Moderation note: the first 92 post of this thread were move from thread “What is ‘spacetime’ really?”, because they concern the assertion that an absolute “now” exists, while the original thread is excessively long, and a more general discussion of spacetime.
Essay:
Quote:
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The point is not that "clocks" slow down, but reality slows down.
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Ummmm.... "Reality slows down"??
Say, just for a moment, that you took a flying leap out of the "relativity paradigm" and landed in what most folks *think* is impossible... a cosmic perspective on "Reality.
(Just for a moment... please... you can go back to relative perspective immediately after this little "thought experiment. But *please* "go with it" for this exercise.)
"Seeing" (or even Being!!... a thought experiment, remember!) Cosmos aa a whole... everything everywhere is all happening right now. The speed limit of light only limits what local perspectives can "see," and even the sunlight we see now left the sun over eight minutes ago. So, there is, of course, a time delay in what we can see... the farther away the event/lightsource, the longer the delay.
OK... back to "Reality" with a capital 'R'. Everything everywhere is moving... on all scales from subatomic to universal/cosmic. We all know about these cycles on all scales ('cept maybe the Big Cycle of a possible cyclic cosmos!) Earth spins in "real time*" "one rev a "day" and orbits sun once a "year." Etc., etc... Galaxies spin one rev every so many million "earth years"... etc. (*Real time* in this sense is "absolute* meaning natural cycles that have nothing to do with human (or other intelligent life form) "observation" or the limits of relative perspective.
Are you with me so far??
So... from this "cosmic perspective" what would be the meaning of your phrase, "Reality slows down?" It would lose its meaning outside the paradigm of relative perspective.
So then, what would the concept of gravitational slowing down of time mean? Absolutely nothing! It is just a myopic, relativistic paradigm... as if human perspective and our poor instruments of measurement... (like clocks that slow down under variable gravitational conditions) actually dictate that "Reality slows down!"
Is there anyone here who can see the anthropomorphic absurdity of this?
I think not, and I am sorry about that.
Now, granted, this was presented as a "thought experiment." But then so was the Minkowski/Einstein/relativity *theory* of "spacetime" and in particular "dilated time."
So... the above can be seen as just another thought experiment. It is in fact, the way I have "seen" Reality all my life. ... And It doesn't "slow down" just because our clocks can't keep absolute cosmic time under the stress of various gravitational and other inertial changes "relative to each other."
Just a little food for thought to sleep on.
Hope it doesn't give anyone nightmares!
Michael
