In a universe where each second seems to slip away, quantum physics invites reflection on the very nature of time. According to Professor Vlatko Vedral from the University of Oxford, time may be merely an illusion, an idea emerging from the study of changes in physical systems rather than an autonomous entity. This perspective challenges the notion that time flows linearly and suggests that past, present, and future coexist simultaneously.
Time is not measured directly but through physical systems like clocks, which indicate different moments. From this observation, some physicists propose that time can be removed from the fundamental equations of physics, replacing it with correlations between system states and clock positions. This approach is known as the Page-Wootters picture, proposed by Don Page and Bill Wootters in 1983, where the universe’s dynamics arise from an entangled state that does not change over time.
This radical view suggests that different moments in time can be seen as different universes. In Schrödinger’s cat thought experiment, for example, the notion of a cat being simultaneously alive and dead is similar to the idea that time emerges from quantum entanglement. Thus, the past and future exist ‘at the same time’ as the present, and the sensation of temporal flow is merely a perception correlated with the universe’s state.
Albert Einstein, while comforting the wife of his friend Michele Besso, expressed a similar view, stating that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a persistent illusion. This opens the intriguing possibility that the laws of physics are not fixed but can be shaped by our actions, perhaps allowing the reprogramming of natural laws, as Vedral suggests in his work Portals to A New Reality.
This idea not only challenges the traditional understanding of time but also raises questions about unexplored possibilities in a potentially timeless universe. If it is possible to manipulate the universal clock adequately, we could alter the universe’s dynamics, suggesting that true mastery over nature may lie in the ability to rewrite its fundamental laws.
Original published at O Cafezinho.