- Latest
-
Topics
Philosophy
Mind & Behavior
Business
-
Videos
Latest Videos
How to recognize when you’re reacting from childhood wounds Dr. Nicole LePera, the holistic psychologist and NYT bestselling author behind Reparenting the Inner Child, breaks down the six archetypes...
The often-ignored system controlling your mood, memory, and focus You've heard of the mind-body connection. But have you ever actually tried to understand your own? Three scientists break down...
The solar revolution turning sunlight into synthetic fuel “10 years ago, my colleagues and I looked at the prognosis for climate change, and it looked pretty hopeless. There...
Your ancestors aren’t who you think they are What if one of our oldest ideas about ancestry is simply wrong? Harvard geneticist David Reich argues that ancient DNA...
Your suffering is a compass. Here’s how to read it. Mark Manson, author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, argues that the entire self-help industry has been...
How your brain builds and edits your identity The voice in your head feels like your own, but it’s actually constructed by neurological processes. Three experts explain how...
Rome’s triumph was the ancient world’s most effective piece of propaganda Mary Beard uncovers the spectacle of the Ancient Roman parade, the Roman Triumph.
Over-optimizing your life is making you fragile, not better Brad Stulberg breaks down the biology, philosophy, and psychology behind genuine excellence and how to reach it. -
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
- My Account
- Sign In
- Membership
- More
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.