A Sense of Doubt blog post #4211 - TWO YEARS AGO - Obituary of Bob Tower - Born June 26, 1935, Died August 28, 2024 at 13:40 Michigan time

A Sense of Doubt blog post #4211 - TWO YEARS AGO - Obituary of Bob Tower - Born June 26, 1935, Died August 28, 2024 at 13:40 Michigan time

My father, Robert B Tower, died two years ago today, August 28th, at 13:40 Eastern time, even though I am publishing this post at 13:40 Pacific time.

I was there with him when he took his last breath.

As I wrote yesterday, today I am honoring his life doing something he would appreciate: pressure washing patios and decks.

I went hunting for new pictures that I have not posted. The photo above is from an envelope full of flawed photos with the left side blacked out, almost foreshadowing that Mom would die first.

It's so rare to see my Dad smile in photos, especially when he was younger. I got after him about that which is why I have so many of him smiling when he's older.

This is a good smiling Robert photo. It's from April of 1974. I was a very awkward twelve year old.

I found this candid photo (below). What is with my sister's facial expression? :-)

I have not closed the tab in my browser containing Dad's obituary in two years. I am reprinting and a post I made about it below.

That is all.

Thanks for tuning in.

Friday, September 13, 2024

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3496 - Obituary of Robert Tower - June 26, 1935 - August 28, 2024

1973 - Mackinac, Grand Hotel

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3496 - Obituary of Robert Tower - June 26, 1935 - August 28, 2024

I realized I had not yet published Dad's obituary. I have not read it, either.

To be fair, I read it years ago when he wrote it and he sought some editing advice from me. I did not give him a tough edit.

I wanted to find a good picture of my Dad from the 1960s or 1970s. I wish I had more pictures of him from that time period. Since he took all the pictures, he's not in very many of them.

I like this one above. I am not sure if Lori and I were at the Grand Hotel with them on this trip.

Maybe. Depends on when Nixon resigned. I remember we stayed in the presidential suite, which that is, quite clearly, right after the president, and I want to say that president was Gerald Ford. Nixon resigned on August 8th, so conceivably this picture is after that.

However, I remember being into magic on that trip, and I do not believe I was quite into magic yet at 11 years old. Maybe. I remember seeing Robert Downey (not to be confused with the actor) on that trip.

https://www.magicana.com/video/bob-downey-stage-magic-0

I am not sure if I knew that he died in 1980.

I think it's more likely that the picture above is from a time when Mom and Dad went without us and we all went together in 1974 and/or 1975.

The picture with the obit is from TASTE OF KALAMAZOO, and I took that picture. It's one of my favorites.

I still can't believe he's gone. I want to talk to him about the picture above, about Bob Downey, about our trips to Mackinac.

Regardless, we were (or they were) at Mackinac for Michigan Society of Architects.

I am and always have been so proud to be the son of Bob Tower.

Miss you, Dad.


UPDATE - 2409.14 - 11:07

I just realized that I am now in possession of my Dad's little black books in which he recorded nearly everything.

We were in Mackinac in late August of 1973.

But I think we were there again in other years and for longer. This is not the year when I met Bob Downey (as far as I can tell).

Here's the relevant pages:

COUNTDOWN!!!

https://www.270towin.com/2024-countdown-clock/

052 DAYS TO THE ELECTION

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/kalamazoo/name/robert-tower-obituary?pid=207694616

