According to Einstein, the universe is a static thing. All past, present, and future states of the universe exist simultaneously as the 4-dimensional space-time continuum.
An analogy for this theory is the movie. Each frame of a movie represents one moment in time.
The theory makes an excellent plot for science-fiction, but does it exist?
Here are a few questions that the theory can’t answer…
1. The Existence of the Observer
Einstein once said, “People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."*
Einstein also said, “Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”
If reality is an illusion, then who is viewing the illusion? After all, an illusion only exists in respect to an observer. Without an observer, there can be no illusion.
If reality were the movie, then where is the projector?
2. The Evolutionary Universe
Another problem with the Space-Time Continuum theory is that the universe is just too complex.
If you look around you, you will see that the universe is incredibly complex. Did that complexity just pop into existence like magic?
We live in an evolutionary universe.
From astrological observations, we can observe the universe evolving from simple structures to more complicated structures. First, at the Big Bang, the universe was completely uniform. Then because of quantum fluctuations or whatever, hydrogen and helium clumped into stars and then galaxies.
Each state of the universe came about as a result of the previous state of the universe. A static universe doesn’t need to obey this constraint. One event need not follow another in a casual manner.
Even on earth we see that the world is a flowing process and not some static thing. When we bake a cake, the batter gradually changes its state in a definite process that depends on its previous state. A static universe wouldn’t need this constraint.
3. Time Isn’t Space
If you read any books on physics, you will discover one important thing. Time is not space. Physicists treat time very differently than space.
You can move back and forth in space, but you can’t move back and forth in time.
The only reason we believe in time as a separate entity is because we perceive movement and observe our memories and because of the evolutionary nature of the world.
4. Time at a Standstill
Clocks slow down as we travel closer to the speed of light. This is a fact. Our GPS devices are designed to take this fact into consideration, otherwise they wouldn’t work.
The common way of thinking of this slowing down process is to think of time as slowing. A natural consequence is that time can stop and then reverse. This would allow time travel. (Of course, time travel is impossible, if you believe in the space-time continuum. If everything is frozen and cast in stone, then there is nothing that can jump from future to past.)
Instead of thinking of things moving through time, what if you thought of everything as process?
Physical processes slow down as you travel closer to the speed of light.
The (possible) reason is that subatomic matter always moves at the speed of light. As we accelerate the object, we have less speed available to maintain internal processes. As a result all processes slow down. As a result, exceeding the speed of light is impossible.
Here are some thought experiments:
The Chicken and the Egg
What would happen if you put a chicken in in a ten-year-old rocket and accelerated that rocket close to the speed of light?
Based on observations, the physical processes of both chicken and rocket will slow down.
Imagine by some impossible process we can accelerate the rocket faster than the speed of light. What would happen?
The traditional answer is that time would slow down, stop and then reverse. In other words the rocket would travel to a time before it was launched into space.
The result would be different if we view the world as process instead of time.
In a world of process, the physical processes of both rocket and chicken would slow down and then stop. The physical processes would then reverse.
Both chicken and rocket would become younger. Being ten-years-old when launched, the rocket would be relatively unaffected. However the chicken would turn into an egg.
As the paint mixes (un-mixes)
Time can be described as the mixing of paint.
Place a drop of pigment on the surface of a can of white paint. Place a stirrer in the paint and slowly stir. Eventually the pigment will be stirred into the paint. This is the passage of time into the future.
Now stir in the exact opposite direction. If you do it correctly, the paint will un-mix and you will get white paint with a drop of pigment in the center.
For a real life example, see: http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/nstv/2011/08/born-to-be-viral-how-to-unmix-a-mixed-fluid.html
Time Travel – un-mixing the world
Using the above analogy, we could simulate time travel, but only for the earth.
Imagine a device that can reverse entropy. You use it and everything on earth goes into reverse. People move backwards, rain falls upward and so on.
Eventually you reset the world where the clocks in the world say January 6, 1687.
If an alien were to do it, we can be reasonable sure that the end result was how the world was when the calendar read January 6, 1687.
However, what if we ourselves wanted to do it? We take as space ship to earth orbit and press the button.
We press the button and the time-machine un-mixes the world. Unfortunately, we have altered the dynamics of the world by leaving.
This is the same as removing some paint from the can after we stirred it. What we get will be different than what originally existed.
The very act of travelling back into the past forever changes the past in an unpredictable way.
Imagine this: We could even kill our parents before we were born for the fun of it and then let the world mix again. We would then end up in a world which never remembered you existed. There is no time paradox since we never actually traveled back into time.
5. The Frequency-based World
Based on experiment, we know that subatomic particles can be viewed as particles like billiard balls. However, because of the two-slit experiment, we also know that thing like electrons also behave like waves.
I believe the wave nature of the universe is the key to understanding time.
Because of the wave nature of the universe, we can perceive the position, velocity and acceleration of things and events. We experience movement.
The present state of the universe evolved from the past state of the universe. Therefore we can know the past from the present and also predict the future.
Everything is happening now, in the dynamically changing present.
Occam's Razor
A driving principle in science is called Occam's Razor. This principle states that we should favor the simplest theory that fits the facts.
The only thing that can be proven to exist is the evolutionary universe we live in. We live in a dynamic universe and not the static one Einstein envisioned.
* Science is not something you should either believe in or not believe in. Science is just a bunch of tools we use to explore the the universe. It only deals with what we can observe.
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