Quantum Cosmosophy for Dummies - part 2
Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so. *
What is Time? A universal dimension? A physical quantity to measure progress? A figment of humaniversal imagination? As ubiquitous and infinite in supply as it may seem from the viewpoint of our daily lives, we have yet to explain what it really is. We are actually part of the process we know as time. Therefore, in order to fully comprehend and define it, we might have to step outside of time. Until then, it may seem to be a physical component instead of an abstract concept of our Universe.
Entropy is the thermodynamic entity that drives our sense of time, as much as it steers every process in our Universe towards higher degrees of disorder. Every action and reaction, all work and movement takes place due to an increase in entropy. Indeed, it gives direction to everything in the Universe, all space and time included. One might even think or express that thought by saying: entropy shapes our Universe.
Our sense of time, seemingly moving from past to future, is caused by our perception of entropy in action. Perception is an entropically driven process itself, so our sense of time seems to come from the relationship between the entropy of external and our own, internal processes. And if this is indeed where our notion of time spawns from, it is based on local, differential variations in the entropy of these non-simultaneous processes. Applying Galilean relativization: if all universal processes would proceed and interact at the same, constant rate, how could the progress of processes i.e. time itself, be measured or even noticed from the inside?
Maybe our perception of time and its direction is an effect of these interrelating variations between cyclic, discrete and continuous yet non-simultaneous processes, progressing inside, around and beyond ourselves, across all scales of the universe. As close or far from it as this may be, science itself, as modern as it may be, does not seem to fully grasp what exactly makes time tick. Apart from being a dimension of spacetime and providing the clockwork to measure the progress of events, time keeps boggling the minds of physicists and cosmosophers alike, as can be seen in the second part of Brian Greene's The Fabric Of The Cosmos:
The Illusion of Time
Brian Greene online: www.briangreene.org
(broadcast transduction by NOVA for PBS)
* quote sampled from Douglas Adams'
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"
click here to fold up to Space, Man! Space!