Robert Tower Obituary

Tower, Robert Burns
Kalamazoo
ROBERT B. TOWER, AIAE, NCARB - June 26, 1935 - August 28, 2024
Robert Burns Tower II passed away peacefully at Friendship Village and joined his wife in Heaven with his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He was born prematurely in Whitefish, Montana in a log cabin. He was the son of Hellen Doris (Lauman) Tower and Walter Burns Tower. He was named after his grandfather, Robert Burns Tower as well as the famous Scottish poet, Robert Burns. His family moved to Michigan, and he attended secondary schools in Midland, Michigan. Tower attended the University of Michigan, and earned his Architecture degree in 1960. He served his country in the US Army and National Guards of Michigan. He was a registered Architect, with licenses in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio. He received a national Architecture Registration (NCARB). Tower was also certified as a Peer Reviewer for the American Institute of Architects. He traveled to many parts of the US and Canada to consult with other Architectural or Engineering firms offering his expertise in management transition. With over forty years of experience in the field of Architecture, Tower was the retired Chairman Emeritus of Tower Pinkster Titus Associates, Inc (TowerPinkster). During his years with the firm, Tower practiced Architecture and served as the leader of its staff. The firm had offices in Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, Detroit and Grand Rapids during his leadership. His expertise in Healthcare Facility design and Healthcare Construction Codes made the firm greatly sought after for his reputation for design skills in highly technical buildings. Tower's involvement in community activities throughout the state gave him the opportunity to gain insights in many aspects of public, non-profit and private enterprise. He served on the Boards of Directors of many organizations and was highly respected for his leadership and energetic support of the organizations he served. During many years of community service Tower was involved in countless fundraising efforts, developed public policy, provided leadership in the reorganization of a number of non-profit organizations, and attained a wealth of knowledge in organizational planning. Tower was a highly organized taskmaster who was respected by his peers for his ability to lead groups of people with diplomacy, thoughtful mentorship, and a respect for other people's abilities and ideas. His expertise as a fundraiser was the hallmark of his community service, and he was greatly sought after to participate in such activities because of his success at attaining the goals of any campaign he was involved with. His noteworthy campaigns were the successful efforts for the Kalamazoo Nature Center, Binder Park Zoo, DRUGS DON'T WORK, the Kal-Haven Trail and the Rotary Stage in Bronson Park. Tower designed many buildings during the length of his career with his firm as well as many architectural commissions he completed in his own private practice during retirement. He was the Architect of Record for Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo for over twenty years, and was the designer for many of the additions to the health facility as it expanded during the later years of the twentieth century. He was also the Architect for many other healthcare facilities throughout the state of Michigan and Illinois. Tower's personal delight was the many beautiful custom homes he designed for clients that sought his expertise. Most of his residential projects are in Southwest Michigan. Tower also designed many fine homes in his hometown of Midland, Michigan. Robert Tower's wife, Marjorie Ellen (Delbridge) Tower passed away July 4, 2015. He is survived by his daughter, Lori M. (Noel) Beard; his son, Christopher B. (Liesel) Tower; and grandchildren, Piper and Ivan Simons. The family will receive friends at a

visitation at First Presbyterian Church in Richland, Michigan from 6pm to 8pm on Thursday, September 5, 2024 in the Grand Prairie room which Tower designed. A memorial service will be held the following day, September 6, 2024 at First Presbyterian Church at 5pm. Gifts in lieu of flowers can be directed to the Kalamazoo Nature Center, Binder Park Zoo, or Gilmore Keyboard Foundation.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2409.13 - 10;:10
- Days ago: MOM = 3360 days ago & DAD = 016 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2608.28 - 13:40

- Days ago: MOM = 4075 days ago & DAD = 729 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.

A Sense of Doubt blog post #4210 - Letter to Dad #50: Pressure Washing with Dad in Honor of his Passing Two Years Ago

A Sense of Doubt blog post #4210 - Letter to Dad #50: Pressure Washing with Dad in Honor of his Passing Two Years Ago

Hi Big Guy, 

It is fitting that on the day before the second year since you died, my letters to you feature hits fifty.

No more significance to this number other than it's a special number enroute to one hundred, so it is notable.

Also, BTW, I am publishing this and the next six posts  (seven in all) at 13:40 instead of 10:10. The time of your death, Dad.

Even more fitting is what I will do tomorrow on the second year since your death that I am going to pressure wash patio, drive ways, deck, and porch. So, in that spirit, I am reprinting here when we pressure washed together before staining the deck at St. Antoine in Kalamazoo a color that was not approved, so we had to re-do it!

Before that reprint, not much to report. Back to teaching creative writing, which I have not taught for five years, and of course the whole course is changed.

Making time for my own writing at a pretty solid clip, so I am proud of that.

Start my Practicum (not internship yet but essentially the same thing) on Monday. 

Things are going well.

I miss you and love you, Dad.

~ christopher

Link to the original post I am reprinting below:

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #357 - Work days with the Big Guy

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #357 - Work days with the Big Guy

Hi Mom, This one's mostly pictures. There's been lots of work around here lately with the Big Guy, my Dad, you know, Robert "Bob" Tower, your husband.

In the photo above, I had to insist that Dad smiled. It's a good smile.

This photo gallery charts our power washing of the deck and then staining the deck.

Liesel does not like the stain color (see sample pick of the color swatch below). But the staining of the deck is more about preserving the wood than looks. We needed solid stain. She wanted grey. We miscommunicated.

