Time

Time

Time is something that we rarely consider to be "wyrd". It is after all something we all know and that by definition we experience every moment of our lives. And yet that very familarity hides a vast gulf in our knowledge. Scientists, mystics and philosophers have been studying time since the beginings of civilisation, yet we still don't really know what it is or how it works.

The standard science fiction convention is that time is the "fourth dimension". This is a simplification of the Einstein concept of "spacetime". Although time does appear to replicate the other dimensions in the mathematics of physics, there are also major differences. Perhaps the most obvious of these is that we can move through the spacial dimensions at will.

Is time even "real" at all? The fact that we can create a mathematical model that treats it as such is not necessarily conclusive. Quantum physicists have been using quantum mathematical "cookbooks" for years with no real agreement as to the "reality" of the Copenhagen Interpretation.

Is it possible that time does not exist at all? Is it simply a construct of our minds, a side-effect of our consciousness?

Or is time just an expression of entropy? One of the most puzzling aspects of time that it always goes forwards, not backwards. That seems perfectly natural to us, yet if time really is the fourth dimension why should we be restricted to movement in one direction only? After all, the equations of physics say that time is reversible. Standard explanations for this "arrow of time" usually invoke the principle of entropy, yet this ducks the issue of our subjective experience an introduces concepts such as "information entropy".

Time seems so simple - yet when we stop to think about it, this most normal aspect of the universe is one of the strangest of all.

External Links:

The Arrow of Time