It comes to my attention that our currently accepted concept of spacetime and understanding of the 4th dimension may be mistaken about their nature, and despite how audacious this may sound, the possibility of them being false prevents me to look the other way. Thus, for the possibility of bettering our world, please I urge you to read this with an open mind.
The special theory of relativity proposed that an object’s experience of time is affected by direction of the object’s speed relative to other points in space. This theory was verified by various scientific experiments, and it then became widely accepted that time is relative. This theory, thus, replaced our previous notion of an absolute universal time and space, first proposed by Sir Issacs Newton, and now we believe that past and future are part of our very reality. In this post, I would like to suggest that the objective way to see our universe is through the notion of an absolute universal time and space.
First, what exactly is the Special Theory of Relativity saying?
From my understanding of this theory, it proposes that an object’s experience of time depends on its speed of motion and a frame of reference, meaning a measurement of the object’s experience of time will vary depending on who is measuring it (frame of reference). Specifically, distance, speed, and direction of an observer in respect to the object will influence the measurement of the object’s flow of time.
Starting with how distance may affect our perception of time, just look up to the sky and watch the stars, which some of those lights took million light years to reach us. This shows, our perception of the world, in which we see through a medium of light, is distorted due to the finite speed of light and huge distances that some lights must travel to reach us. The implication is, light can only tell us about our world’s past, since distance exists between us and rest of the world.
Next, speed and direction, together, is called velocity. Since we perceive our world through the medium of light, when we wish to be concise of our interpretation of what light is telling us, we must take consideration of how a nature of light changes when we are either moving away or toward light and when some light-emitting-source like a star is moving toward or away from us. I believe the articulation of a change in light’s nature due to the various velocity of objects in the universe, including ourselves, is what the Special Relativity entails in the most fundamental sense, since we perceive time through the medium of light as well (according to the theory).
For example, as an object speeds away from an observer, slower the time will seem to flow for that object relative to the observer’s own flow of time (will illustrate how this comes about in the next paragraph), not considering any other factors such as gravity. Thus, due to this theory, our society now commonly believes that, as we travel closer to the speed of light away from Earth, our time will gradually slow down relative to the Earth’s flow of time, but we would not personally able to tell any difference in how we experience time.
To help one understand how this thought process might have come about, I would like to illustrate this phenomenon through a simple thought-experiment:
Imagine a completely dark and void outer space, and a rocket at a small space station is getting ready to be launched. This rocket is made from glass so passengers can see the outside and it has two laser beams, one facing forward and one backward, which fires images of the rocket’s time that updates every second. The space station also has an identical laser beam that updates time in perfect synchrony with the rocket’s laser beams, like such:
As the rocket departs all the laser beams also start to fire lasers in a linear manner, so that each other’s time can be perceived by both sides. As the rocket accelerates, the passengers in the rocket should start to notice that the space station’s laser beam’s time is updating less frequently compared to the one facing forward, giving the perception that the space station’s time is slowing down. The reason for why the space station’s laser beam is updating less frequently is because the speed of light is fixed, and since the spaceship is gaining speed closer to the speed of light, it only makes sense that the laser beam that is passing the spaceship will slow down relative to the rocket’s velocity. Say, at the start of the departure, the laser beam from the station passed the rocket 60 updated time per minute, towards later when the rocket’s relative speed to the laser beam is increased, the laser beam will pass only 10 updates per minute- hence the perception of slowing down of time.
In figure (1), the red lines represent 1-second intervals (update per second) of the laser beam at the station, and the rocket has just launched. At first, one interval of the laser beam will pass the rocket roughly every second (figures not drawn in scale, but just to illustrate the point). The green line represents the distance that it took the laser 5 seconds to reach after surpassing the rocket, and one can see that, at first, it took 5 seconds for the laser beam to reach the end of the green distance starting from the nose of the rocket. In Figure (2), when the rocket is very close to the speed of light, the laser beam is barely able to move faster than the rocket. The green distance is the same exact distance as figure (1) but after 5 seconds, the laser beam was now only able to surpass one interval. Thus, the passengers in the rocket, who think that the laser beam’s intervals represent 1 second, will notice that the intervals are now taking much longer time to surpass them, giving them the perception that their time is slowing down in respect to the space station.
A similar phenomenon occurs at the space station, who are receiving the rocket’s laser beam. Since the rocket is accelerating (or any speed for that matter) the laser beam’s 1-second interval is now getting stretched, diluting the laser beam. To intuitively understand how this happens, one can refer to the illustration below and imagine the greater distance the rocket will travel within one second compared to when it is traveling at a much slower speed; since the faster rocket will travel much greater distance within one second, the laser beam’s interval will be much longer in distance for the faster rocket. From the space station’s point-of-view, this will give them the perception that the rocket’s time is slowing down as it speeds closer to the speed of light, since compared to their own laser beam’s interval at the station, the supposedly 1 second interval are now much longer than theirs (fig 2).
The dilations that the laser beam experienced are commonly known as the Reverse-Doppler Effect, a phenomenon that speed of a light-emitting-source will cause its light shining to the opposite direction of its motion will cause the light to dilate, as it will decrease the frequency of the light, which was one of the support for the Special Theory of Relativity.
Now, soon as the rocket reaches the speed of light, the laser beam from the station is no longer able to surpass the rocket, perhaps giving the passengers of the rocket an impression that the station’s time has stopped in respect to theirs. Meanwhile at the station, the station’s flow of time is still updating every second in sync with the rocket’s. And from the perspective of the space station, the rocket’s laser beam is now so diluted that I would imagine it barely has any visibility or perhaps gives a false impression that the rocket’s time has stopped as well in respect to theirs.
