Physicist Carlo Rovelli: 'Time does not exist'

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"Time does not exist". That's just one of the theories of the theoretical physicist and writer Carlo Rovelli. He's been listed as one of the 100 most influential global thinkers. His popular science book "Seven Brief Lessons on Physics" has been translated into 41 languages and has sold over a million copies worldwide. In his latest book, "The Order of Time", he tackles the origins of time itself. He joined us for Perspective to tell us more.

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[jeromedragon]

There is no such thing as time, only change, and there is a subtle
difference. Time is an abstract concept used to understand, measure and
explain change.

[raziel]

Time: the relation between two motions; motion plus memory


It's merely a measurement of one objects motion to another.

[gioacchinocatanese]

Time does not exist, and the journalist begin with "now its time?" 😁

[peterfarrabuhk]

We let time control our lives, even though it’s just a social construct.

[imanispeldsman]

It's sad his book will never be finished because he is always writing it.

[pigofapilot]

Time does exist because it is a property of 'c' and a product of light itself. You cannot measure speed or velocity without using time (t) (MPH/ Feet per-second/ light years etc). The speed-of-light is hard to pin down because time (t) is a variable and part of the equation v=(s/t) which is the equation for velocity. That means that without time (t) there could be no motion or velocity.
Time is also a property of light and 'c'. Light travels in a waveform and the propagation of wave frequency (intervals) takes time. That is why the maximum speed-of-light 'c' is not infinite. If it were, there would be no wave-frequency and no light. The frequency of light waves can be equated to a ticking clock that is relative to motion and velocity. In that respect it is nature's very own clock that ticks relative to the frequency of light. The frequency (or color) of light changes according to velocity and distance (relative motion). That is why time passes relative to the velocity and distance of the observer (you). It is because the frequency (clock) of light-waves changes with relative velocity. If time did not exist, or 'c' was infinite, there would be no motion, no light and no relativity. Light is THE most important and real thing in the entire universe. To deny it is to deny existence. I doubt that this guy understands the nature of light, time and relative motion at all.

[jeromedragon]

There is no such thing as time, only change, and there is a subtle
difference. Time is an abstract concept used to understand, measure and
explain change.

[kleenex]

Time is an abstract, it is imaginary.
Time is an awareness = information = property,
made up from/about things changing.
An object continually changing is called a and exploited as a clock.

[Dunning.Kruger]

Time does not exist? Tell that to my bill collectors

[JW-rmci]

"Now it's time for perspective on the program."

[cloudysky]

I came to this concept on my own, I totally agree with this guy, but not with his altitude example. I'm aware of this experiment, and it's not true if it's not based on earth altitude since it involves the gravity constant. If you moved clocks far away from each other in total weightlessness without the inertia or gravitational forces enacted on it, this time would be the same since they are represented by physical embodiments of what a clock is. Time has no accurate physical representation, just approximations.

[TheBeast-fnji]

If there is a infinite amount of decimals between 0 seconds and 1 second, then how can time pass through every single decimal if there is infinite decimals?

[takisk.]

All he's saying with those examples is that time is relative (duh).. you can say GLOBAL time doesn't exists (again, duh) but to say time doesn't exists in the fundamental level?
There can be no change or movement without time.. just because global time doesn't exist doesn't mean LOCAL time doesn't exist (local as in the tiniest scale possible).

[michaelwynn]

time the ability to measure the distance between two events

[jean-pierredevent]

Why can't I have such an adorable real British accent?? For the rest I found out only recently that in a block decaying uranium, there is nothing in the atoms keeping track of time and so a very old uranium atom has the same chance of decaying in the next hour as a recently made one. Our intuition however would assume old atoms would have more chance to decay. But I have also the feeling time might be something bizarre. In a universe with only one particle, does time still exist? We might say yes, but since nothing in the particle keeps track, how can it be there? However... they say that almost all elementary particles decay so I don't know if nothing keeps track of time.

[worldsnetizen]

so is the big bang. I wrote some blogs to explain these(time doesn't exist) about 10 years ago.

[stoobydootoo]

'The current time, always now, no before, no hereafter....'
Opening line from my song called 'Six seconds', composed seversl years ago.

[apagoogoo]

okay, now i gotta go listen to digable planets' first album all over again.

[howardchance]

Existence does it does not exist in infinite possibility, I want to say simultaneously but that is a misnomer of time but language breakdown at this level.
This happens in a 0 dimension point that itself does not "exist" ... being out of space and time there would be no "place" to put the point.
The particles that make up what we perceive as matter exist outside of space and time.
Eventually the subatomic particles of an atom will be torn apart as Universe expands, accelerating infinitely ..
Eventually to our perspective quantum fluctuation will produce a teapot a radio a Boltzmann Brain xcetera.. and no matter how unlikely it will produce another big bang. From electrons point of view it is happening "infinitely now."
Another misnomer.

[thomaswallace]

Time travel occurs on the quantum wave level all the time as shown in double slit experiment Quantum level is 4D for the time being the extra dimension