- #1
pediejo
- 9
- 0
"What is time?" I am aware that the question is age-old and has loomed in the background of physics as long as the subject has been around. I am also aware that cosmologists, who devote their lives to studying the concept of time and the evolution of this universe, struggle to put a finger on an exact definition of this elusive concept. But, nevertheless, I would like to start a new thread devoted to the search for "What we actually mean when we use the word ‘time.’"
I hope to create an environment in which we all can collaborate to get to the root of this. For those of you who might think this a frivolous and irrelevant chase, it is recognized by greatly respected physicists that this problem may be the root of our current stagnation in theoretical physics. When Tony Leggett, Nobel laureate and expert on superfluids, was asked where he believes the next breakthrough in theoretical physics to be, he told us that it would be in a change of our notion of time. Lee Smolin, famed theoretical physicist researching quantum gravity at the Perimeter Institute, states in his book, The Trouble with Physics:
"More and more, I have the feeling that quantum theory and general relativity are both deeply wrong about the nature of time. It is not enough to combine them. There is a deeper problem, perhaps going back to the origin of physics."
I believe the reason for this obscurity is the fact that our muddled concept of time is so intertwined with the way we communicate and is the foundation of our rationalization, that we have no way to discuss it without bringing in presupposed meanings of the concept.
I recognize that it will be challenging for everyone to keep all posts progressive while discussing this topic, but I ask everyone to scrutinize your own posts before submitting them, making sure that you have not implied assumptions that will cause digression in the thread.
I look forward to seeing what we can put forth here. This is a topic that I have always held close and hope to research later in life.
-PJ
I hope to create an environment in which we all can collaborate to get to the root of this. For those of you who might think this a frivolous and irrelevant chase, it is recognized by greatly respected physicists that this problem may be the root of our current stagnation in theoretical physics. When Tony Leggett, Nobel laureate and expert on superfluids, was asked where he believes the next breakthrough in theoretical physics to be, he told us that it would be in a change of our notion of time. Lee Smolin, famed theoretical physicist researching quantum gravity at the Perimeter Institute, states in his book, The Trouble with Physics:
"More and more, I have the feeling that quantum theory and general relativity are both deeply wrong about the nature of time. It is not enough to combine them. There is a deeper problem, perhaps going back to the origin of physics."
I believe the reason for this obscurity is the fact that our muddled concept of time is so intertwined with the way we communicate and is the foundation of our rationalization, that we have no way to discuss it without bringing in presupposed meanings of the concept.
I recognize that it will be challenging for everyone to keep all posts progressive while discussing this topic, but I ask everyone to scrutinize your own posts before submitting them, making sure that you have not implied assumptions that will cause digression in the thread.
I look forward to seeing what we can put forth here. This is a topic that I have always held close and hope to research later in life.
-PJ