the space-time oriented equations of Einstein's General Relativity, can also be transformed to work in the other domain. As with sound processing, all of these laws can methods could be done in both ways, so each set of physical equations can be duplicated in the opposing domain; or in other words that there needs to be two sets of equations, one for each domain, and some processing will be easier in one domain than the other.

The comparison between sound and the universe made me think of the similarities between sound waves and the many waves in the universe. If all particles can also be seen as waves, then perhaps all existence can be seen as waves, so it is sensible that this can be viewed in the time or frequency domain, as easily as any sound.