Got no time? Well Soon You Won't Have To Worry About It At All

Well, by soon, I mean some billion years, but if you plan on staying alive long enough you might just live forever.

Apparently some scientists thinks time is disappearing from the universe, this is an alternative theory to dark energy, which is currently believed to cause the expansion and acceleration of the universe.

Remember a little thing called the space-time continuum? Well what if the time part of the equation was literally running out? New evidence is suggesting that time is slowly disappearing from our universe, and will one day vanish completely. This radical theory may explain a cosmological mystery that has baffled scientists for years.

Scientists previously have measured the light from distant exploding stars to show that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate. They assumed that these supernovae are spreading apart faster as the universe ages. Physicists also assumed that a kind of anti-gravitational force must be driving the galaxies apart, and started to call this unidentified force "dark energy".

The idea that time itself could cease to be in billions of years - and everything will grind to a halt - has been proposed by Professor José Senovilla, Marc Mars and Raül Vera of the University of the Basque Country, Bilbao, and University of Salamanca, Spain. The corollary to this radical end to time itself is an alternative explanation for "dark energy" - the mysterious antigravitational force that has been suggested to explain a cosmic phenomenon that has baffled scientists.

However, to this day no one actually knows what dark energy is, or where it comes from. Professor Senovilla, and colleagues have proposed a mind-bending alternative. They propose that there is no such thing as dark energy at all, and we’re looking at things backwards. Senovilla proposes that we have been fooled into thinking the expansion of the universe is accelerating, when in reality, time itself is slowing down. At an everyday level, the change would not be perceptible. However, it would be obvious from cosmic scale measurements tracking the course of the universe over billions of years. The change would be infinitesimally slow from a human perspective, but in terms of the vast perspective of cosmology, the study of ancient light from suns that shone billions of years ago, it could easily be measured

The team's proposal, published in the journal Physical Review D, dismisses dark energy as fiction. Instead, Senovilla says, the appearance of acceleration is caused by time itself gradually slowing down, like a clock with a run-down battery.

Though radical and in many way unprecedented, these ideas are not without support. Gary Gibbons, a cosmologist at Cambridge University, say the concept has merit. "We believe that time emerged during the Big Bang, and if time can emerge, it can also disappear - that's just the reverse effect."

Source: Is Time Disappearing from the Universe?

Interesting I must say. Anyone else on the verge to going completely wizzly waddle in the head with all these weird theories? I know I am.

[edit on 19/7/10 by Droogie]

[edit on 19/7/10 by Droogie]

I don't buy this.............. I've watched Star Trek 5 and they find Eden, Shakra or whatever and that's a long way away ....

PurpleDOG UK

time is only an illuson, man made

watch out forn the langliers steven king movie in which a plan got stuck inbetween time and well go watch it.
time stops so earth just sits in one spot forever every one frozen in place.
puts a whole new spin on frezz sucker

I read this somewhere else recently. I have to say that it blows my mind and I can't wrap my head around it. It does (to me) make more sense than dark enery, which seems absolutely rediculous and not much more scientific than a lay person seeing god as an explanation for things that are not immediately explainable.

I can't get my head around how time could possibly cease to exist in some form.

This is a very complicated subject.

If time stopped would we continue to age?

Would the Earth stop spinning?

It's certainly hard to comprehend the effects of time stopping or would there be any effects at all.

As one user said maybe time is just man-made. Maybe it is all just an illusion

reply to post by Frakkerface


Yep, I agree, might be better to take a pause from reading about things like this once in a while And it's hard do distinguish between science and religion nowadays, thinking about dark matter and dark energy.

To me, this makes more sense than making up stuff about "dark energy" to shoehorn the behavior of the Universe with their theories.

I would think the theory about time slowing down would be more easily testable via experiments and observation than the dark energy theory.

If I remember correctly, this theory states that one times runs out the Universe would have 4 dimensions of space, but none of time.

Another alternative to both of these theories is that gravity doesn't work quite how we expect it to at very large distances.

[edit on 19-7-2010 by Junkheap]

reply to post by Junkheap


Yes, it does make more sense than imagined dark matter\energy that supposedly is undetectable by any means. (as far as I know of that is).

Here's one of my other threads providing a theory from other scientists challenging dark matter: Has Missing Matter of the Universe Been Located?

reply to post by Destroyed


There's some really weird questions along with this, indeed. Would be interesting to hear a astronomer or a physicist answer these questions.

