Albert Einstein has become a cultural icon of genius and most people are aware that he came up with something called Relativity, but they don't really know much except that it is some really heady thing and kind of cool to people who don't live in the real world. So they think!
Einstein is one of my leading heroes of history and it is because he was not just quirky and brilliant, it was because at the heart of things he was actually a theoretician that could work wonders in his head and bring them down to earth in such a way that they could be proven true or false. They weren't just nice or fun ideas, they were resolvable as facts in the universe. And, oh the implications of those facts!
Let's deal with one of his proven facts of Special Relativity (and I am leaving out the implications of General Relativity on purpose, even though some of what I explain, like the clock in orbit, incorporate parts of it). I won't go into any detail because it requires way too much explanation and I have reduced it to shorthand in my mind after being introduced to it 50 years ago as a physics major. The lift of laying out the whole thing gets pretty heavy! But, what I want to distill for you here is the proven fact of something called time dilation.
Time dilation is a difference in the elapsed time measured by two clocks, due to them having a velocity relative to each other is the implication of Special Relativity. How do you prove that? Why, synchronize two atomic clocks accurate to one second in well over a million years with another atomic clock so that they stay in virtually perfect synchrony. Sitting side by side, come back next month and they will tell you precisely the same time. However, launch one of them into orbit for a bit - which they did - and bring it back to earth, Special Relativity says that the clock in orbit experienced time more slowly. It literally was slower. And, now check the two atomic clocks and they are off precisely the amount Einstein predicted! Also, our current GPS systems could not work without the adjustments for time dilation, so it has quite practical application, too.
So, the current physicist Brian Greene, a professor at Columbia University and one of the world's leading string theorists, showed on his PBS special that an alien on a bicycle in a galaxy 10 billion miles from earth moving away from me at 13 miles per hour has a now that is actually 200 years in my past. But, if he turns his bike and rides toward me at 13 miles per hour, his now is actually 200 years into my future! The implication, as Greene and others point out, is that the future exists already!!! And this isn't just some science fiction, this is implied by proven science fact that we rely upon every day. The future already is!
Does this mean we don't have free will? No, not necessarily, for this may not be the only future available in the multiverse theories. But, it does mean that each of those futures in all those multiverses already exist. And, the physics of quantum mechanics may give the hints about how we get from one to another with every decision we make.
All of this is too involved and requires too much knowledge foundation building to undertake here, but for those interested, the web is filled with all kinds of places to start. One of my favorite books of old is Bertram Russel's The ABC's of Relativity. But, for the purpose of this post, this is why I named the blog as I did. Even though we currently don't actually see how I could have memories from that already existent future due to something called entropy, there is still much to explore and many of the religions and mystical traditions feel there is evidence that the future that already exists can in fact be perceived under the right conditions. So, I took a bit of a flight of fancy with the name, but a flight less ungrounded than you might expect.
I mean, who knows? It's not like the world isn't already strange, right?
Please check out my other blog mates' takes on the same topic brought to us by yours truly at their blogs:
Again my point is proven - Einstein here, the Swinging Medallions in mine LOL. I must admit - I truly hope Einstein was like his character played in the movie IQ
ReplyDeleteSwinging Medallions?
DeleteToooooo much Science and Relativity for my mundane literal brain...but new knowledge is always thoughts generating...
ReplyDeleteI read this recently about life and death...
When an elder passed your past goes.
When a contemporary or peer passed your present goes.
When someone younger passed your future goes.
Carol didn't take it in with any ease (or accuracy), but each to our own ways, none better than the other.
ReplyDeleteAs you are aware, I am a Vedantin and in Vedanta, time is not linear at all. I think that you would enjoy reading https://science.thewire.in/the-sciences/erwin-schrodinger-quantum-mechanics-philosophy-of-physics-upanishads/
ReplyDeleteThe article is excellent showing the virtues of both cultural approaches coupled with the realization of the one unified reality and being that we are trying to express. I very much believe through my own scientific background and application of that to my own mystical experience, both being core pillars of my comprehension, that the Vedantins are correct in their belief that time is not linear. That article was delightful and very informative, so thank you!
DeleteTo put it quite simply, you made my brain hurt!
ReplyDeletelol. That wasn’t what I set out to do!
DeleteConrad I thought your blog was called 'The Old Fossil'. How did that happen? That is a great name, memories from the future. It really makes you think. I was wondering if you believe in the theory of the parallel universe where everything is the same, but different. Like, your other self is there but there are different curtains on the windows on your house there than here. But maybe the Beatles never broke up there but they did here. Or something. I daresay you'd have a good take on that.
ReplyDeleteMy personal belief is that there is a new branch created with every choice we make. With the probable true nature of time, to extend that, I believe that each possibility already exists and we have the free will to choose among the limitless options.
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