There is no time — Part 1: The Timeless Photon: Does Light’s Disregard for Time Underpin Quantum Uncertainty
Time, arguably the most precious resource in our universe, is perceived differently by various entities. For humans, it’s an unyielding march forward, but for photons — particles of light — it doesn’t exist at all. This bold idea, rooted in Einstein’s relativity, has led some thinkers to postulate that the very stochastic nature we observe in quantum physics is inextricably tied to a photon’s lack of temporal experience. The thesis of this article is provocative: could our observation of probabilistic behavior in the quantum realm be due to light’s inherent “time blindness”? Let’s delve into this speculative yet fascinating avenue of thought. Remember, this is a loose idea, not rigorously proven, but it presents a fresh perspective on long-standing quantum conundrums.
Note: The presented concept is a loose idea without empirical proof and is intended to provoke thought rather than assert scientific fact.
1. Timelessness in Relativity: The Eternal Now of a Photon
Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity profoundly changed our understanding of space and time. In this framework, as an object’s speed approaches the speed of light, its subjective experience of time dilates and eventually stands still. Thus, for a photon, which always travels at the speed of light, there’s no change, no evolution — only an eternal “now.”
This timeless existence challenges our intuition. While everything around a photon evolves, changes, and experiences the passage of time, the photon remains unchanged in its own reference frame. To a photon, its emission from a star and its absorption by your eye might seem instantaneous, even if billions of years passed in our perspective.
2. The Indifference of Photons to Temporal Events
For an entity that doesn’t experience time, temporal sequences or chronological events would be indistinguishable. When it’s emitted, when it traverses space, and when it’s absorbed — all these events are one and the same for a photon. This unique quality implies that the “when” of a photon’s interactions doesn’t hold any significance from its point of view.
Consider an analogy. If you were to read a story without a clear sequence of events, every event in that narrative would appear to be occurring simultaneously. Similarly, for a photon, its entire journey, irrespective of how long or convoluted, seems like a singular event.
3. Photonic Symmetry: An Einstein-Bose Condensate in Time?
The Einstein-Bose condensate, a state of matter where particles become indistinguishable and act as a single entity, provides an interesting parallel. Just as individual particles lose their distinctiveness in this condensate, photons might lose their distinct temporal events due to their lack of time experience.
Such a temporal condensation would mean that, from the photon’s perspective, all events are symmetrically spread across its existence. There’s no discerning the start from the end, or the middle from any other point. It’s all just one unified “moment.”
4. The Stochastic Illusion: Our View of Time-bound Uncertainty
Given this symmetric, time-condensed viewpoint of a photon, any attempt by time-bound entities (like us) to pinpoint a specific event in the life of a photon might appear inherently probabilistic.
Think of it as trying to pin a tail on a donkey while blindfolded. Our lack of seeing the full picture, combined with the photon’s indifference to when events occur, might result (to some degree) in the inherent uncertainties we observe in quantum mechanics.