AND we will need to power wash again later this summer or early in the fall. We skipped a section of the house because we were running out of time and energy.

As you know, Mom, Dad and I have always done these work days. They used to be in support of our home, ours together as a family. But now, mostly, they are in support of my home with Liesel and the kids.

Dad told me that  a year ago he would not have been able to do all this work. He's doing yoga, and it's really helped him.

Also, he was taking care of you, and in your last two years, it was not as easy for us to bring you along and stash you in front of a TV or for a nap on the a couch.

I know these pictures would be interesting to you, Mom; you would look at them all, nodding and smiling. But my other readers may not find much of interest here. Still, I like our work and the before-after progression of the deck staining. I have also added my Instagram/Twitter/Facebook posts and captions. "SO MUCH DIRT!!!"

These times with my Dad are precious. I would not trade them for anything in the world.

Satchel: "I want to come outside, please."
Me: "No, you are already covered with stain."

Satchel, thinking: "How could I get outside without his help."
Me: "Satchel, don't even think you're getting outside until the stain dries."

ALL DONE!! Four days later, the deck looks great, if you like cape grey as a color that is.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Reflect and connect.

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.

I miss you so very much, Mom.

Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

- Days ago = 359 days ago

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1606.28 - 10:10

NOTE on time: When I post late, I had been posting at 7:10 a.m. because Google is on Pacific Time, and so this is really 10:10 EDT. However, it still shows up on the blog in Pacific time. So, I am going to start posting at 10:10 a.m. Pacific time, intending this to be 10:10 Eastern time. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom. But I am not going back and changing all the 7:10 a.m. times. But I will run this note for a while. Mom, you know that I am posting at 10:10 a.m. often because this is the time of your death.





+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2608.27 - 13:40

- Days ago: MOM = 4074 days ago & DAD = 729 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.

A Sense of Doubt blog post #4209 - Writing as Off-Loading - Writing Wednesday for 2608.26

A Sense of Doubt blog post #4209 - Writing as Off-Loading - Writing Wednesday for 2608.26

Today's writing topic comes from a post in the creative writing class that I am teaching.

A student wrote: 

“Your first question stuck out to me the most because I think that the thing that possesses people to write anything is probably because it is a way to help clear their minds of thoughts and ideas.”

And I responded:

EXACTLY!

You just gave me to topic of next Wednesdays Writing post for my blog. OFFLOADING.

Writers write. That’s really the crux of this topic. If you are a writer, then you write. It’s just what you do. You have to.

However, writers do not just write with pen and paper or keyboards. Writers write in their heads. This is especially true for speculative writers (science fiction, fantasy) because there’s so much world building involved. But it’s also true of all fiction and even non-fiction writers. If you’re thinking about your writing, working out things in your head, you will have to write down these things or they will be lost.

I know there are things I concocted in my head that I have lost. I know I had good ideas for my current project that I didn’t record quickly enough, and they leaked away.

I love that you called it a “need not to keep things bottled up.”

Oh yes!

And we spin out on ideas. I find that even if I get an idea written down, it doesn’t mean I am not turning and tossing it in my head, what I would take as your “all they think about.”

***

I have often written about writing being about momentum. But it's also about imagination and the act of making decisions, the act of concocting story ideas, the growing from seeds of story elements.

When I am writing and have momentum, I am thinking about my writing project[s] often. I am mulling decisions. I am writing dialogue in my head. I am constructing all kinds of things that need to be thought through. At some point, these ideas have to be off loaded or they will fade away.

But when I am not writing, the idea factory can go fallow, the well dries up, and then I am not thinking about the work, not concocting the magic potions.

I like building up the storehouse of material that must be off-loaded at some point.

Thanks for tuning in.

Below is what Gemini produced about offloading, which it further defined as "cognitive offloading."

***

Writing as cognitive offloading means using physical or digital writing to store thoughts outside your mind, which reduces the strain on your brain's working memory. [1, 2]

What is Working Memory?

Working memory is your brain's temporary storage space. It holds a small amount of information in your mind for immediate use. However, it has strict limits on how much it can hold at once. [2]

How Writing Relieves the Brain

When you write down notes, tasks, or ideas, you perform an external action that unloads mental effort.

