Atemporal Causality

Recently, I’ve had the urge to write about the apparent disparity between believing myself to be a thing that causes and what is accepted by physics: that true causality occurs at the subatomic level.  So here it is, and I think it can be a brief explanation, for now.

Atemporal Causality

By D.S. LaBrie

The idea that true causality only occurs at the subatomic level is easy to accept when you look at the phenomena.  Each particle is in a certain place, behaving in a certain way, and those behaviors have certain outcomes, given the placement and behaviors of all the other particles in existence.  Since it is easy (enough) to see this as the case, it becomes easy (if a little uncomfortable) to accept that true causality exists only at this level, since up here at the macroscopic level, no matter how much I want something, these particle have been doing these certain, precise things with determined outcomes (which themselves have determined outcomes, and so on, ad infinitum) for far longer than I’ve been around.  So no matter how much I want to affect them, I can’t.  And since, technically, all there is are these particles making up everything, there is no room in reality for me to be a causer (even though the particles making me up are very busy causing more outcomes, along with every other particle).

There is a glaring problem with this viewpoint though, that I think opens up room for macroscopic me to be a true causer.  This view of causality being subatomic with no room for the macroscopic world to affect it requires a view of time as being something that moves just one way.  But according to the same physics the particulars of time, such as its rate and direction, are a matter of viewpoint.  Something over here experiences time differently than something over there.  At the subatomic particle level (where we have just seen the causing to be), devoid of experiencers, the directionality and speed of time are irrelevant.  Using a macroscopic example (just for ease of explanation) it is just as correct to say that when bowling, the pins get up from the floor then the ball rolls away from them, as it is to say that bowling balls knock down pins.  Since this kind of “causality” (I feel inclined to use quotes here, since for the time being it doesn’t quite feel like causality any more, but I think that will be rectified shortly) is time-independent, the current particle arrangement has just as much causal power over those particle arrangements in the “past” with reality looking no different.

Once our viewpoint of time moving in the direction we perceive it to is dismissed in terms of the underlying particles, then the causal primacy of the subatomic particles itself also begins to erode, and a view of the world, both macro- and micro-scopic, becomes one of various equally real levels of focus.  The macroscopic world is no less a true description of what is going on than the subatomic one.  Without this particular directionality of time, the primacy of the subatomic particle arrangements becomes just another description. If this is the case, then macroscopic me can want to write this essay and then “cause” all those particle arrangements in the “past” to line up such that it comes to be in the “present” again with reality looking no different than under the opposing viewpoint on causality.

I know that this sounds pretty far fetched, but give it some thought and then please feel free to prove me wrong through either a good macroscopic counterpoint, or through a more accurate understanding of particle physics than I have.  Although I don’t think that my point requires a better understanding of the physics to work or fail – as long as my key assumption about the atemporal natural of the world at the subatomic, non-viewpoint-entrenched, level is correct, that is.

Of Banjos and Butterflies

So what I have for my first real post is a selection from a children's book (series?) I finished, but as I alluded to in my first post, do not have the cajones to submit to anyone.  The full title is Of Banjos and Butterflies: Tales of the Wandering Prince and the Lilac Childe.  It's basically broken up into two sections, the first being the stories of the Wandering Prince, the second being the stories of the Lilac Childe, with a (very) short third section that ties them together and closes up the narrative.What I've included below is the beginnings of each of the first two sections.

What I was going for, tone-wise, is kind of intentionally back and forth between old-timey (like hobos around a campfire, expanding the country westward, old-timey) and fairy-tales.  I think both styles have a kind of flavor of mythology but also this sense that facts aren't written in stone (and might change from telling to telling, even), that can marry them together quite nicely, if you're careful (which I think I've been, but I'd love your feedback if you spot any places where it needs work or could be ramped up).  Some of the subsections live entirely in one feel, while others jump back and forth inside one subsection.

 
The Wandering Prince 

     
     Once upon a time, but not that long ago, there lived in the wilderness a wandering prince named John. On his head he wore a dented crown of tarnished copper and he carried a scepter jeweled in an old glass doorknob. In the nearby towns they told tales of the wandering prince and how he once was dressed in the finest gold and diamonds, but that he gave them up for his copper crown and the chance to see the world. He gave up his palace and he gave up his throne. He gave up his advisors and he gave up his clowns. He gave them all up for the open air and the chance to stand where the sun goes down.
     
