It is far from enough to analyze the necessity of the emergence of space-time theory only from the mathematical point of view, because it is a basic theory after all, and its purpose is not to show some mathematical skills. What matters is what this theory tells us. Therefore, we need to see whether it conforms to the general law of the history of scientific development from the perspective of historical development, and analyze whether the emergence of space-time theory is inevitable.
19 15 years, Einstein was in his prime-36 years old. He combined his profound view of time and space with the mathematical methods of non-Euclidean geometry and founded the general theory of relativity, which shocked the whole world at that time. Since then, with the establishment of the general theory of relativity as a symbol, Einstein has created a new time and space era. However, in the following decades, this great man did not write the new amazing works that people expected, and his attempt to unify the field in his later years was unsuccessful. In Einstein's time and for a long time from his death to today, no one in the world went further than Einstein in the study of post-relativity. Intriguingly, a quantum theory that Einstein didn't like, and he called it "God doesn't roll dice", has made rapid progress and become the protagonist in the field of space-time research, and quantum theory has become the cradle of cultivating Nobel Prize winners. Today, when people are still desperately looking for clues to the grand unified theory in the two gold mines of general relativity and quantum theory, Stephen Hawking, an outstanding representative of quantum theory, a famous mathematician and theoretical physicist, wrote at the end of his book A Brief History of Time: "However, if we do find a complete set of theories, it should be understood by everyone (not just a few scientists) in time. At that time, all of us, including philosophers, scientists and ordinary people, could participate in discussing why we have problems with the universe. " Obviously, Professor Hawking and other scientists admit that both general relativity and quantum theory have some defects, and both of them are far from the ideal' unified theory'. So how about unifying these two theories under a new theory? However, how to combine general relativity with quantum theory is a headache for scientists. It is difficult for them to mediate or choose between "God who is proficient in Riemannian geometry and is known as a master of mathematics" and "naughty God who rolls dice". Perhaps some scientists have begun to realize that these two are not the true gods they are looking for! If we believe that Hawking's prediction has great possibility and the insight of this famous scholar today, then the complete and unified theory he predicted contains the basic principles of general relativity and quantum theory, rather than the simple superposition of these two theories. Because neither general relativity nor quantum theory can make people understand it in time and let ordinary people participate in the discussion about the existence of the universe. More importantly, this discussion involving philosophers is about the most basic problems in our universe. This eternal topic should include the basic views of consciousness and existence, subjective and objective, that is, any theory that claims to be everything cannot be avoided and the relationship between this oldest and most basic philosophical concept must be clearly clarified.
Historically, any conceptual renewal and theoretical breakthrough in physics is accompanied by the change of human's view of the objective world, which has been illustrated from "geocentric theory" to "Heliocentrism" and from Newton's theory to the theory of relativity. The analysis of space-time theory should involve more basic concepts than relativity, so its philosophical significance is particularly important. It is necessary for us to stand at the height of philosophy and use philosophers (not mathematicians! ) Look at all kinds of "space-time theory" and "grand unified theory", including analytic space-time theory. Only in this way can we discover and find out the theory that can change our understanding of the objective world and how far the "objective world" that human beings can perceive is from the real world. Therefore, before introducing the analytic space-time theory further, we should first make clear the two principles put forward by the analytic space-time theory (the principle of equal space-time area and the principle of space-time deflection). What is its philosophical significance? What has happened to our ideology? This is the question we want to elaborate below:
Throughout the history of scientific development, the birth of any scientific theory is a breakthrough in the principle of comparing old and new theories. The principle of this new theory must appear in the form of hypothesis, which is a speculative explanation of the nature and law of things. Since it is a hypothesis, it cannot be deduced from the original theory, otherwise it is not a new theory. In the way of hypothesis, human beings have experienced the process from low level to high level, the "geocentric theory" produced by the ancient people from the rising and falling law of the sun in the west, and the "gravitational hypothesis" produced by the phenomenon of falling apples. With the advent of the industrial revolution and the continuous progress of experimental observation methods, simple and intuitive analysis methods have been replaced by accurate experiments and scientific observation methods, and various theoretical theories have been established, including the hypothesis of constant light speed and the hypothesis of the Big Bang universe. However, after careful analysis of the development of hypotheses, it is not difficult to find that the development of various hypotheses is inevitably related to our human experimental observation methods. Today, the observation means, tools and methods mastered by human beings are many times more advanced than Galileo's self-made telescope, but in terms of observation ability (breadth and accuracy), its ability cannot be infinite, and it is close to or will reach the limit of observation technology mastered by human beings at present. The development of science has reached the critical point of human perception. We should take this step and admit that the objective world does not depend on our human perception. There is always a gap between human perception of objectivity and' real existence'. We can't change anything on this issue. God will not pity mankind and change his image! Based on the above viewpoint, the principle of space-time area equality and the principle of space-time deflection put forward in analytical space-time theory put forward a brand-new hypothesis. There are only two purposes and functions of all kinds of physics experiments: the first is to falsify; If the inference and main conclusion of a "hypothesis" are inconsistent with the experimental results, then this "hypothesis" will inevitably fail. The second is to determine the scope of application of "hypothesis"; The result of an experiment can only show whether this "hypothesis" is applicable under this condition. Only when the "hypothesis" is applicable under general conditions will this hypothesis become an accepted theory.
