So, what is time? It strikes me as an elusive, nebulous concept.

Einstein’s theory states that space-time is malleable; it can be manipulated, bent and twisted. Is there any possibility that time could be distorted in such a way that paradoxes would not occur and we could travel into the past? Most physicists say no, but they have found no mathematical proofs that rule out the possibility.

Travel into the future is certainly possible; we’re relentless time-travelers, but is it possible to accelerate (or decelerate) the process?

Why is time linear? Why do we remember the past, but not the future? Why does the arrow of time point inexorably toward tomorrow? We take the arrow of time as a given, but what makes it so?

One way of explaining time — at least our perception of it — is through the second law of thermodynamics: entropy (disorder) increases as time passes: the universe, once very ordered, is becoming increasingly disordered with the passage of time (you can scramble an egg, but unscrambling it back into its original egg-form is much more difficult). We can perceive changes in entropy, so perhaps the passage of time is a concept that is defined by consciousness.

Time seems to be a fundamental law of the universe; but, according to physicists, the flow of time, as we perceive it, is not a fundamental law. There is even speculation that our section of the universe might be unique, and other fundamental laws might apply in another corner of the universe. Perhaps there is a place where entropy is decreasing; perhaps time runs backward to a being in this place, and they would think it was odd that we perceive it else-wise. Some physicists have posited a multiverse, like a tree that branches with each decision node; these branches occur at certain nodes of time. Perhaps this is why time, for us, travels forward: we cannot travel back through these nodes.

[I feel the need to digress…

Am I only taking my own life in hand when I make my decision to not look both ways before crossing the street? If I fail to look and other factors conspire against me, I might not get to the other side alive. But if I do look, or if there were no cars zooming along the pavement, I will get safely to the other side. There are many different possibilities: I may even decide not to cross the street. The multiverse theory postulates that the universe splits at these nodes, and all possibilities take place: there are an infinite number of universes, some of which contain me (in many different forms), and in other universes I do not exist. I think it is incumbent on me, as a custodian for my future doppelgängers in those other universes, to ensure I look both ways before crossing the street.]

The Big Bang (some 14 billion years ago) may not have been a beginning; rather, a node in the multiverse.

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Further reading/viewing…

Time’s arrow and Boltzmann’s entropy

Einstein’s Dreams, a novel by Alan Lightman

What is time?

Salvador Dali on What’s My Line?

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