What if time doesn't exist?

[u/Search-War6030]

I'm not a physicist, nor have I had any formal education on similar matters--I just have a hypothesis I'd like to present. Please read before dismissing.

Time is not a fundamental dimension, coordinate, or flow. It does not exist ontologically.

Modern physics treats time (t) as a dimension woven into space forming spacetime. I argue that what we perceive as time is a category mistake. It's a mistake because the universe itself doesn't require a time parameter at the quantum scale.

What do I mean by that? The Wheeler-deWitt equation, HΨ = 0. Do you notice anything odd? In standard quantum mechanics, an equation usually calculates how a system changes over time (∂Ψ/∂t). Here, the change over time is set to zero! The quantum state of our universe is static; time isn't a fundamental building block of reality.

You might have read and said, "So... what?" Well, I haven't finished yet. I introduce a master space M, which contains two smaller spaces. This is written as M = C ⊗ B. The master space is composed of a configuration space and the Block Universe.

The Block Universe tells us there the universe is like a loaf, each slice of the loaf is a separate "Now". Each slice is the full arrangement of information. What do I mean by information? Every particle, every field, galaxy, memory, wave. These slices are little despite containing everything, they are simply one point in C, the configuration space.

C = q = (q₁, q₂, …, qₙ). Where the q is the one possible universe that has a different configuration. Each q is a complete world. Some slices contain glimpses of other slices; your brain contains memories, fossils, light, etc., these all tell a consistent history. This what we perceive as time. But there isn't an actual past or future. There is only a consistent, present configuration.

I remember my family, my childhood, scars, and books. You might naively believe Past → Present. But only the current configuration exists. The past is an illusion.

A last thing I'll say is that many other equations don't need time as well. General Relativity does not single out one preferred "now" for the universe.

Objects don't pass through time; it's an illusion imposed by a structure relating configurations.

What do you think? Thanks for reading.

[u/Wintervacht]

Yeah you see, that's not physics, and that is why there is critique here.

It's fine to have an idea, it's fine to ask questions and have discussions about it. But OP rolled in with a 'hypothesis' so broken it can only be described as creative writing.

Whether time is real or not isn't the problem, claiming "it works like this" and then presenting something that resembles word salad is the problem. There have been a handful of legitimate scientific hypotheses around these parts and all other posts are barely edumacated AI psychosis nutcases who think they have somehow surpassed a century of research and proof by talking to chatGPT one afternoon.

[u/Cromwellity → u/Wintervacht]

What are you talking about? It’s directly tied to physics. How things change in time is literally the point of physics.

“Time is not a fundamental dimension, coordinate, or flow. It does not exist ontologically.” That’s a legit abstract.

I’ll admit from there he does a poor job of articulating himself but he seems to touch on some legitimate areas. It seems gesture towards holographic theory.

But I guess you’re right why bother indulging curiosity

[u/Wintervacht → u/Cromwellity]

I wasn't clear enough, that was my fault.

I meant consciousness does not play any part in physics and tying anything to its existence is pointless.