Fractal Time : Why a Watched Kettle Never Boils

by Vrobel, Susie

• ISBN13: 9789814295970
• ISBN10: 9814295973
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-02-28
• Publisher: World Scientific Pub Co Inc

Summary

This book provides an interdisciplinary introduction to the notion of fractal time, starting from scratch with a philosophical and perceptual puzzle. How subjective duration varies, depending on the way we embed current content into contexts, is explained. The complexity of our temporal perspective depends on the number of nestings performed, i.e. on the number of contexts taken into account. This temporal contextualization is described against the background of the notion of fractal time. Our temporal interface, the Now, is portrayed as a fractal structure which arises from the distribution of content and contexts in two dimensions: the length and the depth of time. The leitmotif of the book is the notion of simultaneity, which determines the temporal structure of our interfaces. Recent research results are described which present and discuss a number of distorted temporal perspectives. It is suggested that dynamical diseases arise from unsuccessful nesting attempts, i.e. from failed contextualization. Successful nesting, by contrast, manifests itself in a "win-win handshake" between the observer-participant and his chosen context. The answer as to why a watched kettle never boils has repercussions in many a discipline. It would be of immense interest to anyone who works in the fields of cognitive and complexity sciences, psychology and the neurosciences, social medicine, philosophy and the arts.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Acknowledgements	p. xi
When Time Slows Down: Subjective Duration	p. 1
The Fractal Structure of the Now: Time's Length, Depth and Density	p. 13
Fractal Temporal Perspectives: Corrective Distortions	p. 35
The View from Within: Extended Boundaries	p. 59
Contextualization: Embedded Observer-Participants	p. 89
Temporal Binding: Synchronizing Perceptions	p. 117
Nesting vs Global and Local Perspectives	p. 139
Duration: Distributing Content and Context	p. 157
Modifying Duration I: Nesting and De-Nesting	p. 179
Modifying Duration II: Time Condensation	p. 207
Defining Boundaries: Why is it Always Now?	p. 229
Outlook: Here Be Dragons	p. 255
Fractal Dimensions	p. 267
Using the Box-Counting Method to Determine the Fractal Dimension of the Koch Curve	p. 271
Even After 25 Years, Fractal Spacetime is Still Odd	p. 275
The Theory of Scale Relativity and Fractal Space-Time	p. 283
A Very Concise Summary of the Main Ideas of E-Infinity Cantorian Spacetime Theory	p. 287
Index	p. 291
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