Gold: What is time?
Summary
In this episode, host Jonathan McCrea interviews Carlo Rovelli, author of *The Order of Time*, to explore how our intuitive perception of time is fundamentally flawed. They discuss how time passes at different speeds based on location and velocity, and why the concept of a universal "now" is physically meaningless. Rovelli explains that the distinction between past and future arises solely from entropy and heat, while quantum gravity theories suggest time may not exist as a fundamental variable. The conversation concludes with a look at the feasibility of time travel and the neurobiological…
Topics discussed
Introduction to Carlo Rovelli and the nature of time
Time dilation: why time passes at different speeds
The illusion of a universal 'now' and present moment
Perception, light speed, and the reality of the past
Time as a combination of physics and brain biology
Entropy, heat, and the arrow of time
Reversible physics vs irreversible thermodynamics
Quantum gravity and the absence of a time variable
Pre-Newtonian views: time as counting events
Time as a multi-layered, stratified concept
The feasibility of time travel to the future and past
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