The hypotheses of "constant space-time area" and "time-space deflection" are new attempts in the history of scientific hypothesis development.
For thousands of years, philosophers have been arguing about the relationship between consciousness and existence, spirit and matter, and subjectivity and objectivity. With the progress of science and technology, people's vision of understanding the objective world is constantly expanding, and the discussion on these issues is also deepening. The so-called "objectivity" is something that exists outside people's consciousness and is independent of people's consciousness. "Gravitation" is an objective law; Although we can't see the "law" itself, the law of universal gravitation is expressed by the motion of planets. Objective existence is not fiction but a real phenomenon, which can be expressed in various forms and observed by human beings in one way or another. So for thousands of years, people have always thought that what we "see" and "observe" exists objectively, because these objective phenomena exist independently of our consciousness. No one has ever doubted this argument, but one person attacked it first, and he was Einstein. At the beginning of this century (1905), Einstein proposed that when the relative velocity of an object is high, the length of the object along the direction of motion "looks" shorter. The implication is: if we make two rulers with the same length on the earth and put one of them on the spaceship, when the spaceship flies away from the earth at high speed, we observe that the ruler on the spaceship is shorter than the ruler left on the earth! Einstein called this theory special relativity, and the above phenomenon is the effect of the constant speed of light. This idea is a heavy blow to our innate concept of "objectivity". It is a fact that we put the ruler on the spaceship ourselves. It is still true that there is no error in the observation results; Which "fact" do we believe? What is the "objective length" of a ruler? What is the objective "standard"? Unfortunately, Einstein was much more interested in physics than philosophy. He didn't think deeply about the problem. Until today, few people have discussed this issue as a major philosophical issue, and almost no one has explored the precious mineral deposits left by this great man. It can be said that learning Einstein's thoughts is more important than imitating his skills. Today, nearly a century after the publication of the special theory of relativity, we finally know that the objective description itself is relative, which is related to the situation of the "objective" descriptor. We also take the ruler on the spaceship as an example. When the spacecraft is relatively stationary with the earth, we say that the two rulers are equal in length, and the real length of the ruler is equal to the length we see. But when the spacecraft flies away from the earth, we will find that there is an error between the real length of the ruler on the spacecraft and the length we see, and this error will increase with the increase of the speed of the spacecraft. This error is not caused by measurement. Due to the deflection of time and space, its position also deviates from our imagined position, which means that we can't "measure" the position and length of the measured ruler (including the spacecraft). This phenomenon is most obvious in the microscopic field, and we can't get the accurate values of momentum and position of particles at the same time. Let's simply explain it in mathematical language:
Suppose an object leaves the earth at a high speed, and we observe its length change on the ground:
The formula (1–1) l = l' cosq, where l and l' are the observed length and actual length of the object, respectively, and their difference is expressed by δ, that is, δ = l'-l = l'-l' cosq = l' (1-cosq).
In order to make the observed length close to or equal to the actual length, δ→0,
Therefore, (1-cosq)→0 or (1-cosq)=0.
Since cosq = (1-U2/C2)1/2, it must be u→0 or u=0, which is obviously inconsistent with the hypothesis.
So we come to the conclusion that when the measured object has relative velocity or momentum (especially at extremely high relative velocity), it can never "observe" the actual length of the object or determine its position, that is, u≠0 and δ=0 cannot be satisfied, and the above relationship also exists about the energy and time of the object (the specific proof is abbreviated).
Analytic space-time theory reveals that the essential reason of uncertainty or uncertainty principle is space-time deflection, and extends the concept of uncertainty to macro field. "Uncertainty" is not the patent of micro-particles, it is a common phenomenon in nature, but there are differences between macro-objects and micro-particles. From this, we will naturally come to the conclusion that quantum uncertainty is also caused by the deflection of time and space. Philosophically speaking, "perceived existence" and "real existence" are different, and we can't unify these two kinds of existence by force. Only by acknowledging the objectivity of these two kinds of existence can we take a solid step on the road of exploring "unified theory"!
In the past, all physical theories were pursuing the sacred goal of "understanding objectivity" to the greatest extent. The good wishes of mankind have not reduced the dependence of all existing theories on our special environment. The bad speed environment around the earth has created many "objective facts" of the low-speed world, as well as various theories that have grown up in this environment, which still affect our way of thinking. Relativity and quantum theory are the closest theories to change this traditional way of thinking from macro and micro fields respectively. Almost at the same time, these two theories found that there is still a gap between our objective description and real existence. What they tell people is that there is still an insurmountable gap between human perception and real existence. In order to bridge this gap, general relativity designed a "bridge" built with curved steel frames. Quantum theory uses mathematical statistics to calculate the number of people who can reach the other side, but analytic space-time theory is a theory that reflects the gap between "real existence" and "perceived world" It uses the simple principle of time-space deflection (not bending) to explain what causes the gap between objective existence and perceived world, and reveals the unity of time and space-the area of time and space remains unchanged. This principle completely conforms to the law of cosmic symmetry and is the embodiment of natural perfect time and space.