• Frees up space: Putting words on paper clears your active thoughts so you can focus on deeper analysis.
• Improves recall: Writing helps you digest ideas and process information better than just thinking about it internally.
• Reduces stress: Jotting down tomorrow's tasks on a sticky note stops your brain from constantly trying to remember them. [3, 4, 5, 6]

From Paper to Modern Tools

Humans have used offloading tools for centuries.

• Traditional writing: Pen and paper act as basic external storage.
• Digital notes: Apps and reminders let you save details instantly. You can explore more visual breakdowns on platforms like Sketchplanations.
• AI assistance: While modern AI tools also offload tasks, relying on them too much can reduce active learning compared to writing things out yourself. [3, 5]

Would you like to explore how to balance digital note-taking with handwriting, or learn more about the risks of AI in cognitive offloading?

AI responses may include mistakes.

[1] https://thatjournalingguy.substack.com/p/cognitive-offloading-why-stationery

[2] https://evidencebased.education/resource/cognitive-offloading-what-is-it-and-why-is-it-important-2/

[3] https://sketchplanations.com/cognitive-offloading

[4] https://paulgp.substack.com/p/writing-and-thinking-with-ai-assistance

[5] https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nicholasxthompson_the-most-interesting-thing-in-tech-a-new-activity-7341942450942296064-pIAK

[6] https://www.instagram.com/reel/DDXWWiuJD0f/?hl=en

[7] https://thedailytexan.com/2025/07/13/cognitive-offloading-why-do-more-when-you-could-do-less/

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2608.26 - 10:10

- Days ago: MOM = 4073 days ago & DAD = 727 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.

A Sense of Doubt blog post #4208 - Is Time a Fundamental Part of Reality? A Quiet Revolution in Physics Suggests Not

A Sense of Doubt blog post #4208 - Is Time a Fundamental Part of Reality? A Quiet Revolution in Physics Suggests Not

The universe does not simply exist in time. Time is something the universe continuously writes into itself.


A share for today.

Remember my blog is really MY STUDY.

I am doing research in quantum physics, especially quantum computing. Time is integral to it all.

This is a GREAT article.

Thanks for tuning in!


https://www.space.com/science/particle-physics/is-time-a-fundamental-part-of-reality-a-quiet-revolution-in-physics-suggests-not

Is time a fundamental part of reality? A quiet revolution in physics suggests not

News

By Florian Neukart

Published February 22, 2026

It feels so obvious that time moves forward that questioning it can seem almost pointless.

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Time feels like the most basic feature of reality. Seconds tick, days pass and everything from planetary motion to human memory seems to unfold along a single, irreversible direction. We are born and we die, in exactly that order. We plan our lives around time, measure it obsessively and experience it as an unbroken flow from past to future. It feels so obvious that time moves forward that questioning it can seem almost pointless.

And yet, for more than a century, physics has struggled to say what time actually is. This struggle is not philosophical nitpicking. It sits at the heart of some of the deepest problems in science.

Modern physics relies on different, but equally important, frameworks. One is Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, which describes the gravity and motion of large objects such as planets. Another is quantum mechanics, which rules the microcosmos of atoms and particles. And on an even larger scale, the standard model of cosmology describes the birth and evolution of the universe as a whole. All rely on time, yet they treat it in incompatible ways.

When physicists try to combine these theories into a single framework, time often behaves in unexpected and troubling ways. Sometimes it stretches. Sometimes it slows. Sometimes it disappears entirely.

Einstein's theory of relativity was, in fact, the first major blow to our everyday intuition about time. Time, Einstein showed, is not universal. It runs at different speeds depending on gravity and motion. Two observers moving relative to one another will disagree about which events happened at the same time. Time became something elastic, woven together with space into a four-dimensional fabric called spacetime.

Quantum mechanics made things even stranger. In quantum theory, time is not something the theory explains. It is simply assumed. The equations of quantum mechanics describe how systems evolve with respect to time, but time itself remains an external parameter, a background clock that sits outside the theory.

This mismatch becomes acute when physicists try to describe gravity at the quantum level, which is crucial for developing the much coveted theory of everything – which links the main fundamental theories. But in many attempts to create such a theory, time vanishes as a parameter from the fundamental equations altogether. The universe appears frozen, described by equations that make no reference to change.

This puzzle is known as the problem of time, and it remains one of the most persistent obstacles to a unified theory of physics. Despite enormous progress in cosmology and particle physics, we still lack a clear explanation for why time flows at all.

Now a relatively new approach to physics, building on a mathematical framework called information theory, developed by Claude Shannon in the 1940s, has started coming up with surprising answers.

