A Different Perspective on Time: Old Ideas, New Theories

One of the most exciting things throughout this journey of making A Brief History of Time Travel is not just learning about new ideas, but also finding just how interconnected ideas can be - across disciplines, culture and eras.

Jumping off of my last post on time travel in the Mahabharata, I wanted to share with you some interesting parallels between Vedic beliefs and quantum mechanics, and how ancient religion and modern theories in science seem to have complementary views on the perception of time and space. 


We had the amazing opportunity to interview Dr. Satyanarayana Dasa, an expert in Sanskrit and Hindu philosophy. He explains that time is merely an illusion; and that we can only measure time by the changes in matter, like watching budding flowers bloom or finding wrinkles on your skin: "Suppose, beginning now, nothing changes. Would you differentiate between past, present, and future? We believe that time is moving. Time is not moving- it is the matter which transforms it.”


Dr. Satyanarayana Dasa, Still from A Brief History of Time Travel

The ancient Hindu scriptures view the world as Maya, best described as an illusion or unreality. Time and space are mental structures, and how we look at the world is actually a projection of the mind. So the world is what we choose to observe.

Does quantum mechanics view time and space in a similar manner? 


Where quantum mechanics deals with the behavior of extremely small objects like subatomic particles, it's not possible to observe "the system" without changing the system. What does that mean? 
 


The Shrödinger's Cat paradox is a modern, whimsical way to explain the world of quantum mechanics.

In the thought experiment created by Erwin Shrödinger, Nobel prize winning physicist and grandfather of quantum mechanics, a cat is placed in a steel box along with a Geiger counter, some poison, a hammer, and radioactive material. When the radioactive material decays, the Geiger detects it and triggers the hammer to release the poison, which then kills the cat.

Since radioactive decay is a random process, there is no way to predict when it will happen. The observer doesn't know whether the cat is alive or dead until the box is opened. The cat would, as Schrödinger put it, be "living and dead ... in equal parts" until it is observed.

 "The world extended in space and time is but our representation"- What is Life? by Erwin Schrödinger

Schrödinger's idea that the "observer" must be considered as a part of the system being observed seems pretty consistent to the Vedas teachings. Interestingly enough, Schrödinger studied Vedic scriptures throughout this life and so perhaps it should not be that surprising to find parallels between the ancient teaching and his modern postulates. One can find similarities even in the most unexpected places.

Time Travel Mythology: Mahabharata

The mythology of time travel is extensive and far reaching. While the idea of an actual "time machine" wasn't conceived until the late 1800's, you can find legends and stories that features a hero traveling to the past or future in a magical, fantastical way. I thought I would share with you one of those stories that we’ll be touching upon in the documentary.

Mahabharata, 400BC

One of the very first time travel stories that have been recorded in history appears in the Hindu epic, Mahabharata– speculated to be written as early as 400BC. The story follows a king, his daughter, and their search for a perfect suitor.

Revati was the only daughter of King Kakudmi, a powerful monarch who ruled Kusasthali, a prosperous and advanced kingdom under the sea. Thinking no one could prove to be good enough to marry his beautiful daughter, Kakudmi took Revati with him to Brahmaloka, the home of Brahma, to ask the god's advice about finding a suitable husband for her.

Brahma

Brahma was listening to a musical performance when they arrived, and so they waited patiently until the performance was finished. Finally, King Kakudmi humbly bowed and made his request:

“O Brahmâ! To whom shall I betroth this daughter? I have come to you to ask on this point I have searched for many princes and seen also a good many of them and none of them is to my liking and so my mind is not at rest.”

Brahma laughed at the foolishness of the King.

“O King! The princes that you thought would become the bridegroom of your daughter, all died; their sons and grandsons and their friends even have all passed away.”

Different Planes of Existence

Time, Brahma goes on to explain, runs differently on different planes of existence. During the time they had waited in Brahmaloka to see him, 27 chatur-yugas, had passed on Earth. Everything that Kakudmi had and owned, his friends and family, his sons and wife, his armies and treasures, had vanished with the time that had passed. The King and his daughter were overcome with astonishment and grief for everything they had lost, but Brahma comforted them, and recommended a worthy husband currently on earth: Balarama, the twin brother of Krishna.

Balarama and his Wife Revati

What is really interesting though, is how similar their view of time was 2500 years ago to how physicists and astronomers conceptualize space-time today. In Einstein’s theory of relativity, time is relative to the observer’s frame of reference- it depends on the observer’s motion and strength of gravity. For instance, one could argue that time here on earth runs slower than in space because gravity slows the passage of time.


Hindu philosophy was familiar with the concept that time is relative and many passages on the Vedic scriptures continuously point out that the cosmic time of the gods is different than the time on earth.

One Chatur-Yuga is equivalent to 4,320,000 human years.

Were King Kakudmi and his daughter two unwitting time travelers? What they thought were just minutes in front god Brahma, millennia had taken place at home. When they came back, they did so to a vastly different place.

Today, we so often think of time as an arrow moving in one direction, with a beginning, middle and end. But I think it is interesting to look at different cultures and how they view time. Their perceptions help us look at time, and the idea of time travel, a little bit differently. 

Interviewing Dr. Ronald Mallett

Hello fellow time travel fans! I’m so sorry that I haven’t been updating lately, but I plan to remedy that. Right now we’re still plugging along with the editing, but I thought I would share with you some awesome news; earlier this month we had the chance to interview Professor Ronald Mallett, and it was so much fun!

Interviewing Dr. Ronald Mallett! 

For those of you who don’t know, Dr. Ronald Mallett is a theoretical physicist at the University of Connecticut. He’s most renowned for his paper that he wrote back in the early 2000’s that proves that theoretically, time travel to the past can be possible. Now he’s raising the funds to apply this theory in an experiment and potentially build a time machine. 

Dr. Mallett explains his theory that circulating light beams could create a space-time loop. 

How might that work? In a nutshell, it has to do with Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, which says that matter and energy can affect gravity. And in turn, gravity affects space+time. Because light is a form of energy, you could use a ring of light using lasers to send neutrons back in time. And to go even a step further, you could spin the neutrons clockwise or counterclockwise, and that could be used as a binary code to send messages to the past.

Gravity affects space+time, just like in Interstellar. 

The day we got to the University of Connecticut, I was so worried that everything would fall through because there was a weather alert that a massive snowstorm was brewing. They were canceling flights, shutting down roads, and there was even a curfew installed for the night! But we got to spend a few hours talking with Dr. Mallett just before the blizzard hit. 

Getting some exterior shots... so much snow! 

We got to chat about the importance of science fiction, video games, coming out of the “time travel” closet, about the importance of having inspirational teachers, and most importantly, what inspired Dr. Mallett's to study time travel: his father. 

If you’re interested learning more about Dr. Mallett’s work and life, you can visit his personal website, or check out his memoir here. 

Stay tuned!

Gisella

P.S. Members of the Time Travel Society, we have an exclusive clip from the interview just for you! Check out our Kickstarter update.