RealityAndI
Superficially, there appears to be a static and dynamic component to many of the things discussed here.
| Concept | Static | Dynamic |
| Universe | Physical Reality | Consciousness |
| Physical Reality | Space | Time |
| Space | Matter | Energy |
| Time | Current Instant | Inertia |
| "I" | Information | Processes |
The Universe might be composed of Consciousness (unfettered dynamism with no static aspect) and Physical Reality (with no intrinsic dynamism other than what it receives from Consciousness). It's also possible that only Consciousness exists and Physical Reality is simply an expression of it, in which case there is no static aspect to the Universe at all.
Regardless, the static/dynamic aspects of everything else may just be an artifact of our lack of a deep enough understanding of each one.
- Physical Reality
- We view Physical Reality as being composed of Space (static) and Time (dynamic), but these two concepts may only be different aspects of the same thing -- the idea of time "flowing" might be a complete misconception. It "flows" differently for every piece of matter and slows to a stop as objects approach the speed of light. It's possible, for instance, that there is no "time," per se -- that the concept of "time" is simply our way of ordering the apparent cause and effect relationships of the world around us. If Space and Time are not distinct, then assigning static/dynamic qualities to each of them doesn't make sense. It may be more accurate to say that Space/Time is purely dynamic.
- Space
- Matter and Energy are known to be aspects of the same thing -- in fact, Matter is composed of Energy. It would appear that Matter/Energy is also purely dynamic.
- Time
- The idea of having a static "Current Instant" may be incorrect. The lack of a causal mechanism tying "instants" together implies that Time isn't segmented into separable instants at all. Per the comments above, our understanding of Time appears to be very weak.
- "I"
- "I", postulated to be composed of Information and Processes, is actually a melding of the two -- Processes can't exist without Information to work on.
If the above is accurate, then perhaps we should be careful to look deeper whenever we believe we have identified static and dynamic components of something. In the context of this discussion, this is particularly relevant for "Time" and "I."