The fabric of spacetime can be warped by gravity, according to Einstein's Theory of General Relativity. (Image credit: Science@NASA)

Entropy and the arrow of time

When physicists try to explain the direction of time, they often turn to a concept called entropy. The second law of thermodynamics states that disorder tends to increase. A glass can fall and shatter into a mess, but the shards never spontaneously leap back together. This asymmetry between past and future is often identified with the arrow of time.

This idea has been enormously influential. It explains why many processes are irreversible, including why we remember the past but not the future. If the universe started in a state of low entropy, and is getting messier as it evolves, that appears to explain why time moves forward. But entropy does not fully solve the problem of time.

For one thing, the fundamental quantum mechanical equations of physics do not distinguish between past and future. The arrow of time emerges only when we consider large numbers of particles and statistical behaviour. This also raises a deeper question: why did the universe start in such a low-entropy state to begin with? Statistically, there are more ways for a universe to have high entropy than low entropy, just as there are more ways for a room to be messy than tidy. So why would it start in a state that is so improbable?

The information revolution

Over the past few decades, a quiet but far-reaching revolution has taken place in physics. Information, once treated as an abstract bookkeeping tool used to track states or probabilities, has increasingly been recognised as a physical quantity in its own right, just like matter or radiation. While entropy measures how many microscopic states are possible, information measures how physical interactions limit and record those possibilities.

This shift did not happen overnight. It emerged gradually, driven by puzzles at the intersection of thermodynamics, quantum mechanics and gravity, where treating information as merely mathematical began to produce contradictions.

One of the earliest cracks appeared in black hole physics. When Stephen Hawking showed that black holes emit thermal radiation, it raised a disturbing possibility: information about whatever falls into a black hole might be permanently lost as heat. That conclusion conflicted with quantum mechanics, which demands that the entirety of information be preserved.

Resolving this tension forced physicists to confront a deeper truth. Information is not optional. If we want a full description of the universe that includes quantum mechanics, information cannot simply disappear without undermining the foundations of physics. This realisation had profound consequences. It became clear that information has thermodynamic cost, that erasing it dissipates energy, and that storing it requires physical resources.

In parallel, surprising connections emerged between gravity and thermodynamics. It was shown that Einstein's equations can be derived from thermodynamic principles that link spacetime geometry directly to entropy and information. In this view, gravity doesn't behave exactly like a fundamental force.

Instead, gravity appears to be what physicists call "emergen" – a phenomenon describing something that's greater than the sum of its parts, arising from more fundamental constituents. Take temperature. We can all feel it, but on a fundamental level, a single particle can't have temperature. It's not a fundamental feature. Instead it only emerges as a result of many molecules moving collectively.

Similarly, gravity can be described as an emergent phenomenon, arising from statistical processes. Some physicists have even suggested that gravity itself may emerge from information, reflecting how information is distributed, encoded and processed.

These ideas invite a radical shift in perspective. Instead of treating spacetime as primary, and information as something that lives inside it, information may be the more fundamental ingredient from which spacetime itself emerges. Building on this research, my colleagues and I have explored a framework in which spacetime itself acts as a storage medium for information – and it has important consequences for how we view time.

In this approach, spacetime is not perfectly smooth, as relativity suggests, but composed of discrete elements, each with a finite capacity to record quantum information from passing particles and fields. These elements are not bits in the digital sense, but physical carriers of quantum information, capable of retaining memory of past interactions.

A useful way to picture them is to think of spacetime like a material made of tiny, memory-bearing cells. Just as a crystal lattice can store defects that appeared earlier in time, these microscopic spacetime elements can retain traces of the interactions that have passed through them. They are not particles in the usual sense described by the standard model of particle physics, but a more fundamental layer of physical structure that particle physics operates on rather than explains.

This has an important implication. If spacetime records information, then its present state reflects not only what exists now, but everything that has happened before. Regions that have experienced more interactions carry a different imprint of information than regions that have experienced fewer. The universe, in this view, does not merely evolve according to timeless laws applied to changing states. It remembers.

Scientists created a state of matter known as a time crystal, which seems to suspend the law of conservation of energy. (Image credit: E. Edwards/JQI)

A recording cosmos

This memory is not metaphorical. Every physical interaction leaves an informational trace. Although the basic equations of quantum mechanics can be run forwards or backwards in time, real interactions never happen in isolation. They inevitably involve surroundings, leak information outward and leave lasting records of what has occurred. Once this information has spread into the wider environment, recovering it would require undoing not just a single event, but every physical change it caused along the way. In practice, that is impossible.

