Blog #228--If Time is an Illusion, What is Real?

In an earlier article (http://dreamtime3.wixsite.com/jacktuttlebook/single-post/2016/06/06/Blog-170The-Truth-Is-Out-There), I talked about conclusions reached in the movie “Lucy,” written and directed by Luc Besson. Among them was a discussion of time. When Lucy, played by Scarlett Johansson, is utilizing nearly 100% of her brain’s capacity, she says about time:

“Time gives legitimacy to our existence. Without time, we don’t exist.”

This statement makes sense to most of us. Problem is, scientists are still unsure about the nature of time. I spoke about how human perceptions of time are variable rather than constant, both in the above article and my book “It’s a Secret, So Pass It On: a Toolbox For Life.” Two recent articles, “Time Might Only Exist In Your Head. And Everyone Else’s,” written by Nick Stockton and published by wired.com on September 26, 2016, and “Now—And the Physics of Time,” written by Richard A. Muller for wvia.org on September 27, 2016, add clarity to this confusion.

If the last five words of that last sentence seem contradictory, it is intentional. Some of the best minds in the written history of Earth have tried to tackle this problem, with frustrating results. Aristotle vainly attempted to explain time. Augustine, who lived in the 4th century, wrote this confusing explanation:

“What is time? If no one asks me, I know; if I wish to explain, I do not know...My soul yearns to know this most entangled enigma.”

Albert Einstein advanced our understanding of time and its variable speed. But he couldn’t find the solutions he sought regarding time. Muller shares a quote from Rudolf Carnap, considered one of the outstanding philosophers of the 20th century:

“Einstein said the problem of the Now worried him seriously. He explained that the experience of the Now means something special for man, something essentially different from the past and the future, but that this important difference does not and cannot occur within physics. That this experience cannot be grasped by science seemed to him a matter of painful but inevitable resignation. So he concluded that there is something essential about the Now which is just outside the realm of science.”

We observe time in a linear fashion, moving from past to present to future. This is called “Time’s Arrow” and is assumed to be a correct observation. However, the journal Annalen der physik, which also published Einstein’s articles on general and special relativity, recently published a paper which explains, in terms too complex for this discussion, that the notion of time’s arrow is the result of our observation, which may not be an accurate assessment.

In quantum mechanics, a tiny particle can exist in two places simultaneously, essentially negating the concept of space or distance between particles. Until it is observed, no one can confirm which position is the correct one. From what I can gather, scientists presently theorize that, because they assume time is a real phenomenon, that a force such as gravity permits these particles to undergo changes. Scientists call the moment when this change occurs “decoherence.” Mathematics can then be used to define time’s arrow.

However, in a recent paper by biologist Robert Lanza, creator of the theory called biocentrism, where space and time are “constructs of biological sensory limitations,” there are major doubts whether a change to a classical physics model is guaranteed. In other words, he says there is no way to force a group of particles to move in the same direction over time. With this promising theory questioned, one known alternative is available to us. Time exists in the eyes of the observer. According to Lanza:

“...Time moves as it does because humans are biologically, neurologically, philosophically hardwired to experience it that way. It’s like a macro-scale version of Schrodinger’s cat. A faraway corner of the universe might be moving future to past. But the moment humans point a telescope in that direction, time conforms to the past-future flow...In his papers on relativity, Einstein showed that time was relative to the observer...Our paper takes this one step further, arguing that the observer actually creates it.”

Lanza says we cannot define time mathematically without adding the observer to the equation; we can’t eliminate the observer from equations since they are created and utilized by people. This is a vicious circle with no conclusion. For that matter, it is impossible to define “now” because as soon as we try to do it, that moment has passed. All we have is Here and Now, yet we cannot observe or measure either within our perspective.

For that matter, we have no way of proving decoherence since mathematics itself is an arbitrary construct created by humans as a way of slowing down the functioning of the universe into terms us limited humans can understand. In other words, changing truth into something we can accept as truth, whether it is real or not.

Most scientists prefer to ignore this major paradox because it leads them to a conclusion they prefer to eliminate from consideration. But since a single particle can be present in two locations simultaneously, one can theorize there is no space between them. If time gives us proof of our existence, and there is no proof that time exists, then do we exist? We believe we do, but we can’t prove it.

Scientists agree there is a “space-time continuum” where everything exists simultaneously and eternally, without beginnings or endings. We call this many names including “heaven.” If we came from there at our birth and return there upon our death, then perhaps we never left in the first place. We just believe that we did.

In the movie, Lucy explains how a car becomes invisible to us as it nears infinite speed. To see the car, our minds slow down the world around us so it will appear real to us; we drag eternity down to our level rather than rising up to become one with it. Maybe we are simply imagining a real world because of our inability to discern what is real or unreal. Maybe we have to let go of all of our perceptions and assumptions in order to find what truth underlies all the confusion.

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