User:Lumos3/Timewave Notes

Timewave Zero, also known as Novelty Theory, is a quasi magical model of human history 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.

According to McKenna, when "novelty" is graphed over time, a fractal waveform, that is a wave which is self similar in shape on whatever scale it is viewed; known as timewave zero or simply the timewave results. The graph supposedly shows at what times novelty is increasing or decreasing over any span of time from a few days to tens of millennia.

McKenna claimed that the basic struggle of the Universe is not one between good and evil but between habit and novelty.

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). 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 recursively related to the events of other times.

On this basis, McKenna originally chose the date of ultimate singularity—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 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.

Summary
According to McKenna:
 * The universe evolves toward the lowest potential energy.
 * The end state of the universe is characterised by infinite interconnectedness.
 * The laws of physics will be obviated and the universe as we know it will disappear around 2012 AD.
 * The consequences of these predictions will include the ability to re-materialise ("resurrect") objects that previously existed, immortality, psychokinesis, teleportation, and time travel.

Objections

 * McKenna arrived at the concept of timewave through use of Dimethyltryptamine, not by rational enquiry.
 * 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.
 * As the theory was never published in a peer-reviewed journal and McKenna's sources and reasoning were primarily what would be considered numerological rather than mathematical by professional mathematicians and scientists, the theory has failed to gain any scientific credibility or much recognition.

Additional sources
Google Books turns up a book by from User Uncle G

Graham St. John, Postdoctoral Research Fellow the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies at the University of Queensland, which addresses McKenna's Novelty Theory and Timewave Zero on pages 214–218.

The Mystery of 2012: Predictions, Prophecies and Possibilities by Gregg Braden, Peter Russell, Geoff Stray, and John Major Jenkins (Hardcover - 24 April 2008) ISBN 9781591796114 pages 20–21 and 309 discusses McKenna's theory and xyr slide-the-date-up-and-down methodology, and, amusingly, gives two different dates for what McKenna claimed to be the zero point.

Daniel Wojcik, Associate Professor of English and Folklore Studies at the University of Oregon, deals with the subject on page 293 of ISBN 9780415263245.

Daniel Wojcik (2003) Apocalyptic and millennarian aspects of American UFOism. In UFO religions Editor: Christopher Partridge. Routledge, London. 274-300 (of 383) pages; ISBN: 0415263239. Wojcik summarizes McKenna’s view of UFOs as foreshadowing our encounter with the Eschaton, referring to chapters in The archaic revival