Episode #842
March 22, 2025
Does Time exist?
The distinction between the past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”
—Albert Einstein
We imagine time as an arrow from the past, through the present, pointing to a yet to exist future. We represent this arrow with analogue clocks whose hands circle a dial. This motion, however, is only evidence that potential energy in a spring or electrons in a battery are being dispersed. It is a measure of entropy, not time.
We see ourselves as progressing through time from a zygote to a baby to a child to adult to aged to death. This is the manifestation of cells duplicating, each time with a small imperfection, slipping steadily into entropy.
The world around us is fighting a losing battle with entropy. Order is composed by creation of all types, then decomposes into chaos. We see a Universe that creates strange attractors, such as solar systems, only to devolve into black holes.
“Einstein developed the idea that space and time are part of a unified fabric called space-time. This concept of space-time leads to a more radical shift in how we think about time. Rather than thinking of the past, present, and future as distinct, Einstein’s theory suggests that the fabric of space-time contains all events—past, present, and future—within it. In this view, the present moment is just one slice of the space-time continuum, and in a sense, all moments in time are equally real, not just the present.”
— A.I. summery of the General Theory of Relativity.
If all of space and time exists simultaneously, it is more like a landscape that we move across than a flowing river that we ride.
The Universe was, in one moment, perfect order – a single point of all energy. As this landscape expands it devolves into chaos as entropy becomes complete. Total entropy is also perfect order. These are simply two ways that humans see the same Universe.
“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
— TS Elliot
We have invented the illusion that future follows present follows past because we cannot understand the beginning and end of our consciousness without the idea of linear time.
Einstein spoke of the idea of a single all inclusive space-time and also the concept of past, present and future. This allows us to reconcile the two ideas into a single way of seeing our Universe while also understanding ourselves.
Every day you wake to your consciousness, don’t be surprised that you are still the same person.
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