According to Newton, Time is Absolute; according to Einstein, Time is Relative.
According to this theory, Time is both Absolute and Relative.
This definition of Time, initially conceived during the first 2020 Lockdown, is a radically new interpretation of everyday experience, and established scientific fact. It is possibly the most complete description of Time ever devised, but it is also extremely difficult to understand. Please be patient, and only read it in small ‘bite-size’ chunks, e.g. perhaps just one or two paragraphs per visit.
(To be frank, I am still struggling to explain it as clearly as I can, and so I have to regularly revisit it also. However, the more you understand it, the more it will blow your mind. It certainly blows mine!)
This theory proposes two orders of Time: Absolute-Time and Relative-Time.
Absolute-Time is the absolute distance between all subsequent events and the very first event, i.e. the Big Bang – the origin of both Time and the universe. This distance is Absolute because it is exactly the same for all of these subsequent events.
Relative-Time is the respective distances between all of these subsequent events, and its malleable flow of time is woven into the fabric of 4D space-time, just as Minkowski and Einstein observed. These Relative-Time distances between events are specific to the observer, but all of these events will share exactly the same distance from the very first event, the Big Bang. Therefore, all subsequent events to the Big Bang share exactly the same Absolute-Time.
In this theory, Time is interpreted as the ‘distance’ between events in the sense that Time enables there to be a connection between events. If Time did not exist, then all events would be ‘frozen’ in 3D space and unable to interact with each other in anyway.
Both orders of Time are created as the hologram-like membrane (within which our universe of 4D space-time resides) expands through a 5D hyper-space. (Please see Diagram 1 below.) Our 4D space-time universe is driven through this 5D hyper-space by the kinetic energy derived from the Big Bang. The rate of this expansion of this membrane is the Speed of Time, i.e. 186,000 miles per second. This expansion of the membrane is actually ‘dark energy’.
The crucial relationship between the Speed of Light and The Speed of Time is explained further below. But, basically, I am suggesting that the Speed of Light is 2 x the Speed of Time, therefore resulting in a measured Speed of Light of 186,000 miles per second. Thus the undetectable base line for reality is The Speed of Time, i.e. 186,000 miles per second. This should mean that all of Einstein’s Field Equations will remain entirely unaffected as we would still be measuring the Speed of Light exactly as we do now.
(I realise that my mathematics here looks like a simplistic classical paradigm, i.e. a Galilean addition, but it seems fully appropriate given my argument that both The Speed of Light and the Speed of Time are universal constants.)
JUST TO ADD: This is definitely not an attempt to deny Relativity – because that would be madness. As one physicist recently wrote to me:
“Einstein’s theory of relativity is not part of a philosophical debate. It is mathematically sound (1+1 = 2), which drove experimental physicists to explore it in the lab and verify it.”
Relativity is fact – I agree. But what I am proposing is that it is not the ultimate reality, but a subsystem. I think the mathematical analogy is more: [(1+1=2)]
One crucial component of my ‘Theory of Universal Absolutivity’, is that the flow of Time is the source of all kinetic energy because it enables all movement. This becomes very apparent when not ‘at rest’, i.e. when subject to a force other than just the forward progression of Time. Owing to the curvature of space created by the Earth’s mass, all human beings experience the ‘force’ of gravity, that being the Earth’s resistance to our continual forward momentum through space-time towards the centre of the Earth. We still progress through the universe at exactly the same speed of Absolute-Time – (there is no other option!) – but we are in resistance to this speed because we are not in an inertial frame of reference. So, for example, when we walk up stairs, or sharply change direction in a car, the additional pressure we experience is our increased resistance to vectors of Absolute-Time.
If we resist this momentum too severely, e.g. by accelerating at a speed in excess of 10G in any direction, then this resistance will result in death. (It is poetic to imagine being crushed between the present and the future but, of course, the future does not exist, apart from as a potential.) In the process, our Relative-Time might well have changed, as according to an atomic clock, for example, but in terms of Absolute-Time, there can be no change because Absolute-Time is absolutely inflexible.
Absolute-Time travels in straight lines in all directions through hyper-space as the membrane, within which our universe of 4D space-time resides, expands outwards from the Big Bang. This is why we experience a force when we change direction.
And this may well be the reason for the universal conservation of angular momentum, i.e. to prevent an imbalance in any one direction which may then continue to escalate, firstly creating a wobble, and then ultimately spinning out of control, which would very quickly unbalance the linear direction of Absolute Time, so destabilizing the entire universe.
Relative-Time is how we appear to experience Time in our 4D space-time universe; Absolute-Time exists hidden away from us in 5D hyper-space.
This 5D hyper-space is metaphorically presented in the diagram below as a Time Chamber.
When Einstein referred to Time, he was referring to Relative-Time only.
