- Latest
-
Topics
Philosophy
Mind & Behavior
Business
-
Videos
Latest Videos
The chemical reason love makes you irrational Falling in love can feel like finding “the one.” But to your brain, romance may look less like affection and...
The trick that offloads intrusive thoughts so your brain can actually work David Epstein, author of Range and Inside the Box, breaks down what's actually happening inside the brain when we multitask,...
How one decision can create “a new self” From Copernicus to Flatland, Yale philosopher L.A. Paul shares examples of transformative experiences, and how participating in them changes more...
The unpopular truth about the myth of the lone genius David Epstein argues that the myth of the lone genius is a story we tell, but the actual history of...
Play this card game to solve your team’s biggest problem The $25 card game that unlocks high-achieving teams.
The psychological reason complete freedom is a creative dead end David Epstein walks through decades of research exploring why constraints, not freedom, are the engine behind creativity, focus, and breakthrough.
Body language expert: 7 cues that make you instantly more likable Body language expert Vanessa Van Edwards shares a genius formula to create a lasting first impression while debunking body-language myths...
Think you’ve been grieving for too long? You’re wrong. Older cultures made room for mourning. Today, we often rush it, and it comes with a cost. Three experts explain. -
Columns
Columns
Mini Philosophy A philosophy column for personal reflection.
Starts With A Bang An astrophysics column on big questions and our universe.
Books A literature column to feed your curiosity.
The Long Game A business column on long-term thinking.
Strange Maps A geography column on history and society.
The Well A collection of essays and videos on life’s biggest questions.
13.8 A column at the intersection of science and culture. -
Classes
Featured Classes
- Store
- My Account
- More
- Sign In
- Membership
When Albert Einstein's friend Michele Besso died in 1955, Einstein, who himself would die soon after, wrote to Besso's family: "Now he has departed this strange world a little ahead of me. That signifies nothing. For us believing physicists, the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."
They were more than just words of consolation, but an understanding that the laws of physics are “time-symmetric," as described in a new article in Quanta. “That is," writes Dan Falk, “the physics they describe is the same, regardless of whether the variable called 'time' increases or decreases. Moreover, they say nothing at all about the point we call 'now'—a special moment (or so it appears) for us, but seemingly undefined when we talk about the universe at large. The resulting timeless cosmos is sometimes called a 'block universe'—a static block of space-time in which any flow of time, or passage through it, must presumably be a mental construct or other illusion."
Other physicists aren't buying it, claiming that the universe is not static, and that the passage of time is physical. “I'm sick and tired of this block universe," said physicist and philosopher Avshalom Elitzur. “I don't think that next Thursday has the same footing as this Thursday. The future does not exist. It does not! Ontologically, it's not there."
Meanwhile, what's a block universe? Marina Cortes, a cosmologist at the University of Edinburgh, explains:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/embed/d17U0Bgj0lk?feature=oembed]
No transcript available for this video.