Is Time An Illusion and the Future Already Written,  As Einstein Thought?

© 2015 by Linda Moulton Howe

“Some physicists say that the future is already written in today,
but I think that they are not taking quantum uncertainty seriously.
Quantum uncertainty says the future is not determined until it's happened.”

- George F. R. Ellis, Ph.D. Prof. Emeritus, Mathematics Dept.,
Univ. of Cape Town, South Africa

June 27, 2015  Cape Town, South Africa - A scientist who studied and expanded his mind about the universe at Cambridge University in England and had long dialogues with the young physicist Stephen Hawking about time and space is George F. R. Ellis, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus now in the Mathematics Department at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

Like Prof. Martin Rees, Prof. Ellis also received a Templeton Prize honoring his profound insights into the cosmos that have led now to his rejecting the theory that evolved in Albert Einstein mind that space and time are entangled in such a way that time is an illusion.

The implication was that past, present and future are one and that the future is locked in from the Alpha to the Omega. Prof. Ellis says that does not make sense to the reality of existence as we know it. And his rebellion against Einstein’s perspective is the  cover story in the June 2015 Discover magazine entitled, “Mysteries in Time: Is the past a myth? Is the future set? Is it all an illusion? Prof. Ellis answers, “The past is real and can have had an effect on us today but the future cannot influence us because it does not yet exist.”

Prof. Ellis is convinced that the key to whether the future is fixed or not, is in the quantum realm where uncertainty changes to certainty — the collapse of the wave function — when there is an observation by consciousness. At the quantum level, Schroedinger's cat is both dead and alive inside a box until Someone Looks in the box.

Observation causes the collapse of the uncertain wave function into a certainty — dead or alive. But the problem is that no one knows what the collapse mechanism is that produces a certainty from many uncertain possibilities. Figuring that out is what Prof. Ellis is trying to do.

Interview:

George F. R. Ellis, Ph.D., Cosmologist and Professor Emeritus, Mathematics Dept., University of Cape Town, South Africa: “Einstein crystallized the idea of a 4-dimensional space/time with three space dimensions and one time dimension.

What he discovered is that if you change your velocity, you get a different splitting up of the space and time in 4 dimensional space. Time depends on how things move. That was his big discovery.

THE VELOCITY GETTING NEAR THE SPEED OF LIGHT IS WHERE IT APPROACHES INFINITE MASS, AND TIME WOULD STOP.

Yes, what would happen is if you could move at the speed of light, Einstein began thinking about a clock and what he thought about was that he saw the clock as it hit twelve. And he thought, ‘If I was moving away at the speed of light, this particle of light which is bringing the information traveling towards me and I would be traveling away at the speed of light! (laughs) And so I would always see the clock at twelve. Time would stop.

The Mystery of Time

COULD YOU EXPLAIN FOR A GENERAL AUDIENCE YOUR PERCEPTION ON QUANTUM COLLAPSES HAPPENING ALL THE TIME AT THIS MOMENT, AT THIS EDGE BETWEEN  THIS EVER-PRESENT TICKING, AS I SPEAK, EACH WORD IS GOING BEHIND LIKE THIS WALL …

Yeah.

AND THEN ON THE OTHER SIDE IS THAT ALWAYS CONSTANT FUTURE THAT SEEMS TO COME AT US, BUT THERE IS THIS BORDER IN BETWEEN.

Yeah. Quantum physics gives us the wave function and the wave function gives us the probabilities of the future, but it does not tell you what the outcome will be. The set of probable futures that comes and crystallizes into a specific thing, which happens and the moment that which that takes place is the instant in which the indefinite future becomes a definite past. 

Quantum uncertainty is changing to definiteness all the time. So, for instance, every time that a photon hits a leaf, it frees a specific electron from a specific molecule and travels down and releases chemicals, which turn into sugar and release energy into the plant. So the indefinite future becomes a definite past.

The same as light hits a wall and then receives energy and heats up. All the time everywhere, the indefinite future is becoming the definite past. It’s happening all the time.

THIS QUANTUM COLLAPSE ALWAYS HAPPENING EVERYWHERE AND THEREFORE, THE FUTURE  IS UNKNOWN UNTIL ALL OF THESE COLLAPSES — THE PHOTON HITS THE LEAF AND SO FORTH. WHY IS THIS CONSIDERED TO BE SO CONTROVERSIAL IN THE FACE OF EINSTEINIAN PHYSICS?