Absolutely excellent posting.

Time is a mysterious word and concept that never fails to fascinate us when contemplating it or wrestling through the demands and hours of each day and night.

The very idea that it will stop has expanded my mind more than once in the past, lol.

End of days comes to mind. Not the scary 2012 scenario of the end of the world, but the Biblical expression.

It can refer not just to society and civilization, or the end of the earth's existence, but to rotation, and to the movement of heavenly bodies themselves. Which is exactly how what we call "days" would cease to occur.

It does not necessarily follow that light and movement would cease as well, does it?

Perhaps a situation where light does not have to travel, but is able to function as a wave and particles at the same time, thereby eliminating darkness altogether?

Probably a silly question, but this is tough stuff to think about, and my brain is now very confused. Feels good, though. Fourth dimension....if it's not time, then what is it?

These three would still have to exist, after all, for it to be the fourth, so it would have to be an expanded or enriched existence, much like a photo of something compared to the something itself. The same, but more so.

Thoughts?

Hmmm. Seems time and light are interrelated, at least on a universal level.

One thing concerns me, tho... if it's supposed to take a billion years for time to 'stop', wouldn't places a billion light years from us already have stopped cold?

Originally posted by wylekat
One thing concerns me, tho... if it's supposed to take a billion years for time to 'stop', wouldn't places a billion light years from us already have stopped cold?

Hmmm that's a very interesting point. Afterall it does take a billion years for the light to reach us, however the light we would see would be a billion years in the past not the future, they'd still be experiencing the same timeline as us...or so I think. Mind boggling subject indeed

reply to post by KilIuminati


Well, I'm not a theoretical physicist by any means, but I believe that they are working on the premise of the space-time continuum as a mathematical concept. You know with all sorts of equations and such? But anyway, as I said, I have no clue as to what I'm talking about. I'm sure they have equations that explains their theory.

We should get Michio Kaku in here, he could probably relate this information to us in an understandable fashion.

In my eyes everything runs on time so if it does stop so would everything else. Every action uses time and without time an action is impossible.

In space time could stop and every thought and action could be instentanious or a sudden apperance but actual movement wouldnt exist. My own explanation for this is you would have to pass through air without interacting with it or else it would pile up and cause a force which would restrict movement.

To sum it up to move when time stops you have to be able to pass through atoms without touching them. That means you would be able to walk through objects and then what will stop you from falling through the floor?

A ghost could stop time possibly just a hunch...
(if this is off topic sorry just expressing my thoughts )

This immediately brought thoughts of timewave zero theory by Terrence McKenna. The correlations are rather interesting although McKennas' theory points at accelerating time, which fits with my perception and that of many whom I have spoken to, to myself however, I cannot prove time being more than mere perception, with the implications however you see them.

reply to post by PurpleDog UK


Apocrypha!

2nd line.

reply to post by Droogie


I saw this also and a couple of others too it seems.
I read an article about something similar a couple of years back on a theorum of life without time.
Neat concept though.
Kind of like how I would imagine heaven would be.
Say you die today and your wife wont die for another 30 years, the second you get to heaven or the afterlife she is there and hasnt been without you for a second.
Even though on this plane of existance she is still alive.
Neat stuff that you can literally contemplate for hours.
Star and flag just cuz I have thought about the no time issue for too much time.

reply to post by Droogie



Just had to say, this reminds me of a certain episode of South Park...


Doctor: "I'm sorry, but your son is running out of time."
Ms. Cartman: "Well what does he need?"
Doctor: "He needs... more time."
Ms. Cartman: "But Dr., what can we do?"
Doctor: "I suppose we could try a time transplant."

reply to post by DeepestOne


Indeed. But how can a person move when he too is made up of atoms?

One question I would like an answer to is this:

If you look at the space-time continuum, which are looked upon as integrated factors, how can they function seperately or without one another? And what implication does this have?

Thanks for the thread! Very interesting!

If time did not exist, I would think nothing else would exist either, or at the very most, wouldn't be able to move.

Time is visible when one thing changes position. If we look down to the atomic level, we can see constant movement. If there was no time, even atoms would stop moving.

If time stops existing, I can't comprehend how matter could exist afterward.

Kind regards