This is why information cannot be erased and broken cups do not reassemble. But the implication runs deeper. Each interaction writes something permanent into the structure of the universe, whether at the scale of atoms colliding or galaxies forming.

Geometry and information turn out to be deeply connected in this view. In our work, we have showed that how spacetime curves depends not only on mass and energy, as Einstein taught us, but also on how quantum information, particularly entanglement, is distributed. Entanglement is a quantum process that mysteriously links particles in distant regions of space – it enables them to share information despite the distance. And these informational links contribute to the effective geometry experienced by matter and radiation.

From this perspective, spacetime geometry is not just a response to what exists at a given moment, but to what has happened. Regions that have recorded many interactions tend, on average, to behave as if they curve more strongly, have stronger gravity, than regions that have recorded fewer.

This reframing subtly changes the role of spacetime. Instead of being a neutral arena in which events unfold, spacetime becomes an active participant. It stores information, constrains future dynamics and shapes how new interactions can occur. This naturally raises a deeper question. If spacetime records information, could time emerge from this recording process rather than being assumed from the start?

Time arising from information

Recently, we extended this informational perspective to time itself. Rather than treating time as a fundamental background parameter, we showed that temporal order emerges from irreversible information imprinting. In this view, time is not something added to physics by hand. It arises because information is written in physical processes and, under the known laws of thermodynamics and quantum physics, cannot be globally unwritten again. The idea is simple but far-reaching.

Every interaction, such as two particles crashing, writes information into the universe. These imprints accumulate. Because they cannot be erased, they define a natural ordering of events. Earlier states are those with fewer informational records. Later states are those with more.

Quantum equations do not prefer a direction of time, but the process of information spreading does. Once information has been spread out, there is no physical path back to a state in which it was localised. Temporal order is therefore anchored in this irreversibility, not in the equations themselves.

Time, in this view, is not something that exists independently of physical processes. It is the cumulative record of what has happened. Each interaction adds a new entry, and the arrow of time reflects the fact that this record only grows.

The future differs from the past because the universe contains more information about the past than it ever can about the future. This explains why time has a direction without relying on special, low-entropy initial conditions or purely statistical arguments. As long as interactions occur and information is irreversibly recorded, time advances.

Interestingly, this accumulated imprint of information may have observable consequences. At galactic scales, the residual information imprint behaves like an additional gravitational component, shaping how galaxies rotate without invoking new particles. Indeed, the unknown substance called dark matter was introduced to explain why galaxies and galaxy clusters rotate faster than their visible mass alone would allow.

In the informational picture, this extra gravitational pull does not come from invisible dark matter, but from the fact that spacetime itself has recorded a long history of interactions. Regions that have accumulated more informational imprints respond more strongly to motion and curvature, effectively boosting their gravity. Stars orbit faster not because more mass is present, but because the spacetime they move through carries a heavier informational memory of past interactions.

From this viewpoint, dark matter, dark energy and the arrow of time may all arise from a single underlying process: the irreversible accumulation of information.

Galaxies rotate faster than they should. (Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA)

Testing time

But could we ever test this theory? Ideas about time are often accused of being philosophical rather than scientific. Because time is so deeply woven into how we describe change, it is easy to assume that any attempt to rethink it must remain abstract. An informational approach, however, makes concrete predictions and connects directly to systems we can observe, model and in some cases experimentally probe.

Black holes provide a natural testing ground, as they seems to suggest information is erased. In the informational framework, this conflict is resolved by recognising that information is not destroyed but imprinted into spacetime before crossing the horizon. The black hole records it.

This has an important implication for time. As matter falls toward a black hole, interactions intensify and information imprinting accelerates. Time continues to advance locally because information continues to be written, even as classical notions of space and time break down near the horizon and appear to slow or freeze for distant observers.

As the black hole evaporates through Hawking radiation, the accumulated informational record does not vanish. Instead, it affects how radiation is emitted. The radiation should carry subtle signs that reflect the black hole's history. In other words, the outgoing radiation is not perfectly random. Its structure is shaped by the information previously recorded in spacetime. Detecting such signs remains beyond current technology, but they provide a clear target for future theoretical and observational work.

