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I'm no philosopher nor a physicist either, but I don't see why that would even be a problem. We know by now that time is relative. To a photon, all of our inf

I'm no philosopher nor a physicist either, but I don't see why that would even be a problem. We know by now that time is relative. To a photon, all of our infinite time, if it is infinite, "happens" all at once, so why would it matter if it took an infinite amount of it to get here. If you could stop a photon and ask it, it would reply that we were always here. Here we are having philosophical debates about it, but I suspect if we just stuck with the math -- regardless of our intuitions -- most of these kinds of arguments would turn out to be a distraction rather than a solution to the problem. That's kind of the point many empiricists like Krauss are trying to make.

yequalsx 12y ago
I think the rub is in the, "if we could stop a photon...". We can't. From the photon's perspective there is no time elapse. The photon doesn't believe time has lasted forever. I imagine it would not even understand the concept. I believe that it is not possible for an infinite amount of time to have elapsed before this moment in time. I think that is what the quote in question is attempting to state.
- erichocean 12y ago
  > I think the rub is in the, "if we could stop a photon...". We can't. Scientists "freeze" light inside a crystal for one minute. [0] Stopping single photons in one-dimensional circuit quantum electrodynamics systems [1] [0] http://www.gizmag.com/stopping-light-inside-crystal/28610/ http://www.gizmag.com/stopping-light-inside-crystal/28610/ [1] http://www.ese.wustl.edu/~jushen/Papers/Stopping_Single_Photons_Shen.pdf http://www.ese.wustl.edu/~jushen/Papers/Stopping_Single_Phot...
  - yequalsx 12y ago
    I mean stop it in the sense of the perspective of the photon. I don't know enough physics but I suspect that from the photon's perspective it hasn't stopped. This is because there is no time elapse from the photon's perspective. The other points in my previous post remain valid. I think!
  - StuffMaster 12y ago
    Those experiments always use variations on the word "stop". The speed of light does not vary. In those experiments, "stop" usually means absorbed and later re-emitted.

yequalsx 12y ago

I think the rub is in the, "if we could stop a photon...". We can't. From the photon's perspective there is no time elapse. The photon doesn't believe time has lasted forever. I imagine it would not even understand the concept. I believe that it is not possible for an infinite amount of time to have elapsed before this moment in time. I think that is what the quote in question is attempting to state.

erichocean 12y ago
> I think the rub is in the, "if we could stop a photon...". We can't. Scientists "freeze" light inside a crystal for one minute. [0] Stopping single photons in one-dimensional circuit quantum electrodynamics systems [1] [0] http://www.gizmag.com/stopping-light-inside-crystal/28610/ http://www.gizmag.com/stopping-light-inside-crystal/28610/ [1] http://www.ese.wustl.edu/~jushen/Papers/Stopping_Single_Photons_Shen.pdf http://www.ese.wustl.edu/~jushen/Papers/Stopping_Single_Phot...
- yequalsx 12y ago
  I mean stop it in the sense of the perspective of the photon. I don't know enough physics but I suspect that from the photon's perspective it hasn't stopped. This is because there is no time elapse from the photon's perspective. The other points in my previous post remain valid. I think!
- StuffMaster 12y ago
  Those experiments always use variations on the word "stop". The speed of light does not vary. In those experiments, "stop" usually means absorbed and later re-emitted.