6 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: Does time really exist?
Serious answer - if you can't tell, does it matter? Time is a really useful model for explaining things about the world around us. If you use it as intended, within the scope where it works well, it will always be right. Does that mean it "exists"? It doesn't really matter. It's value doesn't come from whether or not it exists. It's value is that it works for what we use it for.
A philosophical discussion about it's nature can be interesting but there's no right answer. You might get some people who misinterpret things like General Relativity or theories on entropy as explicitly suggesting time exists as a component of reality, but they do not do that. You can also argue that it's clearly something we "just came up with". That's kinda true but it doesn't exclude time from also being some fundamentally true aspect of existence that we figured out instead of making it up.
Comment by pro_nait at 24/02/2025 at 06:04 UTC*
2 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Thanks for your answer! I like the idea that what matters is not whether time exists, but how useful it is. I think realizing this makes it easier to let go of the past and not worry too much about the future. If time is more of a tool than an objective reality, maybe it just helps us navigate life. How do you personally feel about this? Does this perspective help you in your daily life?
Edit: I just realized that I might be too focused on asking why things are the way they are, rather than what for and how they work. I guess I’m having some kind of existential crisis haha.