The same principles can be explored in much smaller, controlled systems. In laboratory experiments with quantum computers, qubits (the quantum computer equivalent of bits) can be treated as finite-capacity information cells, just like the spacetime ones. Researchers have shown that even when the underlying quantum equations are reversible, the way information is written, spread and retrieved can generate an effective arrow of time in the lab. These experiments allow physicists to test how information storage limits affect reversibility, without needing cosmological or astrophysical systems.

Extensions of the same framework suggest that informational imprinting is not limited to gravity. It may play a role across all fundamental forces of nature, including electromagnetism and the nuclear forces. If this is correct, then time's arrow should ultimately be traceable to how all interactions record information, not just gravitational ones. Testing this would involve looking for limits on reversibility or information recovery across different physical processes.

Taken together, these examples show that informational time is not an abstract reinterpretation. It links black holes, quantum experiments and fundamental interactions through a shared physical mechanism, one that can be explored, constrained and potentially falsified as our experimental reach continues to grow.

What time really is

Ideas about information do not replace relativity or quantum mechanics. In everyday conditions, informational time closely tracks the time measured by clocks. For most practical purposes, the familiar picture of time works extremely well. The difference appears in regimes where conventional descriptions struggle.

Near black hole horizons or during the earliest moments of the universe, the usual notion of time as a smooth, external coordinate becomes ambiguous. Informational time, by contrast, remains well defined as long as interactions occur and information is irreversibly recorded.

All this may leave you wondering what time really is. This shift reframes the longstanding debate. The question is no longer whether time must be assumed as a fundamental ingredient of the universe, but whether it reflects a deeper underlying process.

In this view, the arrow of time can emerge naturally from physical interactions that record information and cannot be undone. Time, then, is not a mysterious background parameter standing apart from physics. It is something the universe generates internally through its own dynamics. It is not ultimately a fundamental part of reality, but emerges from more basic constituents such as information.

Whether this framework turns out to be a final answer or a stepping stone remains to be seen. Like many ideas in fundamental physics, it will stand or fall based on how well it connects theory to observation. But it already suggests a striking change in perspective.

The universe does not simply exist in time. Time is something the universe continuously writes into itself.

Florian Neukart

Assistant professor of Physics, Leiden University

Florian Neukart is widely recognized as a leading figure in high technology, innovation, and future tech. With extensive experience in academia, industry, and consulting, he has established himself as a trusted advisor and practitioner in artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

Time may not be a fundamental piece of the universe, but rather an emergent property born from quantum relationships, entropy, and information. [1, 2]

The Traditional View: Time as Fundamental

• Absolute time: Sir Isaac Newton viewed time as a universal, steady river flowing past us.
• Spacetime: Albert Einstein showed that time is relative and woven together with space into a four-dimensional fabric.
• Most users on Reddit AskPhysics agree that within everyday human experience and general relativity, time functions as an essential, real dimension. [1, 3, 4, 5]

The Modern Challenge: Time as Emergent

• The problem of time: Quantum mechanics treats time as an external background clock rather than explaining what it is. When physicists try to merge quantum theory with gravity, time often disappears entirely from the fundamental equations.
• Emergence from information: New research suggests time is not a basic building block of reality. Instead, it may bubble up from change, quantum entanglement, and the accumulation of irreversible information.
• Entropy and the arrow of time: Our perception of time moving forward is tied to thermodynamics—the way disorder (entropy) naturally increases in our local region of the universe. [6, 9]

Would you like to explore how entropy creates the illusion of a forward-moving timeline, or dive deeper into the block universe theory of relativity?

AI responses may include mistakes.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc7LpJswIZU

[2] https://www.facebook.com/groups/511792402341480/posts/3218238795030147/

[3] https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/time-fundamental-part-reality-quiet-150000429.html

[4] https://www.reddit.com/r/AskPhysics/comments/1m9nuzj/is_time_actually_real_or_just_something_our/

[5] https://www.reddit.com/r/AskPhysics/comments/1m9nuzj/is_time_actually_real_or_just_something_our/

[6] https://theconversation.com/is-time-a-fundamental-part-of-reality-a-quiet-revolution-in-physics-suggests-not-273841

[7] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJvLmKyXcKU

[8] https://phys.org/news/2026-01-fundamental-reality-quiet-revolution-physics.html

[9] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuLaUYQFIwg&vl=en-US

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - date - time

- Days ago: MOM = ## days ago & DAD = ## days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.