5 ms·

Interesting, since time itself is measured and linked to motion. Perhaps it is a construct for human consciousness, because time cannot exist without conscious

Interesting, since time itself is measured and linked to motion. Perhaps it is a construct for human consciousness, because time cannot exist without consciousness. There must be a perceptor to preceive the universe and the notion of time. However, how can time dialation be explained? Would we actually age slower when we travel close to speed of light? That throws a wrench into the concept of time being just a construct and not an actual facet of our universe.

tsimionescu 4y ago
> Would we actually age slower when we travel close to speed of light? Technically, from your point of view you will never age slower. Depending on your speed compared to others, those others may age faster or slower than you, but you yourself will never experience time at a different rate. Say you were somehow guaranteed to live 120 years. Then, no matter what you did, whether you stayed perfectly still in empty space or moved at almost the speed of light, or got infinitesimally close to a black hole, you will only ever experience 120 years of life.
- kumarvvr 4y ago
  So, when time is different for different entities under different conditions, then time is another part of universe, rather than just a mathematical convenience of a human perception. In the thought experiment, in two frames of references moving at different speeds but close to speed of light, how do molecules, cells and enzymes know how fast to age?
  - tsimionescu 4y ago
    Everything has its own frame of reference. Everything is stationary relative to itself, so everything's "clock" is perfectly synchronized with everything else's, relative to themselves. "Time dilation" only comes into play when comparing the clocks of two different things moving at different speeds or accelerations relative to each other, or existing in two different gravitational fields (which is equivalent).
    - TechBro8615 4y ago
      If you were a few thousand kilometers tall, would the cells in your feet age at a different rate than those in your head?
      - tsimionescu 4y ago
        If you're on Earth or in general near a strong gravitational field, yes, because your feet experience a different acceleration than your head (marginally, we're probably talking like a second every decade or less - atomic clocks on GPS satellites at 20k km from the surface run faster than atomic clocks on the surface by ~40microseconds/day, so that would accumulate to ~3.5s/decade). If you're floating around in the void, no, everything is stationary relative to each other, and experiencing the same acceleration, so no real difference. There would still be some small difference between the cells closer to your center of mass than the ones farther away, because you also have your own gravitational field, but it would be so weak it would almost not matter at all.

tsimionescu 4y ago

> Would we actually age slower when we travel close to speed of light? Technically, from your point of view you will never age slower. Depending on your speed compared to others, those others may age faster or slower than you, but you yourself will never experience time at a different rate. Say you were somehow guaranteed to live 120 years. Then, no matter what you did, whether you stayed perfectly still in empty space or moved at almost the speed of light, or got infinitesimally close to a black hole, you will only ever experience 120 years of life.

kumarvvr 4y ago
So, when time is different for different entities under different conditions, then time is another part of universe, rather than just a mathematical convenience of a human perception. In the thought experiment, in two frames of references moving at different speeds but close to speed of light, how do molecules, cells and enzymes know how fast to age?
- tsimionescu 4y ago
  Everything has its own frame of reference. Everything is stationary relative to itself, so everything's "clock" is perfectly synchronized with everything else's, relative to themselves. "Time dilation" only comes into play when comparing the clocks of two different things moving at different speeds or accelerations relative to each other, or existing in two different gravitational fields (which is equivalent).
  - TechBro8615 4y ago
    If you were a few thousand kilometers tall, would the cells in your feet age at a different rate than those in your head?
    - tsimionescu 4y ago
      If you're on Earth or in general near a strong gravitational field, yes, because your feet experience a different acceleration than your head (marginally, we're probably talking like a second every decade or less - atomic clocks on GPS satellites at 20k km from the surface run faster than atomic clocks on the surface by ~40microseconds/day, so that would accumulate to ~3.5s/decade). If you're floating around in the void, no, everything is stationary relative to each other, and experiencing the same acceleration, so no real difference. There would still be some small difference between the cells closer to your center of mass than the ones farther away, because you also have your own gravitational field, but it would be so weak it would almost not matter at all.