Monthly Archives: May 2025

Phantasmagorical Reflections on the Nature of Time, Light, Luminous Sentience and the Higgs Boson

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Theoretically, time doesn’t exist for photons.  That was recently explained to me and I found that hypothesis, or perhaps, theory, fascinating.  It’s something I’d never considered although traveling back in time by exceeding the speed of light has been a popular theme in science fiction for many decades, especially in the Star Trek franchise and, before that, in Superman films and comics.  I guess that if such literary devices had even a scintilla of possible accuracy a corollary would be that a balance attained at the speed of light would involve generation of the absence of time and hence, the phenomenon of which I was recently made aware.

Be that as it may, time certainly exists for anything with mass impacted by photons or other massless particles traveling at the speed of light in a vacuum.  As I understand it, other massless field perturbations (whatever they may be) may apparently also travel at the speed of light.  However, purportedly, notwithstanding warp drives and such, nothing with any mass at all can attain that speed as, after a certain speed, instead of increasing speed with the addition of otherwise accelerative energy, such additional energy would eventually merely expand the size of the mass it sought to accelerate as it approximated the speed of light. Thus, whatever residue of mass remained would never attain the speed of light unless the totality of mass was converted to energy, hence, the famous e = mc2, or more responsive to the foregoing, m = e/c2 or something like that.  Put more verbally, time decreases for objects as they accelerate towards the speed of light but, being unable to ever attain it, time for anything not traveling at the speed of light (or containing mass) never ceases to exist.

I wonder why the media through which photons, etc., travel makes a difference, or the speed, but apparently they do.  In another sense of the term “media” (as that term is applied to the transmission of subjective information through the press, or television “news”, etc.), I also wonder why, given its non-objective nature, a nature all too frequently infected by a desire to distort reality rather than present it, it has any relevance, but, unfortunately, for reasons inexplicable to some of us, it seems to.

Anyway, based on the foregoing, at least as I understand it right now, the light we are receiving from the furthest reaches of our universe (there may be more than one) is comprised of photons which, if they were sentient, would not have perceived that any time at all had passed during their journey, a temporal period which, to us, would have spanned almost fifteen billion years.  A corollary concept, at least as I perceive it, is that without relational motion, time, whether it is only an illusion or something independently real and tangible, would not exist.

As I reflect on the foregoing I’m struck by a paradox, the kind of paradox of which both religious and quantum “hypothetists”[1] seem enamored: i.e., that to the extent that time can exist only where there is motion, given that a photon is constantly in motion at the greatest theoretical velocity attainable, it is concurrently both intuitively and counterintuitively (and thus irreconcilably) probable that photons and related massless particles (to the extent that they exist) create time wherever they pass but never experience it.

Interesting.  Interesting also that speculation on the nature of divinity has led numerous theologians to believe that for the divine time does not exist either but rather, everything that would ever happen occurred concurrently and spontaneously, thus explaining omniscience, eternity and perhaps omnipresence, although not omnibenevolence or omnipotence but that, nonetheless, divinity creates and impacts time as perceived by us.  Hmmm, does that imply a photonic origin for divinity?  I’ll leave that for another day’s reflections.

But, back to our primary reflection: what about quantum phenomena as they relate to photons, etc.  Many of us are familiar with the inexplicable incongruities involving electrons and their variable perception oriented states and, at least in thought experiments, a similar situation with respect to cats cruelly trapped in boxes with a tempting dose of poison.  But what about photons and other massless objects capable of travelling at the speed of light in a vacuum?

Photons are purportedly massless, chargeless, and always travel at the speed of light (at least until recently) whilst carrying electromagnetic energy. Electrons, on the other hand, are, by comparison at least, massive, negatively charged particles that are a component of matter and are responsible for electricity but are incapable of attaining light speed.  One might then ask, shouldn’t electromagnetic energy be somehow related to electrons?  Apparently not.

Anyway, about the questions that occurred to me concerning the relationship, if any, between quantum phenomena and photons and other massless objects:  First, do quantum phenomena apply to them?  Apparently they do.  Photons are considered a type of quantum, i.e., fundamental units of physical particles such as light and matter.  Then, if that is so, can massless objects (photons for example) be quantically entangled so that what happens to one happens to its paired partner?  The answer is apparently yes as well.  Then, what about the phenomenon concerning the role of the observer in forcing a quantum particle to decide on its immediate future?  Hmmm.

Given recent experiments that have purportedly managed to slow photons to speeds as slow as thirty-eight miles per hour by changing the media through which they travel or by using electromagnetically induced transparency[2], a whole series of questions assail me.  Do such decelerated photons experience time?  If so (which I assume to be the case), then, if they were in any sense sentient, I assume that that they would be terribly shocked by their introduction into the temporal realms.  Or perhaps, if they had not prior to their deceleration been sentient (since time would appear essential to sentience), might they somehow evolve a sense of sentience when introduced to temporal phenomena?  And what would happen if photons subjected to quantic pairing where subjected to different temporal conditions, for example, if one of the pair was slowed down?  I assume its partner, wherever it was, would slow down as well.  What if that became infectious resulting in a cascading effect on light?  How might that impact us?  How might it impact time?

