THE SINGLE MONAD MODEL · DUALITY OF TIME THEORY
Time and becoming
Inner generation, physical clocks, continuity, recurrence, and the meaning of the present.
Read the agreements, the differences, the calculations, and the questions that move each comparison forward.
Worked examples
Related reading
Source references
Articles in this section
How to read the comparisons →- C001Time and becoming
Inner time and outer time: SMM/DTT and McTaggart’s A-series and B-series
Inner generation is not simply McTaggart’s A-series, and outer observation is not simply his B-series. The A/B distinction classifies ways of ordering or qualifying events; DTT distinguishes the constitution of an event from its completed accessibility. The comparison develops this distinction through a worked example and explains its implications for SMM/DTT’s nested generation, completed records and account of the observable world.
Comparative article · 6 min read - C002Time and becoming
Inner time and outer time: SMM/DTT and Presentism and the growing-block universe
DTT’s completed present can be interpreted in either a presentist or a growing-block direction. If earlier physical configurations are no longer actual and only their current traces remain, renewal resembles presentism. The comparison develops this distinction through a worked example and explains its implications for SMM/DTT’s nested generation, completed records and account of the observable world.
Comparative article · 5 min read - C003Time and becoming
Inner time and outer time: SMM/DTT and Eternalism and the block universe
A block universe can contain an ordered sequence of all completed records, including every observer’s changing knowledge. DTT’s claim that records arise through inner production is therefore not contradicted merely by representing those records as a spacetime whole. The comparison develops this distinction through a worked example and explains its implications for SMM/DTT’s nested generation, completed records and account of the observable world.
Comparative article · 6 min read - C004Time and becoming
Inner time and outer time: SMM/DTT and The thermal-time hypothesis
Thermal time and DTT both challenge the idea that a universal time parameter must be supplied before the physical system is described. The comparison develops this distinction through a worked example and explains its implications for SMM/DTT’s nested generation, completed records and account of the observable world.
Comparative article · 6 min read - C005Time and becoming
Inner time and outer time: SMM/DTT and The two-state vector formalism
DTT’s inner and outer time refer to production and completion; the two-state formalism’s dual description refers to preparation and postselection around an intermediate quantum event. The comparison develops this distinction through a worked example and explains its implications for SMM/DTT’s nested generation, completed records and account of the observable world.
Comparative article · 5 min read - C006Time and becoming
Inner time and outer time: SMM/DTT and Whitehead’s process philosophy
Whitehead’s distinction between an occasion’s becoming and its achieved determination is one of the closest philosophical analogues of inner generation and outer completion. The comparison develops this distinction through a worked example and explains its implications for SMM/DTT’s nested generation, completed records and account of the observable world.
Comparative article · 5 min read - C007Time and becoming
Dual arrows of time: SMM/DTT and McTaggart’s A-series and B-series
McTaggart’s earlier/later relation distinguishes orientation without supplying a physical explanation of an arrow. His tensed ordering concerns passage, whereas DTT’s dual-arrow language can distinguish the functional direction toward completion from the historical direction of retained records. The comparison develops this distinction through a worked example and explains its implications for SMM/DTT’s nested generation, completed records and account of the observable world.
Comparative article · 6 min read - C008Time and becoming
Dual arrows of time: SMM/DTT and Presentism and the growing-block universe
A growing block has an ontological orientation: the domain of existing events increases. Presentism has a privileged present but need not describe the past as an accumulating domain. The comparison develops this distinction through a worked example and explains its implications for SMM/DTT’s nested generation, completed records and account of the observable world.
Comparative article · 5 min read - C009Time and becoming
Dual arrows of time: SMM/DTT and Eternalism and the block universe
Eternalism does not require a thermodynamically symmetric universe. A four-dimensional history can have low-entropy conditions toward one end and records pointing in the corresponding direction. The comparison develops this distinction through a worked example and explains its implications for SMM/DTT’s nested generation, completed records and account of the observable world.
Comparative article · 5 min read - C010Time and becoming
Dual arrows of time: SMM/DTT and The thermal-time hypothesis
Thermal time connects temporal flow to a state, but modular flow is a group of reversible automorphisms. It does not, simply by existing, establish monotonic entropy production. The comparison develops this distinction through a worked example and explains its implications for SMM/DTT’s nested generation, completed records and account of the observable world.
Comparative article · 6 min read - C011Time and becoming
Dual arrows of time: SMM/DTT and The two-state vector formalism
The ABL rule is symmetric in the use of preparation and final selection, while an ordinary laboratory record has an asymmetric history of preparation, interaction and storage. The comparison develops this distinction through a worked example and explains its implications for SMM/DTT’s nested generation, completed records and account of the observable world.
Comparative article · 6 min read - C012Time and becoming
Dual arrows of time: SMM/DTT and Whitehead’s process philosophy
Whitehead’s occasions acquire determinate satisfaction and then contribute to subsequent becoming. This provides a philosophical orientation from inherited conditions to achieved actuality. The comparison develops this distinction through a worked example and explains its implications for SMM/DTT’s nested generation, completed records and account of the observable world.