(Laughs) Einstein — what is controversial about it is that we don’t know the mechanism by which this takes place. We do not understand how quantum uncertainty gives way to classical certainty. That’s the collapse of the wave function. There are various theories about it and some people try to say that it does not happen. And they end up with the quantum Multiverse, which is a very strange thing in which every time a measurement takes place, they think that the whole universe splits into two, which I think is rather strange.

I take a more conservative position that there is a collapse of the wave function due to some collapse mechanism and we do not know at this time what that collapse mechanism is. But I would believe that there is such a mechanism.

If Einstein Is Right About A Fixed
Future, How Could There Be Free Will?

COULD WE SHIFT TO THE PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE THAT IF EINSTEIN WERE RIGHT, THEN ESSENTIALLY TIME AS AN ILLUSION WOULD IMPLY THAT THE FUTURE IS ALREADY SOMEHOW THERE AND WE’RE JUST MOVING  THROUGH IT, ALPHA TO OMEGA.

IT SEEMS THAT WOULD TAKE AWAY ALL CONSCIOUSNESS HAVING FREE WILL.

That is correct, if that is true. And that is one of the reasons why I think Einstein has to be wrong.

THEN HOW HAS THIS PHYSICS PERSISTED WITHOUT OTHER SCIENTISTS RAISING THE QUESTION: THIS DOESN’T MAKE ANY SENSE TO THE UNIVERSE WE’RE IN?

Well, I’ve been thinking about the relationship of physics to complexity and the way that complexity emerges. And there is a fundamental thing that is happening and in fact I have just completed a book about this. The whole of this picture is built on the idea that everything that happens in the universe happens bottom up:
- particle physics underlies nuclear physics
 - underlies atomic physics
- underlies chemistry
-  underlies physiology
- underlies the brain.

So, the idea is that all causation proceeds upwards. Now that is not the way things work in the real universe. There is equally a flow of causation downwards from the biggest scheme down to the smaller levels. And that is what was not taken into account by many physicists and I don’t think Einstein ever thought about this.

But If Future Blank,
How Is Precognition Possible?
See "Feeling the Future" in websites below.

IN MY OWN LIFE, I HAVE BEEN SAVED FROM A MORTAL SITUATION ON A ROAD WITH CARS BY SOMETHING COMING INTO MY MIND AND MAKING ME DRIVE MY CAR OVER TO THE SIDE OF THE ROAD AND SIT THERE NOT KNOWING THAT WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN WAS A BIG SEMI-TRUCK OUT OF CONTROL WOULD BE COMING AROUND A BEND AND THAT WHATEVER IT WAS THAT MADE ME PARK ON THE ROAD WAITING AND THEN SEEING IN HORROR THAT IF I HAD KEPT GOING I WOULD HAVE BEEN DEAD.

Mountain road image by Solomon Gabriel, Fotolia.com.

HOW DO WE DEFINE THESE MOMENTS IN LIFE WHERE SOMETHING SEES A FUTURE THAT IS GOING TO BE MORTAL AND SAVES US?

I cannot answer that one. I accept your description of what happened to you. Someone needs to collect statistics on these kinds of things and try to see if it happens often or? One has to keep statistics of cases when people may have had such a premonition and driven to the side of the road and nothing happened. (laughs) And you tend to remember the ones where you got it right and forget the ones where you did not get it right.

But you are asking me if it could be premonitions, connections. I’m open minded that it’s possible such can happen.

WHAT I’M RAISING IS: IS IT POSSIBLE THAT THERE IS A HYBRID BETWEEN EINSTEIN AND YOUR HYPOTHESIS SO THAT THERE IS SOMETHING GOING ON AT THAT STRANGE BORDER BETWEEN THE TICKING PRESENT AND THE ONRUSHING FUTURE — THAT THERE IS SOME PART OF THE ALWAYS FORMING FUTURE THAT IS THERE IN SOME WAY AND CAN HAVE INFLUENCE ON THAT TICKING  PRESENT, LIKE PULLING OVER WHEN A TRUCK IS COMING AROUND A BORDER BECAUSE SOMETHING IN ME DETECTED SOMETHING COMING.

Yeah. You hadn’t seen anything? You hadn’t heard anything before it happened? It was completely out of sight before it happened, right?

