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'{{Article issues | fancruft = June 2009 | peacock = June 2009 | primarysources = June 2009 }} {{Incoherent}} {{Missing information|How Whitehead's subjective and unquantifiable concept relates to McKenna's graphable (and thus quantifiable) measure — or what it is exactly that McKenna is measuring. Also missing is any expert (e.g. scientific, mathematical, philosophical, sociological) analysis or discussion of McKenna's claims|date=July 2009}} [[Image:Timewave 9 11 2001.png|thumb|A screenshot of the ''Timewave Zero'' software.]] '''Timewave Zero''', also known as '''Novelty Theory''', is a pseudoscientific theory that purports to calculate the ebb and flow of "[[novelty]]" in the [[universe]] as an inherent quality of time. It is an idea conceived of and discussed at length by [[psychonaut]] philosopher [[Terence McKenna]] from the early 1970s until his death in the year 2000.{{Citation needed|date=July 2009}} The early 20th-century philosopher [[Alfred North Whitehead]] had defined this concept as an increase in the universe's intuitively perceived interconnectedness<ref>{{cite book|last=Cunningham|first=Eric |title=Hallucinating the End of History (Studies in Intellectual History) |publisher=Academica Press,LLC |date=May 28, 2007|isbn=1933146281|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=3tkQAQAAIAAJ}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Jestice|first= Phyllis G. |title=Holy people of the world - A Cross-Cultural Encyclopedia |publisher=ABC-CLIO|date=2004|pages=568|isbn=1576073556|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=H5cQH17-HnMC&pg=PA568&dq=philosophy+timewave+McKenna&ei=ErI7StztN5C8M7DN9bgF}}</ref>. According to McKenna, when "novelty" is graphed over time, a [[fractal]] waveform{{Clarify|date=July 2009}} known as ''timewave zero'' or simply the ''timewave'' results. The graph shows at what times, but never at what locations, novelty is supposedly increasing or decreasing over any span of time from a few days to tens of millennia<ref>McKenna, Terence. [http://www.drugnerd.com/archives/5/approaching-timewave-zero-by-terence-mckenna/ Approaching Timewave Zero]. Magical Blend Magazine, Issue 44 (November 1994)</ref>. McKenna claimed that the basic struggle of the Universe is not one between good and evil but between habit and novelty<ref>{{cite book|last=Horgan |first=John |title=Rational Mysticism: Dispatches from the Border Between Science and Spirituality |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|date=2004 |pages=186|isbn=061844663X|url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=7dYV9UJszlUC&pg=PA186&dq=McKenna++Novelty+Theory&ei=PPQoSuWeE42ozQTlv7DkCg}}</ref><ref name="Art Bell Show">[http://deoxy.org/tmab_4-1-99.htm Terence McKenna on Art Bell Show], 4/01/1999.</ref>. == Timewave == According to McKenna, the timewave itself is a complex mathematical formula derived from his interpretation and analysis of numerical patterns in the [[King Wen sequence]] of the [[I Ching]] (the ancient Chinese ''Book of Changes'').<ref>{{cite book|last=McKenna |first=Terence |coauthors=McKenna, Dennis |title=The Invisible Landscape: Mind, Hallucinogens, and the I Ching|publisher=HarperCollins |date=1975|isbn= 0816492492}}</ref>{{Clarify|date=July 2009}} McKenna interpreted the apparently fractal nature and resonances of the wave, as well as his theory of the I Ching's configuration, to show that the events of any given time are [[recursion|recursively]] related to the events of other times.<ref>{{cite book|last=St. John|first= Graham|title=Rave culture and religion |publisher=Routledge|date=2004 |pages=214|isbn=0415314496|url=http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=tv7t7YbFM-UC&oi=fnd&pg=RA1-PA213&dq=Terence+McKenna+timewave&ots=wGrVJvMhFT&sig=jSyxfuikKmNQqG0YS0t2j8FBkww#PRA1-PA214,M1}}</ref> On this basis, McKenna originally chose the date of ultimate singularity—[[2012 doomsday prediction|December 21, 2012]]—by looking for a particularly "novel" event in recent history, and using this as the beginning of what he conceived to be a final 67.29 year cycle; the event he chose was the [[Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|atomic bombing of Hiroshima]], which gave an end-date in mid-November of 2012, but when he discovered the proximity of this date to the end of the current 13-[[baktun]] cycle of the [[Mayan calendar]] on 21 December 2012, he adjusted the end date to fit.