by Sanford Aranoff

Created on: July 15, 2009

Implications of the non-existence of Time
Abstract

Recent books have shown that time does not exist as a valid concept in physics. This paper clarifies this, and shows how this helps understanding various concepts in physics. The principle is positivism. This clarifies advanced electromagnetic potentials, equilibrium using covariant transformations, and the nature of black holes and the Big Bang. The nature of God is also discussed, and shown consistent with the notion that time does not exist. Comments on science and religion are added. Discussion of the nature of science and the wavefunction of the universe shows that all knowledge must be incomplete.

One of the fundamental ideas of physics is logical positivism. A statement is meaningful if and only if it can be proved true or false, at least in principle, by means of the experience. A theory of physics is a mathematical system whose concepts can be measured or observed experimentally. A concept that cannot be observed in principle does not exist.

Let us consider the concept of time. We all believe in the reality of this physical concept. We measure time using clocks. However, further analyses , show that time cannot be a valid concept in physics. A simple discussion explains this. It is impossible to go to the past, for if we could, then the past would not be past. If time travel to the past exists, then time does not exist. This means that we cannot observe, in principle, the past. When we look at pictures that we took of past events, what we are looking is at the present, the pictures. The past exists only in the sense of the records that exist now. The future, of course, does not yet exist. If neither the past nor the future exists as valid concepts in physics, then neither does time.

When physicists speak about time, we speak about records of clocks. We see pictures now of clocks describing the experiments in physics. Although time exists in the equations, the reality is that the only existence is the present. Time in physics equations is merely an intermediate variable, not an actual physical quantity.

When we look at a star, the light interacts with our eyes now. This is something in the present. Consider the force of gravity of the sun on the earth. It takes light about 8+ minutes to reach us from the sun. The speed of light is the speed of information. This means that the information about the sun's location takes 8 minutes to get here. The direction of the force of gravity is towards where the sun

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