The Grand Illusion
Time; unbending, never yielding, ever flowing, constant, yet the harbinger of change. At a fundamental level, time is an enigma of a concept; perhaps because the mind is ill equipped to comprehend it. The human brain, like every other instance of biological life, is a product of evolution; a tool whose utility stems from translating external neural impulse into a visualizable model. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that we are probably not predisposed to understand time as we do other spatially tangible entities, for time is a rather difficult concept to visualize. So what is it then, what is time? However scarcely we understand it, one fact in particular is becoming more and more clear; our perception of time is an illusion!
It is fascinating that we understand so little about an entity so paramount to our existence that we measure it with increasing standards of granularity. Any measurement of time is derived from periodic repetitive motion; we assign the time elapsed within a single cycle of movement, to a unit and measure time with respect to that unit. The earth’s revolution on its axis is the most obvious example; however literally any motion that repeats itself could be used to measure time. The flap of a butterfly’s wings, an object in free fall, etc. could all be potentially used to measure time. However, the obvious issues with these natural movements are their consistency across repetitions, and geography. So we drilled deeper into the building blocks of matter seeking periodically consistent repetitive motion. Today’s official gatekeeper of time is the Caesium atom. When a caesium atom is bombarded with energy it vibrates, emitting a pulse of light for each ‘tick’. The time elapsed between 9,192,631,770 ticks is now what we call a second; quite a specific number one might say! That value was chosen so that the caesium second equalled existing astronomical standards of time. It is an interesting thought that these units of time which govern our entire lives are not really fundamental at all. In fact, as we will see, time is in itself not fundamental.
Until 1916, our understanding of space and time was intrinsically flawed by the assumption that they are fundamental. The inherent flaw becomes apparent when you look at how we measure these quantities, one with respect to the other. We measure space by the distance traversed by light in a given amount of time, and measure time through cycles of movement in space. This syllogism of definitions is transparently circular! While this arrangement works within the context of our daily lives, it does nothing in explaining the nature of these entities. Enter that silver haired, goofy, eccentric genius who changed everything!
Through the theory of relativity Albert Einstein elegantly demonstrated that time and movements through space are incontrovertibly linked. Consider two stationary objects; even though they are not moving through space, they are moving through time. When one of these bodies begins moving towards the other, time moves slower for the object in motion because some of the previous motion through time is now being diverted to motion through space. In the context of our own relative movements on earth, these changes are infinitesimal, though still sufficient to demonstrate experimentally. In 1971, an atomic clock was boarded on an aircraft and flown around the world. Upon completion, the clock’s measurement of the journey was compared to a stationary atomic clock’s measurement; astonishingly they no longer agreed. Though the difference was nothing more than a few hundred billionths of a second, it served as irrevocable proof to the theory of relativity. This revelation paves way for the most mind numbing fact of all – our perceptions of past, present and future may be entirely an illusion!
Consider the concept of ‘now’; common sense dictates that every celestial body’s ‘now’ coincides; i.e., they are all at the same instant of time. However as we have just demonstrated this is not true, time itself differs for each body. This difference is proportional to the relative velocity of the two bodies under consideration and the distance between them. What this means is that the ‘now’ for a given body could coincide with an instant of time hundreds of years in the past or future from our perspective!! Essentially my ‘now’ could be what you consider to be the past or future, yet both of our ‘nows’ are just as valid. As opposed to our view of the past as a lost time, and the future as an unreached time; the past, present and future are all equally real. As we view all of space as existent in unison, we should view all of time as already existent. We have finally arrived at the one of the most startling discoveries of all time (no pun intended!) Space and time are fused into a four dimensional entity called space-time. Everything that has ever happened or will happen, all exist in a very real way
This epiphany shatters all notions of common sense and truth, and unlocks more questions than answers. If everything that will ever happen already exists, what becomes of our notion of free will? If every action that you or I will ever take is already ‘recorded’, have we scientifically established the concept of ‘destiny’? This also establishes a very real theoretical basis for travel across time. What paradoxical anomalies do we run into, when we throw time travel into the mix? I’m sure no scientist in the world can claim total comprehension of this subject; but here lies the true essence of science. Even in its apparent failures, science remains an object of astonishing beauty. Much like life itself, the true rewards of science are best experienced through its journeys and not the destination itself. It is quite simply the greatest show on earth.
