But developments in physics suggest the non-existence of time is an open possibility, and one that we should take seriously.
How can that be, and what would it mean? It’ll take a little while to explain, but don’t worry: even if time doesn’t exist, our lives will go on as usual.
Physics is in crisis. For the past century or so, we have explained the universe with two wildly successful physical theories: general relativity and quantum mechanics.
Quantum mechanics describes how things work in the incredibly tiny world of particles and particle interactions. General relativity describes the big picture of gravity and how objects move.
Read more: How Einstein’s general theory of relativity killed off common-sense physics
Both theories work extremely well in their own right, but the two are thought to conflict with one another. Though the exact nature of the conflict is controversial, scientists generally agree both theories need to be replaced with a new, more general theory.
Physicists
want to produce a theory of “quantum gravity” that replaces general
relativity and quantum mechanics, while capturing the extraordinary
success of both. Such a theory would explain how gravity’s big picture
works at the miniature scale of particles....<<<Read More>>>...
