Posted on 04/25/2022 7:54:20 AM PDT by Red Badger
Does time exist? The answer to this question may seem obvious: Of course it does! Just look at a calendar or a clock.
But developments in physics suggest the non-existence of time is an open possibility, and one that we should take seriously.
How can that be, and what would it mean? It'll take a little while to explain, but don't worry: Even if time doesn't exist, our lives will go on as usual.
A crisis in physics Physics is in crisis. For the past century or so, we have explained the Universe with two wildly successful physical theories: general relativity and quantum mechanics.
Quantum mechanics describes how things work in the incredibly tiny world of particles and particle interactions. General relativity describes the big picture of gravity and how objects move.
Both theories work extremely well in their own right, but the two are thought to conflict with one another. Though the exact nature of the conflict is controversial, scientists generally agree both theories need to be replaced with a new, more general theory.
Physicists want to produce a theory of "quantum gravity" that replaces general relativity and quantum mechanics, while capturing the extraordinary success of both. Such a theory would explain how gravity's big picture works at the miniature scale of particles.
Time in quantum gravity It turns out that producing a theory of quantum gravity is extraordinarily difficult.
One attempt to overcome the conflict between the two theories is string theory. String theory replaces particles with strings vibrating in as many as 11 dimensions.
However, string theory faces a further difficulty. String theories provide a range of models that describe a Universe broadly like our own, and they don't really make any clear predictions that can be tested by experiments to figure out which model is the right one.
In the 1980s and 1990s, many physicists became dissatisfied with string theory and came up with a range of new mathematical approaches to quantum gravity.
One of the most prominent of these is loop quantum gravity, which proposes that the fabric of space and time is made of a network of extremely small discrete chunks, or "loops".
One of the remarkable aspects of loop quantum gravity is that it appears to eliminate time entirely.
Loop quantum gravity is not alone in abolishing time: A number of other approaches also seem to remove time as a fundamental aspect of reality.
Emergent time So we know we need a new physical theory to explain the Universe, and that this theory might not feature time.
Suppose such a theory turns out to be correct. Would it follow that time does not exist?
It's complicated, and it depends what we mean by exist.
Theories of physics don't include any tables, chairs, or people, and yet we still accept that tables, chairs, and people exist.
Why? Because we assume that such things exist at a higher level than the level described by physics.
We say that tables, for example, "emerge" from an underlying physics of particles whizzing around the Universe.
But while we have a pretty good sense of how a table might be made out of fundamental particles, we have no idea how time might be "made out of" something more fundamental.
So unless we can come up with a good account of how time emerges, it is not clear we can simply assume time exists.
Time might not exist at any level.
Time and agency Saying that time does not exist at any level is like saying that there are no tables at all.
Trying to get by in a world without tables might be tough, but managing in a world without time seems positively disastrous.
Our entire lives are built around time. We plan for the future, in light of what we know about the past. We hold people morally accountable for their past actions, with an eye to reprimanding them later on.
We believe ourselves to be agents (entities that can do things) in part because we can plan to act in a way that will bring about changes in the future.
But what's the point of acting to bring about a change in the future when, in a very real sense, there is no future to act for?
What's the point of punishing someone for a past action, when there is no past and so, apparently, no such action?
The discovery that time does not exist would seem to bring the entire world to a grinding halt. We would have no reason to get out of bed.
Business as usual There is a way out of the mess.
While physics might eliminate time, it seems to leave causation intact: the sense in which one thing can bring about another.
Perhaps what physics is telling us, then, is that causation and not time is the basic feature of our Universe.
If that's right, then agency can still survive. For it is possible to reconstruct a sense of agency entirely in causal terms.
At least, that's what Kristie Miller, Jonathan Tallant, and I argue in our new book.
We suggest the discovery that time does not exist may have no direct impact on our lives, even while it propels physics into a new era. Sam Baron, Associate professor, Australian Catholic University.
As mcclaren states in his commentaries “Deep within the clay housing which envelops us, dwells an Imortal guest, an undying personal self” to which i would add, “which transcends time.”
Our bodies are subject to time, our souls are not. They live outside of time, yet they did have a beginning- however, God zlways knew they would one day exist-
Hard to wrap the mind around the idea of eternity. After a million or a billion or so “years” in eternity, will be be aware that time has gone by? Will,we even be aware of the concept of time in eternitye? What will keep us interested forever and ever? Will anything ever become tiring? If not, why not? Will,everyone be the same “age”?
Time will tell I Guess.
The entire Universe was created just for us to explore and populate.
A billion stars in each of a billion galaxies would take a while to explore...................
You are equating change with time. They are not the same. Time is a construct. Change is the nature of a thing.
We create time out of the revolution of the earth around the sun and a rotation of the earth. It is earth specific. The same period of time does not occur in any other celestial body. Thus, time is a construct of this place in this solar system.
The planet Uranus takes 84 earth years to circumvent the sun. A day is equal to our 17 hours. Time is relative, as such it has no singularity. It is a construct.
AHA!
Time is an absolute if it describes a universal constant. Such a constant is the speed of light. But time ios not derived from the speed of light. Is there another universal constant by which we can delineate time? Is time biological? geological? spatial? To what does time correspond? On what is time based?
I LOVE talking about time. A professor of mine once said, “One cannot think about the problem of time for very long. It will drive you mad!” Madness is my mistress.
I LOVE talking about time. A professor of mine once said, “One cannot think about the problem of time for very long. It will drive you mad!” Madness is my mistress.
EXCELLENT!!
Eternity is not a very long time. Eternity is no time. It is less than an instant, infinitely less.
Change is measured in time. Eternity is not divisible. It has no beginning and no ending.
I love talking about time. Did I say that? When?
Is the last post in a thread the end of time for the thread?
“Time is a construct.”
The language we use to talk about time is a construct, but time itself exists outside of man’s consciousness - just as does space.
Euclidean geometry is a man-made construct we use to describe space, but space exists independently of it.
The Gregorian calendar is a man-made construct we use to describe time, but time exists independently of it.
Time has existed since the beginning of…. …time.
No, this one is.
My only problem is, I cannot remember before I was born. Makes me wonder if I will know anything after death.
Usually 8 or 9 out of 10, but it depends on the woman.
As it is, for us. We just don't know how primitively we are living, compared to those who hail from 14,673 AD.
So, in other words, I’m wasting a lot of nothing. Good to know.
And "jerk" can only be used to describe certain people we may run into.
At least Ethan Krupp could strike a pose.
LOL. So, the derivatives beyond rate of change of acceleration?
After “jerk” comes “snap” then “crackle” then “pop”.
Do you know what time it is?
(Do you do you know?)
Do you know what time it is?
Check the clock!
Mom, get the kids!
Mom, get the kids!
Mom, get the kids!
(knock, knock, knock, knock) Time to go!
(knock, knock, knock, knock) Time to go!
(knock, knock, knock, knock) Time to go!
Is there anybody out there?
Time speeds up when you’re running late and slows down when you’re waiting in line at the Secretary of State’s office or sitting in a dentist chair.
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