Existential Physics: A Scientist's Guide to Life's Biggest Questions

by Sabine Hossenfelder

If your belief conflicts with empirically confirmed knowledge, then you are not seeking meaning; you are delusional.

The present moment is no longer of fundamental significance because, according to Einstein, the past and the future are as real as the present.

human experience is not a good guide to the fundamental laws of nature.

According to Einstein, time is a dimension, and it joins with the three dimensions of space to one common entity: a four-dimensional space-time.

The word relativity in special relativity means there is no absolute rest; you can merely be at rest relative to something. For

But there’s an important difference: in space-time, the longer the curve between two events, the less time passes on it.

The more you accelerate, the slower your proper time will pass. This effect is called time dilation. And, yes, in principle, this means if you run in a circle, you’ll age more slowly. But it’s a tiny effect, and I can’t recommend it as an antiaging strategy. By the way, this is also why time passes more slowly near a black hole than far away from one. That’s because, according to Einstein’s principle of equivalence, a strong gravitational field has the same effect as a fast acceleration.

Once you agree that anything exists now elsewhere, even though you see it only later, you are forced to accept that everything in the universe exists now.

This means the measurement in quantum mechanics destroys information for good.