Time In A Nutshell

So many recent blogs, and so many new ‘theories’ about Time and what it is or isn’t. Does it exist? If it doesn’t exist, does the Universe exist? Is Time just an illusion, drawn from our perception of the Universe? Lots of mind games here folks, and it is time we found out what is real about Time – or not.

Here is a LINK to perhaps the best of these blogs. Even the comments here are good.

A few enlightened individuals of Physics postulate that Time may not be real, but rather only a perception, an artificial by-product of the existence of Space, Matter and Energy (which we call Nature, or the Universe), and of our need to measure it all.

Nature is fluid. Movement occurs. Processes take place. There is sequence. There is Causation and Effect. Energy is spent, never to be recovered. But there is no Time.

The idea of Time is very real to us, of course. Evidence of it is all around us. Even our science if full of it. But all of that is only the artificial markings of the observance of movements and flows in Nature.

Time is a product of our Human culture which we have invented to mark the passage of events. Clocks are a man-made invention. Before clocks, we only had biological patterns, Seasons, Night and Day, and Circadian Rhythms. Our concept of Time is cradled and embedded in our culture, making it hard for us to see outside of that necessary illusion. But the illusion of Time is a product of the interaction of Matter and Energy – artificial constructs, and have nothing to do with what is Real.

What we call the Passage of Time is actually the Second Law of Thermodynamics in action, where everything is slowly winding down to Entropy.

Therefore, there is no Time in Nature. There is only Entropy. Time does not even have an arrow or direction (since it doesn’t exist), but rather, Everything we see must run downhill from our place, from our point of existence in the Universe. Time is just our convenient invention to mark its passing.

This is true for two reasons:

First, Entropy has only one direction. If Time really existed beyond our ability to measure sequence, we could find a way to reverse that direction. As I said, Time is an invention, a convenient way for us to perceive Entropy, and Entropy flows only one way.

Second, Time has no particles or quanta. In Physics, Matter and Energy both have discrete divisors, beyond which nothing exists. Space has quantifiable dimension. Matter has Sub Atomic particles, and Energy has Quanta, and there is nothing smaller than these (that we have yet discovered). No one has ever discovered a Quanta of Time, no matter how small he divides the sequence he is observing (and all his measurements are artificial).

Time has no minute measurement, beyond which a ‘Gap’ can be perceived. There is no digital instant, which can be discernable from the next, like frames of a film. People have looked long and hard for such a Gap. Take the example of a tire on a car. There is no way to measure the distinction (the moment) between that tire being at rest, and the very first movement of it. Time is a fluid thing, and has no analog to either Matter or Energy.

So the Passage of Time can only be a perceived artificial measurement of Matter, Energy and Space. Take those three things away, and there is no Entropy – and therefore no Time (measurement) either. Nor would Man be around to measure sequences anyway.

I cannot tell you how unsettling all this is to some people. Their view of this (and us) is scandalous, at the least. We might as well be saying there is no Global Warming.

And we haven’t even begun to talk about our mind and its own perception of Time, where sometimes it seems to pass very slowly, and other times it passes very quickly. The blog I referenced at the beginning is good for that.

But, to a more pressing question: Could there ever be a Time Machine, if Time does not really exist?

Sure. Just build a Trans-Luminal Ship, and you can go anywhere where there exists Matter, Energy and Space. By jockeying the mathematics you employ to fly outside of Reality, you can as easily travel Elsewhen, as well as Elsewhere. What is not apparent, from our rather fixed point of view in the Universe, is whether is it possible to travel to a future position, or state, of the Universe which has not yet occurred.

As I said, Time is a contrivance of Man. It does not exist in Nature. There is only Matter, Energy, and the Space they create for them to exist, along with Entropy which follows. Perhaps that greatest of all Illusions, the Grand Unified Field Theory, which everyone seems to be looking for, might be a lot easier to find if they would simply remove the artificial dimension of Time from their equations.

(BTW, I am not at all the only one who has thought of this. Here is a link to a man who has similar thoughts about the illusion of Time.)

It is high time we get a clue about Time and what it really isn’t, IMO. =)

Regards,
Roger Born
“Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana”

“Your mileage may vary”

“Film at 11”

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