The Missing Interview With Einstein
About Scary Thinking In Physics
Citizen Scientist:
“Sir, as you are an expert on Einstein’s thinking … when he was working on the thorniest of problems in physics, did he ever consider that thinking itself could have been part of such problems?”
Physicist:
“Uh, no maam, he would have said that such questions belong in philosophy, and maybe psychology, but that his work was focused in physics.”
Citizen Scientist:
“We know that Einstein fully believed that “time” was intrinsic in the physical universe, so we can call this “physical time”. Not only did he put physical time in his famous relativity equations but he then declared such equations to be non-severable, all or none.”
Physicist:
“Yes, relativity, physics, science, it all depends on time. There is only one time. And in general relativity, time can speed up or slow down depending on reference frames.”
Citizen Scientist:
“Well, sir, we do know that there is another time, a separate time, that we can call “human time”, right?
“We know that humans long ago invented human time, and that it did not exist before then. This time is “rate of flow”, a concept in thinking.”
“Humanity could not have progressed much beyond the ”cave people days” without the invention and development of concepts and tools, such as human time.”
“But this time is not physical. It exists only in thinking. It is not an intrinsic part of the physical universe.”
Physicist:
“Well, maam, you are getting into philosophy with this. There is only one time.”
Citizen Scientist:
“Sir, can you help me understand what physical time is? I understand that you are saying that physical time is the same as human time but I don’t get how that works.”
“We know that human brains generated human time, so what generated physical time?”
“Do you believe that the physical universe includes some type of functionality, such as a brain, that generated physical time, and then blended it exactly with human time?”
“Or do you believe that when humans were inventing and developing human time they actually were copying what they believed to exist already? But if so, why would they need to create a new time?”
Physicist:
“Maam, I just know that time exists in the universe and everything depends on it.”
Citizen Scientist:
“Do you believe that the physical universe could generate “rate of flow” as a concept, and then somehow implement that concept into the laws of physicality? Can the universe generate concepts?”
Physicist:
“Maam, I don’t want to engage in such philosophical thinking but I know for certain that time exists.”
Citizen Scientist:
“Could it be that some physicists are conflating thinking with physicality and that then leads them to believe that physical time exists?
“Are they mixing up the time that occurs only in thinking, i.e. human time, with the flow and motion that occur in the physical universe?”
Physicist:
“No, maam, the physics about this is clear. Einstein’s field equations (relativity) do work and they include physical time so that proves that time exists in the physical universe.”
Citizen Scientist:
“Ah, so Einstein’s assertion of non-severability for his equations and his dogma about “time” do persist even today.”
“In any case, certainly almost all of humanity is not concerned with this question because they can live out their lives depending on human time.”
“But in physics, the consequences are huge. Without the existence of physical time then Einstein’s spacetime is not an explanation of gravity. And time dilation does not exist. And so on.”
Physicist:
“OK, but spacetime does work so that’s another argument for the existence of physical time.”
“I cannot even imagine that time would not exist. Of course it exists. Physics and science require it.”
Wrap up:
Obviously the above imagined dialog indicts the thinking of some physicists about the issue of “time”, but we want to be fair and acknowledge some opposing views.
Some physicists do pose arguments that include various concepts they believe point toward the existence of physical time, in which they use such concepts as various reference times, system time, mechanical time, thermodynamic time, and more.
There are more than a dozen familiar arguments for the existence of physical time, discussed elsewhere.
(This article was originally posted on Medium.com 2/24/23)