Is time an illusion?

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7 Answers

HappyTo BeHereTo Profile

Who was that genius?  The one who blended past and future into an endless stream of now?

Enjoy the moment.

Smiley Crankenhoof Profile

A few years back, I read some fiction by Kurt Vonnegut and thought about some of the concepts he used in his work. I think the piece I was reading was Slaughterhouse-Five. Vonnegut talks about an advanced species which exists simultaneously in the past, present, and future. Time essentially did not exist for them. After thinking about it, I realized it wasn't so far-fetched and eventually I came to believe that past, present, and future probably really do exist simultaneously.

Last year, I was watching a NOVA episode on PBS concerning Space-Time. Of course the topic included thoughts of Albert Einstein, who saw time as a component of space-time. The program mentioned that Einstein believed past, present, and future exist simultaneously, which led me to believe the concept wasn't crazy after all.


Ray Dart Profile
Ray Dart answered

"Time is an illusion, lunchtime, doubly so"

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

Tom  Jackson Profile
Tom Jackson answered

"Even in empty space, time and space still exist. Physicists have no problem answering the question of “If a tree falls in the woods and no one’s there to hear it, does it make a sound?” They say, “Yes! Of course it makes a sound!” Likewise, if time flows without entropy and there’s no one there to experience it, is there still time? Yes. There’s still time. It’s still part of the fundamental laws of nature even in that part of the universe. It’s just that events that happen in that empty universe don’t have causality, don’t have memory, don’t have progress and don’t have aging or metabolism or anything like that. It’s just random fluctuations."

If that quote bores you, stop here; otherwise, here the article:  www.wired.com/2010/02/what-is-time/

Semon Sehal Profile
Semon Sehal answered

Time is considered about day and night.

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