Time is a complex mechanism of the universe that has heavy bearing on the lives
of every individual. Most likely, one does not think twice about glancing at their watch or
noticing the day’s end with a sunset. It is without a doubt that time impacts all of us;
however what many do not realize are the implications associated with the construct of
time. Is time an illusion created by humans to make sense of their lives, or is it a function
of the universe ingrained in all matter? What ever it is, it may provide insight unto the
meaning of life, or the universe in general. Currently our best explanation of time is
imbedded in Einstein’s theory of relativity, explaining the how time is different from an
individual’s perception, taking into consideration direction, motion, and speed. On the
contrary, Isaac Newton “founded classical mechanics on the view that space is distinct
from body (absolute space) and that time passes uniformly without regard to whether
anything happens in the world (absolute time)”(Rynasiewicz). Now one of these of
theories claims that there is clear division between past, present, and future, and the other
claims that all three coincide at the same time. Both of these theories play an interesting
role on the philosophy of life and its connection to time, but only one of those theories
reigns true…and it’s shocking which one.
The time one perceives is an illusion, or at least that is what Newton considered.
Newton proclaimed that time is absolute, meaning that the universe has its own clock;
one that ticks and ticks, regardless of what happens anywhere else in the universe. Many
people (those who have not taken physics) hurl newton’s theory of absolute time in the
trash solely for the reason that they know that that there is light in America while it is
dark in China. However, that is not at all what Newton is saying when he is talking about
time. To better explain it, imagine that a husband and a wife were in two different areas
of the universe. The husband is on Mars and the Wife in Earth. Newton proposed that
both of them would interpret time in the same way, as in they would both feel time pass
at some standard universal rate. The time Newton considers absolute is the universal
time, which is independent from space. Although Newton’s theory of absolute time has
already been disproved, it still plays an important role philosophically, if not
scientifically.
The time humans perceive is called relative time. Newton claimed that humans
are only able to perceive relative time, which is measuring time based on the passage of
motion, such as the moon revolving around the earth is one day and the earth revolving
around sun is one year. On the other hand, using Newtonian mechanics, time can be
defined “as a parametric representation of the spatial trajectory of a material object”; in
turn absolute time is unperceivable and can only be explained through mathematics
(Sachs). This is why Newton believed that only humans considered relative time, as they
based time off of what they saw, all the while the actual absolute time is the same for all
matter and is intertwined with an almost god-like clock. This theory raises certain
questions; such as whether of not time is just a construct of the mind or if it was designed
by a higher being. In Newton’s time, his theory was hard to refute, as the proponents for
relative time did not accrue as much support as Newton did with his creation of calculus.
In addition, it was also hard to logically disprove Newton from a human standpoint as
they were technologically inept from doing to so in the 17th century. Because of this,
people of his time considered the idea that there is divine of designer of the universe.
Even though absolute time proved false, its affect on the people was still real. If there are
certain laws that govern the universe, are they occurring by random manifestation of
nature or is the something or someone creating those laws. The more and more one
ruminates about the numerous random occurrences in nature verses the similarly
abundant connections between people and time, the discernible line between realism and
idealism begins to fade. What a science-minded realist may consider might change and
the same could be said for a priest. Nevertheless, once Einstein’s theory of relativity is
taken into account, a whole new line has to be drawn.
Einstein’s theory of relativity is much more stirring, to the point that it is almost
unbelievable. Ironically, the theory of relativity is currently irrefutable, tested again and
again by hordes of scientists eager to prove Einstein wrong. One of the theory’s
fundamental principles is that the speed of light is a constant “186,000 miles per second”
(Connor). Therefore if everybody agrees that the speed of light is the aforementioned
constant number, then they must also agree that absolute time, without a doubt, does not
exist. The former is true because if two observers viewed a photon of light traveling a
certain distance they would know that it traveled a different distance because space is not
absolute and it took a different amount of time to travel those distances, because the
speed of light is constant. According to Newton if absolute time is true, then the photon
of light took the same amount time to travel the two different distances, making the speed
of light fluctuate. However, because we know the speed of light is in fact constant,
absolute time cannot exist. Now that we have firmly exiled the theory of absolute time,
we can begin to dissect the scariest part of relative time, the fact that it can be different
for everybody.
Unlike the scientists and philosophers before him that believed “that time has a
kind of flow or passage that distinguishes it from space”, Einstein founded that time is
connected to space, in turn creating a fabric called space-time (Olson). Space-time is not
flat, but warped. Much like how a child standing dead center in a trampoline warps the
elastic fabric, space-time is warped by high mass objects, such as the sun and the planets.
In our case, the Earth is the child and the elastic fabric is space-time. Also the closer one
is to one of these massive objects the slower he or she will perceive time because the
“gravitational forces acting objects” are stronger their, in turn affecting “the local
curvature of space-time” (LePoidevin 152). As bizarre as this may sound, it is true, and
anyone can prove it. Einstein did it with very precise clocks; he put “one on the ground
and one on the top of a tall tower” (Connor. To his avail, when he later checked he found
that the clock on the ground was running behind the clock that was on the tower. Einstein
called it “time dilation” and though the difference was miniscule, it was large enough to
support Einstein’s claims (Connor). I found this very troubling, as those who live in high
elevation parts of the world are technically age faster relative to those living in low
elevation part of the world.
If one agrees to all of the above then they just have opened a can of worms, as this
would consequently mean that past, present, and future all exist at once. This is true
because one’s relative present can be another’s relative past or future when motion is
taken into account. “Motion causes the passage of time to slow down” therefore one
relative present is the not the same as another relative present (Teichmann 58). Think of it
like this: visualize a man on earth and an alien in a distant galaxy. If the alien is using his
space ship to fly away from earth than his relative present is actually the human’s relative
past. Even though the alien’s motion is causing a very miniscule change in his relative
present, over the vast distance from the alien’s galaxy to earth, this small change becomes
more and more evident. To make matters worse, direction of motion also has an effect on
the individual’s relative time. If the alien was moving in the direction to the earth,
well…then it would tilt its relative time in the direction of the human’s future! Although
we cannot visually prove this, mathematically it is true, and is perplexing as it is, the
implications it has on the way we consider reality is much more shocking.
This abundantly scary truth forces us to consider the fact that the future is set and
predetermined. It is especially endearing of certain religions that believe in
predeterminism. How would this affect humanity? It would certainly make people feel
like they have no control, that all of life is just something out of their hands. They are just
marionettes being tugged along by the universe. If everything were to be predetermined
there is no true freedom. How can there be? No matter how many different permutations
of roads someone takes, he or she will still reach the same destination. On top of all that,
one has to also consider who determined the future. How is it already set? These
questions can plague humanity; as for some it is completely taking away the will to live.
Hypothetically, I would be very worried if my future had a predetermined path. The
feeling of not being in control of the situation is jarring to the mind and dreadful to
optimism. However, I am speaking in hypotheticals because there are certain reasons that
prevent our future from predetermination.
Branching-futurists are scientists that believe that the “past and present are linear
and actual, but the future consists of branching possibilities”(Button 130). In other words,
the future can go any number of ways, therefore the future is not all determined. This
does not contradict Einstein’s theories because it is not disagreeing with the fact that
there is a future, but instead all it is saying is that the future’s events are not set in stone.
They cannot be predicted because the movement of the branches is ever changing and
dependent on the present. If anything, that makes takes a load off of my mind, as it
should to all of humanity, because it is unequivocally asserting that what one does
directly influences their future; each person gets to choose their own fate.