Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal Julian Barbour: The Physicist Who Says Time Doesn't Exist
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Nov 16, 2024 Julian Barbour, a pioneering physicist, shares his groundbreaking ideas on time as an emergent property rather than a fundamental entity. He discusses how time can be perceived as a sequence of static states and the influence of thinkers like Mach and Leibniz on this view. The conversation delves into Mach's principle and its role in linking motion and mass, while also critiquing traditional cosmological models. Barbour emphasizes the intricate relationship between complexity, entropy, and the universe's evolving nature, challenging established physics and inviting listeners to rethink reality.
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Independent Research
- Julian Barbour, unlike most physicists, contributes meaningfully to fundamental physics outside academia.
- He funded his research by translating Russian scientific journals for 28 years.
Time as Abstraction
- Time is not a fundamental property but an abstraction deduced from change, according to Ernst Mach.
- Instants of time are complete shapes of the universe, forming a succession.
Simultaneity and Quantum Gravity
- Dirac proposed restoring simultaneity in quantum gravity, eliminating redundant degrees of freedom.
- This matches observations like the microwave background, defining a universal rest frame.
