ElI5: What Einstein meant by “the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion”.

Question

ElI5: What Einstein meant by “the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion”.

In: 1101

Answer 1

Actually, because of time-space relativity. The present seems the same, because the now “feels” now because you aren’t comparing it with the past. The past feels old because you compare it with the now. But the future is nothing more than a conjecture off of the past and present. Basically a “fiction”—a human construct. Because of these, they aren’t physically tangible, therefore, imagined and illusions.

All are transient manifestations of the imagination, though “the now” is the closest thing to a non-illusion you can hope for. Then again, most people are so caught up with comparisons that their “now” is made up of such imaginations that it remains an illusion made of constructs.

We shouldn’t forget that Einstein’s Relatively Theory was born out a thought experiment: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein’s_thought_experiments

Edit: Auto-correct or fat thumb or both typo and the need to add a citation for added text.