Comparative article · 5 min read - C013Time and becoming
Discrete moments and continuous experience: SMM/DTT and McTaggart’s A-series and B-series
McTaggart’s argument does not depend on time being continuous. A finite or countably ordered sequence can still be described through earlier/later relations, and its members can still be assigned past, present and future positions. The comparison develops this distinction through a worked example and explains its implications for SMM/DTT’s nested generation, completed records and account of the observable world.
Comparative article · 5 min read - C014Time and becoming
Discrete moments and continuous experience: SMM/DTT and Presentism and the growing-block universe
Discrete presentism could treat only the current completed stage as actual. A discrete growing block could retain all completed stages while adding a new one. The comparison develops this distinction through a worked example and explains its implications for SMM/DTT’s nested generation, completed records and account of the observable world.
Comparative article · 5 min read - C015Time and becoming
Discrete moments and continuous experience: SMM/DTT and Eternalism and the block universe
A block universe can be discrete or continuous. A lattice of events and a smooth manifold are different mathematical structures, but either can be treated as a complete history. The comparison develops this distinction through a worked example and explains its implications for SMM/DTT’s nested generation, completed records and account of the observable world.
Comparative article · 5 min read - C016Time and becoming
Discrete moments and continuous experience: SMM/DTT and The thermal-time hypothesis
Thermal flow is mathematically continuous in its usual modular formulation, whereas a DTT model may begin with discrete completions. A relation between them requires a limit or an embedding, not a verbal identification. The comparison develops this distinction through a worked example and explains its implications for SMM/DTT’s nested generation, completed records and account of the observable world.
Comparative article · 6 min read - C017Time and becoming
Discrete moments and continuous experience: SMM/DTT and The two-state vector formalism
The two-state formalism can be applied to intermediate measurements at a sequence of times, but the existence of those measurement times does not make physical time fundamentally discrete. The comparison develops this distinction through a worked example and explains its implications for SMM/DTT’s nested generation, completed records and account of the observable world.
Comparative article · 5 min read - C018Time and becoming
Discrete moments and continuous experience: SMM/DTT and Whitehead’s process philosophy
Whitehead’s actual occasions are conceptually atomic in their achieved actuality, but their internal becoming should not be equated without argument with uniform physical ticks. The comparison develops this distinction through a worked example and explains its implications for SMM/DTT’s nested generation, completed records and account of the observable world.
Comparative article · 5 min read - C019Time and becoming
Time as generative process: SMM/DTT and McTaggart’s A-series and B-series
McTaggart challenges whether change can be fundamental without a coherent account of tense. DTT responds most interestingly by making time the constitution of records rather than an independently moving container. The comparison develops this distinction through a worked example and explains its implications for SMM/DTT’s nested generation, completed records and account of the observable world.
Comparative article · 5 min read - C020Time and becoming
Time as generative process: SMM/DTT and Presentism and the growing-block universe
Presentism and growing-block theories primarily specify the temporal extent of reality. DTT’s generative programme instead asks how determinate states are produced. The comparison develops this distinction through a worked example and explains its implications for SMM/DTT’s nested generation, completed records and account of the observable world.
Comparative article · 5 min read - C021Time and becoming
Time as generative process: SMM/DTT and Eternalism and the block universe
A generative explanation and a block representation can answer different questions about the same world. A block states which events and relations occur; a constructive theory explains how those relations follow from a smaller set of source rules. The comparison develops this distinction through a worked example and explains its implications for SMM/DTT’s nested generation, completed records and account of the observable world.
Comparative article · 5 min read - C022Time and becoming
Time as generative process: SMM/DTT and The thermal-time hypothesis
Thermal time makes temporal flow dependent on the physical state, whereas SMM/DTT seeks a source process that also produces the states and spatial relations themselves. The comparison develops this distinction through a worked example and explains its implications for SMM/DTT’s nested generation, completed records and account of the observable world.
Comparative article · 6 min read - C023Time and becoming
Time as generative process: SMM/DTT and The two-state vector formalism
The two-state formalism describes quantum events using boundary conditions on both sides of an intermediate measurement. DTT’s generative process is a proposed account of how events and records arise. The comparison develops this distinction through a worked example and explains its implications for SMM/DTT’s nested generation, completed records and account of the observable world.
Comparative article · 5 min read - C024Time and becoming
Time as generative process: SMM/DTT and Whitehead’s process philosophy
Whitehead and DTT both resist treating becoming as a superficial change of properties attached to fully formed static things. For Whitehead, occasions achieve definite actuality through their process; for DTT, inner generation leads to completed observable relations. The comparison develops this distinction through a worked example and explains its implications for SMM/DTT’s nested generation, completed records and account of the observable world.
Comparative article · 5 min read
THE LARGER RESEARCH PROGRAMME
Follow an idea back to its source.
Continue into the books, published papers, worked derivations, and articles that develop the SMM/DTT framework.