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

Its a statement on block universe theory, that past present and future already exist, the entirety of space time can be thought of as a complete block. being three dimensional beings who experience time, we effectively move through the block and perceive a past present and future, but the block already exists in its entirety. The past and future are just as real as what we perceive as the present and all are equally existing continually.

This means that our perception that time “flows” is artificial, an illusion, and that instead time is something you move through (albeit we only move in one direction) just like any spatial dimension. All points in the block are equally real, past present and future, its just our perception that gives us the illusion of only the point we observe being real.