Space, Time and Stuff 2
I believe there are two completely different interpretations of time. The first is the normal one most of us seem to believe in. Time exists and is what allows everything to happen. The extension of this is that time is a dimension that we live through. The second interpretation is the one that doesn’t seem to get much attention, possibly because we simply don’t like the idea. In this interpretation, time doesn’t exist—at all. It is simply a measurement.
The human brain finds this concept almost impossible to visualise. We see ‘evidence’ of time around us every day. We’ve built instruments to measure it. Our memories tell us about the past. Our imaginations give us glimpses into possible futures. We live through it every day.
But the same is true even if you take the other point of view. Even ‘changes in time might possibly be explained as the slowing down (or speeding up) of mechanisms and human organs, which are then seen as changes in time.
Thinking about this second possibility, let’s take the infinite universe from the previous blog, and imagine it’s also eternal. Now, this doesn’t mean time exists. It just means the universe is simply there. It’s an existence, and it changes, mutates, evolves as part of its existence.
To the sentient beings inside that universe, those changes would appear to be time, particularly as there is no outside and no way of observing the universe except from within.
Now, in a universe like this, life would probably already have been initiated many, many times in many, many places. Have any species from these sources of life managed to escape their solar system? Or even their galaxy? Or have none of them achieved this?
It’s possible that the humans in this type of universe would never learn any of this as they toil away on their tiny blue planet, spending their time searching for the meaning of life and the reason for their own existence. They couldn’t possibly be an insignificant species slowly destroying the planet that gave them life.
No, don’t even think about that possibility.
Yep, Just my thoughts. Nope, not much research.