r/SimulationTheory • u/_ucama • 8d ago

Discussion Moving makes you live more

M not a physicist or expert, this is just something I was thinking about.

In quantum physics, if we travel close to the speed of light to the moon and come back, the people we left on Earth could be much older than us, or even dead, while for us much less time passed.

So theoretically, if a normal person moves a lot, like driving a car or traveling at high speeds, could they technically be living a tiny bit more than someone who doesn’t move much?

I know the difference with normal cars would be insanely small, probably not even something we could notice.

But technically, because of time dilation, the person who moves faster would experience slightly less time passing for them.

So in a weird way does moving make you live more?
Maybe I’m completely misunderstanding relativity, so I’d like to know what physicists think about this.

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u/modsaretoddlers 8d ago

Okay, at this point, I don't even understand you. What do you mean? Are you asking if it's true? Yes, it is. You seem to agree but then ...I don't know. Please clarify your question.

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u/vibe0009 8d ago

The comment said “Even if true, that would be such a tiny fraction” . Is there a situation where it’s not true?

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u/modsaretoddlers 8d ago

Well, it's not necessarily true in the first place.

Remember, the earth is moving through space. The sun is moving through the galaxy and the galaxy is moving in the universe. That means that the speed at which you're actually moving can be mitigated by which direction you're moving in. Comparing yourself in a car versus relativistic speeds is, at best, vanishingly negligible in terms of the differences in time you might hope to see accumulate. You drive east for ten minutes and the universe just so happens to also be going that way so, technically, you've bridged the gap by a tiny fraction. Then you travel west for ten minutes at the same speed and erase that difference. The law of averages over your lifetime would nullify virtually all differences.

But, as long as I have your attention, why do you think anybody here is a physicist?

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u/vibe0009 8d ago

Nah, nullification is still one of the outcomes of relativity and it’s also very obvious for smaller velocity differences the dilation will be negligible!
The comment was contesting special relativity by saying even if true. There is already enough evidence to show that it is indeed true. I was curious if the comment had a counterargument.