Does Time Really Exist, or Is It Just an Illusion?

 

Does Time Really Exist, or Is It Just an Illusion?

Time Existence

Time is certainly a very complex topic in physics, and there are people who believe that time does not actually exist. One common argument they use is that Einstein proved that everything is relative, so time is irrelevant. In the bestselling book “The Secret,” the authors write, “Time is just an illusion.” Is this really true? Is time just a figment of our imagination?

Among physicists, there is little doubt that time truly exists. It’s something we can measure and observe. Physicists are just a bit divided on what exactly causes time to exist and what it means to say that time exists. This question indeed borders on metaphysics and ontology (the philosophy of existence), almost as much as it does on empirical questions about time that physics is well-suited to address.

The Arrow of Time and Entropy

The term “the arrow of time” was introduced in 1927 by Sir Arthur Eddington and gained popularity in his 1928 book The Nature of the Physical World. In essence, the arrow of time refers to the concept that time flows in a single direction, unlike spatial dimensions, which don’t have a preferred orientation. Eddington highlights three main points regarding the arrow of time:

1. It is vividly recognized by our consciousness.
2. Our reasoning faculty strongly insists that reversing the arrow would make the external world nonsensical.
3. It only appears in physical science in the study of how a number of individuals are organized. Here, the arrow points towards a progressive increase of randomness.

Things Decay

While the first two points are intriguing, it’s the third point that directly addresses the physics behind the arrow of time. The key feature of this arrow is its alignment with increasing entropy, as per the Second Law of Thermodynamics. In our universe, things naturally decay over time; they don’t spontaneously become more ordered without significant effort.

Time Is Everywhere

Eddington’s third point also implies that “It makes no appearance in physical science except…” What does this mean? In reality, time permeates physics.

This statement is true, yet interestingly, the laws of physics are “time reversible.” This means the equations governing physical laws would function just as well if time moved backward. From a purely physical perspective, there is no inherent reason why the arrow of time must move forward.

Entropy Continuously Increases

A commonly accepted explanation is that the universe, in its distant past, was highly ordered (or had low entropy). Given this initial condition, the natural laws dictate that entropy should keep increasing. Sean Carroll’s 2010 book From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time presents this argument, suggesting further possible reasons why the universe may have started off so orderly.

‘The Secret’ and Time

A frequent misconception, stemming from vague discussions about relativity and other time-related physics, is the notion that time doesn’t exist at all. This idea appears in various pseudoscientific or mystical contexts, but one prominent example is in the popular self-help book The Secret.

In The Secret, the authors claim that physicists have proven time is non-existent. Here are a few lines from the section “How Long Does It Take?” in the chapter “How to Use the Secret”:

• “Time is just an illusion. Einstein told us that.”
• “What quantum physicists and Einstein tell us is that everything is happening simultaneously.”
• “There is no time for the Universe and there is no size for the Universe.”

False Statements

Most physicists, including Einstein, would consider these statements completely inaccurate. Time is an essential component of the universe. As previously mentioned, the linear concept of time is tied to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, a principle many physicists consider one of the most crucial in all of physics. Without time as a genuine property of the universe, this law would be meaningless.

What Einstein did show through his theory of relativity is that time, on its own, is not an absolute quantity. Instead, time and space are interwoven in a specific manner to form space-time. This space-time is an absolute framework, used to precisely and mathematically understand how physical processes in different places relate to each other.

Everything Does Not Happen Simultaneously

This does not imply that everything is happening at once. On the contrary, based on his equations (like E = mc²), Einstein believed that no information could travel faster than the speed of light. Each point in space-time has limitations on how it can interact with other space-time regions. The idea that everything occurs simultaneously is directly opposed to Einstein’s findings.

Although the errors in The Secret and similar works might be understandable, given the complexity of these topics, that doesn’t mean it’s correct to say physicists have no understanding of time or have dismissed the concept as unreal. They certainly have not done so.

Transforming Time

A different perspective on time’s nature is presented by Lee Smolin in his 2013 book Time Reborn: From the Crisis in Physics to the Future of the Universe. Smolin argues that, much like some mystics claim, science often treats time as an illusion. He believes that time should be viewed as fundamentally real and suggests that recognizing this might lead to discovering new, evolving laws of physics. Whether this approach will lead to breakthroughs in our understanding of physics remains to be seen.