St. Augustine said of time, “If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain to him who asks, I don’t know.” Time is an elusive concept: We all experience it, and yet, the challenge of defining it has tested philosophers and scientists for millennia.
It wasn’t until Albert Einstein that we developed a more sophisticated mathematical understanding of time and space that allowed physicists to probe deeper into the connections between them. In their endeavors, physicists also discovered that seeking the origin of time forces us to confront the origins of the universe itself.
What exactly is time, and how did it come into being? Did the dimension of time exist from the moment of the Big Bang, or did time emerge as the universe evolved? Recent theories about the quantum nature of gravity provide some unique and fantastic answers to these millennia-old questions.
Astronomy: Roen Kelly
Our world features an arrow of time where entropy increases with time. This accords with our sense of time as a one-way street, from past order to future disorder. Yet, there is no basis for the arrow of time in microscopic physics — the realm of quantum mechanics. Those equations are just as valid when time runs in reverse. Therefore, some scientists think the arrow of time exists because the universe must have started out in an incredibly orderly and unlikely state. This is called the Past Hypothesis.
Time and space-time
Of course, scientists want to understand how we experience time in mathematical terms that can be tested through experiments. In relativity, the three dimensions of physical space are combined with the one dimension of time into a four-dimensional space-time. The basic elements of space-time are events and worldlines. Events are points within four-dimensional space-time at which some physical interaction or phenomenon takes place, such as two particles colliding or a particle emitting a photon. Worldlines are the paths objects trace through space-time along a sequence of events.
Quantum gravity
The Standard Model is our fundamental theory of how three of the forces of nature — electromagnetism and the strong and weak forces — operate on a collection of 12 different matter particles (and their antimatter twins). This model describes quantum fields that exchange particles that mediate forces (bosons) between matter particles (fermions) and produce complex structures such as atoms.
The Standard Model is so successful that experiments at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, operating at energies up to 14,000 GeV, have been unable to find any significant deviations from calculated predictions. But we know that the Standard Model is incomplete because it has no room for several phenomena we observe. These are dark matter, the invisible stuff that glues galaxies together; dark energy, the mysterious repulsive energy driving the ever-faster expansion of the universe; and any mechanism to explain either cosmological inflation, the exponential expansion of the universe in its early stages, or the fact that we live in a universe dominated by matter instead of equal amounts of matter and antimatter.
The bottom line
Our experience of time may be subjective and limited to a sense of now, but on the cosmic scale, time seems to be a feature of entangled relationships between objects and not a feature from outside our universe. The arrow of time is a consequence of the increasing entropy of an expanding universe since the Big Bang. It appears this precludes us from remembering the future. But at least we have our memories, courtesy of the steady march of entropy, which allows us to recover past events and stitch them into a consistent story. Lucky for us, our universe seems to have a consistent story to tell in the first place!
Astronomy
The figure showing before and after events agrees with our experience and common sense: systems progress naturally with the passage of time from specified arrangements to random, disordered arrangements–never the other direction.
Scripture agrees with concepts derived from physics theory and observation: time had a beginning. “We declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.” (I Corinthians 2:7, emphasis added)
Here’s a definitive definition: Time is too short to waste it on trying to define time.
“Every year is getting shorter; never seem to find the time.” -PF
Andrew
It occurs to me that time has a relationship to cause and effect. Obviously cause and effect only has meaning when time flows forward, the future cannot cause the past. But I struggle to define it any more clearly than that.
As to the ‘experience of the now’, and quantum mechanics.
Dr. Michael Egnor, who is a neurosurgeon as well as professor of neurosurgery at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, lists six properties of immaterial mind that are irreconcilable with the view that the mind is just the material brain. Those six properties of the immaterial mind are, “Intentionality,,, Qualia,,, Persistence of Self-Identity,,, Restricted Access,,, Incorrigibility,,, Free Will,,,”
You can read more in-depth definitions of each of the six properties of immaterial mind in Dr. Egnor’s article.
The mental attribute of ‘Persistence of of Self-Identity’, and/or the ‘experience of the now’, is particularly interesting to look at.
