Does the Past and Future exist in the Here and NOW

Here’s an interesting concept. What if the past, present and the future were all happening at the very same moment in time?

This astonishing new scientific concept is known as the “block universe” theory and it suggests that time is not linear and it does not actually “flow like a river” in one direction.

Instead, the theory suggests that the future and the past are both in the here and now.

This then raises the question:

Are we only experiencing time as intrinsically linear because it’s all that our human minds are capable of comprehending?

Let’s get a little more in-depth in this fascinating new theory and what it could possibly mean to our existence.

The “Block Universe” Theory

Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor of philosophy Dr. Bradford Skow has suggested that if we were to “look down” on the universe as if it were a diagram, then we would see time spreading out in all directions.

And that if viewed like that, you’d be able to see time as a four-dimensional vector space.

In quantum physics this vector is now known as the “block universe theory.”

In his general theory of relativity, Einstein proposed that space-time takes form in a manifold or continuum way.

As he once said:

“The distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”

Einstein’s theory is still considered to be the closest to the true answer of what the universe means on a cosmological sense.

However instead of thinking that time and existence simply sail past us and then completely vanish, perhaps we should think that they still both exist and are existing simultaneously, albeit in different parts of space-time.

So on that basis it is not unreasonable to think of a block universe as actually existing.

It’s just that we can’t access anything outside of this three dimensional block we are living in.

Time Travel

When you consider Dr. Skow’s theory with an open mind, you begin to realise that it could change the way we think about travelling in time.

If everything is happening simultaneously – the past, present and future all happening at the same moment – then you can potentially travel through time and experience it as it is and as it will always be.

So, if you can travel in time, can you change the past?

And if the Block Universe theory is real, then can’t we simply travel across time and change the present or the future?

No. That would create a contradiction, and there are no contradictions in Dr. Skow’s block universe theory.

Remember, in the block universe model, the past is no different than the future because they both exist in the present.

Everything is relative: what is past to you, will be future to someone else.

The “Mirror Universe” Theory

Dr. Bradford Skow’s Block Universe theory was recently followed by another equally controversial one.

UK physicist Dr. Julian Barbour and other scientists now believe that when the Big Bang happened, the universe created a mirror universe.

And in this Mirror Universe, time travels backward.

This means that in this twin universe, people wake up from death, live out their old age and start heading backwards in time in order to be young enough to start life again.

Julian Barbour from the University of Oxford said:

“Time is not something that pre-exists, The direction and flow of time we have to deduce from what’s happening in the Universe.

When we look at it that way, it’s natural to say that time begins at that central point and flows away in opposite directions.”

Sounds completely bizzare, doesn’t it?

Questions

If either of these theories are correct, they might answer some the most stubborn of all quantum physics questions.

For Example:

Why does time only move in one direction?

What happened to all the anti-matter after the universe’s Big Bang?

If time is ever-present, then is there any hope for evolution in the sense we are familiar with?

What is the purpose and meaning of life if we are existing in an as it is existence, without any hope of deviation?

All of these new radical theories are fun to think and talk about. But if one of them is true, then even more questions will arise.

And Finally

Scientific debates on the 4th dimension – time and its true purpose will always continue.

If we are ever going to unlock any of the answers, then the more quantum scientists debate and develop their theories the more chance we will have to fully comprehend what the 4th dimension – time – really is.

Debating scientific theory is, perhaps, a way to discover the meaning of our existence.

Some might say that the joy of the debate isn’t to be found in the finding of answers, but more in the journey to finding them.

Anonymous humbly thanks you for visiting and reading.

Please leave any comments you may have in the box below as he has finally worked out how to read and answer them.

He leaves you now with an aptly named tune from Pink Floyd – TIME.