Your Circuits Will Burn: What is the Block Universe Theory?

Every moment of our lives is in space-time. Our birth, our life, our death… At least block universe theory according to that. To explain it better; According to the block universe theory, the universe is a huge block consisting of everything that happens at any time and in any place.

According to the block universe theory, which argues that the concepts of past, present and future are equally real. Time periods exist simultaneously in the universe. This brings us to the idea of ​​time travel. Let’s confuse you a little more.

Let’s imagine the universe as a block.

Let’s think of the leftmost part of the block as the beginning of the universe (the Big Bang) and the rightmost part as the end of the universe (the apocalypse). What we call past tense, present tense and future tense; everything that has happened, is happening and will happen occurred or will occur between these two parties. means.

The block is full of events. Where these events are in the block represents their location in space-time. Birth, death, the time you are in while reading this content… It’s all somewhere in this blog.

Time does not pass in the block universe.

We think of the present as “now”, the past as “yesterday” and the “future” as tomorrow. Also, the present appears to be undergoing change. In short, from our perspective, time seems to pass. However, according to the block universe theory time does not flow.

There is no specific present moment, and “past” and “future” moments are relative. Consider the action of “being here.” As you read this, you can say “I am here” even though your “here” is different from mine. Here is the block universe theory Talking about “now” is just like talking about “here”.

Let’s explain by giving an example:

Yesterday, to your friend who came to you for coffee. “You’re finally here!” you can say. Someone else may have said the same thing hundreds of years ago. Both are true, because the only point of talking about the now is to talk about where you are in time. Always, wherever we are; everyone is present in the moment. Just like everyone is in the place they call “here”.

According to the block universe theory, there are temporal relationships.

Temporal relationships, any regardless of where you are valid. For example, a dinosaur is on the block before your cat. This relationship between the dinosaur and your cat is valid regardless of whether it takes place before or after.

The idea of ​​past and future is also given meaning in this way. Just as “now” is located in the present time, The past is also located at any earlier time.

So, can we travel in time?

If time is another dimension, very similar to spatial dimensions, we can travel through time, but of course things are much more complicated than that. According to the block universe theory, we can travel to the past using wormholes in space-time. However We can’t make a change in the past because the past is no different from the present or the future.

Since time is relative, what happened in the past for us is will come for someone else It will happen. So when we travel to the past, we go to someone else’s future. This means that the past will be no different from the present.

If the circuits are burned, let’s summarize.

If we go back to the past, we become part of the past. More importantly, we were always part of the past. events on the block, they are always there and unchanging. So, as a time traveler, you don’t suddenly appear in the past. It is always in that past tense.

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