December 9, 2025
Entropy ate my homework
The closer we look at time, the stranger it gets
Internet splits: Is time real, a brain trick, or a cosmic prank
TLDR: Physicists debate whether time is a mere label, a real dimension, or a one-way arrow, with some theories even cutting it out. Commenters clash: perception-only camp vs time-is-real crowd, plus wild “imaginary time” ideas—making the question matter for everyday tech like GPS and our grasp of reality.
Physicists can’t even agree on what time is, and the comments went full soap opera. The article says time is either a label in equations, a real dimension like space, or a one-way arrow set by heat and disorder. Some theories even erase time entirely (hello, Wheeler–DeWitt), while others add extra time or make spacetime “lumpy.”
Readers clapped back. dotancohen argues the ‘arrow’ might be just our brains: if time ran backward, we simply couldn’t perceive later events. slyfox125 went survivalist: time is a sense we evolved to keep us alive. robot-wrangler rolled in with Hawking’s “imaginary time” and extra time dimensions like it’s sci‑fi Friday.
Then ChuckMcM dropped the classroom flex: at light speed, time would stop, and clocks tick faster at high altitudes (think GPS). Meanwhile, juleiie voiced the people: “Can anyone actually understand this?” Cue memes about blaming entropy for being late and begging for “bonus time dimensions” to finish deadlines. Verdict: the crowd is split between “time is real” and “time is a mind trick,” and they’re loud about it. It’s less a physics lecture than a philosophy brawl—with jokes. Also: lots of IANACosmologist disclaimers.
Key Points
- •The article outlines three distinct definitions of time: coordinate time in equations, time as a spacetime dimension in relativity, and time as a direction in thermodynamics.
- •Reconciling quantum mechanics (time as parameter) with General Relativity (time as dimension) is described as the “first problem of physical time.”
- •Early quantum gravity work produced the Wheeler–DeWitt equation (1967), a timeless formulation of the Universe’s quantum state.
- •Current quantum gravity approaches vary: some retain coordinate time with higher-dimensional spacetime; others seek emergent or quantised time and spacetime.
- •Even combined quantum and relativistic frameworks do not resolve why time appears to flow in one direction, highlighting the thermodynamic definition.