The Brain and the Illusion of Time

 

If these is one mathematical equation which everyone has seen it is Einsteins' famous one shown above. It says that energy (E) can be changed into mass (M) and mass (M) can be changed into energy (E). Atomic bombs and nuclear power plants are proof of that. 

But what is that C² part of the equation all about? Well, it is a proportionality constant (N) that says 1 unit of energy (E) is equivalent to N units of mass (M). Nothing more and nothing less. It just happens to be a really big number such that a little mass can be converted into a lot of energy. Indeed that number N is:

89,875,517,900,000,000

It is, in fact, the number that gives the relative change in mass to the relative change in energy. More specifically, it is the absolute relative equivalency of energy E and mass M

But what exactly is the C in the equation? 

Well, that C is speed of light in a space devoid of mass, ie in a vacuum. It is also the maximum speed that any material thing can travel ... relative to an observer. To the photon of light, the observer isn't moving at all. At the speed of light everything around you also moves at the speed of light and, as a result, there is no change in position between you. It's like the engine and caboose of a train traveling down a railroad track. The engine and caboose never change distance between themselves.

In a physics class you are taught that speed is the change in distance per unit of "time" and the concept of some physical entity called "time" is implanted in your brain forever. But no one has ever been able to articulate the physical properties of "time" ... because it has none. The physical world has no need of what we perceive perceive to be "time". Indeed "time"is entirely an illusion of the mind.

How can that be? The human eye takes a snapshot of the world between 30 and 60 times per second "ticks" of a clock and compares the images to detect changes between them. In this case the refresh rate of the images in the brain as the "ticks" of a clock. We might call them optical "ticks" of our brain acting as a reference clock. The greater the change in distance between "ticks" the greater the speed our brain informs us it is. To our brain, "time" is number of image changes during -- from the beginning to the ending --- of an observed event. But the refreshing of the images continues regardless of whether anything being observed as changed at all. If nothing has changed the number of "ticks" means nothing at all. If you are sitting on top of the caboose of the train  observing only the engine of the train, the number of "ticks" of the brain has no meaning to the brain because observed nothing was observed to have happen have changed regardless of the number of ticks. But if you observe the person on top of the train change has occurred over the same range of "ticks". 

So what is "time" to you brain? It is the perception of the sensation of change relative to the "ticks" of the of the images formed  in your brain. Close your eyes and go to sleep and you will have no sensation of "time" at all. Take a ride on a beam of light  and your brain loses all sensation and perception of "time" because because everything you observe moves at the same relative speed such that the clock you are holding never "ticks" at all.