Time, A Discussion

Apart from gravity, which currently CANNOT be defined at a quantum level which means it can't be a thing (but it is, just not what you think), time is probably one of the last great mysteries of the universe. So much so that we humans can't even agree if time actually exists.

Time, what is it?

Our gut reaction usually says that time is what we measure using clocks as it flies forward like an arrow. Yes, we measure it with clocks, but what IS it that we are measuring. We use scales to measure weight (mass), and we can now say exactly what mass is, but time, what IS it that we're measuring using clocks?

Here's a few quotes to show the differing views of time is, to show that it's truly unknown .. at the moment.

Problem of time

In theoretical physics, the problem of time is a conceptual conflict between general relativity and quantum mechanics in that quantum mechanics regards the flow of time as universal and absolute, whereas general relativity regards the flow of time as malleable and relative. This problem raises the question of what time really is in a physical sense and whether it is truly a real, distinct phenomenon. It also involves the related question of why time seems to flow in a single direction, despite the fact that no known physical laws at the microscopic level seem to require a single direction.

Not a backdrop, an illusion or an emergent phenomenon, time has a physical size that can be measured in laboratories

It is radical because, as we noted, time has never been fundamental in the history of physics. Newton and some quantum physicists view it as a backdrop. Einstein thought it was an illusion. And, in the work of those studying thermodynamics, it’s understood as merely an emergent property. Assembly theory treats time as fundamental and material: time is the stuff out of which things in the Universe are made. Objects created by selection and evolution can be formed only through the passing of time. But don’t think about this time like the measured ticking of a clock or a sequence of calendar years. Time is a physical attribute. Think about it in terms of Assembly, a measurable intrinsic property of a molecule’s depth or size in time.

 

Scientists Break the Direction of Time Down to the Cellular Level in Mind-Bending Study

The researchers found that the interactions between simple pairs of neurons primarily determined the arrow of time, no matter which movie the salamanders watched. In fact, the authors found a stronger arrow of time for the neurons when salamanders watched the video with the gray screen and black bar—in other words, the video without an arrow of time in its content elicited a greater arrow of time in the neurons.

The Illusion of Time: What's Real?

"Isaac Newton," Barbour noted, "insisted that even if absolutely nothing at all happened, time would be passing, and that I believe is completely wrong."

To Barbour, change is real, but time is not. Time is only a reflection of change. From change, our brains construct a sense of time as if it were flowing. As he puts it, all the "evidence we have for time is encoded in static configurations, which we see or experience subjectively, all of them fitting together to make time seem linear."

 

Time might not exist, according to physicists and philosophers – but that’s okay

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.

See also The Order of Time book by Carlo Rovelli.

Our perception and use of time

Whatever time actually is or isn't we experience something that feels like a movement from then to now and into a thing we call future. Here's a few more articles and quotes for you to ponder ...

Time’s Secrets Unveiled: Study Challenges How We Perceive Time

Our perception of time is influenced not by an internal clock, but by the number and nature of experiences we undergo.

Why Does Time Move Faster as We Get Older?

As we get older, our brains aren't wired to take in as many things from the outside world, or to learn in the same way. Therefore, three years ago can feel like yesterday: not much has changed in our brain, our perception, or our lived experience.

1. Switch up your routine.

2. Attend to the little things.

3. Be grateful for the consistency.

An end-of-life doula’s advice on how to make the most of your time on earth

Think of it as a looking-back-from-your-imagined-deathbed approach to living — which sounds morbid in theory but is empowering and enriching in reality.

- Imagine you have three months to live

- Practice deep, active listening

- Legacy projects in the here and now

("doula"; a non-medical professional who supports another person through a significant health-related experience, giving birth, abortion, dying etc)

The Ecstasy of Eternity: Richard Jefferies on Time and Self-Transcendence

After interviewing thousands of people about their peak experiences, Maslow uncovered the core common denominator — a profound sense that the universe is a harmonious totality to which one belongs and of which one is an indelible part, as essential to the integrated whole as any other, existing outside time.

Doing Essential Things Makes Time For Everything Else

It turns out, not doing their art was costing them time, was draining it away, little by little, like a slow but steady leak. They had assumed, wrongly, that there wasn’t enough time in the day to do their art, because they assumed (because we’re conditioned to assume) that every thing we do costs time. But that math doesn’t take energy into account, doesn’t grok that doing things that energize you gives you time back. By doing their art, a whole lot of time suddenly returned. Their art didn’t need more time; their time needed their art.

In Search of Lost Time

And finally, as we do measure time and increasingly with our Internet connected devices, let's find out how ... but be aware:

“What we think about time,” as the NIST book From Sundials to Atomic Clocks puts it, “is less important to defining it than how we measure it.” I had come looking for certainty, but I kept finding its opposite. “In metrology,” Chao told me, “the name of the game is, at the end of the day, what’s your uncertainty?”