Abstract
Advances in our understanding of the physical universe have dramatically affected how we view ourselves. Right at the core of all modern thinking about the universe is the assumption that dynamics is an elemental feature that exists without question. However, ongoing research into the quantum nature of time is challenging this view: my recently introduced quantum theory of time suggests that dynamics may be a phenomenological consequence of a fundamental violation of time reversal symmetry. I show here that there is consistency between the new theory and the block universe view. I also discuss the new theory in relation to the human experience of existing in the present moment, able to reflect on the past and contemplate a future that is yet to happen.This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Foundations of quantum mechanics and their impact on contemporary society’.
Highlights
Advances in science have had a profound impact on how we view ourselves
We explored the implications of the quantum nature of time for humans
The structure of the recently introduced quantum theory of time [10] was distilled into four basic principles and the main results that arise from their implication was briefly reviewed
Summary
Advances in science have had a profound impact on how we view ourselves. In the 1500s, the Copernican model of the solar system overturned the Ptolemaic model and with it the notion that human activity was a centrepiece of the cosmos. Following the discovery of quantum mechanics, we find that insisting human actions are essentially independent of the rest of the universe has an apparent physical consequence in the appearance of instantaneous spooky action The fact that this consequence can be placed in analogy with the apparent retrograde motion associated with the Ptolemaic model undermines the argument for human independence. I show that the ordered sequence of states provides a physical basis for some of our subjective notions about time to be incorporated into the block universe view. It resolves, the open problem of how to square the human perspective of time within the block universe [14].
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