THAT’S RIGHT.

Yeah, the mind is always trying to predict what will happen. It’s always looking for patterns of the future and so on, but it sounds like in your case, you can’t explain it that way. This is not the same as the Einstein future fixed and unchanging. And the fact that you would do that (pull over) would have to be written back to the beginning of the universe. I simply don’t believe that.

(laughs)  RIGHT. IT MAKES NO SENSE BECAUSE IT TAKES ALL FREE WILL FROM CONSCIOUSNESS FROM ONE END OF THE UNIVERSE TO THE OTHER.

Yeah!

4th Time Dimension and Gravity Waves

This illustration depicts the gravitational waves generated by
two black holes orbiting each other. Illustration by NASA.

IS THERE ANY POSSIBILITY IN YOUR MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS MIND THAT THERE COULD BE SOME HYBRID THAT IS CLOSER TO A TRUTH. THAT THERE IS SOME KIND OF WRITING GOING ON IN THE FUTURE, SO TO SPEAK, AND WE’RE MOVING TO IT WHEN IT’S NEAR THIS BORDER BETWEEN PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE?

It seems unlikely to me, but as I said I’m an open minded guy (laughs). And I’m prepared to try to think about it.

THERE MIGHT BE A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE 4TH DIMENSION OF TIME AND GRAVITY WAVES?

The gravity waves are traveling through space time and their oscillations in space time and so the 4th Dimension is involved. It’s all space/time curvature.

WHY IS IT THAT WE’RE IN 2015 GOING FORWARD AND AS I UNDERSTAND IT, WE STILL HAVE NOT DETECTED GRAVITY WAVES?

We’ve got some fantastic gravitation wave detectors coming online and they might detect gravitational waves directly in the next couple of years.

Direct detection? That will happen probably in the next couple of years, ten years maximum.

I’VE ALWAYS WONDERED WHY IS IT THAT GRAVITATIONAL WAVES HAVE PERSISTED MATHEMATICALLY, BUT WE’VE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO DETECT THEM DIRECTLY?

It’s because the amplitude is so incredibly small.

ISN’T A WAVE FUNCTION A FREQUENCY?

It’s a mixture of frequencies. It’s a combination of frequencies all joined together.

JUMPING THE TRACK TO PHILOSOPHY AGAIN, THERE IS IN MANY DIFFERENT RELIGIOUS TEXTS THIS CONCEPT:  IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD — WORD IS INTERPRETED AS SOUND FREQUENCY OR FREQUENCIES. IT IS THE IMPRESSION THAT WHETHER YOU ARE LOOKING AT THE PERIODIC TABLE OR ANYTHING ELSE IN PHYSICS THAT FREQUENCIES SEEM TO BE AT THE BASE OF EVERYTHING.

Yeah, waves are at the base of almost everything and that means frequencies.

IF YOU CONCENTRATE, FOR EXAMPLE, ENERGY ON A SPECIFIC FREQUENCY TO CHANGE IT A LITTLE BIT UP OR DOWN, YOU CAN DO IT DEPENDING ON WHETHER YOU RESONATE WITH THAT FREQUENCY OR YOU ARE IN CHAOS OR CONTRADICTION TO THAT FREQUENCY?

Yes, I could accept that description, yeah.

Time of Universe's Existence:
Infinite Expansion or Collapse?

DO YOU THINK THE UNIVERSE WILL KEEP EXPANDING ENDLESSLY? OR DO YOU THINK THAT IT IS GOING TO REPEAT A COLLAPSE ON ITSELF?

It will expand forever.

AND WHAT IS INFINITE EXPANSION INTO? (laughs)

It’s not into anything. It’s just getting bigger. This is one of the difficult things to explain, but the universe does not have to be situated in a bigger space. It’s just all that there is and it’s just getting bigger.”

Websites:

Future, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future

Albert Einstein, Physicist: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future

George F. R. Ellis, Mathematician and Cosmologist: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_F._R._Ellis

"Feeling the Future: Experimental Evidence for Anomalous Retroactive Influences on Cognition and Affect," 2010-2011 by Daryl Bem, Cornell University, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology about statistical evidence for precognition: http://dbem.ws/FeelingFuture.pdf

"Einstein's Gravity Waves Could Be Found with New Method," October 24, 2014, Space.com: http://dbem.ws/FeelingFuture.pdf

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