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Comment by GnarfGnarf | Hacker News Reader

Time doesn't exist. It is simply an abstraction to measure the comparative rates of the movement of matter.

All our measurements of time refer to the movement of matter: the rotation of the Earth, the orbit of Earth around the Sun, the swinging of a pendulum, the vibrations of a cesium atom.

Time travel is not possible. It would require the re-arrangements of atoms into exactly their former position, which is precluded by entropy. Too bad.

There is no past or future. There is only the forever "now".

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> Time doesn't exist. It is simply an abstraction to measure the comparative rates of the movement of matter.

You can't claim time doesn't exist, then offer a definition of time, which requires time to exist.

Also, general relativity would like to have a word with you after class.

The point boils down to, is time invented or discovered?

Most science (I think) presumes that time was discovered (before recorded history for obvious reasons).

Critics argue that it's invented to help orient our perspective of events.

That's just an argument for time not being fundamental.

Special relativity gives us a perfectly workable view of time as a symmetry relation on this eternal now you speak of.

Thermodynamics, specifically the second law and especially in its kinetic theory, give us a nice view of time as a global statistics phenomenon of ensembles.

Even more, there are solutions to Einstein's equations, that seem to allow time travel.

All that said, you might be interested in the Wheeler-DeWitt Equation which takes a stab at quantum gravity and makes no mention of time. That said, it's also a far cry from the 20th century physics eternal now you seem to be envisioning.

You should reach out to the researchers mentioned in the article and tell them they are wasting their time.

"Wasting their time"

From now on, I am going to adopt this definition, it just gives me a feeling of control for all practical purposes. Since time travel is not possible, I'll be using compensating transactions to rollback myself to a state, approximately similar to previously recorded measurements.

> There is only the forever "now"

By a similar reasoning, you are always "here".

(But you are correct, in a way. Time does not exist by itself, i.e. separately from space.)

I... think the laws of thermodynamics disagree with you.

Entropy always increases in one direction. If time doesn't exist then why does that asymmetry exist?

how would that account for time dilation?

your argument would actually be improved by switching it;

That matter is an abstraction to measure comparative rates of time.

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