As to defining the specific mental attribute of the ‘Persistence of Self-Identity through time’ (and/or ‘the experience of ‘the Now”) in particular, it is first important to note that we each have a unique perspective of being outside of time. In fact we each seemingly watch from some mysterious outside perspective of time as time seemingly passes us by. Simply put, we seem to be standing on an island of ‘now’ as the river of time continually flows past us.
In the following video, Dr. Suarez states the irresolvable dilemma for reductive materialists as such, (paraphrase) “it is impossible for us to be ‘persons’ experiencing ‘now’ if we are nothing but particles flowing in space time. Moreover, for us to refer to ourselves as ‘persons’, we cannot refer to space-time as the ultimate substratum upon which everything exists, but must refer to a Person who is not bound by space time. (In other words) We must refer to God!”
In further defining the mental attribute of ‘the experience of the now’, in the following article Stanley Jaki states that “There can be no active mind without its sensing its existence in the moment called now.,,, ,,,There is no physical parallel to the mind’s ability to extend from its position in the momentary present to its past moments, or in its ability to imagine its future. The mind remains identical with itself while it lives through its momentary nows.”
And ‘the experience of ‘the now” also happens to be exactly where Albert Einstein got into trouble with leading philosophers of his day and also happens to be exactly where Einstein eventually got into trouble with quantum mechanics itself.
Specifically, Einstein had a disagreement with the famous philosopher Henri Bergson over what the proper definition of time should be (Bergson was very well versed in the specific mental attribute of the ‘experience of the now’). In fact, that disagreement with Henri Bergson over what the proper definition of time should actually be was one of the primary reasons that Einstein failed to ever receive a Nobel prize for his work on relativity:
What enraged Bergson so much, and caused him to negatively effect Einstein ever receiving a Nobel prize for his work in relativity, was Einstein’s statement to a audience of distinguished philosophers that “The time of the philosophers did not exist.”
And then around 1935 Einstein was directly asked by Rudolf Carnap (who was also a fairly well respected philosopher himself), “Can physics demonstrate the existence of ‘the now’ in order to make the notion of ‘now’ into a scientifically valid term?”
Einstein’s answer to Carnap was ‘categorical’, he said, “The experience of ‘the now’ cannot be turned into an object of physical measurement, it can never be a part of physics.”
The specific statement that Einstein made to Carnap on the train, “The experience of ‘the now’ cannot be turned into an object of physical measurement, it can never be a part of physics.” was a very interesting statement for Einstein to make to the philosopher since “The experience of ‘the now’ has, from many recent experiments in quantum mechanics, established itself as very much being a defining part of our physical measurements in quantum mechanics.
For instance, the following delayed choice experiment with atoms demonstrated that, “It proves that measurement is everything. At the quantum level, reality does not exist if you are not looking at it,”
Likewise, the following violation of Leggett’s inequality stressed the quantum-mechanical assertion that reality does not exist when we’re not observing it.
The Mind First and/or Theistic implications of quantum experiments such as the preceding are fairly, and pleasantly, obvious. As Professor Scott Aaronson of MIT once quipped, “Look, we all have fun ridiculing the creationists,,, But if we accept the usual picture of quantum mechanics, then in a certain sense the situation is far worse: the world (as you experience it) might as well not have existed 10^-43 seconds ago!”
‘The experience of the now’ is also shown to be very much a part of present day quantum physics, by what is known as the ‘Quantum Zeno Effect’.
An old entry in wikipedia described the Quantum Zeno effect as such “an unstable particle, if observed continuously, will never decay.”
Likewise, the present day entry on wikipedia about the Quantum Zeno effect also provocatively states that “a system can’t change while you are watching it”
Atheistic naturalists have tried to avoid the Mind First implications of the Quantum Zeno effect by invoking decoherence, yet the following interaction-free measurement of the Quantum Zeno effect demonstrated that the presence of the Quantum Zeno effect can be detected without interacting with a single atom.
In short, the quantum zeno effect, regardless of how atheistic materialists may feel about it, is experimentally shown to be a real effect that is not reducible to any materialistic explanation. And thus the original wikipedia statement of, “an unstable particle, if observed continuously, will never decay”, stands as being a true statement.
