Time Runs Like a Film Reel And YOU are Trapped FOREVER in Each Moment, Physicists Say
A universe-sized flicker book
TIME throughout the universe is like a giant ‘flicker book’ which can be broken into an almost infinite number of separate moments, scientists said today.
Historically physicists and philosophers viewed time as a constant, flowing like a river from the past to the present and into the future.
More recently quantum physicists suggested this view was wrong and introduced the purely theoretically idea of the shortest length of time possible – the almost infinitesimally small Planck Constant, named after German theoretical physicist Max Planck.
However, new research carried out at the University of Waterloo and University of Lethbridge, in Canada, and Alexandria University in Egypt, suggests there is a genuine measureable minimum unit of time beyond which it is not possible to go.
These ‘static’ minimum units of time then align to give the impression of time flowing – just as a schoolboy flicker book, or a movie does.
The development opens up new hope for Dr Who style time travel as it introduces the notion of a discrete fixed moment in time – perhaps continually existing – which it may be possible for time travellers to pinpoint and go back to, or indeed forward to.
The findings also suggest the head-spinning possibility of countless earlier versions of yourself trapped forever in a particular time-frame.
A paper, called Time Crystals and Minimum Time Uncertainty, has been drawn up by researchers Mir Faizal, Mohammed M. Khalil and Saurya Das.
Faizal said: “It might be possible that in the universe the minimum time scale is actually much larger than the Planck time and this can be tested experimentally.
Faizal said: “The physical universe is really like a movie or motion picture in which a series of still images show on a screen creates the illusion of moving images.
“In our paper we have proposed that time is discrete in nature and we have also suggested ways to experimentally test this proposal.
“Thus, if this view is taken seriously, then our conscious precipitation of physical reality based on continuous motion becomes an illusion produced by a discrete underlying mathematical structure.”
There may be countless universes which are very similar to our own
Through some ultra-complex mathematics the scientists conclude time can be thought of as a crystal structure, regularly, endessly repeating segments.
The physicists paper touches on philosophy at many points
Faizal said: “This proposal makes the physical reality Platonic in nature.
“However unlike other theories of Platonic idealism our proposal can be tested experimentally and not just be argued for experimentally.”