It is fascinating that we understand so little about an entity so paramount to our existence that we measure it with increasing standards of granularity. Any measurement of time is derived from periodic repetitive motion; we assign the time elapsed within a single cycle of movement, to a unit and measure time with respect to that unit. The earth’s revolution on its axis is the most obvious example; however literally any motion that repeats itself could be used to measure time. The flap of a butterfly’s wings, an object in free fall, etc. could all be potentially used to measure time. However, the obvious issues with these natural movements are their consistency across repetitions, and geography. So we drilled deeper into the building blocks of matter seeking periodically consistent repetitive motion. Today’s official gatekeeper of time is the Caesium atom. When a caesium atom is bombarded with energy it vibrates, emitting a pulse of light for each ‘tick’. The time elapsed between 9,192,631,770 ticks is now what we call a second; quite a specific number one might say! That value was chosen so that the caesium second equalled existing astronomical standards of time. It is an interesting thought that these units of time which govern our entire lives are not really fundamental at all. In fact, as we will see, time is in itself not fundamental.
Until 1916, our understanding of space and time was intrinsically flawed by the assumption that they are fundamental. The inherent flaw becomes apparent when you look at how we measure these quantities, one with respect to the other. We measure space by the distance traversed by light in a given amount of time, and measure time through cycles of movement in space. This syllogism of definitions is transparently circular! While this arrangement works within the context of our daily lives, it does nothing in explaining the nature of these entities. Enter that silver haired, goofy, eccentric genius who changed everything!
Through the theory of relativity Albert Einstein elegantly demonstrated that time and movements through space are incontrovertibly linked. Consider two stationary objects; even though they are not moving through space, they are moving through time. When one of these bodies begins moving towards the other, time moves slower for the object in motion because some of the previous motion through time is now being diverted to motion through space. In the context of our own relative movements on earth, these changes are infinitesimal, though still sufficient to demonstrate experimentally. In 1971, an atomic clock was boarded on an aircraft and flown around the world. Upon completion, the clock’s measurement of the journey was compared to a stationary atomic clock’s measurement; astonishingly they no longer agreed. Though the difference was nothing more than a few hundred billionths of a second, it served as irrevocable proof to the theory of relativity. This revelation paves way for the most mind numbing fact of all – our perceptions of past, present and future may be entirely an illusion!
Consider the concept of ‘now’; common sense dictates that every celestial body’s ‘now’ coincides; i.e., they are all at the same instant of time. However as we have just demonstrated this is not true, time itself differs for each body. This difference is proportional to the relative velocity of the two bodies under consideration and the distance between them. What this means is that the ‘now’ for a given body could coincide with an instant of time hundreds of years in the past or future from our perspective!! Essentially my ‘now’ could be what you consider to be the past or future, yet both of our ‘nows’ are just as valid. As opposed to our view of the past as a lost time, and the future as an unreached time; the past, present and future are all equally real. As we view all of space as existent in unison, we should view all of time as already existent. We have finally arrived at the one of the most startling discoveries of all time (no pun intended!) Space and time are fused into a four dimensional entity called space-time. Everything that has ever happened or will happen, all exist in a very real way
This epiphany shatters all notions of common sense and truth, and unlocks more questions than answers. If everything that will ever happen already exists, what becomes of our notion of free will? If every action that you or I will ever take is already ‘recorded’, have we scientifically established the concept of ‘destiny’? This also establishes a very real theoretical basis for travel across time. What paradoxical anomalies do we run into, when we throw time travel into the mix? I’m sure no scientist in the world can claim total comprehension of this subject; but here lies the true essence of science. Even in its apparent failures, science remains an object of astonishing beauty. Much like life itself, the true rewards of science are best experienced through its journeys and not the destination itself. It is quite simply the greatest show on earth.
