I’ve been pondering the nature of
time since reading “Slaughterhouse Five” by Kurt Vonnegut in high school. In
case you haven’t read the book, it involves a protagonist, Billy Pilgrim, who
has become “unstuck in time”, meaning that he bounces between various
times in his life and experiences events in real time. While this premise is an
interesting science fiction twist in itself Vonnegut uses it to make a
statement about the bombing of Dresden Germany during WWII. More about this later.
Walking around my house the other
day I noticed we have clocks everywhere; on the walls, on night stands, on my
microwave and oven, on my arm, and in my pocket of all places. The other thing
I noticed is that none of them had the same time. I was about to reset all my
clocks when I remembered my sainted grandmother Alice. Alice was born in
Cornwall at the turn of the 20th century into a world much different than ours.
Hers was a world without electrification, where horses were the primary mode of
transportation, and people died routinely of diseases we've put behind us. She
lived through two world wars and saw humans walk on the moon. Yet through it
all her concept of time never changed. To Alice there were only four times, on
the hour, quarter past the hour, half past the hour, and quarter to the hour.
That was all the accuracy she needed to order her day. There is a simplicity to
this that is strangely compelling. Time is such an artificial construct and our
communal illusion of accuracy fostered by digital timepieces makes it even more
so.
The discrepancies between timepieces
made me think of the term “precision”. Precision
is a mathematical term that speaks to the accuracy of performing a mathematical
function on numbers that have a different number of significant digits. The
rule is that the result of any mathematical function performed on any series of
numbers cannot be more precise than the number with the least significant
digits following a decimal point. For
example, let’s multiply 452 times 5.7563. If you are using a calculator that
will display fractions to the 10,000th place you will get the
following result:
452 X 5.7563 = 2601.8476
In mathematics this is known as
false precision. Since the number 452 does not contain any digits to the right
of the decimal place the result of the multiplication cannot have a higher level
of accuracy than the number 452.
Therefore, the correct answer to the multiplication problem is:
452 X 5.7563 = 2601.8476 or
2601.
Note also that you cannot round the
.8 up to make the answer 2602 either since that would make the .8 a significant
digit in this case.
What does this say about how we
measure and perceive time? Can I really say that at this instant it is 4:27:18
in the afternoon? Do the tools I have to measure time perform at that level of
accuracy or is this another example of “false precision”? Perhaps more
importantly, do I really need to know the time to the hundredth of a
second, or the tenth of a second, or the second, or the minute? Or, as I
suspect, do I need no more accuracy than that of Alice to give structure to my
day?
Now back to Slaughterhouse Five. Slaughterhouse
Five led me to question how we experience time. We perceive time as a
continuous flow from the past, to the present, to the future. Proof of the
linearity of time generally centers around entropy. Since entropy involves the linear
decomposition of the universe from a higher energy state to a lower energy state
scientists use entropy as an analog for the linearity and directionality of
time. But what if, as proposed in Slaughterhouse Five, time isn’t linear? What
if our perception of linearity is nothing more than an artificial construct of
our human minds?
Silly you say? For evidence of the
non-linearity of time we need look no further that Einstein. Einstein’s work
demonstrates that time is relative and can be affected by factors such as
velocity and mass. How I experience time is different from how you experience
time if, for example, if I am traveling at extreme speed relative to you or if
I am in close proximity to a large mass and you are not. Elements of the film “Interstellar”
depend on this fact. This holds true for us in our physical environment as well.
For example, if you and I are walking down the sidewalk at the same velocity we
experience time in the same way.
If, however, one of us diverges from
this path and walks in a different direction at the same velocity, how we
experience time is now different.
Of course, at walking speed this
difference is too little for us to notice. So while it may not be possible for
use to become “unstuck in time” as was Billy Pilgrim, it certainly is possible
for us to experience the passage of time differently.
But what about space-time? You and I
occupy the same physical space as countless other entities but at a different
point in time. Is it possible to be aware of the entities that occupied the
same space as us in the past? I had a “time traveler” moment while on a trip to
Rome a few years ago. I was standing in the center of the old Roman Forum and,
for a brief moment, I thought I could feel the presence of the thousands of
people that occupied this space before me. I sensed the presence to Roman
legions parading past the cheering throngs along the Appian Way. I felt the presence
of emperors, senators, citizens and slaves going about their daily business
around me. Unfortunately, the connection did not last and I was brought back to
our space-time by our guide for the day.
So time remains an enigmatic mystery
to me. I find that I continue to ruminate on the nature of time when I find
myself gazing at the stars. And since
that day in Rome I’ve tried to tune into the lives of those that went before me,
and in doing so break the bonds of space and time.