As for the forward-facing laser of the spaceship, as the spaceship accelerates the laser beam would start to become compressed since the speed of light cannot exit a certain point. Thus, to an observer facing the spaceship, the compressed laser beam would give the observer an impression that the time of the spaceship is ticking faster than 1 second, yet the time is being updated every 1 second at the spaceship. I believe this is known as the Doppler Effect.
Thus, as the spaceship reaches the speed of light, the laser beam would not able to let out any newer updated laser beam and would be flying in sync with the very latest laser beam when the spaceship had reached the speed of light, perhaps giving an impression to the passengers that their time has stopped. To the observer who is facing the rocket, I would imagine that he would not able to see the spaceship nor any light (complete darkness) since no light that touches the rocket in the direction of the rocket’s motion can ever go past the rocket to reach the observer. Thus, when looking at the direction of an object traveling at a greater speed than that of the speed of light will seem completely void of visibility. Perhaps some of the black holes we see the sky are some objects coming right at us at a very fast speed (knock on wood).
To wrap up about the Special Theory of Relativity, one can see a problem that may arise when we try to measure the flow of time of some moving objects through observation since we observe through the medium of light, which has a fixed speed, and the nature of it changes depending on speed of a light-emitting-source; and confusion can arise from an observer as well. I believe that The Special Theory of Relativity simply incorporates this effect into the preexisting Newtonian Laws of Physics and claims that the perspective of a subjective being is the objective reality of the universe. This is a very special and audacious theory indeed.
On The General Theory of Relativity
As for The General Theory of Relativity, which I believe asserts that space itself becomes curved or distorted by some force created by large masses, thereby distorting the spacetime and creating forces of gravity, I believe is also less credible than the Newtonian Laws of Physics. I am still trying to fully grasp this theory; thus, I can only give partial support for this statement.
The General Theory of Relativity relies on scientific experiments that verified the occurrence of bending of light, which I believe has a different cause of their bending. The force of gravity can be described as a force of inertia, an acceleration. Backed by various scientific studies on gravity and its effect on atomic clocks, which essentially is measuring a rate of energy emission of an atom (a form of light). With these results, one can also infer the effects of gravity or inertia on light as well. My intuition tells me that the bending of light arises perhaps due to the light’s interaction with gravity, as we saw in our previous illustrations, the acceleration will cause light to change its nature, in the case for bending, perhaps from the side. As Sir Issacs Newton has brilliantly pointed out, for every action there is an equal reaction, and thus a force of action like gravity impressed upon light will cause a reaction of some sort, perhaps bending.
Thus, in my opinion, using bending of light as a support/proof for the theory of general relativity is nothing less of a circular reasoning, as space itself does not necessarily have to be curved for light to bend, regardless of whether gravity causes the bending or not.
After Thought
I still haven’t done much research to say anything conclusive, but the nature of our universe seems to manifest itself on various levels of its expression, from atomic particles with a nucleus with orbiting electrons, to quarks that make up those particles, to solar systems, to galaxies, all seem to be held by some invisible forces, which some will say is due to dark matter but I believe we may have over looked Sir Isaac Newton’s most simple observation of our universe, the existence of centripetal force, which would allow rotating bodies of objects to stay intact with just small amount of force, like electromagnetism, just as how debris in a tornado stay intact within it. Perhaps, the outer space is not perfectly void of any substance, meaning it may be wrong to call it a vacuous space, since if this is true, then orbiting of the planets may be explained by the difference in density of space created by the sun’s motion into a denser space and creating lesser dense space for its planets to spiral down a sinkhole.
The implication of this is quite scary since what would happen once the sun travels into space with no density? This would destroy our “gravity” and have our planets fling out into the void space and leave us to die. Since our solar system is moving closer into the middle, I assume this will happen one day or another, assuming this theory has even a slightest of truth.
The seemingly abundant existence of gravity all around us perhaps indicates the very nature of our universe. That the universe itself, too, is perhaps a spiraling body, just like many of its other expressions, thereby making all the galaxies to spiral down to the center.
There are many observations of our world that worry me. The existence of black holes, changing nature of our sun and planets, and effects of our ignorant human activities that are harming our very own planet, nonchalantly going about their lives without the slightest care. There seems to be danger lurking all around us. Being a habitable planet will attract other species from all around the universe, just as how we are searching for habitable planets around us hoping to colonize them, for me know, that being in one place all together makes our extinction much more likely, and this logic will be the same for all intelligent beings in the universe. From my understanding, it is only the nature of many intelligent species who have fought to the top of their food-chain in their home planets to naturally desire to conquest other habitable planets, which are so valuable and rare especially beautiful planet like our Earth, for the glory and survival of their species. The black holes scare me greatly, and what’s more, the nature of our universe has me rethinking about life and our purpose.
This one nature of us human beings worry me, that we only tend to learn and change after making a mistake, yet for mistakes like this there won’t be a second chance; and this will be the doom for us all.
It was not easy for me to write this, knowing there exists and have existed so many great human beings, who am I to question the current authority of science and who am I to disrespect their works, many of whom that I looked up to? I understand I may be completely taken as a fool but I decided to share it, in the hopes of possibly contributing to the advancement and survival of our species.
Thanks for reading.