Einstein’s theories assume that Time has a depth to it; this theory assumes that it doesn’t.
The ‘Time Chamber’ of 5D Hyper-Space (Diagram 1):
This theory proposes two orders of ‘TIME’: a flat but expanding ‘membrane’ of RELATIVE SPACE-TIME, indicated by the blue circle on the diagram above, and the ABSOLUTE-TIME of the Time Chamber, as indicated by the white arrows emanating outwards from the Big Bang in all possible directions.
When reading this, it will help enormously if you constantly hold in mind that TIME has no depth. Its ‘thickness’ is slimmer than the most miniscule fraction of a second that you could ever devise. TIME is always NOW, and is a continual sweep forward through hyper-space (the ‘Time Chamber’). You can only exist in the NOW. You cannot exist even a fraction of a second behind or ahead of ABSOLUTE TIME. Such anomalies occur only in Relative-Time and are, ultimately, ‘very persistent illusions’.
ABSOLUTE TIME is a hyper-space in which the ‘blue’ membrane, within which our universe resides, can expand (here referred to as the Time Chamber), and it has a past of approximately 13.8 billion years. However, despite the time that has passed, you cannot travel back in TIME. You are forever ‘trapped’ in the ever-hurtling-forward moment of NOW.
This 5th dimension of hyperspace is perpendicular to 4D space-time.
It is possible to visualise this by compressing 4D into 2D. Just imagine our 4D Relative Space-Time universe existing with an ever-expanding instant. That instant is the surface of a 2D ever-expanding sphere, there being no depth to the instant. Hence, you are able to picture 4D as 2D, and its forward progression into the future is a z coordinate, hence 3D.
According to Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity, for an individual travelling at the speed of light personal time would stand still, i.e. Einstein’s visionary ‘travelling on a light beam’ thought experiment in which the passenger sees that the clock hands have ceased to move as he/she speeds away from the clock at light speed. Thus travelling at the Speed of Light, according to Einstein’s theory, causes Time to stand still and, therefore, Time must be Relative.
However, what if TIME existed on two levels?
In this thought experiment, I am proposing that our universe of 4D space-time expands outwards from a single point, the Big Bang – so, not too controversial thus far. However, I am also proposing that this outward explosion of our universe from a single point approximately 13.8 billion years ago is taking place inside (metaphorically speaking) a much larger sealed spherical chamber which also contains an additional space for our universe to expand into, i.e. hyper-space. Our universe explodes outwards in all spherical directions from a point situated exactly in the middle of the Time Chamber and, as the membrane of our universe expands, we travel outwards from the centre of the Time Chamber and, therefore, through one of the Absolute-Time directions of the Time Chamber, i.e. one of the white arrows on the diagram.
Thus, the continual outward expansion of this membrane within which our universe resides enables us to experience TIME, and the speed at which we experience TIME is set by the rate of our universe’s expansion through the ‘Time Chamber’ away from the Big Bang, AND the speed by which this outward inflation of the membrane is then translated into the consequent expansion of the surface of the membrane – which is, as Einstein’s thought experiment reveals, 186,000 miles per second.
(It is not that Time would be standing still for the light-beam passenger, as Einstein assumed, but that the passenger would actually be travelling at the Speed of Time, thus giving the impression that Time had stood still.)
THE SPEED OF LIGHT AS VERSUS THE SPEED OF TIME:
In the universe of 4D space-time within which we exist, light also travels towards us across the expanding ‘blue’ membrane at a measured rate of 186,000 miles per second – which means it must be travelling at twice the speed of the expanding membrane, i.e. at twice the Speed of Time. If this were not so, then we would measure the Speed of Light as having a different value.
Our outward linear surge away from the Big Bang (one of the white arrows on the diagram) stretches our 4D space-time reality to the north, east, south and west of the ever-expanding membrane. As this membrane is continually inflated, and so expanded across all compass points, so the galaxies in the night sky appear to be receding into the distance because all locations on this ‘blue’ membrane are increasingly being stretched further apart. This is ‘dark energy’.
Absolute-Time travel is thus impossible because we cannot counteract the speed/direction of our progression through the Time Chamber away from the Big Bang (i.e. the white arrows on the diagram). If we increase our speed across the expanding membrane all we are doing is racing against the 186,000 miles per second speed of the expansion of this surface – BUT, crucially, not counteracting our linear progression away from the Big Bang as indicated by the white arrows.
So, if this is true, then Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity is a partial understanding of Light and Time, despite its predictive accuracy.
Personally, I have struggled with the idea of two atomic clocks being in marginally different Time ‘zones’ because one of them is orbiting the Earth at thousands of miles per hour whilst the other has remained ‘stationary’ on the planet. Clearly, if the racing clock is fractionally time dilated owing to the speed and direction of its travel, even by a nanosecond, then we should not be able to perceive its existence anymore. After all, if it has left our Time ‘zone’, then why is it still here for us to experience? Although liberally bandied about as a truism by physicists across the globe, this does not make any sense.
