Time is the foremost illusion of science. Long time ago
Parmenides taught that it is indeed so. Then came Newton who believed
that time is as real as space. Both are containers for events and are as
real as the object they contain. Despite the teaching of Leibnitz that
time is a way to describe change, modern physics regards time as an independent
ontological entity which really exists and controls us.
What we perceive is change. In ancient civilizations astrologers studied
change in heaven and discovered the way of heavenly bodies. They were
interested also in the rate of change, which they expressed in terms of
days, seasons or years. Yet these heavenly clocks were crude. Then one
day the first water clock was invented and the measurement of the rate of
change of events improved. With time this and other clocks became an essential
factor in the evolution of knowledge.
Descartes introduced a mathematical framework within which change is studied.
Three space and one time axis. The last differs inherently from the other
since it is supposed to drive events, which is deeply rooted in the
differential calculus. Take the metaphysical fraction ds/dt known as infinitesimal
and try to invert it to dt/ds which looks like nonsense, Why? Since only
time drives events. Whoever observed space to drive anything? The creation
of ds/dt bred the time illusion which dominates science today. Serious
truth lovers were even ready to accept that Newton’s time flows also backward.
Why should Newton’s laws make such a contra-intuitive suggestion? Simply
because eliminating the back flow of time from his equations would introduce
an unpleasant discontinuity which Newton did not bother to handle. After
all discontinuities are the main threat to the differential calculus.
And then came entropy with its time arrow directed forward. Entropy has
two disturbing properties: It disobeys Newton’s laws and its rate cannot
be measured with Newtonian chronometers. Might these two representations
of time be united under a more general one? After all these theories are
only two models for interpreting change, and there are more, each with
its individual time and clock. Like the relativity theory which may be regarded
as a set of instructions how to set your clock when traveling
Yet for some physicists, relativity theory has an unpleasant aspect. Time
travel back in time is somewhat compromised. Fortunately it can be easily
resolved with additional dimensions. With nine dimensions at hand and a
brane, time travel is as easy as it can be. Or take Stephen Hawking’s
A Brief History of Time. Shouldn’t it be broadened a bit and tell us
about the History of Clocks in Time?
I started contemplating time, when realizing that medical doctors measure
events in the body with a wrong time piece, the Newtonian clock, while
in reality our clock is different. Take two of your friends with the same
age. One looks younger, and the other somewhat older. Their Newtonian ages
are the same, yet their biological clocks tic at different
rates.
Since doctors measure disease progression with Newtonian
clocks their prognosis is generally wrong particularly in cancer when some
doctors assure their patients that their time is running out, while the
patient’s inner clock disobeys their
verdict
Long before Newton and Parmenides, Hindu philosophers realized that time
is an illusion. The almighty Brahman is timeless, and lets his assistant
by the name of Maya to spread the illusion of time.
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