Why do lots of people think time isn't real?

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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on the philosophical and scientific perspectives regarding the nature of time, with references to Julian Barbour's "The End of Time" and Roger Penrose's "A Road To Reality." Participants argue that time may not be a fundamental aspect of reality, suggesting that our perception of time arises from changes and memory. The conversation highlights the distinction between time as a psychological construct versus its physical implications, emphasizing that while time feels real to humans, it may not exist independently in the universe.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of Julian Barbour's theories on time.
  • Familiarity with Roger Penrose's twistor theory.
  • Basic knowledge of quantum mechanics and its implications on time.
  • Awareness of philosophical arguments regarding the nature of reality and perception.
NEXT STEPS
  • Research Julian Barbour's "The End of Time" for insights on the perception of time.
  • Study Roger Penrose's "A Road To Reality" to explore the concept of emergent reality.
  • Investigate the implications of quantum mechanics on the understanding of time.
  • Examine philosophical perspectives on time from thinkers like St. Augustine.
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Philosophers, physicists, psychologists, and anyone interested in the conceptual understanding of time and its implications in both science and philosophy.

Dremmer
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Why do you think that's the case?
 
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I didn't know it WAS the case. Why do you think it's the case? Take all the time you want to answer.
 
Perhaps because there are lots of foolish people?
 
We perceive time by change. Memory is changes in your brain. Given a shuffled sequence of snapshots of the universe, your own state included, you would always perceive them in the 'right' order. So there does not appear to be any need for an actual passage of time. What does matter is that adjacent states exist with consistent relationships. See e.g. Julian Barbour's "The End of Time"

Another reason is that quantum mechanics can be formulated in a manner in which time does not feature.

No doubt there are other arguments. Several philosophers down the millennia have said similar, St Augustine for one.
 
We perceive time by change.
I suppose we could add another aspect philisophically speaking and say the converse is aslo true - We perceive change by the passage of time.
 
I believe that whether something is real or not depends on your perspective. Humans created the concept of time in order to make the understanding of physical concepts easier.But nature doesn't "know" what time , velocity,mass etc are so for nature these quantities are imaginary.

It's just like the question : Does God exist ? Well i can't say yes or no but , from the peoples point of view yes it exists, it exists in their minds.No one can say if it exists beyond that.
 
I don't think that the belief that time is not real (or at least not fundamental) is foolish, although a lot of fools believe that time is not real.

Time is as real as space. But maybe all of spacetime is some kind of emergent reality which we perceive on top of a universe with a different geometry. I just got finished reading Penrose's _A Road To Reality_, so twistor theory is on my mind. In this theory, the space of events on spacetime is not fundamental, and it is instead the null intervals that make up points in the fundamental space.
 
256bits said:
I suppose we could add another aspect philisophically speaking and say the converse is aslo true - We perceive change by the passage of time.

Not really. We cannot perceive the passage of time directly. We only perceive it by change, and we only perceive change by virtue of memory.
 
Ohhh nooooo, not another "what is time" thread! :cry:

https://www.physicsforums.com/blog.php?b=3106
 
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  • #10
jtbell said:
Ohhh nooooo, not another "what is time" thread! :cry:

https://www.physicsforums.com/blog.php?b=3106

I agree. I think it's time a mod called time-out on these pesky time posts.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • #11
The question as posed is not a physics question, but rather a psychology question.
 
  • #12
Agreed. This is not physics.
 

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