Science Forums 2

[CraigD]

Originally Posted by arkain101

There are a few reasons. …

An interesting, thoughtful, and philosophical perspective. I’m especially intrigued by the observation that rest mass-less bosons (photons and gluons) can be considered not to experience the passage of time.

I think I’m mostly in agreement, but for a couple of detailed points…

Time is a thing we feel in our consciousness.

Despite being the focus of intense interest for centuries, especially in decade around 1980, consciousness is a term that eludes useful scientific definition. Although I have high expectations that the physical phenomena associated with consciousness – complex behaviour, symbol use, etc – will eventually be explained by Physics, I have strong doubts that the metaphysical concept to which the term refers will prove of any scientific worth. I suspect it is a semantic null, a term referring to nothing real.

Is time dialtion truly a correct explanation of calculations made in special relativity and test data, or a phenomina explained with different reasons and logic?

I’m unclear what this question is asking. The idea that rest mass-less bosons don’t experience the passage of time is a consequence of the formalism of SR of which time dilation is a part, making any answer to the question other than “yes” contradictory to that premise.

Light does not experience a flow in time (in its internal workings)

This qualification of “experiencing a flow of time” relating to “internal workings” is troubled. Photons don’t obey the Pauli exclusion principle, a consequence of which is that, although they can modify one another’s interaction with fermions (eg: patterns of constructive and destructive interference on photographic film), they can’t effect one another. As “internal workings” implies some sort of causation, we can say that photons don’t have internal workings.

I suspect I’m saying the same thing arkain is here, just finding flaws with his language, but think it important to avoid any intuitive feeling that a bosons is some sort of complex collection of particles, rather than a single fundamental, indivisible particle.

Following the path of contemplating the lack of interaction between the rest mass-less bosons of the standard model leads to one of the great stumbling blocks opposing efforts to include gravity in the model to produce a theory of quantum gravity – according to General Relativity, gravity does interact with a photon, changing its quantum state in a fashion reminiscent of a photon changing the state of an electron or quark. Fitting the graviton into the standard model feels troubled and intuitively awkward.