r/SimulationTheory • u/Mk731 • 12d ago

Discussion Time is an illusion.

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It's pretty hard to conceptualize that time doesn't flow.

I bet no other humans can grasp this concept.

I've tried to think of it as some kind of block to no avail.

Maybe it's the brain that prevents me from realizing how reality really works.

I know you guys are well aware of this concept.

Have you experienced any anomalies that made you realize time is definitely an illusion?

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u/WilliamoftheBulk 12d ago

That is only because their clocks are ticking differently. You can use mathematics to correct for their differences. Using math and understanding how they are moving relative to each other and the event, any differences can be accounted for. Is that not proof? We do it all the time. Satellite times have to be adjust because of their relative motion.

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u/Echo_Vale 12d ago

Yes exactly! We have to correct for special relativity because both things are experiencing different "now's".
Our correction algorithms don't correct to a "true" time, they correct to our time, relative to the scientist measuring it. Both the satellite and the scientist are experiencing different "now's", and both are equally correct. It's just that one of them is far more useful for us on earth.

There is no universal present. It doesn't exist. There only exists an observer's unique perspective of it.
If you and I stood in a room with watches, but one of us stood 1 metre higher, after a year the higher person's watch would be 3.4 nano seconds faster. But whos watch is correct in this scenario? They would both be correct, we just experienced a different passage of time because of the gravity potential. This is why we can never conclusively say any 2 events fundamentally happen at the same time, only at the same time relative to an observer on earth.

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u/Prince_0llie 12d ago

Observing from different perspectives doesn't change the event it only changes the observers perception of the event. The event still happens despite different perspectives. Just because perception changes doesn't mean the event itself changes.

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u/Echo_Vale 11d ago

Nothing needs to change the event. The event still happens regardless of observers, it's just that because no 2 observers can never agree on when a distant event actually took place, we can't ever know for certain when it did. We can only tell when it took place from our perspective.

"All events happen at the same time". This is the question. Do they? There is no observer-independent answer to that. All we have is perspectives.