I've been always fascinated by the concept of "time."
Not because I want to be an expert in physic and become this great intellect who perfectly understands how the world works.
I am interested in it because it has some practical and positive information a dummy like me can also use in understanding 1) how small our thinking is in our daily life 2) how we create fear around shit that doesn't matter...
So the other day I was watching a movie called Lucy and saw Scarlett Johansson saying this.
( by the way, I think she is super beautiful)
1+1 = has never been equal to 2
Time is the only true unit of measure. It gives proof to the existence of matter. Without time, we don't exist.
Humans consider themselves unique so they've rooted their whole theory of existence on their uniqueness. One is their unit of measure, but it's not. All social systems we've put into place are a mere sketch. One plus one equals two. That's all we've learned, but one plus one has never equaled two. There are, in fact, no numbers and no letters. We've codified our existence to bring it down to human size to make it comprehensible. We've created a scale so that we can forget its unfathomable scale.
Time gives legitimacy to its existence. Time is the only true unit of measure.
Whoa! Right? But the funny thing is.... I kinda have said the same thing before about time and words.
So this knowledge has been always an interesting thing to think about to me. But I never had a chance to further investigate what is actually going on in this statement. So here is what I've found.
Is time the only true unit of measurement?
Time gives everything its existence but it is not the true unit of measure.
The nature of time is to flow, and the nature of the observer is to see the rate. For a faster person, time passes slowly, such as Flash, the superhero. For a slower person, time passes quickly, such as a sloth.
If we measure mass, we actually measure a relative entity that has come into effect by a particular amount of energy collecting together. Therefore, we can say that energy is the true unit of measure. Time, for instance, comes when we measure the amount of energy passing through a point per unit time. We have defined 1 second in scientific terms. However, this depends on the frame of reference. If we sit inside a train which is approaching the speed of light, 1 second inside that train will be more than 1 second outside that train.
However, we can still calculate its momentum, which will be its relative mass* its speed from the external reference frame. Now, if the train touches the speed of light, it must either become of infinite mass or pure energy. Infinite mass is not allowed by the laws of physics, therefore, the train chooses to convert to energy. Now, the momentum of the train is given by h/l, where h is Planck’s constant, 6.634*10^-34, and l would be its wavelength. The train has now converted to a stream of photons with the total momentum still being the same, but its mass has now gone loose and converted into energy. Energy before and after is still constant.
Therefore, time is relative. Energy is absolute. You can say energy is the true unit of measure and the rate at which we measure the flow of energy is given by its interaction with time. However, the speed of time changes when it is near a lot of energy concentrated at a point, such as a black hole or sun or anybody that has the capacity to significantly affect its speed. So, the speed of time is not universally constant and cannot be accepted as the true measure.
The bottom line is:
We made rules like this from 1+1 = 2, to what your name is to HELP us and MAKE OUR LIVES EASIER! What these rules do instead sometimes really put us in the boxes and definitions in the way we think about things. We are crippled too much on staying within these definitions and boundaries.
In reality, all we get in life is probabilities, never a certainty. This life is uncomfortable because we humans would like to predict and know everything in definitive terms in order for us to feel safe.
So I have to remind people that choosing what feels the right and the best decision you can at the moment and confidently navigating through uncertainty is the best and only thing you can do and that is the true life skill because if we can't even rely on what it feels the hardcore science factor like time and math, what do we even know?
We shouldn't forget that 'Word definitions,' 'Math measurement,' 'The concept of time' are practical AND MAN-MADE tools that allow us to have some sort of references that we can all relate to and even these 'hardcore science factors' like time can have subjectivity in it depending on who experiences it.
If there is no such thing as a fact, (we learned that the only true unit of measurement is energy), then as you can probably imagine, the meaning of things we face in daily life is very much dependent on our own perceptions! - How we see the experiences of events we go through every day.