Co-Written with ChatGPT
Neil deGrasse Tyson briefly explained at a UNSW Science interview that time represents motion. It's a way for physicists to calculate how things move and change. An interesting fact about time is that you can walk back and forth in a straight line or any coordinate, but you cannot go back in forth in time arbitrarily, as Tyson explains. The future hasn't happened yet, and there's no way to truly go back to the past.
In a recent episode of the Lex Fridman podcast, award-winning chemist Lee Cronin challenges the notion that time is not real or that time travel is possible. According to Cronin, time is fundamental to existence, and incremental changes over time are a fundamental part of nature. He believes that the emergence of life and novel phenomena began with simple chemical reactions that gradually became more complex over time.
Cronin argues that at the base level of existence, the chemical state was not complex enough to produce consciousness or life. Even today, after millions of years of evolution, consciousness remains rare, and bringing someone back to life after death is extremely difficult. Despite advances in medical science, nobody has been successfully brought back to life after long-term death and decomposition.
Overall, Cronin's perspective on time and the emergence of life offers a thought-provoking alternative to existing theories in physics and biology. By emphasizing the importance of incremental changes over time and the gradual assembly of complex chemical structures, he offers a fresh perspective on the origins of life and the role of time in the universe.
How Would it Make a Difference if Time is Fundamental vs Not-Real?
Time provides a framework for understanding causality and the evolution of systems over time.
If time is not real (and incremental changes aren't fundamental), it would mean that there is no objective reality or order to the events in the universe. Past, present and future would be illusions, and events would not occur in any particular order. This view challenges our everyday experience and the fundamental assumptions of science, which rely on the concept of time as a fundamental aspect of reality.
On the other hand, if time is fundamental to existence, it means that there is a clear and objective order to events in the universe.
This view is consistent with our everyday experience and the fundamental assumptions of science, which assume that the universe operates according to consistent and predictable laws over time.
Cronin's view that time is fundamental to existence aligns with the latter perspective. He argues that incremental changes over time are a fundamental aspect of nature and that the emergence of life and other novel phenomena is the result of gradual chemical processes over time. This view is consistent with the principles of evolution and the fundamental laws of physics and chemistry.
Overall, the question of whether time is fundamental or not real has profound implications for our understanding of the universe and our place in it. By challenging our assumptions about the nature of reality, these perspectives offer new insights into the fundamental nature of the cosmos and the mechanisms that drive its evolution over time.