     The stories say that he saw all the kingdoms and sailed all the seas but he always came back to one patch of woods where he knew a particular bear and a certain fox. The bear knew such stories and the fox danced the jig and the wandering Prince John liked to pick a tune on his banjo, while the sun came down just over the hill.

The Prince and the Bandits

     
     There was a time, or so the stories go, John was the fastest horseman in the west and he rode on the back of a billy goat. He rode into one town that was being robbed by bandits. The lawmen could not stop them and the banks were all cleaned dry, but when those bandits saw the wandering prince, they knew from his copper crown just who he was. They rode as fast as they could to try and escape. They rode as fast as they could into the sunset. They rode and they rode until their horses were tired, but when they reached the sunset, John was already there, because on his billy goat he was fastest and he'd made friends with the sunset long ago, one time while playing his banjo. He took the bandits back to town, where the lawmen put them in jail. He helped all the banks refill their safes, and stayed for an evening festival. The baker made pies, and the butcher made stew, and the mayor gave medals to John and his billy goat for all the good work that they do.

The Lilac Childe 

     
     There had been only one Queen of the Courts before the Butterfly Queen that everyone knew throughout the songs of Deep Faerie, but when her rule was done, or so the songs sung, she found herself a child once more.  The Lilac Childe, the songs would say, though she liked the name Maria.  Her voice was clear and her voice was high, like a child’s should be, but her songs were as old as the sky.  She knew lyrics for trees and songs of the seas, but her favorites told of strawberries.  None of the songs ever tell why, but she liked just as much a nap on the lawn as much as she liked exploring.  As a fairie queen there was not very much that she had not seen, but the songs never told all the tales.  She had been to the moon and swam in the deepest of seas.  Now that her rule was over, she liked the cool grass on her toes, but adventures still followed her wherever she’d go. 

Maria's First Unicorn 

     
     One of the songs that everyone sings tells all about the very first unicorn.  One day while enjoying a nap at the shore and dreaming of horses, Maria, the Lilac Childe, dreamed just a little bit more.  Maybe it was the narwhals she sang with early that morn, or maybe she really just thought ponies should have a horn, but Maria had dreamed of the very first unicorn.  
     
     When she woke from her nap to the spray of the sea foam, she found a path through the dunes and decided to roam.  At the end of that path, near the stairs to the moon, she found just what her dreams had been looking for.  A shining white horse, with a shining white horn, stood there with a saddle on.  And so on they rode to the moon and when they came back they had a whole herd, and she decided to call them a dazzle.

Post #1 - an explanation

So you’re reading my blog.  I guess it’s not against the rules for my first post to be about the genesis of this blog, itself (especially since what I did write on the topic was too long for the “about” section – waste not, want not; I’ll say in this instance, though in writing it’s not always the best policy).  I’ve been a writer for as long as I care to think back, though not much of mine has been officially published.  

Recently, I realized that my writing has really started to wane, in ratio to the rest of my life, and also that I have some completely finished works that for some reason, I am just too scared to submit to publishers.  At the moment, I’m going to run on two hypotheses: (1) that my writing may increase if I feel there’s somewhere it needs to be on somewhat regular intervals and (2) that if I get enough positive feedback from more than just the regulars (thanks, Mom; I love you!) some of the time, that maybe I’ll finally submit something for genuine publishing.

So then, this is the place where everything that's made it past rough draft will go (I refuse to torture you all with junk just to serve hypothesis 1; we have hypothesis 2 to keep in mind, after all), when I don't have a good reason to fear publishing it "officially", but have that fear nonetheless.  There are no other restrictions to the nature of the writings I will be posting here, but most of them will most likely end up falling into one of two camps: philosophical musings (by which I do not mean musings that are philosophical – though these will pop up from time to time, so much as I mean musings on Philosophy – metaphysics, cognitive science, etc.) and a lot of first teases of short stories.  Some of the latter will come from completely finished stories, but most from seeds that haven't fully sprout, yet (but, again, I promise no rough draft type muck).

I hope you find this entertaining, and I hope I find this cathartic and inspiring.

Breaking my own rough draft rule right off the bat, here’s a poem I wrote to go along with the name of the blog (as an alternative “about”, but which, though I have re-worked many times, I’m not fully satisfied with – though it does capture the blog’s intent):

A Pen in the Moonlight

When my pen stares up at the moonlight

It sees the inspiration for its words

But if I never let my pages see the daylight

Will those words ever really be found?