Time flows in One Direction

[rainbow]

Selection bias everywhere. We can only experience daylight between sunrise and sunset. Ergo any experiments we do will come to the conclusion that the sun causes daylight.

See how this works?

Yes, I see how wise you are.

[Calilasseia]

For those who are interested, the full scientific paper can be read here.

[pErvinalia]

My fanciful theory is that at the quantum level, space is like dominoes standing on end. It's pre-loaded, so that when one domino falls over, it tips the next one. That's why the speed of light is an absolute figure.
Have you ever noticed how those dominoes always fall at the same speed?

But once a domino has been tipped, it can't be stood up again. It can't be reversed. An increase in entropy is like an increase in tipped dominoes. Eventually, they will all be lying flat, and nothing can happen.

The basic premise is flawed. We can only experience time in one direction.
Ergo any experiments we do will come to the conclusion that time flow in one direction. Selection bias.

This was my kind of feelings on it too. I thought there was still serious consideration for the idea that the flow of time is an illusion. Something being irreversible, to me, doesn't suggest anything about the flow of time. All it suggests is that entropy works in one spatial set of dimensions.

But having said that, I haven't read the article and theoretical physics makes my heady hurt...

[pErvinalia]

Just to give an example of what I mean there:

I could release a ball at the top of a slope and it would roll to the bottom of the slope. That process is irreversible under natural conditions, but nothing to do with time. It's due to the nature of gravity.

[pErvinalia]

Actually, I don't know what that proves. I retire from thinking in this thread.

[mistermack]

The reason time runs the way it does in our everyday lives is because of the second law of thermodynamics, which states that over time all systems become more disordered, or increase in entropy. And that process is irreversible, which is why time only moves forward. But theoretical physicists had predicted that on the quantum level, the process might go both ways.

This isn't the REASON that time only runs forward. The second law of thermodynamics isn't a reason, it's an observation. We observe that entropy always increases, whatever happens.
What that means is that, while ENERGY is conserved in any system, the potential USEFULNESS of that energy is always falling. In human terms, it means that the amount of physical work available in a system is always declining over time.

If you demonstrate that the second law of thermodynamics is not just something that we observe, but actually necessarily true by the nature of existence, then it does become impossible for time to run backwards. Because time running backwards would directly contradict the second law.

But of course, in a universe where time ran backwards, the second law might immediately state the opposite. Entropy would always decrease over time, not increase.
So to prove their point, they really need to prove that, in a universe with time running backwards, the second law couldn't possibly reverse.

[cronus]

When you are asleep time sleeps also. This reality, you perceive, will vanish with you when you die. Time is a temporary illusion not a universal given.

[Hermit]

When you are asleep time sleeps also. This reality, you perceive, will vanish with you when you die. Time is a temporary illusion not a universal given.

Time does not cease to be when any one individual does. If you doubt that, digging up a deceased person a while after its death will disabuse you of your illusion.

[pErvinalia]

This universe disappears when you die. It's an illusion too! MIND. BLOWN.!

[cronus]

Wait and see. Time will stop forever when you die.

[Hermit]

10 Who's next? Alan Watts, Deepak Chopra or
20 Goto 10

[rainbow]

When you are asleep time sleeps also. This reality, you perceive, will vanish with you when you die. Time is a temporary illusion not a universal given.

Time does not cease to be when any one individual does. If you doubt that, digging up a deceased person a while after its death will disabuse you of your illusion.

You only think that to be so because your mind constructs a consistent reality.

[cronus]

When you are asleep time sleeps also. This reality, you perceive, will vanish with you when you die. Time is a temporary illusion not a universal given.

Time does not cease to be when any one individual does. If you doubt that, digging up a deceased person a while after its death will disabuse you of your illusion.

You only think that to be so because your mind constructs a consistent reality.

Which ceases upon death...trying to explain to these young ones the terms of their mortality, including the small print, is exhausting.

[Hermit]

When you are asleep time sleeps also. This reality, you perceive, will vanish with you when you die. Time is a temporary illusion not a universal given.

Time does not cease to be when any one individual does. If you doubt that, digging up a deceased person a while after its death will disabuse you of your illusion.

You only think that to be so because your mind constructs a consistent reality.

You say that as if it were a bad thing. Now go and dig up Norma Jean, there's a good boy. If time stopped at the point of death you'll discover that her carcass has not gone rotten. Give her a kiss. You know you want to.

[pErvinalia]

I thought the ideas Einstein presented suggests that all units of times exist, as do all units of spatial dimensions. So yes, you can go dig up your dead granny, but that doesn't suggest that time flows forward. Or something like that. My head hurts...