Temporal dimension over Galois fields of characteristic two

This paper highlights the most remarkable properties of pencil-generated temporal dimensions over Galois fields of even characteristic (GF(2(n))). It is shown that in the field of real numbers the ordinary arrow of time emerges in GF(2(n)) either as a peculiar temporal arrow featuring the domains of the past and future, but lacking the moment of the present, or as an observable spatial dimension. In order to understand these peculiarities more fully a quite detailed account is presented of the properties of a point-conic in projective planes over Galois fields of both even and odd order. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.