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ralph-abraham.org/talks/transcripts/index.1980s.html|title=Transcripts of Talks by Ralph H. Abraham, 1980-1989 1983#5, Dynamics of Hyperspace |date=June, 1983 |work=Butterfly Productions Santa Cruz, CA, |publisher=Ralph H. Abraham,|accessdate=2009-05-29}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hermetic.ch/frt/zerodate.html|title=The Zero Date |last=Meyer |first=Peter |date=1999, slightly modified 2006|publisher=Hermetic Systems — PC Software for Intelligent People|accessdate=2009-05-29}}</ref> == Summary == According to McKenna: * A [[binding energy|bound system]] has a lower [[potential energy]] than its constituent parts; that is why the universe is evolving toward infinite interconnectedness—[[nonlocality]].<ref>[http://timewave.wordpress.com/2007/12/26/terrence-mckenna-timewave-zero-2012/ Terence McKenna's article in Magical Blend Magazine], Issue 44, November 1994. ''"... you know the marble will roll down the side of the bowl—down, down, down—until eventually it comes to rest at the lowest energy state, which is the bottom of the bowl. That’s precisely my model of human history."''</ref>{{Clarify|date=July 2009}}<!-- no credible relationship between "bound system" & "infinite interconnectedness" has been established -->{{Failed verification|date=July 2009}}<!-- No indication that this statement bears any relationship to either the quote or the cited reference --> * The main attributes of the overt macroscopic [[nonlocality]] are psychokinesis,{{Citation needed|date=July 2009}} teleportation,{{Citation needed|date=July 2009}} and time travel.<ref>[http://www.miqel.com/entheogens/terrence_mckenna_interview_1.html Terence McKenna, interviewed on the Art Bell Show], 1997-05-22. ''"... in 2012 time ceases to be linear. And that must mean that because a technology is created which causes time to lose its linear and serial quality, and that could only be time travel."''</ref> ==Objections== * McKenna arrived at the concept of timewave through use of [[Dimethyltryptamine]], not by rational enquiry.<ref name="Indy">{{cite news|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/event-the-incident-ica-london-1358925.html|title=EVENT The Incident ICA, London |last=Palmer|first=Judith|date=18 October 1996|publisher=[[The Independent]]|accessdate=2009-05-29}}</ref> * Its basic ideas are derived from the Chinese ''I Ching'', which is not a scientific text, but an oracular tool based on Chinese philosophy and closely associated with magic.{{Citation needed|date=July 2009}} * As the theory was never published in a peer-reviewed journal and McKenna's sources and reasoning were primarily what would be considered [[numerology|numerological]] rather than [[mathematics|mathematical]] by professional mathematicians and scientists, the theory has failed to gain any scientific credibility or much recognition.{{Citation needed|date=July 2009}} == See also == * [[Technological singularity]] * [[Biocosm]] * [[Noosphere]] * [[Omega Point]] * [[2012 doomsday prediction]] ==References== <references /> ==External links== * [http://web.archive.org/web/19990128030558/www.levity.com/eschaton/tm.html Terence McKenna's website] as of 8 May 1999 * [http://www.hermetic.ch/frt/frt.htm Peter Meyer's website for the Fractal Time software] * [http://www.fourmilab.ch/rpkp/autopsy.html The Watkins Objection] * [http://deoxy.org/mckenna.htm#tz Timewave links] * [http://sound.photosynthesis.com/Terence_Mckenna.html Video of McKenna discussing his theory is available from Sound Photosynthesis] * [http://www.johnsheliak.com/SubSpace_Bridge_Domain/Sheliak_Formalization.pdf Sheliak Mathematical Re-Examination] * [http://fixunix.com/ms-dos/22736-compiling-timewave-zero-exe.html Purported Source Code in C] {{DEFAULTSORT:Timewave Zero}} [[Category:Pseudophysics]] [[Category:Pseudoscience]] [[Category:Eschatology]] [[Category:Numerology]] [[hr:Teorija noviteta]]'