Perhaps the reality is that the orbiting clock has partially chased the speed of the expansion of the expanding membrane, but it has certainly not counteracted any of our Absolute-Time linear progression away from the Big Bang in the Time Chamber, i.e. the white arrows on the diagram. This time dilation, therefore, exists only as an illusion. What we are measuring with these clocks are just the differentials in Relative-Time, which is built into the fabric of 4D space-time.
In terms of Absolute-Time i.e. the distance travelled in a straight line away from the Big Bang to the ever-expanding ‘blue’ membrane in the Time Chamber diagram (as indicated by the white arrows), the speeding clock is exactly the same distance from the Big Bang as the stationary clock, as is everything else in our universe of 4D space-time – which, of course, exists within the membrane (the expanding blue line). So the clock that hurtles through 4D space-time will show a minuscule shift into the past in terms of Relative-Time, but as its position in Absolute-Time has not, and cannot, be altered, it is still in exactly the same Absolute-Time position that everything else we experience is in, i.e. it is still existing within the infinitesimally thin expanding membrane within which our universe resides. And that is why we can still experience it despite its Relative-Time time dilation
The fact that the two clocks can register a fractional time disparity in respect of Relative-Time suggests that every person’s experience of our universe is unique– and, therefore, that everything that we seem to perceive as one objective universe may well be a subjective reality consisting of many personal universes in juxtaposition. However, we all do experience exactly the same continuum of Absolute-Time.
Oddly enough, Relativity, and the many personal universes it lends itself to, does seem to contradict Einstein’s belief in an independent reality, one in which the moon would continue to exist even it was not being observed.
(“Is it not true that the creator could have created the whole of humanity? But man was created alone to teach you that whoever kills one life kills the world entire, and whoever saves one life saves the world entire.”
(Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:9; Yerushalmi Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin 37a.)
Under the model of space-time being proposed here, it also follows that when the light from a distant star reaches us after X million light years, and we see that star as it was X million light years ago, the source of that light (the star) has been (and still is) travelling towards us along the expanding membrane in which our universe resides. The cosmic background radiation from the Big Bang works in exactly the same way. If this were not the case, we would never be able to ‘look back’ in (relative) time when we wonderingly gaze up at the stars. Of course, when we ‘look back in time’, we are really looking across the ever-expanding membrane. Absolute Time is hidden away from us in Hyper-Space.
So the true measure of TIME, i.e. Absolute Time, is the expanding straight (white) arrow in the Time Chamber between us and the point of origin for Absolute-Time – the Big Bang.
THE EXPLANATION FOR WHY LIGHT IS A UNIVERSAL CONSTANT
One very difficult concept to grasp in Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity is the idea that light travels at the same speed for all observers, i.e. it is absolute and not relative. Therefore, the components of speed (distance and time) have to become relative. Thus in the above diagram (which depicts two light clocks) the light travelling between the moving set of mirrors must travel from point A to point B in exactly the same amount of time as it would do between the stationary mirrors despite the fact that in the example of the moving mirrors, the distance travelled appears to be along a greater path. In order for light to be able to do this, both time and distance relative to the moving set of mirrors would need to contract.
Similarly, when light encounters a massive gravitational field and has to follow a curved path through space as it follows the curved shape of that field, it still has to pass from point A to point B in exactly the same amount of time as it would do where the gravitational field not there and, consequently, the ‘distance’ were shorter owing to there now being a straight line path rather than a warped path. Again, to reconcile this dilemma, Time would have to pass more slowly in the gravitational field, thus allowing light to complete the journey in the correct amount of time.
Strange as the above examples may be, this is scientific fact and so seems to prove Einstein’s assertion that Time is relative. The Theory of Universal Absolutivity (as presented here) fully accepts Relative-Time, but it also encompasses Absolute-Time.
The explanation for why light moves between points A and B at exactly the same measured time as it would do regardless of moving mirrors or gravitational fields, is because it is incorrect simply to take a measurement between points A and B when referring to the Speed of Light. In fact, in order to understand why light will always travel between any two points in our universe at exactly the same speed for all observers, you have to measure the distance not just between the two points themselves, but between the two points and the Origin of Time.
This distance is Absolute and so utterly unaffected by the relativistic nature of our 4D space-time universe (which, of course, rests within the ever-expanding membrane).
This is why the Speed of Light is a universal constant.
The above diagram is of a spherical cone, and represents a segment which has been cut out of Hyper-Space (see Diagram 1), i.e. the 5 dimensional space in which Absolute-Time is located. The point at the bottom of the cone is the Origin of Time. The spherical top represents a portion of the infinitesimally thin expanding membrane within which our 4 dimensional space-time universe resides. The measurement across this membrane is curved as Absolute-Time expands globally outwards through Hyper-Space.
