Maestros and Games of Light
Have you considered photography to be a way of time travel? I know exponents of science fiction including the great HG Wells, Jules Verne, even today’s Asimov and Arthur Clarke and their loyal followings will take a serious umbrage to such a ludicrous notion, blaming me for tarnishing a romantic dream of going anywhere in space time in a flicker and witnessing both time future and past, the contrived corridors of history and the cunning passages of what could have been. And so will orthodox adherents of photography, including some of my friends who really have mastered the compassionate art of drawing with light. Pierre Cartier Bresson, Raghu Rai, Salgato all will be absolutely over the roof. We knew Quazi to be of slight bent mind, but what has he finally gone nuts?
Consider a photo taken of a person long time back –may be he is not even with us. Can we not think him to be a person, featured in light looking at us from the past? Well,at least one great minds of our time none other than John Herschel, considered to be one of the first exponent of photography and one who gave the form the name photography actually thought like that. A precursor of Albert Einstein , John Herschel was a well known astronomer and a scientist in his own right. Son of an illustrous father also a great astronomer, William, both are known to inspire Einstein with their out of the box ideas and viewpoints. Thus when John was small, both he and his father used to take long walks on the beach. He often talked about stars and existence to his son and consequently one day mentioned John Michell, who in his work mentioned about dark stars, known amongst us as black holes. John thought this to be a totally unlikely idea as he asked “How can you know that a thing exists if you cannot see it?” His father pointed to the footmarks on the beach and said you do not see the person who made this mark –but still we know he exists. On that fateful evening and later many evenings that both father and son spent together, looking through telescope to the heavens, the thoughts of preserving the past through light and an idea of a non absolute time must have crossed his mind.
A Patent Clerk and his violin : Fabric of Time Space
Herschels and Michell were kind of childhood heroes of young Albert. He was fascinated by his ideas. Thus when a hitherto unknown patent clerk, so far regarded as a complete failure in life, in his close quarters with a violin in his hand was discovering the fabric of space time continuum that governs our cosmos, the thoughts of Herschels, both father and son surely resonated deep within his core. That time is not absolute, that it can vary according to space, that different observers can record different time for the same event, that gravity is not a force of nature but a distortion of time space, that it need not be equal to one always were really ideas that shook to our core, shell and crux. Consider also that only speed of light is absolute and the consequent rule that thou shall not travel faster than light and the daredevil notion of variable gravity. With zero g thus everything will start floating including you water from fire hose, including red shoes and dances not to mention the famous apple. If g is 100,000 everything will start crumbling. But when g equals a million –even light cannot escape its pull, a phenomenon known to occur in black holes, stars that are pulled down by its own gravitational field.
How do we know that they exist if they are black can be a question similar to what young Herschel asked his father. Again it is a technique, which I am sure you have experienced, unless you are very fortunate or super fit. It is X rays that have been used – a technique similar to photography. It is at the risk of digressions, one is tempted to state that when you approach the black hole nearly at the speed of light, interesting things start to happen.
As you approach the event horizon-the surface of the black hole, you may see the whole future of the universe pass you by,- given of course , you are still alive and kicking. And if you can defy one of the governing rule of the universe- that thou shall not travel faster than light and end up in a black hole ,more fascinating things await you . You may end up in completely new existence in space time –in Notesimpler words at a completely different place and time in universe. You may also end up in a completely new universe with a totally new set of physical reality. And more excitingly and paradoxically you may see an entire universe contained in it – its infinite mass allows it to engulf even a universe. Also you may witness birth of new universes, because it is precisely from such conditions, known as singularity our universe from a hot dense soup emerged from nothing nearly 14 billion years back, through yes, big bang.
An inflation followed universe starting to expand, and it is still expanding and evidences suggest at a faster rate. If this goes on, a time will come, when matter would start to disintegrate and a mass annihilation will take place. You, like young Woody Allen, either in Annie Hall or Radio Days, may consider thus life to be futile and wonder what the point is. But relax it is still few billion years –by that time we as a human race may become extinct or evolve into something else or may find our place in other universes. Naught, nothing and null will dance in an empty space.
Reality, illusions : Shadows in a Cave
What is important here is to note is that Einstein pointed here to a new reality – a reality which is so very different from our day to day , almost mundane strives and existence. The question more philosophical and disturbing is to ask, if the world Einstein pointed out is the real and it has been proved scientifically many a times, then how about the world, the notions that we are living- is it an illusion? The illusionist and mystics among us may seat back and smile- Ah, have we not told you so. Plato in his cave may also revel with his shadows and the one who was killed for seeing the real world-no prizes in guessing who he was- Socrates.
The next question to ask can be how it will be to live in a real world? The makers of Matrix may have the answer! You may also watch Lucy and see what happens if cerebral capacity increases to nearly 100 per cent- you can travel through space time, stop incoming bullets, go back –tighten your seat belt, be on the edge of seats –to evolution of our first forefathers on planet earth and even big bang. In other words, time travel. You may not believe me, you do not have to. Consider Albert- he only, note only used 25 per cent of his cerebral capacity!
Coming back to illusions, how the attraction between two matters work can be a case in point. In four dimensional times space reality, attraction between two matters is in a straight line -what has been referred as geodesic – but in a three d world, we perceive this to be elliptical. An analogy can be that in a three d world when a bird flies, we see it as if it is flying in straight line, while actually given the earth’s surface it is flying in a curved manner. Another proponents of illusion point out the actual world is really a two d world and what we perceive is nothing but a three dimensional holographic portrayal. Thus again, when we indulge in photography, we may be satisfying our inner urge of getting nearer to the real world.
Abandonment, equilibrium in Angry Fix
Thus if we accept Herschel’s original proposition of a photograph to be a relic, alter ego of the past , then Einstein’s rejection of absolute time gets a new resonance. Then we see, perhaps in a scheme of time travel, images of the past or the past itself being there in our present equilibrium . Drawn in light ----another feature of relativity- it is a series of ghosts that are looking at you.
May be that day is not far when we shall be able to preserve our memories in three d rather in two d. Then the dancing girl who created chasms in your heart, the moments that you spent with your dear ones in an offshore island in a sunset garnished by crimson clouds with flying swans in the horizon, the laughers that you enjoyed with your chums in your backyard over a single malt, the lusty look of the husky hussy in a coffee parlour can all be preserved for you to revisit in your moments of torments, your dark hour, when the world in an angry fix abandons you.
This article draws heavily on an episode Sky full of Ghosts of Cosmos: A Space Time Odyssey series. The author would like to express his gratitude to Neil deGrasse Tyson for inspiring this piece.
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