Julian Barbour | The End of Time

Theoretical physicist and author, Julian Barbour, talks to us about why time is an illusion and what this means for the quantum mechanics of the universe.

#time #quantum #physics #interview #iaitv

Julian Barbour is a theoretical physicist working on on foundational issues in physics for nearly fifty years, specializing in the study of time and motion. He is emeritus visiting professor in physics at the University of Oxford. He is the author of Absolute or Relative Motion? , The End of Time, and The Janus Point.​ Barbour's work on time has forcused on the illusion of time. He argues, time as such does not exist but only change. He has shown how, alongside the relativity of motion, the notion of time as change can be built into the foundations of dynamics and looked at the consequences of this implication for the quantum mechanics of the universe.

For more from Julian Barbour watch:

Does Infinity Exist? | Julian Barbour, Laura Mersini-Houghton, Peter Cameron

Time, Space and Being | Julian Barbour, Huw Price, Michela Massimi

The Elegant Universe | Julian Barbour, Nancy Cartwright, Steve Fuller

DELVE DEEPER

[MightyDrunken]

When most physicists say, "Time is an illusion" they usually mean time moves at different rates as described by General Relativity. When Barbour says, "Time is an illusion" he actually means it.

[joseraulcapablanca]

I read his book on this subject many years ago. I could not claim to have understood all the mathematics. however his ideas were well presented and make more sense, than one might think on the face of it. “Time does not exist!” Sounds crazy but maybe it is not. Very interesting chap Barbour

[suecondon]

I still have his book The End of Time from 1999. What a wonderful man.

[colinperry]

The best way of answering the question, "What is Time"? is that time is the dimension between events!

[Feldsalat]

„It is always now, only the content is constantly changing.“ (Eckhart Tolle)👍👍👍

[jamesrolls]

The interviewer is awesome here! Really knowledgeable and probing 👍👍

[ClaySanford-eo]

I read Julian's book in 2003. I was enthralled and happy to see this. He seems to be similar to Donald Hoffman's thoughts on time and consciousness. Thanks

[elizabethgasparim]

Finally, after such a long time looking for it, here is one clear explanation of why time is an illusion! Thank you so much.

[nostalgia]

Excelent video. Philochrony is the theory that affirms that time is magnitive: objetive, imperceptible (intervals) and measurable (duration).

[DistortedV]

Time just feels so simplistic, it's like it just feels like something that makes the math works

[mitchkahle]

Time appears to be one of our senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell, and time. No two people appears feel and experience time in the same way. For some it runs or flies, for others is drags and crawls. It's not when we are, it's where we are.

[bmayaa]

This is a very good question from 3:40. What will change? If we change the name and instead of time we will call it change. As if asking what the change is, how many changes have passed since you were born. Or maybe change is the fourth dimension. And instead of space-time, we have space-change.

[martijn]

Wonderful interview. One thing though; just as in the frozen time model of Einstein, if all the now's are just moments like frames from a movie, and movement itself in the sense of a flow is just an illusion, what causes his hand to be in one spacetime place, and then in another?

[briacroa]

Time is not an illusion but it is a perception.

[felixccaa]

3:45 this is true for all our senses - we do not even see anything without micro movement

[rayraycthree]

Time is the repositioning of matter and energy due to energy. The mathematical concept of time is needed to describe chemical reactions, physical movement and the relativistic universe

[GiI]

What an absolutely holistic thinker. I wish more physicists these days bothered with the classics, and with the understanding that not all of classical physics has been adequately reinterpreted in the wake of the quantum revolution.

I'm personally a possibilist, but I can certainly get behind Barbour's presentism.

[OneWrongFamily]

The methodology of a speculative temporal philosophy

With the scientific development pointing into a certain direction across various disciplines, that time could only be an illusion, accompanied by a societal consensus vis-a-vis this conception, i decided to try and concept a new view on the philosphy of timelessness.

Asking yourself anything, being the main tool of all of philosphy, the questions that are being stated by a philosophy of timelessness are going to represent the core of this treatment. For some of them, first approaches are going to be delivered, which are to be executed at another point. This way, a first conception of this philosophy is to be proposed, and the foundation of the methodological framework for further considerations to be layed down.

The first obstacle to be overcome is the language. Besides others, the first ones to encounter some difficulties are the ones who try to define the nature of timelessness using a language which fundamental structure depends on the temporal order of being things.

