Time is just an illusion of people, what will happen if that illusion collapses?

For all of us, time is something extremely existent. When looking at photos, a recollection of memories on Facebook, or simply the rotation of a copper needle, you know it's time.

But what is the truth?Time does not exist, at least under the perspective of quantum physics. " All of the basic equations used to describe the world have no time variables at all, " said Italian theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli .

If you meet Rovelli in real life, he will not try to attack you with abstract theories and mathematical formulas, just to prove that time does not exist. Rovelli said he was not the one who liked " using physics to ruin parties ".

In everyday life, we do not need to understand all the operating mechanisms of the universe to survive. But sometimes, standing a bit to ponder is also a good thing to do.

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"I have spent my life studying time , " Carlo Rovelli.

" Talking about time is a fascinating topic, because it touches the deepest feelings in our depths. Time opens life and takes everything away. Reflecting on time is to reflect on The meaning of your own life, that's [why] I spend my life studying the time , "Rovelli said.

In 2018, he published a book entitled "Order of Time". In it, Rovelli discussed our experience of time flow , when we are human. At the same time, he argued that in both the cosmic scale and the quantum world, time does not exist .

Rovelli concludes convincingly that the years and the continuity of time are just stories that we tell ourselves, with the aim of making our existence meaningful.

Time is just an illusion

Time is merely an idea , Rovelli said, it is not a reality of the universe. Time is the idea of ​​humanity, an idea that we all share and agree with.

We have a concept of time after the process of biological development and evolution. It is also the result of the position we live on Earth, and the location of the Earth in the universe.

" By our conception, the conception of living creatures only creates a small part of the world, we see the whole world floating in the flow of time ," Rovelli wrote.

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We self-illusive when we look at the universe, including "composing" time.

At the quantum level, what we call " time lapses " will be so short that it cannot be divided. There is no such thing as time there. And nothing is physical, there is no existence of " objects ".

All is nothing , Rovelli explained. The universe has no time, no matter, it is instead made up of countless events.

Even what looks like a " thing ", a stone, for example, is an event that is happening at a speed that people cannot record. That stone is in a state of continuous transformation. On a long enough time line, it is even just fleeting. The stone will at some point not be a stone anymore, fate has been arranged like that.

" In the basic principles of the world , space or time does not exist, but only processes that change from physical quantities to other physical quantities. Principles that allow us to have can calculate variability and relations between quantities , "wrote Rovelli.

He argues that time seems to just pass orderly, because we happen to be on Earth, the planet has an entropy relationship unique to the rest of the universe.

Basically, the way the Earth moves in the universe creates a sense of order for us, that feeling is something we may not feel, if we live on another planet in the universe.

Just like orchids will only grow in Florida wetlands, not California desert, time is just a product born from the planet we live in, in its relationship with the surrounding environment. Time exists for unimaginable luck, it is not something inherent in the universe.

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We impose order on the world, arrange events into a specific linear time series to create causality.

The world seems to be placed in an order, going from the past to the present, and having the cause will have the result. But that's just our point of view. We impose order on the world, arrange events into a specific linear time series.

We associate events with the results they create and this action gives us a sense of time.

But according to Rovelli, the universe is much more complicated and chaotic than what we can think of. People are relying on approximate descriptions, we can only see the world in an approximate way, while ignoring most events, relationships and other possibilities that can occur.

These limits of ours create a false, or incomplete, sense of the order of events in the universe. They can't tell the whole story. According to Rovelli, people are just " blurring " the world while thinking they focus on it.

We self-doubt when we look at the universe. For that reason he concluded: " Time and ignorance ".

Wait, what?

If all this sounds terribly abstract, it is true that they are truly abstract.

But there is some simple evidence that can prove that time is only a relatively man-made concept - time is what humans perceive and not an inherent reality of the universe.

For example, imagine you're standing on Earth and using a telescope to observe a distant planet called Proxima b. Rovelli explains that the concept of "present" does not describe the same current on Earth and on that planet.

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The "present" in Earth and Proxima are not the same when we observe it from Earth.

The light you used to see Proxima from Earth only brought with you old information, transmitting what happened on that planet four years ago. " There are no special moments of Proxima b that correspond to the present here right now ," Rovelli wrote.

If this example still sounds strange, think of a more realistic situation like when making an international phone call. You are in New York and are talking to a friend in London. When your friend's words reach your ears, a thousandth of a second has passed, and " now " is no longer " now " just like when your friend said " Now, I've heard you said it ".

Take another example to see, we do not share the same time when in different locations, even on Earth. A person in London always experiences another time of the day, compared to someone in New York.

Your morning in New York is their afternoon in London. Your evening is their midnight. You only share the same time with everyone in the same place as you. Even people just know this not too long ago.

It was not until the 19th century that trains were born that required people to synchronize in time. " Noon " then arrived in New York and Boston at the same time, thanks to the two cities' time zones being made one.

Before we need to agree on time, everywhere - even villages next to each other - also live in different timelines.

" Noon " is counted when the Sun reaches the zenith. At that time, if in Europe, churches will ring the signal. The bell rang continuously but continuously at different times, a little earlier or a little earlier in each church.

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In the past, even two neighboring villages were living in different timelines.

It was not until the 20th century that we had the unity of time zones. But that is just a rule that helps people operate their activities conveniently, but time and time, again are not realities in the universe.

Rovelli noted the time even drifted at different speeds, in different locations. When on a mountain top, time will drift faster under a beach. Similarly, the needle of a clock falling below the floor will rotate a bit slower than the clock on the table.

Likewise, time seems to drift slower or faster depending on what you are doing. Every minute that passes in a quantum physics lesson can be as slow as a cow's, the time seems to be endless. On the contrary, you often wonder why the rest and party time is so fast?

All these differences are evidence that time is a collection. There is no time in this collection that is accurate and describes the total mail time.

" Time is a complex concept, with many layers with many separate properties, born from different approximations ," Rovelli wrote. " The structure of time in another world with an innocent image of the time we imagine in the beginning."

The simple time that we often talk and agree with is more or less useful for everyday life. But it's not exactly used to describe the universe, from folds to minutes to endless times.

Time is just a story that we keep telling ourselves

Although physics will allow us to discover the mysteries of time, Rovelli says humans will never be satisfied.

The simple feeling that we have when time passes - carrying in itself the luck, innocence and limitation - is exactly what makes time meaningful to us.

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If time falls, people will lose their ego, we will no longer know who we are.

Rovelli argues that what we experience as time passes is a mental process that takes place in space between memories and expectations . " Time is a form in which we exist with all brains, filled with memories and predictive predictions interacting with the world: that is the source of our being ," he said. write.

Basically, Rovelli believes that time is a story that we always tell ourselves or others in the present tense.

It is a collective action, introspecting and simultaneously explaining to others, keeping memories and setting expectations, based on our relationships with previous events and direct be aware of what's going to happen.

It is this story that also gives us a sense of ourselves, my ego, a feeling that many neuroscientists, mystics and physicists are debating, is it just one? mass delusion.

Without memory and expectation, we will not feel the passage of time, nor will we know who we are, Rovelli said.

Time is clearly an emotional and psychological experience. " That experience is very loosely related to the outside reality, which is almost just something happening right now, in our heads."