And the same way all coordinates in space are valid, all coordinates (or events) in time are valid as well, meaning that there should be no such distinctions as “past”, “present,” or “future”. We should think of time the same way we think of space just as all of space exists outside of our world and any point within space can be described by coordinates, all of time exists as well and any events that have happened or will happen already exist, described by their own coordinates within the universe. Relativity merges space and time into a single fourth-dimensional structure known as spacetime. That is, you will never be at a place without a time or exist at a time without also being someplace. To give an example from everyday life, think of where you are right now. This is possible because of the relationship between space, time, and motion. How events play out depends on the reference point of the individual. Whereas you might see a fish taken out of its tank, killed, and cooked, in a different part of the universe someone might witness the dead fish taken out of the pan, brought back to life, and placed into its murky tank. In fact, events don’t even have to unfold in the same order for two observers in the universe. A second for me isn’t the same second that you experience. Unlike the universal clock imagined by Newton, relativity gives us time as a very individual experience. This is the picture of the universe that emerged from Einstein’s theory of relativity.

The future might already exist and those three ways we separate time - past, present, and future - are nothing more than an illusion created by our minds. But that part of our lives hasn’t yet been written.Įxcept it might’ve. The most unsettling part of time is also its most refreshing: the future unfolding before us, dictated by our actions and by an unpredictability than can bring both great or terrible happenings our way. We experience it as a sweeping movement from the past and into the future, carrying us with it and leaving us helpless to do anything about it. It is an event outside of our control, simply a characteristic of the universe like gravity or light. One second passing for me is also a second which passes for you and for every other person on this world or on any other. Thinking of it in a common sense sort of way, one would imagine a universal clock which ticks at the same rate at all times and for all people. And yet for all its pervasiveness in our everyday conversations, describing what time is doesn’t come easily. It is, eventually, the thing which kills all of us. Most of us wish we had more of it, and yet time persists both as an object of value and an enemy of every person on Earth.

Time even takes on a medicinal role when it comes to healing both physical and emotional wounds. The word itself is so versatile: we can kill time, do time, save it and spend it. “Time” is the most commonly used noun in the English language. In this time lapse image of the blood moon, we see all three tenses of the moon present in one image: past, present, and future.

Totemo everything happens only once