I’m trying to wrap my head around this. I perceive time as though the present moment is a wave I’m riding through space and experience. Does Spacetime, as presently understood, suggest that time is more likely an ocean that exists and is “real” stretching off towards the horizons? In other words, is the present the only thing that is real as we traverse the dimension of time? Or do the distant past and future also exist, despite my inability to experience them, just as distant points in space do?
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Think of time and space as two fabrics interwoven. Different, yet effecting each other.
Time is tracked via movement in space over a period. Originally our own orbit around the sun, now the vibrations of a specific isotope of Cesium atom.
Movement is tracked as a change in position over time. You move from point a to point b and it takes “time” to get there.
One cannot quite exist without the other, yet, they are distinct.
Spacetime then is a term much like “electromagnetic” in which it refers to the points where each are affected and act as one thing. For instance, gravity causes or is caused by distortions in spacetime.
Changes in gravity will make time run differently and applies accelleration to objects in space. Since it effects space and time, we lump them together into “spacetime!”
As for the existance of time in the future and in the past… the short answer is yes, maybe. It is theorized that all possible futures exist and you merely collapse into the observed future upon making a choice or observation etc. A part of many multiverse theories and I think touching most on “stringʾ theory. “
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