Before I begin, please don’t attempt to discredit, discard, ignore, or somehow invalidate anything I’m about to say before you think long and hard about it. I ask only one thing of you. Open your mind to other potentials. Open your mind to other viewpoints and do your best to percieve from every view possible and to take in all data possible for the most logical conclusion. Now that I have said this, I will continue, and promptly state my initial view.
Time is something that exists only in the realm of human perception, but is integral to our current and limited understanding of the universe. It is a thing that we use to assign value, calculate speed, plan our day, determine age, and define other things. However, the existence of change, cycles, and various other universal phenomena does not necessarily constitute the existence of time as a real/physical dimension or measurement. Without the concept of time, these things would still occur, and would be in no way altered. Time is a measurement of repetition of cycles and/or finite existence, and nothing more.
A human lifetime doesn’t even come close to equating to a galactic day. This is one of many examples of the relativity of time. Since it is defined based on cycles or finite existence, it is non-uniform. An alien species may have a completely different perception of time than ours. Not only because of their biological differences, but because of differences in their home system or planet. They may even have no real need for or perception of time at all. This can be easily explained and could occur given numerous circumstances.
Thier planet could have orbital synchronized rotation. This means that the same part of their planet is always facing their sun. This is highly unlikely. However, if this occurred on a planet with intelligent life, there would be no concept of a day as a cyclical and semi-regular event and therefore no perception of time based on it. Hence there would be no days. It is also possible for that same planet to have a nearly circular orbit. This would mean virtually no seasons, and thus no concept of months or a year. How would a species on such a planet define time or even conceptualize it before finally looking into space from the dark and cold side of their planet to observe the stars?
So, this species on this planet would eventually develop the concept of time either from the stars, their lifespan, or through some other means, but would it matter to them? Would they think in seconds, minutes, hours, days, years, decades, centuries, or millenia? How would they measure speed or travel? Maybe they wouldn’t use time to try and measure the universe. I know this is a near impossible concept for many, perhaps most, to grasp, but perhaps time doesn’t exist because it doesn’t matter. Perhaps it exists for us because it does matter to us.
This means that speed is of no importance. Though it enhances kinetic energies in direct correlation with mass it ultimately doesn’t matter. Everything is always moving and all measurements of speed by us are based on our perception, perhaps with the exception of light speed (which according to recent FERMI data, may need to be further explored or refined). I postulate that there is no speed which any object can not be accelerated or slowed by gravity, even that of light and beyond. This is proven through the nature of black holes. Even light can’t escape them.
I do realize that other particles do escape black holes at high speed along a single axis, but these are emitted by the hole as a by-product of the reactions taking place within and eventually succumb to gravity somewhere far beyond. One could argue that even black holes can be defined with time. They can. Anything can. We can place our own perceptions and measurements on anything. No matter how big or small, old or young. Galaxies eventually do collide or break up, holes merge or die. This still doesn’t constitute the existence of time as anything more than a perceptual measurement. The same particles have always been, and always will be, in one form or another.
The same atoms and particles which are in the very tips of the fingers which I am using to type this right now came from something else, which came from yet another thing, which came from elements forged in a star, which came from base elements left from the big bang (if you so believe). In the grand scheme of the universe, time really doesn’t exist because matter and energy can neither be created nor destroyed. They can only be interchanged. Hence, there is no fundamental destruction or creation, only reorganization. Nothing ever truly began or ended. Even if you trace all matter in existance, and thus your own true beginnings, back to the big bang, it came from matter that existed before hand and gathered into that single massive particle that exploded into what is now our universe.
Our use of time doesn’t enhance our understanding of the universe’s true nature, or of anything truly fundamental. It hampers our understanding of these things. When we cast aside time and look at measurements of physical and universal data only, then we can decipher the structure of the universe as a whole. This is when we will arrive at a truly complete unified field theorem This will give birth or pave the way to the theory of everything. This will lead to the realization that there is no real beginning or end, only cycles upon cycles.