Moreover, on top of all that, the mental attribute of ‘the experience of the now’ is also now verified by recent advances in quantum information theory that have now shown that entropy “is a property of an observer who describes a system.”
As the following 2017 article states, “Fifteen years ago, “we thought of entropy as a property of a thermodynamic system,” he said. “Now in (quantum) information theory, we wouldn’t say entropy is a property of a system, but a property of an observer who describes a system.”,,,
The reason why I am very impressed with the preceding experiments demonstrating that the mental attribute of ‘the experience of the now’ is very much a part of entropy, is that the second law of thermodynamics, entropy, is very foundational to any definition of time that we may have.
As the following article states, “Entropy explains time; it explains every possible action in the universe;,,”,, “Even gravity,,,, can be expressed as a consequence of the law of entropy.,,,”
And yet, to repeat the last sentence from the quantum information paper, “we wouldn’t say entropy is a property of a system, but a property of an observer who describes a system.”
That statement is just fascinating! Why in blue blazes should the 1 in 10^10^123 finely tuned entropy of the universe even care if I am ‘describing’ it unless ‘the experience of ‘the now’ really is more foundational to reality than the finely tuned 1 in 10^10^123 entropy of the universe is?
To state the blatantly obvious, this finding of entropy being “a property of an observer who describes a system.” is very friendly to a Mind First, and/or to a Theistic view of reality. Even to a Christian view of reality.
For instance Romans chapter 8: verses 20 and 21 itself states, “For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.”
Supplemental note to special relativity:
Exodus 3:13-14
13 Then Moses asked God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is His name?’ What should I tell them?”
14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
to BornAgain77 (off topic)
have you seen this?
https://aleteia.org/2022/04/22/new-technology-suggests-shroud-of-turin-is-2000-years-old/
Thanks Awstar,
as to:
Of addition note to the Masada clothe
Dr Hedin, I think we need to ponder local clock time with relativistic effects and cosmological time as seen on say timelines of cosmological expansion. I think definition of a clock to track is relevant and note that in each case we see that time is inextricably bound up in our world being a causal-temporal, thermodynamic domain. Regularity of oscillations and predictability of trends such as RA decay then allow us to compose time scales and technological clocks; the pendulum clock being a paradigm for an effective, relatively low tech clock accessible to something like classical world technology as seen from the Antikythera mechanism. An obvious natural clock is the H-R diagram and branch to the giants, used for instance with star clusters. This then tells us, we start with a cumulative, rate process and/or an oscillation that can similarly drive a rate process. Such are inherently thermodynamically constrained, tied to entropy increase as we know from having to replace watch batteries. And of course I am pointing to entropy and the second law as time’s arrow. Heat death then would occur when no significant clock process could go on, even say cooling down of white dwarfs. Clock processes obviously connect to metabolic processes and this puts an upper limit on strictly biological, cell based life. Logic of being does not preclude non biological life or sustaining of a domain externally from in effect an inexhaustible source. KF
When you take all the quantum evidence previously described above in detail, there is only one rational conclusion: what we call “the physical world” only exists in mind/consciousness in what we call “the now.” IOW, consciousness in the now has been demonstrated to not be an effect of either external or prior events, but the primary cause of everything we experience, including what we think of as “the past” or experience as “external.”
Creation is not something that happened “in the past;” it is always occurring in mind/consciousness in the now. I don’t see that there’s any other way to model it, given the current state of the evidence provided by @100 years of quantum physics experimentation.
Of related note to Henri Bergson (who, as mentioned previously in this thread, was an late 19th, early 20th, century philosopher of such prominence that he negatively effected Einstein receiving a Nobel prize for relativity.)
What astonishes me is how gravity interacts with and distorts space-time. It seems like we’re at a point where experimental evidence is needed to reduce the multitude of possibilities or to force a completely new paradigm.
“Time is nature’s way of ensuring that everything doesn’t happen all at once!”
-Q
Q, that was already implicit in Newton’s law of gravitation. That mass, inertia, gravity and the fabric of physically extended reality should interact is reasonable. Surprising but reasonable. KF
Kairosfocus,
How did you come to the conclusion that the fabric of extended reality (by which I assume you mean space-time) is implicit in Newtonian mechanics?
-Q