Sort of finally, I wonder at the relationship of the Higgs Boson and time.  Without it, mass would not exist and perhaps everything that moved, if anything moved, might well be travelling at the speed of light.  Yet, if everything were travelling at that speed, relatively speaking, nothing would be traveling at all (absent the concept of direction).  And I wonder if someday we’ll find that time itself is composed of massless particles.  What if such particles are somehow related to dark energy and dark matter?

Might Neil Gaiman or Christopher Moore, two of my favorite offbeat authors, turn the foregoing into a novel?  Might I?  Of course, theirs would probably be published while mine would probably tend to languish, literary agents interested in my work being even more rare than answers to the foregoing.

Something meaningful seems to be stirring at the edge of my imaginative perception but won’t permit me to grasp it. 

Perhaps it exists outside of temporal space and moves too quickly.
_____

© Guillermo Calvo Mahé; Manizales, 2025; all rights reserved.  Please feel free to share with appropriate attribution.

Guillermo (“Bill”) Calvo Mahé (a sometime poet) is a writer, political commentator and academic currently residing in the Republic of Colombia (although he has primarily lived in the United States of America of which he is also a citizen). Until 2017 he chaired the political science, government and international relations programs at the Universidad Autónoma de Manizales. Previously, he chaired the social studies and foreign language departments at the Eastern Military Academy in Huntington, New York. He is currently the publisher of the Inannite Review available at Substack.com; an intermittent commentator on radio and television; and, an occasional contributor to diverse periodicals and publications. He has academic degrees in political science (BA, The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina), law (JD, St. John’s University, School of Law), international legal studies (LL.M, the Graduate Division of the New York University School of Law) and translation and linguistic studies (GCTS, the University of Florida’s Center for Latin American Studies). However, he is also fascinated by mythology, religion, physics, astronomy and mathematics, especially with matters related to quanta, cosmology and cosmogony. He can be contacted at guillermo.calvo.mahe@gmail.com and much of his writing is available through his blog at https://guillermocalvo.com/.

[1] I use “hypothetists as a neologism for speculative researchers who, given the absence of proof, are not really theorists.

[2] Apparently, electromagnetically induced transparency is a phenomenon where normally opaque media becomes transparent to light within a specific spectral range due to the effects of quantum interference. It is generated through us of a strong “control” light beam to create “dressed states” in a multi-level atom or molecule, allowing a weaker “probe” light beam to pass through the medium, thus ripping aside its attempt at obfuscation.

Initial Reflections on Pope Leo XIV

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Raining on parades is not something of which I’m fond, especially given how many parades I participated in during my youth while a cadet, first at the Eastern Military Academy in Huntington, New York, and then at the Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina, which is not to say that I and my fellow cadets were not, at times, very grateful for rain that resulted in cancellation of weekly parades permitting us to enjoy additional leave time.  Today, however, as I reflect on the passing of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Pope Francis I, and of Jose Mujica several weeks later, I find myself doing just that, although perhaps it’s just tears cascading I hear.  That we were privileged to share this world with two souls as purely beneficent as theirs has been an amazing blessing.

Following Francis I will not be an easy task, it may well prove extremely challenging as there is little hope of equaling his charismatic humility and the aura of human decency he generated.  It is unlikely that Robert Francis Prevost will follow the examples of humility and personal frugality that Jorge Mario Bergoglio set, both before and after he attained the papacy.  It is interesting, in a very sad manner, to note with profound regret that we lost both Pope Francis and his political homolog, Jose Mujica, the late, former president of Uruguay, within several weeks of each other.  That is an immense degree of decency lost in a very brief period, especially when human decency and humility among those who currently lead us is in such short supply.

My first impression of the new Pope was not positive but I admit that after Francis probably no one would have seemed comparatively positive to me, at least at first blush.  However, I fear that my unfair initial reaction may unfortunately have been instinctively and cognitively perceptive, especially after rumors that pressure to select Cardinal Prevost were exerted, who knows how, by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and by neoliberal and neoconservative elements in a number of governments, especially that of the United States.  But I guess it would be extremely naïve in a professional political analyst to believe that the election of a new pope would be free of geopolitical pressure from many sides.  Especially if one has studied papal history.

Cardinal Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, has aspects that should appeal to me emotionally.  He is a Peruvian as well as a United States citizen, the son of Louis Marius Prevost of French and Italian descent and of Mildred Martínez of Spanish descent and it appears that his maternal grandparents, Joseph Martinez, born in Haiti, and Louise Baquié, a Creole a native of New Orleans, were partially of African descent.  Like the new Pope, I’m also a dual national, having been born a citizen of the Republic of Colombia and naturalized many decades ago as a citizen of the United States of America.  And I share at least the Pope’s Spanish and French roots.  But for some reason, the ethnicity and dual citizenship that we share did not impact me in the way that Pope Francis’ Argentinian birth did.  It should have.  Instead, the fact that he is a United States native seems a double edged sword.  He is viewed with pride by United States’ citizens as the first United States born Pope but with suspicion by many throughout the world, fearful, as noted above, that his election was impacted by United States and especially, Israeli pressure.  Something that is given at least some credence if one reads between the lines of some of his public statements involving international affairs, both before and after he became Pontiff.