Einstein’s theories are concerned with the distance travelled by light as it flows through the 4 dimensions of space-time within our universe but, in effect, light is actually following the path of the membrane itself. Einstein’s theories also encompass a straight line path for light but, as we can see above, it is really a curved path along the membrane. As light is a universal constant, then Time in our 4 dimensional space-time universe has to be Relative owing to, for example, gravitational curves which falsely appear to elongate the light path. However, in terms of Absolute-Time, i.e. the cone connecting points and A and B with the Origin of Time, gravity can have no influence – and nor can any other relativistic features.
The geometry of the spherical cone creates an absolute ratio between points A and B. Therefore, the path that light must follow between A and B is pre-determined and unalterable by any relativistic features.
Light is a universal constant because it is really flowing between points A and B across the top of the cone (i.e. the membrane) and, therefore, it is always flowing along a predetermined and constraining pathway at an absolute distance from the Origin of Time. As points A and B also rest upon the membrane (as do all possible points within our 4 dimensional space-time universe), points A and B are also fixed at an absolute distance from the Origin of Time. This is why the Speed of Light remains a constant, and why distance and (relative) time within our 4 dimensional universe have to adapt to accommodate the Speed of Light.
E = mc2?
Thus in terms of my theory, if both The Speed of light and The Speed of Absolute Time are universal constants with enormous kinetic energy, each having a separate value of 186,000 miles per second, then I wonder if Einstein’s famous equation might be re-written as:
E = mtc Energy = Mass x The Speed of Absolute Time x The (measured) Speed of Light, i.e. 186,000 x 186,000, i.e. 186,000 miles per second squared.
PLEASE NOTE: I’m not a mathematician, so I’m really going out on a limb with the above ‘equation’, but in order for my theory of Absolute Time to work, I do have to assert a value of 186,000 miles per second for The Speed of Light up and beyond The Speed of Absolute Time so that The Speed of Light remains a universal constant.
Furthermore, I am still desperately struggling to express all of this as clearly as I would like to (and I’m still actively formulating the theory) but, basically, light only appears to flow through 4D space-time. In effect, light is really flowing along the expanding membrane of Absolute Time- and this is the reason why The Speed of Light is also a universal constant, i.e. it is constrained by the geometry of Absolute Time, and thus forced to follow the shortest path no matter how many hurdles you try to put in its way.
If this were not the case, then a gravitational field would most certainly slow down the Speed of Light!
And now for the most compelling ‘thought-argument’ of all… As Time is clearly the source of all kinetic energy in our universe – which is so obvious when you think about it because without Time nothing can move – then it also follows that at an ultimate level, Time must be absolute. This must be the case because kinetic energy is not relative. It is evenly distributed, e.g. the Earth’s gravity is 9.807 m/s² for everyone.
Relativity, mathematically, proves beyond doubt that Relative-Time slows down in a gravitational field, and that everybody’s personal time is also Relative, but it does not indicate that with Relative-Time comes relative gravity. The uniformity of the kinetic energy of gravity thus suggests that Time is ultimately uniform as well and, therefore, ultimately Absolute.
THE ABSOLUTE TIME COORDINATE
At 14 mins and about 30 seconds into the Royal Institute lecture below, Professor Sean Carroll refers to the t coordinate in Minkowski space-time as ‘floating somewhere in the background of your mind’.
However, as it is a coordinate, surely it must have a location in time and / or space?
I think Professor Carroll is unable to define it any further because he is unable to consider the possibility of Absolute Time. Consequently, he cannot say where it is and so fudges the issue.
I believe that the t coordinate has a very physical reality within my Theory of Universal Absolutivity, and that it lies at rest on the ever-expanding 2D membrane of Absolute Time in which the 4D (Relative) space-time universe resides.
My thinking here is that tau is a variable whereas t is an Absolute Time co-ordinate.
As Professor Carroll expains, Minkowski space-time is embedded within Einstein’s equation for gravity e.g. within the metric tensor:
Therefore, it seems to me to be logical to assume that Absolute Time is implicit within the equations of both Einstein and Minkowski despite the latter’s declaration that:
“Henceforth space by itself, and time by itself, are doomed to fade away into mere shadows, and only a kind of union of the two will preserve an independent reality”
My interpretation of the our reality is, therefore, 5 Dimensional. There is the Relative dimension of 4D space-time, and a 5th dimensional space of Absolute Time through which the 4D space-time universe travels. This is how we are able to progress nano-second by nano-second into the future.
Einstein was not wrong. How could he be? He had alien intelligence, possessing insights into the macro universe way beyond any other human. But, he was also … only partially correct.
Absolute Time, as has been automatically assumed for centuries, is still the Ultimate Reality!
New Age Physics 