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"Time is nothing but an illusion of the brain – time is just a concept that our brains have constructed."
Einstein's theory makes people feel very abrupt, intuitively we think that time is an objective existence, a universal law in the universe, and we just conform to its laws, but Einstein thinks that it is the opposite, time is actually just a cognitive concept constructed by the brain.
How did Einstein's view come about, and how did it prove it?
If time is really just a constructed idea of the brain, then how is time explained?
1. The universe itself.
Time is one of the most important scales in the universe, and from the perspective of time, we can know how much of a range there is, but what is time?
Traditionally, we have always compared time and space, and the two are unified into a single framework, giving rise to the concept of "space-time", but in Einstein's general theory of relativity, time and space are not equal, time is the fourth dimension, and it is very different from other three-dimensional, that is, three-dimensional space.
Three-dimensional space can be said to be the carrier of matter, and all the existence in the universe is moving in three-dimensional space, but there are larger structures and laws in the universe, including time, which is also a part of the universe and one of the laws of the universe.
However, it is different from other three-dimensional space, we can clearly observe the movement of objects in three-dimensional space, size, shape, etc. can be seen through observation, but time can not be directly observed, time has no size, shape, we can only estimate and deduce time through the movement of objects, and we can accumulate the cognition of time through this daily experience.
However, this is not enough to show that time is the law of the universe, and another great difference between time and three-dimensional space is that time is affected by the speed of motion of objects and the strength of the gravitational field.
Objects in three-dimensional space are affected by gravity and produce motion, which we can see in the motion of many objects in the universe, but the structure of space-time is affected by matter, which is very difficult to observe, because we can only indirectly deduce the influence of matter on space-time.
However, from some theories, we can deduce a lot about the nature of space-time and their relationship to matter.
Einstein's theory of relativity has a very close connection between the structure of space-time and the structure of matter, and Einstein's field equation is a mathematical expression of the connection between them, which is obtained through the relationship between the dynamic tensor of matter and the gauge tensor of space-time.
Gravitational force is generated by matter, so it affects space-time, and the gauge of space-time also changes with the movement of matter.
The gauge tensor describes the shape and properties of space-time, but its properties are related to the distribution and motion of matter, so the gauge tensor also changes with the change of the distribution of matter.
This is also directly related to Einstein's statement that space-time is a "dynamic" structure, and the relationship between space-time structure and material structure is very complex, so we can get many interesting conclusions and laws from the simultaneous equations between them.
Second, the end of time.
So can time, as a part of the universe, have its own ending?
The universe is so huge, and so long in time, but is it possible that the end of this long river is a cliff, and time will eventually run out as the universe develops?
This is a question worth pondering, and this idea is not without warning, more than a century after the discovery of the expansion of the universe, the accelerated expansion of the universe has been observed by mankind, and mankind has developed a cosmic model of the accelerated expansion to explain this phenomenon.
However, the huge energy generated by the accelerated expansion has also made an even more terrifying prediction, that is, in 2020, the famous cosmologist Robert . Ludlow et al. discovered an even more terrifying prophecy, that is, the prophecy of the Great Tear, which pointed out that the universe originated from the Big Bang, so the ultimate outcome of the natural universe is the Great Contraction, but this hypothesis found a problem, that is, the accelerated expansion of the universe should not be a Great Contraction ending.
Therefore, scientists have proposed a new model of the universe, the composite model, that is, the universe will end up in a big tear, the composite model believes that the explosion of the cosmic supernova will form a huge gravitational pit, when the matter moves to the center of the gravitational crater, unable to escape, a new black hole will be formed, so that a stronger gravitational force will be generated, so that matter will continue to be incorporated into the new black hole, forming a larger black hole.
This successive inclusion of black holes forms a structure, called the black hole structure, which will continue to form, and when its role dominates the universe, it may cause a great tear in the universe, and the big tear will gradually tear apart the structure in the universe until there is no matter and no time.
Robert. It is through these theories that Mr. Ludlow and others deduce their conclusions, and this conclusion is also very terrifying, merging the end of the universe and the end of time into one.
Then the great tear of the universe will lead to the end of time, time will become a black hole with the development of the universe, and eventually there will be no matter in the whole universe, and the structure of time will gradually die out, or the time that is formed in the black hole will circulate, due to the changes in the expansion of the universe in the above theory, the big tear will eventually produce an end without time.
However, there is another structure of the universe, that is, while the universe is expanding, the reaction force will probably cancel out with the expansion force, resulting in the expansion of the universe decreases, and even reverses the contraction, which requires the time in the universe to be able to flow back, the flow direction of time will change, and the phenomenon of reverse time flow may occur, time is a problem of thinking about eggs and chickens, in the process of both, the reverse flow of time will lead to the reverse of the time flow of the universe, or the other way around. The slowing down or even beginning to shrink of the universe will lead to reverse contraction, and the phenomenon of producing reverse contraction will also lead to the reverse flow of time.
Such a cosmic structure will also lead to the reverse flow of time.
3. The nature of time.
Time, which should be connected to the universe, is difficult for us to understand, which is also related to the limitations of human beings, just a few hundred years of human cognition, it is difficult to understand such a long time scale, it is human beings do not understand the long time scale, so the idea of the end of the universe will be generated, but this idea is also produced by human cognition and limitations, so there are many theories and ideas about time will arouse human curiosity, the desire to delve deeper.
Einstein said that time is just an illusion of the brain, and why is this kind of thinking, time is the law of the universe, of course there is time in the universe, but why Einstein said that time is just an illusion of the brain, this is because of Einstein's unique way of thinking and concepts, in Einstein's view, time is a universal law of the universe, but it is not an objective existence, time is just the cognition of our human brain, and our brain classifies and summarizes the movement of the universe. There is a concept called time, but this concept is unique to our brain, so time is not a cosmic existence, but the human brain exists and cognitive, and human cognition and limitations will limit the idea of time to a certain range.
Einstein's idea that time is just a cognition constructed by our brains is not absent in some physical theories, and some physical theories use time as a convenient mathematical tool, so when people explore the nature of time, they find that even if human beings have a deeper and deeper understanding of the universe, human cognition of time has not been fully understood.
The reason why we still think that time is the existence of the laws of the universe is because time is so important, and when human beings understand the world, they cannot do without time, and time is the basic tool for human beings to understand the world.
Human beings have established a time scale, so that we can understand when things happen, and when they can understand various laws and structures, which can form our cognitive concept of the world, and people can better explore the unknown world under the scale established by time.
epilogue
Time is so important, people will have such enthusiasm to explore the law and nature of time, but human understanding of time still has many imperfections, the nature of time may be the limit of human science and philosophy, the exploration of the nature of time will also lead to the mystery of the universe and existence.