Considering this, all expressions that are to be viewed on the background of timelessness, will be accompanied by a corresponding reference or a new term will be introduced.

The understanding of those terms, demands a high level of cognitive devotion to the following premise:

Time does only exist as a mental construct.

Regarding the previously stated warning, it is the language that creates a mental contradiction by speaking these words.

But since time cant be eliminated on a cognitive level, it is not yet necessary to predict an attack on the day to day semiotics.

But since we just eliminated time from a physical level, some of the rather intuitiv answers to simple questions seem not to be applicable anymore and other previously not even thought of questions seem to be pressing for an elegant solution.

Imagine a physical world without time, a consortium of from one another least possibly different nows, only connected through the laws of nature.

Every one of those nows would be equal in the face of timelessness and all of them would be happening simultaneously.

But there are nows, that include time, and it are those ones which include intelligent life itself.

Since intelligent life has to be made possible by selfawareness, and it itself needs a concept of a past and future self, u cant speak of single nows but rather a now complex.

Since there is no temporal Order of things, common physical equations have to be translated into the language of temporal philosophy as seen below:

A system moving at the speed v changes its state at a rate lower by a facotr of (1 − v2/c2)−1/2

than the system in the rest frame, meaning that every human life( if and as long as it has a concept of time )represents such a now complex, in which time is to be found, but only within the boundaries of the associated mind.

If the human consciousness moves in time, but the corresponding body itself does not, the conclusion is to be drawn, that at smaller mergers of nows within the human now complex, there are separate consciousnesses feeling the journey through time.

Therefore it has to be calculable how many of those conscious states a human now complex includes and therefore how often one appears in his own life.

The respective subject is then limited by time, constructed of almost innurable states of consciousness, all regarding themselves as the real present one, for eternity.

To put it in simpler terms: Your life is like a book, with the pages torn out and distributed on the floor. Every single page does exist equally next to the other, for ever.

Death can be defined as the first now of human now complex, from which on all following nows of that complex are not able to simulate the associated consciousness in relation to all other systems of the universe. This topic will be further discussed in the chapter devoted to the language analytics of the temporal Philosophy.

Going further into the book metaphor, you have a Universe consisting of several books, one them you, and the rate at which you read one book in relation to another is only determined by gravity and speed, the direction in which it is read by the laws of thermodynamics, the physical foundation will be specified at a given time. You should have a clearer pictures now, about the fundamental laws that determine this philosophy and to not stretch this introduction unnecessary i am now going to state the various forms of life that will be at the center of this philosophy.

It is defined by its relation to time and its perception and the practical part of this philosophy will be devoted to finding a series of demands u can set for interactions with the different kinds of life.

It will take some effort and will be discussed in different parts of this treatment but we will be able to split life into 4 categories:

unaware life
Aware life
Selfaware life
Selfaware life aware of timelessnes
Intuitivly less accessible and harder to visualize is going the be the approach to put a moral value on certain action, since the calculation will be determined by variable views on time, simply because life of every categories includes certain aspects of the previous categories and you will have to consider all possible angles on time before even trying on depicting a normative ethics of timelessness.

For the introduction into the temporal philosophy it will be enough to have a basic understanding of classical physics, thermodynamics and relativity. Quantummechanics will be introduced at a later stage to help us save the problem of the eternal return and derive the free will.

The speculative nature of this philosophy lays within the fact, that there is no scientific prove of its premise at the time this is being written and it therefore does not claim any sort of legitimation or applicability in the present moment.

I do think however, that a willing reader will have to accept the fact that a lot of things would have to change in human interaction if this premise is proven at a certain point and in the cultural evolution of every temporal philosophy it will be stated why a civilization is only able to conduct this thought process at a certain point of its development and even later will be able to accept its conclusions .

Aim of the methodology of the speculative temporal philosophy shall be: to present a perhaps purely biological distinction between the various layers of life made possible through a metaphysical framework in concurrence with and through current physical theories, along with the existing parameters respective to the aforementioned metaphysics study, as a basis for my chief work.

[jamesruscheinski]

Does time have something to do with energy moving towards equilibrium to increase entropy?

[jamesruscheinski]

How does causation and time happen in quantum fields / wave function? Could there be backward causation of time in quantum wave function?