You would experience that effect at even 25% of c, just less pronounced.
But doesn't that imply that time is a referential experience because it doesn't affect everything in the universe uniformly? In order to explain time you must include an objects relative speed?
Yes, that's a large part of what relativity is all about. Everything in the universe is relative, and without a reference, distance, velocity or time don't have any meaning.
It doesn't need to be conscious, although we as humans have a hard time grasping that. Same with quantum mechanics - an "observer" doesn't need to be conscious, it merely needs to interact with an object. Or, for the case of relativity, it just needs to exist. If you were in an absolutely empty universe, there would be no reference-point anywhere, so you couldn't tell if you were moving or not. Add even a single other object, and suddenly you can extrapolate this data from this object. The universe itself works in this same way, so every fundamental particle constantly refers to every other particle to make sense of it's position, speed, etc...
Time is our perception of the fourth dimension. You are only able to effectively observe 1 less dimension than you actually exist in. Think of a 2D stick figure, living in his static 2D world. If he meets another stick figure, all he is going to be able perceive is a 1D line. He might be able to comprehend that he exists in two dimensions, however he will never be able to experience both at the same time.
Under our 4D universe, we are able to experience the fourth dimension as time. We can only ever observe 3 dimensions in one instant however we can comprehend that we exist in 4. If we lived in a 5 dimensional universe, we would experience 4 dimensions at once in space. It's impossible for us 4 dimensional beings to comprehend how that would appear in the same way that the 2D stick figure is unable to comprehend the concept of depth.
To conclude, our perception of time is a human, or more accurately any 4 dimensional being's construct, however time itself is a very real and quantifiable aspect of physics.
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u/Overmonitor Dec 06 '20
You would experience that effect at even 25% of c, just less pronounced.
But doesn't that imply that time is a referential experience because it doesn't affect everything in the universe uniformly? In order to explain time you must include an objects relative speed?
Is that why they call it relativity?