erraticwisdom

As described earlier, this section in the series on time will leave the physical realm of part I in favor of a more subtle, but rewarding approach.

No, Time is too difficult a concept to analyze without standing on relatively reliable physics. Perhaps the latter part of the article will return to a more conceptual time, but we will begin with the comfort of physics.

The water in the bay rippled quietly, shrugging around the yachts that bobbed alongside their moorings. The night was dank and hot, and I had sought relief from the piercing music along the quiet bridge.

Quickly bored, I returned to the concept of time and attempted to imagine our world without time. What would happen to the rippling water, the boats, myself?

It was not a glorious epiphany (I fought to concentrate over the deafening music, and wrote my notes on my cell phone), but I believe that I have arrived on a substantial idea: time manifests itself as a field. Obviously, I have only a minimal understanding of the physics and mathematics required to properly verify my claim, but my knowledge of the subject is sufficient to, at least, allow me to deliver my idea and its justification.

Before getting into the time-field itself, let us begin with the purpose of time which is quite simple: to measure the passage of events. Actions are organized chronologically within our minds for the advantage of illustrating growth, and time provides the time line for these events.

Thus, time must always exist and pass unless one can find a completely static object; something that undergoes no changes will require no chronological tracking, and will therefore not experience time .

Finding an object that would experience this timelessness is very difficult. If we base this theory on the idea that one-dimensional points are the fundamental units, then a timeless situation is possible as movement within one dimension is impossible.

However, my recent studies of superstring theory describe vibrating strings as the fundamental unit, therefore eliminating the possibility of a motionless, timeless situation.

For the sake of our argument, let us imagine what our world would be like without time. While a completely static object would not experience time, it is a different situation if time itself is removed. Since we have established that time controls the order of events, a situation without time would be a tangle of an infinite number of events occurring “simultaneously” and “infinitely”.

If you are familiar with some of the concepts in quantum mechanics, you will notice an interesting similarity between the description of our universe without time and the quantum principle of superposition.

Quantum superposition describes the possibility of certain particles to exist in two places at once. In the “timeless” situation described above, a similar superposition of time occurs because the events that would have occurred separately on a timeline, can now take place “simultaneously” (if a term such as this is still valid).

However, before accepting this possibility of a time-field superposition, we must remember that it is impossible to have a completely static object to create the required timelessness for time-field superposition. Again, we can pull from some of the compromises that make quantum mechanics a viable system today. Similar to the way that the effects of quantum mechanics are felt only at very small sizes, time-fields can only be affected when an object becomes very close to being motionless. In superstring theory, the fundamental particle is actually a vibrating two-dimensional string that can not be static and would therefore experience the normal form of time experienced by moving objects.

As the objects motion becomes slower, there will be times between the motions that will be static. The object as a whole would therefore experience sporadic timelessness that could create the time-field superposition described earlier.

Again, my only background in physics comes from a fairly rigorous AP Physics course and my own fascination with the topic; therefore I understand that I may have overlooked many important possibilities. Please feel free to comment about any errors, suggestions, or additions that you would like accommodated.

“What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks, I do not know.” Saint Augustine