Still, he is unlikely to be as Deep State oriented as were his predecessors, John Paul or Benedict XVI, but he is also unlikely to be as progressive or humble as Francis, something his decision to reside in the Papal Palace at Castle Gandolfo eschewed by Francis makes clear.  However, as in the case of Supreme Court justices in the United States, the office frequently changes the holder and perhaps, rather than a disappointment (to me) he will prove to be an inspiration.

Only time will tell. 

The only certainty is that my perceptions are emotional, intuitive and not factually based although, like billions of others, I’ve sought for whatever facts I can find but, other than glowingly positive reports concerning his priesthood in Peru, reports of the kind frequently generated by public relations specialists rather than by historians, not much that rings true to me seems available.  Perhaps as I’ve matured, I’ve become a bit too cynical.

I certainly hope so.
_____

© Guillermo Calvo Mahé; Manizales, 2025; all rights reserved.  Please feel free to share with appropriate attribution.

Guillermo (“Bill”) Calvo Mahé (a sometime poet) is a writer, political commentator and academic currently residing in the Republic of Colombia (although he has primarily lived in the United States of America of which he is also a citizen). Until 2017 he chaired the political science, government and international relations programs at the Universidad Autónoma de Manizales. Previously, he chaired the social studies and foreign language departments at the Eastern Military Academy in Huntington, New York. He is currently the publisher of the Inannite Review available at Substack.com; an intermittent commentator on radio and television; and, an occasional contributor to diverse periodicals and publications. He has academic degrees in political science (BA, The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina), law (JD, St. John’s University, School of Law), international legal studies (LL.M, the Graduate Division of the New York University School of Law) and translation and linguistic studies (GCTS, the University of Florida’s Center for Latin American Studies). However, he is also fascinated by mythology, religion, physics, astronomy and mathematics, especially with matters related to quanta, cosmology and cosmogony. He can be contacted at guillermo.calvo.mahe@gmail.com and much of his writing is available through his blog at https://guillermocalvo.com/.

Thoughts on a Mothers Day’s Eve

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Sooo, it’s Mothers’ Day’s Eve. 

Tomorrow is the day most beloved by restaurateurs, florists and purveyors of assorted merchandise.  But for many mothers it’s a very different sort of day, for those mothers whose children have become estranged, for those mothers who for one reason or another, found themselves unable to keep their children.  For those mothers whose children find them unworthy of respect or of affection. 

Many of us have not been great sons or daughters taking for granted that incredibly special relationship until it’s too late.  And then, of course, it’s too late.  I know I certainly should have been a much better son.  I always knew my mother loved me very much but I did not appreciate all the sacrifices she made and all that she endured to make me, as far as my better points go, the person I became.

It’s not easy to be a parent, and a “good parent” is an ideal that is too complex to easily attain.  Many of the best parents are those most resented, at least for a while, by children who are incapable of understanding that forming a human being capable of confronting the challenges he or she are sure to face requires difficult decisions and that in seeking to make them, mistakes are not infrequent, and that such mistakes are all too often exaggeratedly taken out of context.  But parents and those of their children who, rather than avoid parenthood become parents, are links in a chain as old as our species. 

On this Mother’s Day my heart goes out to those mothers, who like so many fathers, find themselves ignored, or disrespected, or alone.  Or who will merely engage in introspection on how much better they could have performed their sacred missions. 

It’s a day for celebration; yes!  And for recognition in many cases.  But also for reflection, introspection, forgiveness and empathy.
_____

© Guillermo Calvo Mahé; Manizales, 2025; all rights reserved.  Please feel free to share with appropriate attribution.

Guillermo (“Bill”) Calvo Mahé (a sometime poet) is a writer, political commentator and academic currently residing in the Republic of Colombia (although he has primarily lived in the United States of America of which he is also a citizen). Until 2017 he chaired the political science, government and international relations programs at the Universidad Autónoma de Manizales. Previously, he chaired the social studies and foreign language departments at the Eastern Military Academy in Huntington, New York. He is currently the publisher of the Inannite Review available at Substack.com; an intermittent commentator on radio and television; and, an occasional contributor to diverse periodicals and publications. He has academic degrees in political science (BA, The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina), law (JD, St. John’s University, School of Law), international legal studies (LL.M, the Graduate Division of the New York University School of Law) and translation and linguistic studies (GCTS, the University of Florida’s Center for Latin American Studies). However, he is also fascinated by mythology, religion, physics, astronomy and mathematics, especially with matters related to quanta, cosmology and cosmogony. He can be contacted at guillermo.calvo.mahe@gmail.com and much of his writing is available through his blog at https://guillermocalvo.com/.