Time

There is a big question in physics. “Why does time seem to flow in one direction only?” From a mathematical point of view it should equally be able to flow from future to past.

A simple answer?

I have been considering this question through this autumn and there seems such a simple explanation. Time flows forward because the universe is expanding. Einstein showed that space and time are two parts of entirely one whole. Thus if the universe expands only outwards from the Big Bang, then time too must flow in the direction of expansion.

In the flow

I guess i can’t be right - but through this process there have been several moments when i felt as if I were flowing with time, like a surfer riding a wave, a wave in time. Even when I stood still, I sensed I was in this movement, a movement that had no past and no future, but is always just now.

Space gets in the way

I realised the distraction is space. The fact that I am able to choose to move in three dimensions: forwards and back, left and right, up and down, makes it seem that when I choose not to move in any direction then I must be in stillness. But this is not so. Even when I do not move in space still I am flowing in time. Space and time are two parts of one whole, like complementary colours, to have a position in space i must also have a position in time. And even if i do not move in space still time flows. And this wave of now i can never leave. Time is to life on earth as water is to the fish. Being in time we do not see it. But it is the movement we never leave our whole life long.

The future

There is much more … but that is for a later NOW.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 10th, 2009 at 10:46 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.