Every day we experience and observe motion. We
see objects move from one place to another; time appears to flow smoothly from past to present to future. Action appears
to happen smoothly and continuously -- an appearance
that has been accepted a priori, by philosophers and
scientists since the beginning of civilization.
But what
if this fundamental assumption about motion is wrong? What
if our senses have been tricked? A movie film rolls at 24 frames
per second, and the motion we perceive on the screen appears perfectly smooth
and continuous. But the film is actually countless still images
moving past our eyes faster than we can process them as separate entities. What
if each state of reality, each perfectly defined and discrete
moment of time, is affecting us similarly?
Throughout history, the nature of motion has remained abstract and undefinable—its definition lacking scientific or philosophical consensus. Science well understands the dynamics, or the effects, of motion but do we understand the "how and why" of motion at a fundamental level; that is, the underlying mechanics of motion?
The paradox of continuity in time and motion
Remarkably, the concept of continuous motion has never been proven as a scientific fact.
Serious
problems, or paradoxes, around continuous motion
have been documented for centuries. Two
thousand years ago the philosopher Zeno of Elea questioned
why things move when, logically, they should not. His paradoxes
challenge logic and science to this day.
As a scientist and logistician, Wilfrid Boisvert could not accept the premise that nature creates paradoxes. If nature appears paradoxical
it must be that we do not understand some very fundamental principle
of reality -- in this case the true nature of time, space and motion.
Wilfrid
and Adrien (Wilfrid's son) Boisvert spent over 30 years of
their lives developing and refining the photographic techniques
behind the photos in these books and website. They are only a small sampling of the hundreds of similar photos he took over the years. This website describes the relatively simple techniques he used to capture the images. The implications of this discovery are fully developed and presented in Boisvert's philosophical treatise, The Principles of Reality.
However these photos reveal the first
real evidence that motion may be discontinuous and instantaneous, and that things may not be what we have been led to believe.
